Here is what happens at a usual worship service at my church:
Worship music/hymns: Some Baptists are hand raisers and dancers while praising God, some are not. Don’t feel you have to mimic what others are doing, but I would encourage you to participate. Baptists have really good music that’s both fun to sing and truth filled.
Welcome and announcements by pastor
Greeting time where we shake the hands and hug the necks of the people around us
More worship music/hymns
Pastor preaches the message: This usually takes the form of reading a passage of scripture then going through and explaining/analyzing it. The amount of amens and other exclamations from the congregation is going to vary greatly between churches. You should expect some so don’t be surprised. But don’t feel you have to chime in if you don’t want to.
Response time: The pastor invites people to come forward if they feel called. Usually people just come up to have the pastor pray about something with them or to pray as a family at prayer benches. People will also come up if they want to make a profession of faith or join the church. The rest of the congregation usually stays at their seat and sings while this happens.
Offering: Ushers pass around the collection plate. Visitors aren’t expected to give (that’s the responsibility of the Church Family). We just ask visitors to fill out a card with some information about themselves (if they want to) and drop it in the collection plate.
Benediction: My pastor uses the same one every week that I really like: “Let us go live like what we said and sang is true. Let’s go live like Jesus reigns over everything!!”
Other things that might happen
Lord’s Supper/ Communion: Generally grape juice and bread or crackers are passed around. Baptists believe that this is purely symbolic so most practice open communion. This means we believe it’s up to the individual to be right with God before they take the elements… so we won’t have a problem with a Catholic celebrating the sacrifice of Jesus with us. That being said, you probably shouldn’t participate due to rules of the Catholic Church about valid Eucharists. In that case just pass the plates with the elements to the next person or stay in your seat if people go to the front.
Laying on of Hands: Sometimes we as a church commission people out to do missions in the community or abroad. When we do this, we usually have them come to the front and those who know them well go up to the front and pray for them while laying hands on them. The pastor usually offers a collective prayer for them. If this happens you can just hang out at your seat unless it’s your cousin and you want to go up and pray for him/her.
One important thing to know is that all Baptists churches are different in some way so you just need to be ready to roll with what happens. Just try and enjoy the different experience of worshiping God in a different way.
since the Eucharist is really Christ, that would be a disaster because there’s no way to see if He is being shown respect. Also, the Church is one and God wants it to be one in terms of teaching as well… one in mind… “One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church”.