A Ramble About Church Styles

I've been attending a non-denomination church now for about a month, and there are things about it which have gotten me thinking. Why am I attending a non-denom church? In short, because this is where God has led us for the moment. Why has God led us there? Haven't a clue yet, but they've been kind and welcoming to my family, and I've been as discreet and non-threatening as possible so that my background as a Catholic priest (Orthodox, Old, or otherwise) doesn't cause any issues or disruptions for anyone there. I haven't hidden it, but I haven't shouted it from the rooftops either, and I've been trying to help out where I can with the kids on Wednesday nights, and with setting up for Sunday nights.

So, as I was saying, it has gotten me thinking about the kinds of people which the different churches and their styles of service are meant to cater to. One obvious thing which I noticed right away is the position of the altar in the sanctuary. It's pushed off to the side of the stage and has an open Bible situated on top of it. In the center of the stage is a set of instruments for the worship band on Sunday mornings and evenings. During the Sunday morning and evening services, they play two worship and praise songs, and then the pastor speaks for forty-five minutes to an hour.

In a Catholic sanctuary, the setup is very different. The altar is front and center, raised up so that it is the focus of everyone in the sanctuary. Next to the altar stands the crucifix, a cross with a figure of Christ hanging on it. If there is a worship band, it is set up off to the side so as not to interfere with the focus on the altar and the liturgy. The priest who celebrates the liturgy of the word and the Mass primarily functions as the worship leader, and when it comes time for him to speak, he takes maybe twenty minutes at most so that the rest of the service may return to the focus on the worship of Jesus Christ.

What's interesting about the latter scenario is that the average layperson probably doesn't know why the sanctuary is set up the way it is. They probably don't know that every piece of furniture, every implement, and every article of clothing worn by the priest has significance which is intended to point back to Christ. Most Catholics, and especially most visitors to a Catholic church probably leave with a feeling of “what in the world is all this about?”

One thing I am coming to understand is that one of the real problems within the Church is when the Church became too open with its services. Now, before you tune me out, hear me out. In the ancient Church, at the very beginning, when someone wanted to join the Church (any local church as there was only one Church), they had to go through a period of discernment called the Catechumenate. This was the period of time when they learned what being a Christian was all about, and they had the time to work out their indecision, and to have their questions answered. The person would go through the Catechumenate for two years or until they were ready, and then they were baptized and confirmed in the faith as full members of the Church of Jesus Christ. By that point in time, they knew what they were getting into, they had a good grasp of the faith and practice of the Church, and they knew what it meant to let go of everything else and follow Christ. One important point of this is that Catechumens were only allowed to attend part of the Sunday service if any of it.

Why is this important? Because the bishops and presbyters of the Church didn't have to worry about tailoring their homilies and liturgies for people who were new to the faith. They didn't have to take time every Sunday to explain the basics of the faith over and over again because they didn't know who would be listening to the homily. The Sunday liturgies in the Catholic tradition stem from this time period, when the only people attending them were those who were “in the know”. Further, the sacrament of confession originally took place in front of everyone during Mass as the members of the body confessed their sins openly to one another and received absolution as a congregation.

But some time later on, the Sunday services opened up to those who were not “in the know”. People came to the Mass and had no idea what was going on. Maybe they had attended some catechism or initiation classes, but hadn't actually been discipled appropriately. The catechumenates grew shorter, and the initiation training became more shallow and sporadic. General Confession in the Mass ceased in favor of private confession with the Priest or Bishop. Thus the situation in the Catholic Churches today where too many people attend and are confused about what any of it means, or even about what the Churches actually teach.

Thus we have the non-denominational churches that seek to pick up the pieces. They recognize that most people who attend the churches aren't “in the know” to begin with and they cater to it. They encourage members to bring non-members to their church so that they can be saved through their preaching.

It is a great example of seeing a problem and moving to fix it, and I applaud the attempt to do so; but, in my opinion, it leaves the churches stuck in first gear. The pastor is constantly going over initiatory material and is never able to focus on anything more than “milk” because there might be someone in his congregation (perhaps most of his congregation) who would have a serious, and potentially fatal spiritual misunderstanding if he did. But without the “meat”, the stuff that would actually assist in spiritual growth, being given to the congregation, the people won't mature in their faith. They'll be stunted spiritually and won't understand how to handle it when God takes them further so that they begin to experience the cross, the dark night, and the crucial turning away from the addictions and attachments of this world. Furthermore, since these congregations produce the next generations of pastors and church leaders, the “meat” becomes lost to all but a very few until no one really understands it and it has to be “rediscovered.”

People fear and distrust secrecy and mystery, and this was the reason why the Church opened its rites to the public. But in so doing, from my observation, it crippled itself and stunted the growth of its members when it did. The truth is that part of the reason why there became such a difference between the maturity of the ancient Church and the maturity of the Church today is because the Church allowed its rites to become public.

The truth is also that it isn't politic to close them off now so that we can focus on the spiritual growth of the body. Too many people become suspicious of what goes on during the meetings. Of course they were pretty suspicious of the churches in ancient Rome too. History bears out the brutality of the Roman suspicions.

I don't know how to rectify this issue. The Catholic Churches are designed to cater to spiritually mature people who are “in the know” but most of its adherents aren't. The Evangelical churches are designed to cater to those not “in the know”, but can never bring them past the beginning stages because of what they have to continuously focus on. The truth is that both could learn from each other if they would allow it, yet neither one will.