What do Protestants “get out” of it?
What we bring to it is our miserable selves, falling on our knees in worship. What we get out of it is the Bread of Life. That’s hard to beat. This happens even if the music is terrible and the homily dead boring. It is the union of God with man, the entire purpose for Christ’s coming.
Sometimes only pictures do the trick…
I think that when the op says “get out of it” he is talking about the goal of church. I have been to a few Protestant churches growing up. Mostly of a Pentecostal leaning because of a friend of mine, but a little Lutheran and Baptist. In my experience, they are looking for spiritual and intellectual fulfillment when they go to church. While I consider these things to be awesome and there is certainly a place for these in a church, that is not the primary goal of mass. In mass, our goal is to worship God and participate in the Eucharist. Even if the priest is boring and there is no choir that day, that is not important. What matters is that Jesus is there and we are spending our time with him and worshiping him. You see, if I don’t like the pastor, I wont go looking for a new church. At most, I may look for a new parish but that is it because to me it is not even about the pastor.
That is brilliant. I am going to print business cards. Billboards. At the very least, show it to the next person that refers to ad orientem as “the wrong way.”
From my many years as a relatively apathetic, nominal Protestant, and the discussions I have with my Protestant parents about what they “get” out of their church service, I believe that primarily, Protestants are looking for any number of things.
I definitely go to church because of what I get out of it. I get the word and gospel preached and declared, I get my sin pointed out by the law and reminded of what Christ has done for me in the Gospel. I get the forgiveness of sins in confession and communion. I get to receive the body and blood of my lord in the Eucharist. I get the food for the journey. With all these amazing gifts why would I stop going. It’s not what I can give, I give nothing, it’s all about what God has given me.
Apart from perhaps the Eucharist and how one defines the Lord’s supper (because that’s for another topic) does anyone here believe that Protestants don’t have their full heart and soul into their worship of God?
You basically took everything here and made it sound immature or negative imo. I can help you re-word:
I’ll be the one to say it: Yes, that’s precisely what I believe. Not all of course, but some are there to be entertained, and not to worship. Now, before you raise the battle standard, the exact same is true of Catholics. You’re right that a lot of Catholics at Mass do look bored and uninterested. I understand that even less.
No.
Which of these is worship, though? Also, I suppose to clarify, #1 was intended as more of a personal affirmation between the individual and God. Again, I’m not saying that all (or any) of these are “bad.” Spiritual affirmation? Super. Fellowship? Great. Engaging homily? Sweet. But exactly zero of these are what we should be “trying to get” out of church. It’s a very me-first mentality, irrespective of denomination. Protestant, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, non-Christian, whatever. We shouldn’t be trying to “get something” out of church; we should go because we love God, regardless of what we get out of worship. And I think that’s probably a point everyone in this thread can agree on. And everyone is going to have days where they just don’t feel like we “get anything” out of church/Mass. But largely, Christianity is divorced from how we feel, and thank God for that.
That’s exactly why I as an Evangelical Christian go to church also.
I agree.
And when you do that, we can all apply it .You are right, eventually and with maturity, it is what you bring to it, how you want to serve others, instead of being served. “For the Son of man came not to be served but to serve.” May we do likewise. Yet, the church is for the equipping of the saints, to do just that …That is a better question to ask of our congregation, how well are they at equipping the congregation to serve, perfectly unto every good work.
We receive all this richness even if we are very imperfectly aware of it.
