Questions and Observations about Protestants

[MillTownCath]

The following observations are generalizations I have made from seeing how my protestant friends/extended family members.

First off, even within the same denomination, it seems that each church has its own theology and church rituals.

Second, stemming from the first, it seems that many protestants generally aren’t as concerned with going to the same denomination as much as just going to a church they like.

Thirdly, Protestant sermons seem to have more personal wisdom/life stories than Catholic homilies, generally more casual it seems.

Do any of these generalizations have any truth?

 

[Publisher]

The following observations are generalizations I have made from seeing how my protestant friends/extended family members.

First off, even within the same denomination, it seems that each church has its own theology and church rituals.

Not sure that many Protestants would think they have a different amount of rituals than any other faith community…water baptism, Lord’s Supper…some foot washing…theology tends to focus on one or more tenet than others…example…“entire sanctification”…“holy living”…are focuses of “holiness groups”…but the focus on “sanctification” may not be as prevelant in non-holiness groups…usually what “divides” Protestants is “eternal security” or “speaking in tongues”…BUT we still worship and pray with one another as that which divides us is not as important as what unites us in Christ.

Second, stemming from the first, it seems that many protestants generally aren’t as concerned with going to the same denomination as much as just going to a church they like.

Generally, Protestants attend the denomination that reflects their particular tradition…there was a Baptist woman who attended the Nazarene church I did as a child…she always joked…“Do you know what I be if I wasn’t a Baptist? I’d be ashamed!”…even though she felt a close kinship to this “holiness group”…she held onto her Baptist "roots".

Thirdly, Protestant sermons seem to have more personal wisdom/life stories than Catholic homilies, generally more casual it seems.

In my experience…and I haven’t attended another Protestant group often enough in the last 30 years to make a “blanket statement”…but the sermons tend to be an expostition on the scriptures…including “wisdom/life” stories that may reflect certain biblical teachings being covered.

Do any of these generalizations have any truth?

As with all genteralizations…there is some “truth” in them for some Protestants.

 

[josephback]

I was raised Protestant, so I’ll go from my experience.

The following observations are generalizations I have made from seeing how my protestant friends/extended family members.

First off, even within the same denomination, it seems that each church has its own theology and church rituals.

What do you mean by this? Do you mean the geneeral categoryof Methodists disagreeing for instance or more specific like United Methodists disagreeing within themselves? I haven’t seen that. The only place I would say your first generalization is true is among the unaffiliated “independent” type churches. And they generally adhere to someone else’s theology(Calvinism for instance).

Second, stemming from the first, it seems that many protestants generally aren’t as concerned with going to the same denomination as much as just going to a church they like.

I know this is very true among the people I know. I call it Christian pluralism: a hop, step, and a skip away from religous pluralism. But the second one is usually rejected despite the first

Thirdly, Protestant sermons seem to have more personal wisdom/life stories than Catholic homilies, generally more casual it seems.

Do any of these generalizations have any truth?

I don’t know. There is no set weekly schedule of Bible readings in the evangelical or other gatherings, so the leader often picks their own Bible passage. Still, such things are often very focused on the text and trying to get something out of it. Joel Osteen would be an example of “personal wisdom” and life stories. But I’ve heard my priest take stories from everyday life.

Just to clarify: My priest is a better preacher than Joel Osteen. WAY better

 

[Sandalwood]

The following observations are generalizations I have made from seeing how my protestant friends/extended family members.

First off, even within the same denomination, it seems that each church has its own theology and church rituals.

Second, stemming from the first, it seems that many protestants generally aren’t as concerned with going to the same denomination as much as just going to a church they like.

Thirdly, Protestant sermons seem to have more personal wisdom/life stories than Catholic homilies, generally more casual it seems.

Do any of these generalizations have any truth?

As a former Baptist (for 48 years) I can answer to the best of my ability that:

Our pastor always provided Baptist church listings for us when we traveled or what-have-you, so that we could be assured of having Baptist teachings… is that what you mean?

Ours most certainly did NOT have personal wisdom/life stories. Every sermon was Bible-Scripture based. When I walked out of church on Sunday’s, I knew I’d learned the Bible! haha! It was not casual sermons or rituals by any means.

We had baptisms, communion, Bible lessons, etc.

In fact, that is one thing I dearly miss by being a Catholic. Sunday School every week before church service. I loved that hour of small class time every week of intensive studying of the Bible and how to apply what we learned to our life and activities.

