Contemporary Protestant Worship Services Verus The Catholic Mass

A Baptist campus minister at LSU has a good post up. See Live the Trinity's Tired of the worship wars (or) Why would they leave? . Let me ramble on about it.

First let me note this nice piece of Catholic news he mentions in his post:

I am not entirely persuaded that contemporary or emerging worship style is the cultural language necessary for reaching this generation. Christ the King Catholic Church on the Louisiana State University campus is busting at the seems with several services on Sunday many standing room only with several thousand attending each week.

Catholic. Mass. Several thousand. Standing room only.

Traditional liturgical worship styles seem to attract young people quite well thank you very much. Granted we might ask if Christ the King uses what freedom it has to make what changes make Mass more attractive to university students. Guitar instead of organ? And so on.

But we are not Catholics. We are Baptist Protestants.

Well let me say I am happy that Christ the King is busting at the seams. I was actually going to post on the subject of the Catholic Campus Ministry versus other groups in the State of Louisiana but got sidetracked.

So it appears things are going well at Christ the King!! I will return to Christ the King in a bit.

I think both the Baptist Church and the Catholics were effected by the contemporary worship movement at the same time . In the Catholic Church we had also the big added wrinkle of the charismatic renewal which caused some conflict in local parishes. Most Baptist I think strongly resisted Charismatic services for various reasons.

However the Charismatic renewal I do think affected the Baptists too. They might draw the line at speaking in tongues at Church but some aspects of charismatic and pentecostal worship style was introduced as an option. Though I would be shocked to see dancing in the aisles at any Baptist Church.

The Episcopal Church seemed until recently seemed not to hot on the idea. Maybe that had more to do with class status. As a Catholic at an university where some of us viewed the "contemporary" Mass as practiced close to heretical the Canterbury service was a nice service to go too. (NOTE WE DID NOT TAKE COMMUNION AND WE ATTENDED MASS ON SUNDAY). Some facets of the TEC seemed to be affected by the Cursillo movement as to worship but this was still contained.

Their Liturgical revolution had much more to do with the 1979 prayer book and had some similar overtones with the Catholic controversy over the missal. Strangely (and thankfully) at least in the South the TEC kept to it's tradition. Though many would regard the 1979 prayer book as a REVOLUTION itself.

Perhaps the Episcopal Church wisely noted that the revolution intheir doctrine that was happening plus a revolution in worship styles that we were seeing in come Catholic and Evangelical would be too much.

Sadly it appears the TEC is embracing this "contemporary" worship more and more now. In that I mean embracing the worst Catholic mistakes of the 70 's and 80's. That is the WORST OF WORST OF THE CONTEMPORARY that might lead to errors.

Returning to his article which is a good look at the situation in his Church as an example:

I am concerned that yes perhaps this current generation of Baptists expects contemporary and/or emerging style to such an extent that if a church does not provide that they will look elsewhere. Can it be that we have created this by raising an entire generation with certain expectations? That we feed them a steady diet of casual contemporary emerging and so on – and then sure enough that is all they will accept when they become adults?

Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps I should be more open to these newer worship styles. Fair enough. But does that work both ways? That the emerging generation needs to work harder to appreciate and even include the traditional and the liturgical?

If children grow up on junk food – and no I am not saying contemporary or emerging worship style is junk food – do we just shrug our shoulders and say “oh well sure you can have pizza and soda for dinner again”? Or do we educate our children such they learn to appreciate and even enjoy different and often more nutritious foods?

Have we failed to help our children appreciate and even enjoy more traditional and liturgical worship? Even if – thanks to modern popular culture – they also enjoy and even expect newer forms and styles? Of course one can respond that those who prefer more traditional and liturgical need to learn to appreciate newer styles and approaches.

That “they will just leave and go elsewhere” really bothers me.

I really think that in "CERTAIN" Protestant and Evangelical circles there is a liking for more traditional worship.

The question is what is the "Baptist" Liturgy. When I was a Southern Baptist we had an informal liturgy I suppose but I never thought of it in those terms. It consisted of

Opening Worship Song

Opening Prayer- My Preacher

Perhaps another Song

Sunday School Report coupled with announcements

The Offering (A song is done)

The Preaching ( we might have some mini Children Sermon before as kids go to the Altar and sit down with proud parents and grandparents looking on beaming)

Benediction (singing occurs)

Closing song

Note- Every three months there would be a Communion Service too add. I can vaguely recall a time when those bell choirs were big and we might have that on occasion.

Now the big points were of course the PREACHING and the Benediction (will anyone walk the aisle).

