What do they call it?
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Cat
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Evangelical Protestants (Baptists, Evangelical Free, Evangelical Covenant, Christian church, Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, Christian and MIssionary Alliance, Assemblies of God, etc.) do not have a “Mass.” They have a “worship service.”
Although evangelical denominations will sometimes celebrate the “ordinance” of communion in a worship service, they do not practice “sacraments,” and they do not believe in transubstantiation or the True Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
The purpose of a worship service is to worship God through music, prayer, giving offerings, and listening to preaching. The main focus of the worship service is the Bible, the Word of God, and believers hear the Word through music (congregational, choral, solo, and instrumental), and through speech (lay people and ordained ministers).
Some worship services are quite lively, with contemporary music of various styles (gospel, rock, jazz, soul, country, praise, ethnic, etc.) and gripping, dramatic preaching.
Other worship services are more quiet, with traditional music of various styles (traditional hymns, classical), and highly-intellectual (lecture) style preaching. (This is the kind of evangelical church that I grew up in.)
Most of the time, evangelical Protestant worship services last at least an hour and a half, and at least 30-45 minutes is devoted to the preaching (sermon or “message”). In many evangelical worship services, at least 20 minutes is devoted to Praise and Worship, during which many different songs and choruses are sung by the congregation and a worship leader or worship team, usually accompanied by either a Praise and Worship band, an orchestra (chamber orchestra in most churches), piano, or a soundtrack. Organ is seldom or never used in these services.
Most evangelical Protestant churches will offer two or three options for their worship services: 1) Traditional 2) Contemporary 3) Alternative. Many of the alternative worship services offer “Catholic” practices such as candles, chant, Latin, lectio divina, centering prayer, and silence. Some even offer “confession.”
Worship service are different each week in most evangelical churches. There is no liturgy, although there is often an “order of worship” that is followed each week. But many evangelical churches have done away with an “order of worship” and do not hand out a church bulletin anymore, as they want their worship services to seem less ritualistic. Many evangelical denominations reject “ritual” as “mindless repetition,” and seek to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every worship service. This means that some weeks, you might attend a worship service that consists of all music and no speaking, or you might see a play instead of a sermon, or you might see all testimonies from the lay-people, or you might see a service of all prayer with no music or preaching. It’s different every week.
I hope this information is helpful to you.
Although evangelical denominations will sometimes celebrate the “ordinance” of communion in a worship service, they do not practice “sacraments,” and they do not believe in transubstantiation or the True Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
The purpose of a worship service is to worship God through music, prayer, giving offerings, and listening to preaching. The main focus of the worship service is the Bible, the Word of God, and believers hear the Word through music (congregational, choral, solo, and instrumental), and through speech (lay people and ordained ministers).
Some worship services are quite lively, with contemporary music of various styles (gospel, rock, jazz, soul, country, praise, ethnic, etc.) and gripping, dramatic preaching.
Other worship services are more quiet, with traditional music of various styles (traditional hymns, classical), and highly-intellectual (lecture) style preaching. (This is the kind of evangelical church that I grew up in.)
Most of the time, evangelical Protestant worship services last at least an hour and a half, and at least 30-45 minutes is devoted to the preaching (sermon or “message”). In many evangelical worship services, at least 20 minutes is devoted to Praise and Worship, during which many different songs and choruses are sung by the congregation and a worship leader or worship team, usually accompanied by either a Praise and Worship band, an orchestra (chamber orchestra in most churches), piano, or a soundtrack. Organ is seldom or never used in these services.
Most evangelical Protestant churches will offer two or three options for their worship services: 1) Traditional 2) Contemporary 3) Alternative. Many of the alternative worship services offer “Catholic” practices such as candles, chant, Latin, lectio divina, centering prayer, and silence. Some even offer “confession.”
Worship service are different each week in most evangelical churches. There is no liturgy, although there is often an “order of worship” that is followed each week. But many evangelical churches have done away with an “order of worship” and do not hand out a church bulletin anymore, as they want their worship services to seem less ritualistic. Many evangelical denominations reject “ritual” as “mindless repetition,” and seek to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every worship service. This means that some weeks, you might attend a worship service that consists of all music and no speaking, or you might see a play instead of a sermon, or you might see all testimonies from the lay-people, or you might see a service of all prayer with no music or preaching. It’s different every week.
I hope this information is helpful to you.
P
puzzleannie
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Of course not because only Catholics celebrate Mass (or Divine Liturgy in Eastern and Orthodox Rites, who also are the only ones who confect the Eucharist).
Some groups like Episcopalians may call it Mass, but it is not, because there is no valid Eucharist and no validly ordained priest, which is essential for Mass.