The only thing that is very different from my Baptist Church to my Catholic Church is the emphasis on Mary and the Saints. It’s not that Baptist church ignored them, but it wasn’t a constant conversation like it is, for instance, on this board. Other than that, there hasn’t been a whole lot of difference.

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

The following observations are generalizations I have made from seeing how my protestant friends/extended family members.

First off, even within the same denomination, it seems that each church has its own theology and church rituals.

This depends greatly on the denomination. For example - the Assemblies of God is very much this way. If you go to one church you will experience something vastly different than what you would experience in another church. However, for Lutherans, this is not generally true since they are a liturgical church. Readings may be different, but it is essentially the same.

Second, stemming from the first, it seems that many protestants generally aren’t as concerned with going to the same denomination as much as just going to a church they like.

This is true to a point. Lutherans, Presbyterians and other more tradition denominations and Baptists tend to care a great deal about denomination. However, more Evangelical or non-denomination churches couldn’t give a flip less. It’s about “Finding a church that works for you” rather than finding a church that is wholly true.

Thirdly, Protestant sermons seem to have more personal wisdom/life stories than Catholic homilies, generally more casual it seems.

Again, it depends on the church. I have been to many different denominations and the traditional churches have homilies similar to the catholic church. Evangelical is certainly not that way. The biblical exegesis is excellent. Sermons run at least 40 minutes long and will not only touch on biblical history, language studies, but you walk away from them having learned a great deal about scripture, history, and practical application. In my Catholic church, we are usually treated to a 15 minute anecdote.

Do any of these generalizations have any truth?

They do, but be careful generalizing across denominations because there are so many and they vary greatly. What you have said is mostly true for evangelical churches. We have a lot to learn from each other, and I pray every day that we can all unite as one again and do God’s work together, rather than let pride and stubbornness get in our way.

 

[GeorgeTheWild]

The following observations are generalizations I have made from seeing how my protestant friends/extended family members.

First off, even within the same denomination, it seems that each church has its own theology and church rituals.

This can be true for Southern Baptists to an extent because the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) doesn’t have doctrinal control over the churches that belong to the SBC. Each church is autonomous to decide what they believe and how to worship. That being said, the most differences between SBC churches is not in doctrine, but in style of worship (contemporary, traditional, mix, etc).

Second, stemming from the first, it seems that many protestants generally aren’t as concerned with going to the same denomination as much as just going to a church they like.

From my experience as a Southern Baptist, church is more about doing life together than doing religion. Part of that is that Baptists tend to put much more emphasis on spiritual growth the interaction in small group settings than through corporate worship. People won’t go to a church simply because it’s SBC if the community that they become immersed in does not fit with their family. People choose a church based on sound doctrine AND how their family is going to enjoy ‘doing life’ there.

Thirdly, Protestant sermons seem to have more personal wisdom/life stories than Catholic homilies, generally more casual it seems.

Having only heard a couple lack luster homilies on youtube, I can’t compare the two. (If you know of some really good ones, feel free to send me a youtube link via the message system). However, I’ll echo what Sandalwood said earlier. Every time I’ve gone to a Baptist church, the sermons have been firmly rooted in and been about passages from the Bible.

 

[Sandalwood]

I don’t know why I didn’t think about this in my earlier post but it’s my CATHOLIC church that gives personal stories in the homily! Our Priest is a teacher so he’s always telling stories about his classroom or his family. Some of his homilies even come from his sports activities! He tries to tie them in with the readings. Sometimes it’s affective, sometimes not.

 

[Kristin234]

Second, stemming from the first, it seems that many protestants generally aren’t as concerned with going to the same denomination as much as just going to a church they like.

I don’t know about that one. If I went to a church that I ended up loving and found out that church supported gay marriage, abortions, etc, I would not go there. Many Protestants I know go to a church that they believe agrees completely with the Bible. My mom visited a church that she really liked. She liked the music (it was more hymn like), liked the pastor, and liked the people. She found out that they supported gay marriage and she said she could never be a part of that church for that reason.

Some Protestants do not care about that and do hop from church to church until they find one they like. That never happened to me or anyone I know but everyone is different

 

[spockrates]

… Do any of these generalizations have any truth?

I’ve spent most of my adult life first as a Baptist, then as an Evangelical. I don’t think it is accurate to make any hasty generalizations. It’s probably best to speak of specific Protestant denominations, rather than generalize about all Protestants as a whole.

