The Feasibility of Protestant Service Everyday

[Zooey]

I get the feeling that this thread’s subject may be more about a specific group of Protestants–i.e., fundamentalists & charismatics. The “nondenominational” ones.
I would have thought that they are less likely to have a full service daily…until today, when a friend told me that her nondenomiational church is adding Friday & Saturday services…(They all ready have Sunday evening besides regular Sunday morning services, & the Wednesday prayer meeting is actually a full service–music, a sermon, Bible study).

By the bye: Some people here have been taking some really cheap shots, you know…

 

[Syele]

I say no based on the current mindset of many Protestants.

1. A sermon to prepare for everyday? This would be hard for those non-denominationals where the Pastor’s full time job is not his church but his job that provides his income. Even a Full time Pastor would be hard pressed to prepare a Sermon for everyday.

This is the main reason daily services aren’t available. Most of my pastors have held additional jobs besides pastoring.

1. Organist and/or Pianist would have to attend every Service. You know ya gotta have that happy-clappy atmosphere.

This isn’t that hard, I have attended Churches that held “worship” (or singing only services) MWF.
the happy-clappy comment is rude BTW

1. Would the Pastor be wiling to pass the offering plate around at every service.

Some would some wouldn’t

1. What is a Protestant Service without a Sermon and Music?

It’s called a prayer meeting. Many Protestant churches hold them 1-3 times a week not counting Sundays. There are also Prayer Breakfasts.

I’m now attending a smaller church because I moved towns, but my previous church had the following schedule:
Sunday = Two full services plus Sunday School (Service 2 hours)
MWF = Worship at noon. (1 hour)
Wednesday= Worship Service followed by everyone breaking up into Bible Study Groups
Fridays = Prayer Meeting
Saturday= 2 hour full service (same sermon as vil. on Sunday) and mission projects.
T& Th = Home Group Bible Studies (People pick one night not both)

So, no we didn’t have “Service” everyday in the sense that people attended daily but on any given day you could go to the church or a home of a church member and be involved in something.

 

[Harland]

???

It already DOES happen. And you read every post? And daily bible studies already exist in many churches, Protestant and Catholic alike, I suspect.

I’m sorry. I meant, I have not read every post.

What already happens everyday, bible studies, sermons or an other type of service?

 

[O.S.Luke]

I’m sorry. I meant, I have not read every post.

What already happens everyday, bible studies, sermons or an other type of service?

Yes.

 

[Cat]

I agree with those who have said that many Protestants already meet together 5-6 days a week for some kind of ministry.

You must understand that many Protestants would be put-off by the idea of a daily worship service. All of our lives, when lived in the power of the Holy Spirit, are an act of worship and service to God. Going to “church” all the time would be considered a way of “hiding” from our responsibilities of reaching out to a lost and dying world. We would say that we are not “churchians,” we are “Christians,” and that most of our spiritual growth occurs in the “trenches” of everyday life, not in church.

In fact, it is important to keep this in mind when talking with Protestant Christians. Many of them find the idea of a daily church service “ritualistic” and even unScriptural. They see no command in the Bible to have “daily mass.” Even the daily communion is something that they say man has invented, that it simply isn’t in the Bible. So fellow Catholics, you are NOT impressing most Protestants when you say you attend daily mass. You are probably putting them off. They think you are “earning Brownie points to get you to heaven by following a tradition of man.” Just a word to the wise–be careful. Make them understand that you are NOT earning brownie points, that you are attending daily mass to draw near to Jesus and your fellow Christians in Holy Communion.

Protestants do not consider a church “service” necessary to salvation or sanctification. What they do consider necessary is fellowship with other Christians, studying the Word of God, and prayer. Music is something that we should be doing continually, as the Bible says. As for our offerings, many Protestants are just as likely to give their tithe to para-church organizations (e.g., Wycliffe Bible translators) or to individuals in ministry (e.g., Campus Crusade for Christ staff raise their own support monies).

Many Protestants have a “Prayer Partner.” They meet everyday (or call or email) and pray together. That fulfills the command to not forsake assembling yourselves together (Hebrews).

