What goes on at your worship services?

Question

I am unfamiliar with the worship services of non-Catholic faiths. Please tell me what faith you practice and give a brief outline of what happens at a typical worship service.

I forgot to mention what goes on at a Catholic Mass.

The priest, altar servers, and readers process through the congregation to the altar, with a crucifix at the head of the procession.

After an initial blessing, we are called to remember our sins and to pray for mercy from Christ. We then sing a praise to teh Glory of God. Then we hear a reading from teh Old Testament, followed by the singing of a Psalm, then a reading from teh New Testament and the Gospel. The priest or deacon then gives a homily which relates the readings to our daily lives. After the homily, there is a profession of faith by all people. We then have the Prayers of the Faithful in which we bring our intentions before the Lord. It usually includes prayers for the leaders of the church, the leaders of our world, those who are sick, and those who have died.

After that, there is singing while we take up a coillection and the money, along with bread and wine are brought to the altar to be presented to the Lord. The priest tehn takes the bread and wine, consecrates it using the words of Jesus at the Last Supper.

We then pray the Our Father together and exchange a sign of peace witho one another. We then receive the Body and Blood of Christ. there is a final blessing before we depart.

Depending on the Church, there is a lot of singing and praying together by the people.

Answer 1

The following is quoted from a tract titled, "What to Expect When You Visit the Church of Christ", written by Calvin Barber.

Perhaps you have heard of the church of Christ through advertisement or by special invitation from its members. Maybe there is a building in your community where the church of Christ meets, and you have considered attending one of their worship services. But you have put it off simply because of the dread of going to a strange place, not knowing what to expect. May we briefly introduce ourselves and let you know what to expect when you visit us.

FRIENDLINESS

You can expect a warm, friendly welcome.

Friendliness is a natural response of a Christian. We believe that one of the basic foundation principles of Christianity is love and friendship toward our fellowman.
(Mt. 22:36-40) True Christianity recognizes no sex, social or racial differences.
(Gal. 3:28) Neither does it permit respect of persons on the basis of poverty or wealth. (Jas. 2:1-9) Jesus is our superb example in friendliness, in that he was compassionate toward all humanity, regardless of their status in life. We believe you will find that same spirit among Christians today. Therefore, when you visit us, you will be considered an honored guest. You will be greeted with kindness and courtesy. Why not give us the opportunity to become your friend?
(Cf Prov. 18:24)

ORDER

You can expect our service to be with reverence and order.

We strive to engage in all worship and service with decency and order.
(I Cor. 14:30) The order of our worship is usually planned by our elders. Each item of worship is usually announced and often briefly explained by the men who lead us in our worship. This enables each of us to know what is going on and helps us to better prepare our minds for worship. We try to avoid all extremism in worship. Neither ritualism nor emotionalism is characteristic of our worship. You can expect our worship to be spiritual, reverent and orderly.

SIMPLICITY

You can expect our worship to be simple.

It's simple because it is based entirely on the worship authorized in the New Testament. Jesus taught that our worship was to be spiritual and according to truth.
(Jn. 4:24) Our worship to God includes the Lord's supper, giving, singing, prayer and teaching the gospel. Each of these blooms with the beauty of simplicity. We do not try to improve on God's divine plan and beauty with pageantry or innovations of men. We believe you will be impressed with the simplicity of our worship.

SINGING

You can expect congregational singing.

Singing is a vital part of our worship. All members of our congregation will blend their voices together in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. The purpose of our songs is to praise God, to teach and admonish one another through our singing.
(Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16) Since the command to sing is specific and addressed to the individual, we do not add a mechanical instrument of music in our worship in songs. For the same reason we do not have choirs to sing for us or any type of mood music to entertain us. Many who have visited us have been highly impressed with the beauty and spirituality involved in congregational singing. Why not come and see for yourself?

GIVING

You can expect us to give a free-will offering.