I suppose others call it going to church, you would have to ask them.
J
JustaServant
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(Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum caritatis, 51)
Protestants simply call it a ‘service’, which can also be applied to Catholic worship as well.
C
Catholic90
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The LCMS church I grew up in has a worship service and celebrates 2 sacraments - baptism and communion. They believe in the true presence through consubstantiation. The LCMS service is very similar to a Catholic mass in how it is designed. Very similar. The Sunday services last about 1 hour.
J
JustaServant
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Agreed, Episcopals refer to thier rites as Sacraments as well.
S
StevenFrancis
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Other Christian “denominations” don’t go to Mass.
Most protestants I know, refer to it as “going to church” or might call it a service. “How was the service today?”. I believe Eastern Orthodox Chrstians refer to their Mass, (which actually includes the holy sacrifice of the Mass), as the Divine Liturgy. Eastern Catholics may call it this too?
But I don’t think any other Christians have mass, called mass, save for the Catholics.
Blessings,
Steven
A
andrewstx
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Scandanavian Lutherans call their worship mass, even when they don’t celebrate the Eucharist.
Most Protestants use the two sacraments they have, only Baptists and Penecostals who derive from Baptists use the word ordinace. Methodists and Presbyterians and main-line Protestants in general have the two sacraments they ackowledge.
Most Evangelicals have a continual revival. Every service seems to take it as granted that no Christians are present and always conclude with an “altar call” or invitation to Christian service. That it seems is the goal of Evangelical worship, getting people saved, or getting thosse who have already “gotten saved” to rededicate their lives.
Most Protestants use the two sacraments they have, only Baptists and Penecostals who derive from Baptists use the word ordinace. Methodists and Presbyterians and main-line Protestants in general have the two sacraments they ackowledge.
Most Evangelicals have a continual revival. Every service seems to take it as granted that no Christians are present and always conclude with an “altar call” or invitation to Christian service. That it seems is the goal of Evangelical worship, getting people saved, or getting thosse who have already “gotten saved” to rededicate their lives.
L
ltwin
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We call it a service or simply church. There is no order of service, but it usually starts with praise and worship (gospel and contemporary Christian worship music) with a band and praise team. During this time, the altars are open for people to kneel and pray. Someone may run the aisles. After praise and worship, we take up and pray over the offering. Then there is the sermon. Afterward, an altar call may be given for people to respond to the message. During the sermon, children go to age appropriate lessons called children’s church.
If someone is sick, we pray over them and anoint them with olive oil. We may have communion once or twice a year. Every year we have a baptism service at a lake. And maybe once every 10 years we will have a footwashing.
Our Sunday worship starts about 10:30. We don’t get out until 1:00 usually.
If someone is sick, we pray over them and anoint them with olive oil. We may have communion once or twice a year. Every year we have a baptism service at a lake. And maybe once every 10 years we will have a footwashing.
Our Sunday worship starts about 10:30. We don’t get out until 1:00 usually.
G
Georgia
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Well, here’s one where I show just how Southern I am. When I was growing up, people in my former Fundamentalist church called the Sunday morning service preaching as in “Y’all going to preaching?”. Some of the older people still do. Officially, they call it Sunday morning worship. Then there is Sunday evening worship and Wednesday prayer meeting. Regardless of the name, the Wednesday service only varied from Sunday’s services in that the dress code was more casual.
Lutherans can and at times do call it “mass”. Luther’s liturgy is called “Luther’s Mass”. In America, the LCMS calls it the “Divine Service”. A Catholic would probably find it not dissimilar to Novus Ordo in its parts, and a good part of its liturgy. It includes the Sacrament of the Altar, and well catechized Lutherans would not refer to our belief regarding the Real Presence as consubstantiation.
Regarding the number of sacraments, while the majority of Lutherans speak of 2 - Baptism and the Lord’s Supper - some also refer to Confession/ Holy Absolution as a sacrament. Those who don’t, view Absolution as an extension of Baptism, so even in that way sacrament as it is a mean of grace.
Jon
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AbideWithMe
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Andrew—
“Most Evangelicals…”, “Every service…always conclude”----why not let various non-Catholic Christians answer for themselves instead of coming out with hogwash?
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AbideWithMe
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Andrew—
I could have expressed myself more considerately, and I apologize.
I could have expressed myself more considerately, and I apologize.
A
andrewstx
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Apology accepted of course. I was not a Catholic all of my of my life.
I was taken to Baptists churches for years, 1/2of my family is Baptist. Other relatives are and were Nazarene, churchofChrist, and Independent Christian, and Presbyterian.