For example, different Protestant denominations have different forms of church government. The Fundamentalist Baptists with whom I worshiped when I was younger had a congregational government, where the local congregations decided for themselves what doctrines to accept and reject. The Evangelical Presbyterians and Evangelical Mennonites with whom I worshiped had a more centralized government where the individual congregations had to adhere to the major doctrines approved by the central church government, but they were free to make up their own minds regarding what were considered minor doctrines.

I have met a lot of Protestants who were more concerned with the style of worship (the music and the worship practices) than they were about the teachings of the church they attended, but I would not say this is true for most Protestants.

 

[hn160]

I don’t know why I didn’t think about this in my earlier post but it’s my CATHOLIC church that gives personal stories in the homily! Our Priest is a teacher so he’s always telling stories about his classroom or his family. Some of his homilies even come from his sports activities! He tries to tie them in with the readings. Sometimes it’s affective, sometimes not.

I hate to tell you but your priest sermons from what you said sound like sermons that Evangelical pastors give. They are always I or family or personal antidote sermons. LC-MS pastors are trained to give only Law and Gospel sermons. These sermons always tell you, the pastor and everyone are sinners and we cannot fulfill the Law and we are going to Hell if it wasn’t what Christ did on the cross (Gospel ). The sermons are always tied into the reading of the day. They never put themselves into the sermons except to include themselves as sinners.

 

[Sandalwood]

I hate to tell you but your priest sermons from what you said sound like sermons that Evangelical pastors give. They are always I or family or personal antidote sermons. LC-MS pastors are trained to give only Law and Gospel sermons. These sermons always tell you, the pastor and everyone are sinners and we cannot fulfill the Law and we are going to Hell if it wasn’t what Christ did on the cross (Gospel ). The sermons are always tied into the reading of the day. They never put themselves into the sermons except to include themselves as sinners.

yeah, I know… I think he means well but they are quite often personal stories rather than the Bible/Scripture based sermons I grew up with as a Baptist.

My husband was Lutheran and when we moved here a few years ago we visited a Lutheran church for a while. The woman pastor would read forwarded emails as her sermon. HATED that! We stopped going.

 

[hn160]

yeah, I know… I think he means well but they are quite often personal stories rather than the Bible/Scripture based sermons I grew up with as a Baptist.

My husband was Lutheran and when we moved here a few years ago we visited a Lutheran church for a while. The woman pastor would read forwarded emails as her sermon. HATED that! We stopped going.

Evidently you were ELCA, we got sick of woman pastoress, social issues, open Communion and homosexual ordinations. We found a confessional LC-MS church and pastors and never looked back. We thought about going to Rome but we know if we could accept all Roman doctrine.

 

[Bluegoat]

The following observations are generalizations I have made from seeing how my protestant friends/extended family members.

First off, even within the same denomination, it seems that each church has its own theology and church rituals.

Second, stemming from the first, it seems that many protestants generally aren’t as concerned with going to the same denomination as much as just going to a church they like.

Thirdly, Protestant sermons seem to have more personal wisdom/life stories than Catholic homilies, generally more casual it seems.

Do any of these generalizations have any truth?

Sure, and there are reasons these things are seen.

First - yes, Protestantism isn’t really one group. Even historically, there were really several “Reformations” that happened, all close to the same time. That is, several groups all broke away or developed out of the Catholic organization of the time. There was influence between these groups, they had some similar ideas, but also some different ones, and they came to separate from the CC under different circumstances.

So among Protestant groups, there are a few main streams of thinking that go back all the way to the Reformation. And since then, there are others that have developed from them.

So while there are some common threads between Protestant theologies, there are also significant differences. As an Anglican, I have a lot more in common with a Catholic than I would with a fundamentalist evangelical for example.

But this shouldn’t be a sunrise - the Catholic Church also has it’s own theological views.

Whether individual Protestants are committed to a particular type of group is a bit more tricky. Everyone probably has a list of things he would consider to be “basic” Christian teaching, and would want to find that affirmed, and nothing heretical affirmed. This is really just like Catholics - we all have a basic idea of what it means to be a “true Christian Church”.

For some that is very basic - maybe belief in sola scriptura, sola fide, scriptural inerrarancy, the Trinity, and the Incarnation. Such a person might feel at home in many parishes of many types, and so would feel free to go to the one that best fit his needs or preferences. Others might be very specific about something like apostolic organization. Some Lutherans require members to agree to the Lutheran confession of faith, and practice closed communion.

But the basic issue here is, many Protestants think all/most Christian Churches are part of the “True Church”. And that while some may be closer to being perfect than others, none are totally perfect (at least in the Church Militant.) So it makes sense they can go between denominations to some extent, just like you could go to an Eastern Catholic parish if you wanted to.