Also, please remember that many Protestants are extremely totally involved with Christian “media,” e.g., Christian radio and television, and Christian music on CDs, etc. Many Protestants attend Christian concerts often, even travelling great distances to hear their favorite artists.

So my point is, many Protestants have the opportunity to spend more time in “Christian” meetings" than many Catholics.

Also, please don’t assume that no Protestant churches have daily meetings. Back in the early 1900s, Aimee Semple McPherson held up to 5 services per day in her Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

I’m sure there are still big churches and ministries cities that hold daily services to meet the needs of tourists. I KNOW that the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago (the home of the radio program, “Unshackled”) has a daily church service for all the street people who come through their doors. I KNOW that our local rescue mission, which is run by Protestants, holds daily church services with musicians and a sermon; the churches in the city divide up this responsibility and each church is assigned several days out of the year to do the service at the Rescue Mission.

Also, please be aware that many Protestants are implementing “different ways to do church.” E.g., for years, Willowcreek (20,000 people weekly attend) in Barrington, Illinois, has done several “Seeker Services” on Sunday. The members aren’t supposed to attend these services; they are for the seekers, inquireres, curious, etc. The members are supposed to attend meetings throughout the week. I had friends that went to “church” on Monday nights at Willowcreek. It was the best time for them to attend because of their work/play scedule.

I honestly think that even though the church sanctuary isn’t usually open for private devotions and worship, most Protestant churches have much, much more “stuff” going on throughout the week than most Catholic churches. It is my opinion that this is the main reason why Protestants remain Protestant–they simply don’t have any time to visit a Catholic church, attend a Catholic meeting, or spend a lot of time with Catholic friends. They just too busy in their own church. It was only when my husband and I were kicked out of our evangelical Protestant church that we bothered to start attending mass (out of obedience to God’s command to meet with other Christians.)

 

[Zirconia]

I agree with those who have said that many Protestants already meet together 5-6 days a week for some kind of ministry.

You must understand that many Protestants would be put-off by the idea of a daily worship service. All of our lives, when lived in the power of the Holy Spirit, are an act of worship and service to God. Going to “church” all the time would be considered a way of “hiding” from our responsibilities of reaching out to a lost and dying world. We would say that we are not “churchians,” we are “Christians,” and that most of our spiritual growth occurs in the “trenches” of everyday life, not in church.

In fact, it is important to keep this in mind when talking with Protestant Christians. Many of them find the idea of a daily church service “ritualistic” and even unScriptural.

Then it would seem to me that Acts 2:46 is written in hieroglyphics. And I have never heard that the church as described in Acts was “hiding” from its responsibilities

They see no command in the Bible to have “daily mass.” Even the daily communion is something that they say man has invented, that it simply isn’t in the Bible.

I would say that Acts 2 implies otherwise; at any rate it appears that it was much more frequent than it is now, at least at my church, in which we partake far less than once per month.

So fellow Catholics, you are NOT impressing most Protestants when you say you attend daily mass. You are probably putting them off. They think you are “earning Brownie points to get you to heaven by following a tradition of man.” Just a word to the wise–be careful. Make them understand that you are NOT earning brownie points, that you are attending daily mass to draw near to Jesus and your fellow Christians in Holy Communion.

**So if Catholics can have the opportunity to do this on a daily basis, why can’t Protestants? Or is it just because Protestants can’t do what Catholics do? :banghead: **


I honestly think that even though the church sanctuary isn’t usually open for private devotions and worship, most Protestant churches have much, much more “stuff” going on throughout the week than most Catholic churches.

Why shouldn’t a church sanctuary be open for private devotions and worship? Isn’t that what it’s for? And if that opportunity isn’t there for the people who need it, how can having more “stuff” going on in the church possibly compensate? This is quite difficult to understand.

Zirconia

 

[Cat]

Zirconia, I don’t understand your objections to my post. Are you Catholic or Protestant?

I was an evangelical Protestant for over 40 years before coming into the Catholic Church in 2004.