So I do have plenty of experience with those denominations. I’m not just talking out of my hat.
G
Georgia
Guest
Our Sunday morning preaching, as we called it, always ended with what we called the invitation. It seems many others refer to it as an altar call. People were asked to come forward to “lay it all on the altar”, so I am sure we are referring to the same thing. As Fundamentalists, we had no altar, so the term was symbolic.
It started with a prayer for the people to be saved, to come forward to confess their faith and to be baptized, and for people to come to get right with the Lord. Hymns such as “Just As I Am” would be sung quietly. The congregation was expected to pray, head bowed and eyes closed. Those so moved would go to the front to meet with the preacher to request baptism or to rededicate themselves. Baptism was never done to young children. It was only offered to those at or above the age of reason and who had made a profession of faith at the end of the service.
This thread highlighted for me again some of the communications issues we find. Terms used by Catholics and by our non-Catholic brothers and sisters may well be the same, but subtle differences may lead to misunderstandings.
It started with a prayer for the people to be saved, to come forward to confess their faith and to be baptized, and for people to come to get right with the Lord. Hymns such as “Just As I Am” would be sung quietly. The congregation was expected to pray, head bowed and eyes closed. Those so moved would go to the front to meet with the preacher to request baptism or to rededicate themselves. Baptism was never done to young children. It was only offered to those at or above the age of reason and who had made a profession of faith at the end of the service.
This thread highlighted for me again some of the communications issues we find. Terms used by Catholics and by our non-Catholic brothers and sisters may well be the same, but subtle differences may lead to misunderstandings.
C
Cat
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I spent the first 47 years of my life in various evangelical Protestant churches, and I tend to agree with Andrew. Of course there are exceptions, but he’s right–the focus in most evangelical churches is evangelism, hence the name “evangelical.”
A
AbideWithMe
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Hi Andrew and Cat-----
I don’t want to seriously de-rail this thread, so I’ll try to be brief.
I can’t even come close to agreeing with this statement for several reasons. I mean this in a friendly way, but I do want to be clear.
Wiki has a helpful entry under “Evangelical” (IIRC). The article notes that it’s common for North American usage of “Evangelical” to refer to non-Catholic Christians that see themselves as neither Fundamentalist nor liberal, but rather somewhere in the middle. As vague as that may sound, it’s a distinction with enough meaning to be very useful. And it’s the usage of Evangelical I see most commonly, and the one I mean. There isn’t a limited meaning of “evangelical” = about evangelism, Cat. I think the Wiki entry addresses some of this.
“Every service seems to take it as granted that no Christians are present and always concludes with an ‘alter call’ or invitation to Christian service.” Huh?–Do you really think the pastor sees the same people year after year, counsels them, gets to know them well, yet doesn’t believe they are Christians?
Cat and Andrew, I don’t want this to sound dismissive of your experience in non-Catholic churches. I believe you’ve had the experiences you’ve had, though they are different than mine…but the truth is each of us has only limited experience. In the many churches I’ve been in, as well as those of friends and family members across the US, I’ve seen alter calls happen rarely----a couple times a year in the churches where I’ve attended, whether at home or travelling.
Also, Cat, the “emerging church” has influenced plenty of Evangelical churches probably to a more significant degree than you might have seen in your time in Evangelical churches, I’m guessing? I became familiar with many of the values of the “emerging church” outside of Christianity, but I get what it’s about and think it’s been a good influence. I wasn’t familiar with the term until I heard it from a Catholic teacher a number of years ago; he likewise sees quite a lot of good in it, along with pitfalls, of course. Scot McKnight, who wrote that Mary article you linked from Christianity Today has a good CT article about it in CT’s archives.
P
Publisher
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Friends enter “Meeting for Worship”
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puzzleannie
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thank you
on several occasions I have been to praise and worship settings in churches, halls, stadiums or other settings, with contemporary Christian groups, who also apparently lead worship, with what I might call a reflection or message, rather than a sermon, homily or preaching, but there is invariably an “altar call”–but never the vestige of anything resembling an altar, nor anything whatever in the service that resembles or calls to mind a sacrifice carried out on an altar. puzzling, but as you say could be common.
M
Matthew_Holford
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Like you, I live in England. There are some Protestants who have what they say are Eucharistic liturgies. They give these various names such as (Holy) Communion, the Lord’s Supper, and Mass. There are many types of Protestant non-Eucharistic services. From what I recall, most Protestants say they’re “going to church”. It’s also quite common for Catholics to use the phrase: “I’m going to church” instead of saying: “I’m going to Mass”.
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