As far as homilies - this varies enormously, and I don’t think you could make many generalizations. Some groups have a tradition of long, in depth, Biblical exegesis, others personal/wisdom stories, others rhetorical manipulative stuff. And within denominations different preachers have different styles too. I would say I think there is more really good preaching outside the Catholic Church at this point in time than there is in it - at least in the West. I have heard some really good Catholic homilies too, and some horrendous non-Catholic ones,.

 

[x1980x]

The following observations are generalizations I have made from seeing how my protestant friends/extended family members.

…

Second, stemming from the first, it seems that many protestants generally aren’t as concerned with going to the same denomination as much as just going to a church they like.

Thirdly, Protestant sermons seem to have more personal wisdom/life stories than Catholic homilies, generally more casual it seems.

Do any of these generalizations have any truth?

I think it is true that, in general, specific Protestant denominations have a fairly low importance. With many Protestant denominations in full communion with other denominations, and “converting” to another that is not is generally not difficult (though non-child-baptizing churches will insist on adult baptism and other similar caveats), there is a perception that the things that separate churches are not essentials. It’s quite easy to drift between denominations and the denominations generally do not condemn each other (but they DO respectfully disagree), so, say attempting to go from Presbyterian to Episcopalian/Anglican probably wont involve you confessing that your old church is lost or not a church at all and that you are seeing the light for the first time.

I’m not certain that I agree that Protestant sermons tend to have more personal wisdom, etc. I certainly haven’t heard enough sermons to measure, but I’ve heard some pretty dense and theological Protestant sermons. I think it depends on who is giving the sermon.

 

[x1980x]

…
But the basic issue here is, many Protestants think all/most Christian Churches are part of the “True Church”. And that while some may be closer to being perfect than others, none are totally perfect (at least in the Church Militant.) So it makes sense they can go between denominations to some extent, just like you could go to an Eastern Catholic parish if you wanted to.
…

This is a very true statement in regards to a Protestant worldview. A Protestant would likely say that the Church-with-a-captial-C is composed of all true believers. The visible, temporal organizations are there to guide the Church, and accept that they might be wrong on some points. For example, some Protestant churches supported slavery in the US. Now, very few, if any, would believe that slavery in the US was morally justified. Since Protestants do not normally claim infallibility, they can repent of past support of slavery and go on and acknowledge that the churches that participated in slavery were still valid Christian churches, but they have repented of their error now.

 

[JonNC]

=MillTownCath;7954685]The following observations are generalizations I have made from seeing how my protestant friends/extended family members.

As a generalization, there may be some truth regarding some in the laity in some non-Catholic communions. You will find less of this in communions that are doctrinal in approach, also less-so within liturgial communions, and less-so with well-catechized laity.

First off, even within the same denomination, it seems that each church has its own theology and church rituals.

Even accross synodical lines, Lutheran divine worship is liturgically the same, with minor deviations, which, according to the Lutheran Confessions, is permissable. And excluding those synods which have drifted more toward liberal protestantism, theology is not a matter for the local parish or pastor to decide.

Second, stemming from the first, it seems that many protestants generally aren’t as concerned with going to the same denomination as much as just going to a church they like.

If Lutheran laity are well catechized (sometimes a big “if”), this is usually not the case. That said, given a non-Lutheran choice, I can’t think of a protestant communion I could be a member of, with the exception of some Anglican.

Thirdly, Protestant sermons seem to have more personal wisdom/life stories than Catholic homilies, generally more casual it seems.

I would agree with hn here. Lutheran homiletics tends toward law and Gospel, and is usually in keeping with the lectionary (usually the same within Lurthanism and almost always the same as Catholic), and reflects the Church year.

Do any of these generalizations have any truth?

Generally, generalizations about western non-Catholic Christians are generally just generalizations. :whacky:

Jon

 

[CopticChristian]

The following observations are generalizations I have made from seeing how my protestant friends/extended family members.

First off, even within the same denomination, it seems that each church has its own theology and church rituals.

Second, stemming from the first, it seems that many protestants generally aren’t as concerned with going to the same denomination as much as just going to a church they like.

Thirdly, Protestant sermons seem to have more personal wisdom/life stories than Catholic homilies, generally more casual it seems.

Do any of these generalizations have any truth?

These are your observations and if you are an honest human being then who is to question your observations. The problem would come when you make a conclusion based on an observation then that would be open to discussion.