Please clarify. For example, at the end of your post, you seemed supportive of Protestants opening their sanctuaries for devotions. I’m not against that at all. It’s just not a reality for most Protestant churches.

 

[O.S.Luke]

Please clarify. For example, at the end of your post, you seemed supportive of Protestants opening their sanctuaries for devotions. I’m not against that at all. It’s just not a reality for most Protestant churches.

You’d have a hard time supporting that statement, I think.

 

[Cat]

O.S. Luke:

I live in a city of about 150,000. As a musician, I’m pretty familiar with many of the Protestant churches in our city, and I know of no Protestant churches (other than the Rescue Mission) that offer daily worship services.

Of course I don’t know what a lot of the African American churches are doing, since I’m not in that circle. But I do know African American Christians, and I’ve not heard any talk about a daily worship service.

Daily prayer meetings, clubs, choirs, circles, guilds, etc. But not worship services.

We have a religion editor at our local newspaper who is really good about reporting stuff like that. In the last several years I haven’t seen any articles about Protestant churches doing daily worship services. We have seen articles about Protestant churches offering Sat. evening services.

We also have a religion page in our newspaper where churches can advertise for free. Again, I’ve never seen a church advertising daily worship services.

I certainly don’t know everything about every church, but I stand by my statement. Most Protestant churches don’t offer offer daily worship services. Maybe it’s coming, but it’s not a reality right now.

Does your city have a lot of Protestant churches with daily worship services? If so, that’s really cool.

 

[Zirconia]

Zirconia, I don’t understand your objections to my post. Are you Catholic or Protestant?

I was an evangelical Protestant for over 40 years before coming into the Catholic Church in 2004.

Please clarify. For example, at the end of your post, you seemed supportive of Protestants opening their sanctuaries for devotions. I’m not against that at all. It’s just not a reality for most Protestant churches.

Hi Cat,

Okay, I will do my best to clarify.

First, it appeared to me from the post that many Protestants would probably object to having daily services and/or Communion on the grounds that it would be unscriptural. So I merely pointed out that, unless Acts has been decanonized, the idea does not seem to be unscriptural at all. This being the case, Protestants who object on the grounds that it is unscriptural might want to reconsider, especially the strong “Sola Scriptura” ones.

A little later in my post, I also pointed out that there seems to be a scriptural basis for frequent Communion as well, instead of this being something made up by humans.

How are we so far?

Moving on, you mentioned how Catholics can explain that they are attending daily services so that they can “draw near to Jesus and [their] fellow Christians in Holy Communion.”

This sounds like a wonderful idea. So if Catholics have the opportunity to draw near to God through Holy Communion on a daily basis, why can’t Protestants have a similar opportunity?

I am beginning to suspect it may be because of the idea that just because Catholics do something, it means that Protestants (by definition) can’t do the same thing.

Finally, yes, I am very supportive of opening our sanctuaries for devotions…

And in answer to your first question, I am a Protestant (although apparently a very strange one…)

Zirconia

 

[lak611]

First, it appeared to me from the post that many Protestants would probably object to having daily services and/or Communion on the grounds that it would be unscriptural. So I merely pointed out that, unless Acts has been decanonized, the idea does not seem to be unscriptural at all. This being the case, Protestants who object on the grounds that it is unscriptural might want to reconsider, especially the strong “Sola Scriptura” ones.

A little later in my post, I also pointed out that there seems to be a scriptural basis for frequent Communion as well, instead of this being something made up by humans.

Moving on, you mentioned how Catholics can explain that they are attending daily services so that they can “draw near to Jesus and [their] fellow Christians in Holy Communion.”

This sounds like a wonderful idea. So if Catholics have the opportunity to draw near to God through Holy Communion on a daily basis, why can’t Protestants have a similar opportunity?

I am beginning to suspect it may be because of the idea that just because Catholics do something, it means that Protestants (by definition) can’t do the same thing.

Finally, yes, I am very supportive of opening our sanctuaries for devotions…

And in answer to your first question, I am a Protestant (although apparently a very strange one…)

Zirconia

I don’t think there is anything strange about you at all. God bless you for being a devoted follower of Christ.