Besides the singing and saying Amen after some prayers that was about Liturgical as it got. In reality I am not sure how a contemporary Baptist service would really deviate a lot from the above. There might be guitars, there might be big movie screens, there might be a different type music, maybe a personal testimony?, but it seems to me that follow that pattern.

I would be interested in Live the Trinity's details of their service.

He mentions this though:

And then our last senior pastor after a few years pushed hard for the creation of a new second service. It would be emerging in style – not contemporary. It would be the growth/outreach service – to attract and involve the unchurched of/and the current generation. Most significantly it would be the later service.

Several people have said to me they had no problem with a second service. Even with an emerging worship style. What bothered them was that the traditional would become the early service and the emerging service would take what they regarded as the primary time. Moreover they felt there were serious problems with how that decision was made...

Throw in some controversy concerning the term emerging and its relationship to the so called Emergent movement. It was becoming increasingly evident that the senior pastor was theologically more liberal than even this moderate Baptist church.

Now that is interesting. I think I am not alone as a Catholic from only seeing one thing when we hear "emerging" Church. That is evangelicals that are into the Church Fathers, praying the hours, community life, liturgical worship, interesting ideas on communion , and they also dig Anglican Bishop NT Wright.

Now when I see "conservative" Evangelicals talk about "emerging" Church they seem to be talking about something that has to deal with liberal politics and even worse a water downed liberal theology.

Now yes there might be some concerns over some aspects of NT Wright but I don't think that is the theology they are worried about. So we may be talking about two different things. The emergent Church people I describe above rarely seemed to be theological liberals.

However maybe there is some overlap. Does this service include a more liturgical style? That indeed would be something different though again I am not sure why such a movement would tend toward liberalism. However the fact he contrasts the "emerging" worship with that at the Catholic Christ the King makes me think this is something different.

He says:

And while we are on the subject – to what extent do Anglican or Catholic or Orthodox Christians struggle with this issue of worship style? Ah therein lies the rub.

Well as a Catholic I can say NOT SO WELL. I can't speak for the Orthodox. I think their major change was switching to English but I am not sure if they had anything close to the Liturgical revolution we all had. Thankfully I have never heard of an "Contemporary" Orthodox Divine Service.

What made the Catholic situation so explosive was that so much of our Liturgy is very much connected to doctrine and belief. Throw in who has the authority to change what and other political agendas and it was WAR.

I do think though the wild stuff we saw in the 70's and 80's is going extinct. Young people want a more traditional service. They might not want the full Latin Mass every Sunday but I have a feeling they would love more traditional music and YES KNEELING FOR COMMUNION.

That does not mean the LIFE TEEN service does not have a place. One just has too look at the the Steubenville Youth Masses we have each year in Louisiana to see that. However one gets a feeling that this generation is in full agreement with Pope Benedict on what the Liturgy should look like and a healthy balance is finally occurring. Once you take the not so hidden theological agendas behind "Liturgical reform" out it is amazing how clarity comes. I think we are in the right direction.

Now while the danger that "Contemporary" worship would damage lets say Baptist Doctrine is slim there is still is a danger. In fact I think Catholics are now aware of this. That is we very well might be confusing a filled with the spirit worship service with being entertained. Further the shift toward the contemporary seems to have a LETS LOOK AT HOW GREAT WE ARE aspect at time. Lot of focus on the community less on a vertical aspect toward God himself.

For Catholics this became a disaster because I am not sure we were set up to prevent the abuses. Evangelicals might have some defenses against this but I think the dangers are the same.

In the end LITURGY is a vital connection to the Church in every age. It is also the public sign to the world of our faith. I think that might be one reason why we see perhaps a rebound in traditional worship in both places.

Let me add something that might be related. When I became a Catholic I was SHOCKED how people dressed for Sunday Mass. It was like they were going to Walmart. I went out of my way to try at least make some effort to dress up for Sunday Mass for a few years. I don't know when it happened but I look at myself today and I am now part of the Walmart crowd.

If I wear a nice long sleeve shirt that is now dressing up. The only time I wear a jacket and tie to Mass (that is not a funeral or wedding) is Midnight Mass and Easter Vigil.

Until recently this downgrading in clothing was very unheard of as to Church among Protestants. However I can't help but notice that the same thing seems to be happening there. Is the use of the "Contemporary" playing a part of this.

Now this might all seem petty. GOD does not care what you wear to Church as some say. However how we dress and when we dress is a symbol of importance. He communicates something to ourselves and others.

I actually thinking the dressing down that is occurring in the Catholic Church and in other Faith communities might be having some unforeseen consequences.

END of rant.