Having been raised as a Roman Catholic, I was 16 years old the first time I stepped foot into a Protestant church. I thoroughly enjoyed the preaching and the sense of community I quickly felt inside the church. Fast forward 13 years and I am a Protestant minister who graduated from two Protestant schools. I am married to a woman who comes from a thoroughly Protestant family and it looks like I will be getting my 'Prostestant' ordination this summer.
However, there are aspects of Catholicism that I miss.
The Protestant liturgy believes that the preaching of God's Word is the pinnacle of the worship service. Just like a good book that is steadily working towards the climax of the story, so too, Protestants view the liturgy as reaching it's height when God's Word is preached and exclaimed. It makes sense why so many Protestant churches have large elevated pulpits to illustrate the scripture's authority over our lives. In the Roman Catholic Church it is the Eucharist that is the pinnacle of the liturgy. Catholics believe that our Lord and Savior is truly present in the bread and the wine. Hence, it is 'receiving Christ' in the sacred Eucharist that is central.
While the preaching and teaching of God's Word is important to the liturgy and to us as believers, is it not somewhat scary how much human element is involved in this process? I have known and know pastors who decide what they are going to preach on 30 minutes before the service begins. They throw together a good story and three 'easy to understand' points and their sermon is complete. Or how about this, Joel Osteen/Rob Bell/Mark Driscoll would all tell you that it is the preaching/teaching of God's Word that is central to the liturgy. However, take away Osteen, Bell, and Driscoll as the people who DO the preaching and I guarantee attendance will change. If the main reason we gather together is to exalt the risen Christ then why does it matter who preaches? Or, perhaps it is my week to preach and I mistakenly use some resources that cause me to poorly exegete the text, and perhaps I stuttered more than normal this week...Was the climax of the service weakened by my poor judgment and/or my stuttering?
Some may respond, "Even if the sermon is not great, we still worship and experience God through song..." But what if I am the music leader and the three songs I picked just happen to be ones that you don't like, or, you haven't heard of? What if I hurt my finger earlier in the week and I don't play the guitar as well as I usually do? Do the people who do the preaching and the people that play the music drastically effect the worship experience? Based on patterns we see, I believe the answer is yes! How else can we explain megachurches? Church goers flock to churches with preachers they enjoy hearing from, bands they enjoy listening to, church buildings they enjoy being at, etc. The Protestant liturgy, in many cases, must cater to a consumeristic/'entertain me' mentality. Since when did worship become so anthropomorphic?
However,
when we gather to receive Christ through the Eucharist, how could we ever leave wanting more? When we gather, do we hunger and thirst for how the preacher interprets Romans 8, or, do we hunger and thirst for the very presence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? More thoughts to come.
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loved it, that was one of my first thoughts when I began my journey into Catholicism. I prefer the Catholic/ Orthodox liturgy so much more to a protestant/ evangelical worship experience because the person involved doesn't have to depend on the pastor having a good sermon or the band playing a good set of songs. As long as Christ is being made present through the Eucharist, and this is the apex of the worship, I have everything I need.
ReplyDeleteIncredible! Jason, I had no idea your background is Catholic? Awesome. Do you feel there is hope for the Protestant church to reclaim a more Eucharistic liturgy? I believe it is happening in different places. What do you think is a way forward in your context?
ReplyDeleteThanks.
ReplyDeleteAs a Protestant (more or less) who is dating a Catholic, and thus feeling compelled to look further into their ways and interpretations, I have to say that this hits home for me. I feel kind of caught between the satiating quality of communion in a Catholic church, and the sense of community in my Protestant church in Liberty. I think that no branch of Christianity is perfect - there are undoubtedly flaws in the Catholic tradition as well as the numerous Protestant ones - and something I would really like to see would be Catholics coming together and fostering that sense of community that I so love about many Protestant churches, and Protestants placing much more value on Christ *in our midst,* something that Catholics seem to understand a bit better in some cases. I think this could be organically accomplished - Jesus is the living Word of God, is he not? So why is it so difficult to see the connection between the importance of preaching the Word, imbibing the Word inside us, and holy communion? By the same token, the Catholic church urges that Protestants are not allowed to receive the Eucharist from a Catholic priest because it would signify a unity that isn't present, and yet in their own church communities, people barely speak or interact with one another.