As the Bible teaches, we give liberally as God has prospered us, on the first day of the week.
(I Cor. 16:1-2) Our liberality is an evidence of our devotion to God.
(II Cor. 8:1-8) There are many factors that determine the amount of our offerings, but above all they must be free-will offerings.
(II Cor. 9:6-7) When the offering is taken, it is entirely the choice of our guest whether they will give an offering or not. We will not embarrass you by personally asking for an offering. Neither do we want you to feel embarrassed if you choose not to or cannot afford to give.

PRAYER

You can expect our public prayers to be led by men.
(I Tim. 2:8-13)

Prayer is a vital source of strength in a Christian's life. We pray often in private and with one another. When we come together in an assembly, prayer is a very important part of our worship. Prayers are offered frequently when we assemble together for worship. In keeping with an orderly fashion of worship, it is usually announced that we will be led in prayer by a certain brother. Everyone does not pray his own prayer out loud. We are led in prayer by a brother who speaks his prayer publicly, and the rest of us follow him silently as we pray together. This allows us to worship reverently and orderly. It also avoids noise and confusion. You will not be embarrassed by our calling on you to lead a public prayer.

THE LORD'S SUPPER

You can expect us to partake of the Lord's Supper on the first day of every week. [Sunday]

Jesus instituted this supper as a simple memorial of his death on the cross.
(Mt. 26:26-29; I Cor. 11:23-26) As we partake of the unleavened bread and fruit of the vine, our minds are to be centered on the events of the cross. In this act we have communion or fellowship with Christ.
(I Cor. 10:16) It was the practice of the early church to eat the Lord's supper every first day of the week.
(Acts 20:7) We do not practice closed communion. As the communion is passed to each individual in the assembly, we each examine ourselves that we may partake of it in a worthy manner.
(I Cor. 11:27-29)

TEACHING

You can expect Christ-centered, Bible teaching in our classrooms and pulpits.

We believe the Bible to be an inspired, authoritative book. (II Tim. 3:16-17) We believe that if a man speaks it should be from the Word of God.
(I Pet. 4:11) Our Bible class teachers usually teach directly from the Bible. The sermons you will hear from our pulpits can be supported by the Bible. In most sermons scripture references are given to enable the listener to check the Bible for himself to see if we are speaking the truth. We encourage you to check what we say by searching the scripture.
(Acts 17:11; Jn. 5:39)

At the close of each sermon you can expect an invitation to become a Christian.

You will be given an opportunity to express your faith in Jesus Christ by repenting of your sins, confessing Christ before men and being buried with the Lord in baptism.
(Cf. Jn. 8:24; Lk. 13:3; Mt. 10:32; Mk. 16:16; Acts 2:38; Gal. 3:26-27) We will not embarrass you by approaching you personally. We will make our appeal to you to become a Christian from the pulpit. Then an invitation song will be sung for your encouragement. If you choose to obey the Lord, you may come to the front and let your choice be known. May we point out that the church does not have to be assembled for you to obey the gospel. You can obey at any hour of the day or night by simply letting your request be known.
(Cf. Acts 16:30-33)

Since you now know much of what to expect when you visit the churches of Christ, why not accept our special invitation to visit us. We would consider it an honor to have you as our guest.

Answer 2

My question is why would you want to go there when you already have all of that in the Church? As a convert to the Catholic Church, I can understand the appeal of an evangelical service. The sermons are firey, the music is loud and emotions run high. They can tend to make the Catholic Mass look dull and boring. However, I think this is because most people don't understand the Mass. They have no idea what's going on right in front of them. I'm speaking of the Eucharist. I used to think Mass was about the homily and the scripture readings. Before my conversion, I tried regularly attending just to hear those two things, looking for that special insight, that euphoria of knowledge, that new inspiration. When it stopped coming, I thought, "What's the use in going anymore? I don't get anything out of it." By the grace of God, I finally enrolled in RCIA to find out "what the Catholics" knew. It took 6 months. It was only when I learned of the Eucharist did I finally understand what the Mass was. It was only then that I converted. The Mass is heaven on earth. It is the only time when the supernatural touches the natural in a very special way, through the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. I can not express how much this means to me. It is the Eucharist that is the life-blood, the beating heart of our faith. Once I learned this, nothing else measured up. It didn't matter anymore how fierce the preacher was, or if the choir was good. Those elements certainly can ASSIST in the worship being more devout, but they are by no means THE worship. It is the Eucharist. Knowing that I can go to Mass and see Jesus, be in His very presence... I can't do without it. It's too much to ask. Please consider this when you are thinking about a Protestant service. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ and have a measure of the truth, but it's not home. They don't have the Eucharist. Pray on this. God bless.

