Skip to main content

Visiting different churches - Evangelical part 1

A few Wednesday's ago I happened to be free at lunchtime so went along to the lunchtime mass at my local Evangelical church.

So what do I mean when I say Evangelical? If you've been into a church and the sermon is the most important part of the service you are probably at an Evangelical service.  


In an Anglo-Catholic service the focus is in the Eucharist, that is where Jesus and God lay, for Evangelicals it is the sermon as it's within scripture you find God. The Bible is his word, it has fundamental truth within it.   This doesn't mean it's all 100% historically accurate, though highly conservative evangelicals (such as those found in America) would argue it was.  Because of this the main focus of reverence in the service is on the reading of scripture and the sermon which follows.  


Receiving communion is still important but not the focus, and is celebrated using any form of bread and wine that just quickly get blessed, if it is celebrated at all.

The service as a whole followed the general structure of the BCP but the wording was changed to be more modern, which I quite liked, and obviously the aforementioned changes were there as well.

I found the service interesting but strangely disconcerting.  It was a bit of a culture shock to say the least!  This speaks to the vast range of worship within the church and I think I only had this reaction because I was expecting it to be closer to the BCP, as midweek services tend to be BCP services,  rather than a modernised style of service.

I am really interested in going along to their Sunday services as they don't necessarily provide the bread and wine each time and I'd like to see how the service works without that central element.

They also have specific family and young adult masses that I shall be attending, both of which have very high congregation numbers. I'd like to see what they offer and find ways to incorporate it in a more traditional church setting to achieve the best of both worlds. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Board gaming ministry

What is one thing families across the country do on wet and miserable days whilst on holiday?  They break out board games… Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble….yawn…more like bored games!  The world of board gaming is going through something of a golden age at the moment.  There are hundreds of thousands of new, more exciting games out there with a wide variety of mechanics – from fun party games that can be played in 15 minutes, to epic legacy games which can provide hundreds of hours of entertainment to a group of friends.  It’s so popular that there are multiple websites and YouTube channels that are dedicated to them (check out Wil Wheaton's Tabletop , a YouTube series which has celebrities playing board games with Wil Wheaton from Star Trek that in 2014 broke records by crowdfunding $1,414,159 to continue making episodes!)  There are also board game cafes opening up around the country, where you pay for a table for 30 mins, an hour or 2 hours and they p...
2 comments
Read more

Why All Age Worship? Session 2

Session 2: Fischy Music tl;dr version:   Music should appeal to all ages, which means it can’t have too many complex words, but it should have integrity. Give people control over their worship songs – modify them to reflect the congregation – the more they own it the more engaged they are. Teach new songs always at the start of services Movement isn’t just for kids it’s another form of worship. This session was predominantly singing and dancing, whilst discussing the importance of song and movement.  Much of Fischy Music is childlike praise with a couple of silly songs to help people relax, which is unsuprising as one of their main markets are schools. Singing creates a sense of safety, belonging, fun and happiness to be there. The reason so many people dislike it is that at approximately age 10 they are told they can’t sing – usually by teachers or people they respect and it has a big knock on effect. It is similar for movement whilst singing as well...
Post a Comment
Read more

Visiting different churches - Evangelical part 2

I'm writing this blog post having just been to the family mass at St Tees... And I loved it! The sheer sense of joy at worshipping Christ, the fact the Church was packed to the rafters with people and that there were multiple Sunday schools running was wonderful to see. The Church was full, ground floor and balconies!  As with the Wednesday service the focus was predominantly on the scripture. And the preaching that followed, but there was also time given to the young people to talk about the summer camps they had been on and what they had been up to. This was at the very start of the service, giving a clear focus to the youth, rather than tagged on at the end. Making sure everyone can see and get involved The Church itself has 2 projectors with screens either side of the altar and for those behind pillars there are televisions set up above each row.  There is a camera at the back that's used to follow the 'action' throughout so everyone can see what's g...
Post a Comment
Read more