ReplyDeleteI would dearly love to attend a church service wherein the Word was studied and preached with as much passion as my Protestant pastor has, among a church body that is so dedicated and caring and unified that they regularly go out and serve the community together as an entire congregation (again, like my Protestant church), and where communion is taken with the utmost respect and reverence, and treated as the actual body and blood of Christ. I've come to believe it's more than a symbol because of the tangible power it works in my life, and the spiritual starvation I feel when it isn't available to me for long periods. I don't know; it's a mystery, but I feel like not enough emphasis is placed on *God among us* at Protestant services. Where two or three are gathered in his name, he is there...God inhabits the praises of his people...the Word was with God and the Word was God...this is kind of a tangent, but related: I feel like we never just sit and listen and let the presence of God use the silence as a stepping stone to penetrate our hearts. Quiet is too uncomfortable. I think this is a huge detriment to us. The Word should be preached, yes, but I wonder if instead of talking so much sometimes we should just stop and listen to what GOD, the Almighty who somehow finds us valuable enough to come and hang out with us, has to say.
Thank you for your comments Cate. I echo some of your thoughts. The Catholic Church I attended in New Hampshire felt like it was full of the walking dead. People avoided eye contact and conversation like it was the plague. The Catholic Church has definitely has its flaws just like the Protestant Church does.
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ReplyDeleteYou and I share similar thoughts on what the church is for. I am not Catholic but I assume the Eucharist is the presence of God during the communion or something similar? I love feeling the presence of God in the service, but as for communion, it's not that big of a deal to me. My family took it at home a lot growing up so I feel I can be in remembrance anytime anywhere.
ReplyDeleteI have stopped depending on the pastor to give me a good message on Sunday mornings. It's nice if they do, but that's not why I'm there. Fellowship is so important. I've realized this more and more as I grow as a person and as a Christian. The old adage: "United we stand, together we fall" is a perfect explanation of why we must come together for worship. And I come to celebrate. God is awesome! Why would I want to miss an opportunity to celebrate that with others?
So if the music is not perfect or the pastor is off topic or whatever, I can still find joy in the gathering. I still enjoy seeing friends, seeing how people have been that week, if I can pray for them for anything etc. To me-when we put the focus on the message, we forget the real reason we are there. It's more important to pray with a friend who needs prayer than it is to sing a song. It's more important to confess our sins and needs to others and have them pray with us than it is to worry about whether the pastor's message was funny or dry or dull-unless it's anti-scriptural and then I worry....but the first church came together to lift each other up, to form a community. The elders in the church oversaw it but lots of people from the congregation preached. "pastor" was not a noun, it was a verb. Only evangelists were paid. (Paul, Peter, traveling preachers who could not make a living in a community for the short time they were there-of course, Paul didn't want the money but makes mention that it's right to pay them)
Sometimes I wonder what God thinks of what we have done to his church, to his bride. we have divided it into denominations, we sell books about how to be closer to him or understand him. We have men in big offices in other parts of the country (and for foreign countries-they take their direction form here)who decide what a denomination will teach or support. We even have people who decide what a poastor should preach about each week if he wants to follow the topical guideline set forth by the denomination. We pay people to do God's work. (and don't worry-I'm not passing judgment on paid pastors, I'm just making a point)
So I agree-we put too much emphasis on the sermon or the music and less on the relationships and the communion and that is not Biblical. We need to get back to basics and stop trying to offer services and things to draw the people in and start fulfilling the great commission.
And this is exactly why I said I have begun to have a greater appreciation for the home church because the home church breaks bread together, spends the day together, prays for one another, builds truly binding relationships with one another, recognizes that the sharing of the gospel is not only reserved for the elite or someone with an extensive education, but rather a hunger and thirst for righteousness and they go out into their community and help the needy, share the gospel, and plant churches.
I think that's what God Misses about the church.....
Sorry-there is a delay when I post and I think they are not posting so I end up double posting so that is why I removed my second comment. :) I really like your blog. Makes me think...
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