Answer 3

I'm a Catholic who was at varying past times a United Church of Canada attendant, and an Anglican attendant.

Anglican services are almost identical to Catholic Mass. It is a tad more formal; the language is often Elizabethan English - "Peace be with thee... and with thy spirit" instead of the vernacular English we use. Plus they insert the ten commandments into their liturgy.

United Church is... well... whatever the minister wants it to be. There's so little formality to it, it is hard to give a general description. Often there are bible readings. There's usually a sermon, and there are some hymns. But it isn't typically structured like Catholic liturgy, and there's no eucharist, except at Easter.

A presbyterian church near me is somewhere between the two extremes. They have something sort of like liturgy, but its all different readings and prayers from what we Catholics have. They have a bell choir, which you never see in a Catholic parish. That's kind of a cool thing to watch, and it sounds neat.

Answer 4

At a Congregational Church the service follows a format every week, but each week the music, the responsive reading, the music and scripture readings are all chosen to back up the sermon for that week.
THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
Celebrating Our 131th Year
Interlachen, Florida
October 25, 2015

Today’s Worship Leader: Jay Farnsworth

* Please stand if you are able *

MUSIC in PREPARATION for WORSHIP

A MOMENT for MEDITATION

WELCOME and ANNOUNCEMENTS

*CALL to WORSHIP” Choir

Leader: We are blessed by God
Congregation: We should give back to God
Leader: We are blessed abundantly
All: We are blessed to be able to give back to God


* OPENING PRAYER and LORD’S PRAYER

*GLORIA PATRI #622

*HYMN “O Worship the King” #10

RESPONSIVE READING “Giving” #656

PRAISE and PRAYERS of THE PEOPLE

PRAYER RESPONSE “Hear Our Prayer O Lord” #614



*HYMN “Love Devine, All Loves Excelling” #92


THE OFFERING and TIME for MEDITATION

*DOXOLOGY #625

SCRIPTURE Proverbs 3 : 9-10

MESSAGE “What to do with Your Blessings"

*HYMN” “Make Me a Blessing” #452

BENEDICTION

POSTLUDE

OPPORTUNITIES for GROWTH & SERVICE

I hope this helps answer your question.

Answer 5

The only non-Catholic service I went to was Wiccan. It consisted of drawing a circle and calling the quarters, words of praise to the goddess and (since it was a yule service) the sacrifice of the chocolate santa and a funural for a tree. I don't think those last two are really part of most rituals. But the smores were great.

Answer 6

We sing songs- and there are worship leaders on stage, with guitars and drums and piano- we sing songs like "How Great is our God" and "Come as you are" and "Praise Adonai" "I can only Imagine" --more modern worship songs I guess you could say. And then the worship leader also says a small prayer in between songs--when he feels led to. We take an offering in the middle and sometimes we stand up and sing and sometimes we sit donw- depending on who feels led to do what. We also lift our hands in praise when we feel led to. I love worship!

Answer 7

greeting or welcome,call to worship or reading,Hymn of praise,Invocation or prayer,music,prayer,tithes and offerings,childrens story,music,spoken word,hymn of response,benediction or prayer. Communion=all the same but we dont cannibalize Jesus.

Answer 8

Not fit for publication - against several 'community guidelines'...

Answer 9

Prayer, music, meet and greet, music, offering with music, prayer, preaching, prayer, music

Except on Communion day
Prayer, music, meet and greet, music, offering with music, prayer, preaching, music-prayer-communion, prayer, music

Answer 10

singing, prayers, responsive reading, affirmation of faith, offering and doxology and sermon...sometimes pancake breakfast

Answer 11

nothing