Briefly, I will state that my family were Roman Catholic. I believe it was more the incorrect approach than the church itself that led our family to find other churches to serve and worship Jesus Christ. But even after my baptism and recommitment to my faith in 2013, I realized there were issues that needed addressing in almost every church I would visit. I believe this is the reason I felt the need to seek a Christian education. Therefore, for this worship service report, I will detail my experiences at Roman Catholic church Sacred Heart, (Ancient), at Sagemont Baptist church (Revivalist), and at Sierra Presbyterian Church (Reformed) to discuss their worship traditions and their connection to liturgy and sources of theology.
1) Revivalist model: Sagemont Baptist Church, Houston, Texas August 9th, 2020 9:30am
I have been a member of Sagemont Baptist church since 2015. Pastor John Morgan led the church since its inception and retired late in November 2019. Associate and Interim Pastor Freeman Tomlin led Sunday services, Dr. Tomlin is a former student and alumni of Houston Baptist University. After several months, the church voted in Dr. Mathew Carter from Austin, he has already implemented changes that can only improve the spiritual growth of the congregation.
August 9th, 2020 9:30am
Worship pastor Bill Cole lead the choir and full band, this was the first service in a while not exclusively restricted to online broadcast.
· Music: 1st song: Who can stop the Lord?
· 2nd song: Sing his praise
· 3rd song: Im gonna sing of the goodness of God
Dr. Carter’s message was a teaching from Matthew 7:21: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (ESV). He emphasizes that the message in 7:21-23 is not directed at non-believers but those who call themselves Christians who fail to do the “will of the Father.” It is a difficult statement Jesus makes; that many will fall short of the Kingdom of Heaven. Dr. Carter’s sermon incorporated reflections from experience, in teaching from scripture. He appealed to the congregation to evaluate their relationship spiritually with Jesus Christ. This was then followed by prayer and then; the Lord’s Supper. It had been previously announced there would be the Lord’s Supper at the end of the service. This is a new thing for Sagemont Church, I can truly appreciate Dr. Carter addressing a renewed approach to The Lord’s Supper for Sagemont. The final song: “Praise the Father, Praise the son, praise the Spirit, three in one; praise forever the King of Kings” ends the service with a focus on trinitarian thought.
The music and the message were centrally focused on Jesus Christ. The sermon in particular was on doing the will of the Father. Dr. Carter in the weeks before and since he began at Sagemont has taught from Matthew originally beginning in the Beautitudes. Last week he taught from Revelation, this was due to an issue that arose with another pastor for Sagemont who had delivered a particularly dark message and interpretation on Sagemont’s iRadio. Nonetheless, I am very happy that he placed such an emphasis on the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. The final song definitely emphasized Trinitarian thought and praise. As a student of theology, and a believer that God hears our prayers, I believe that Dr. Carter’s biblical and Christ centered teaching is exactly what a large almost mega church congregation like Sagemont needed.
2) Ancient model: Roman Catholic: Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Community, Manvel, Tx
August 8th, 2020 The 3pm RCIA Mass, in English and Spanish Fr. Thomas V. Ponzini
I have visited all three churches personally in my evaluation. I am a member of Sagemont, but I have been to Sacred Heart before. I believe this was a service for the Spanish speaking congregation of which I watched via internet. The Friar began with prayer (in English and Spanish) and blessing, and then they sang “Glory to God in the highest.” This service was for the Spanish speaking congregation; therefore, I do choose to provide a few of the details of this service as follows:
Prayer in Spanish by the Fr. Ponzini; and then a deacon does the 1st reading from Isaiah 55:1-11. (A reading from the Old Testament,) followed by a Responsorial Psalm: Lord send down your spirit and renew the face if the Earth (Psalm 104). Second Reading by a deacon (in Spanish) from Acts 19:1-6 (a New Testament reading.)
Responsorial Gospel Acclamation (Alleluia) very brief. Third Gospel reading by the priest was Luke 24:13-35 (in Spanish).
This was then followed by Fr. Ponzini speaking about loving our children before the rite of initiation, in English and Spanish, explaining the sacraments according to Catholic tradition. He stated that baptism is the removal and elimination of original sin. “We receive the Holy Spirit, in baptism.” He states the confirmation is the confirmation of receiving the Holy Spirit and living in the Holy Spirit. In each step, he follows with the Spanish translation of what he has spoken. This is the homily portion of the mass. There were 23 total baptisms of young people and children performed during this service on August 8th, 2020, after which there was a reading of the Nicene Creed.
My experiences in the Roman Catholic church was that this was the church I was raised in as a child. In recent years since my adult baptism in 2013, I have visited services at St. Juan Diego in Pasadena Texas, at Sacred Heart in Manvel, and The Holy Ghost church on Bel Air on March of 2020. Fr. Ponzini’s RCIA Mass was performed beautifully, and the singers and piano accompanist were flawless, the service was very traditional to the Roman Catholic church, with Bible readings from Isaiah, Acts and Luke, and included a reading of the Nicene Creed.
3) Reformed model: Sierra Presbyterian Church, 175 Ridge Rd., Nevada City California
Service: Friday Night Live from August 7th, 2020
When an emergency situation lead to a need for me to travel to North California to fight for custody of my now 4 year old son, I chose a motel that would place me near the courthouse for the first court date, and near a church for Sunday service. That church would be Sierra Presbyterian church. Their Senior Pastor then and now continues to be Dr. Mike Griffin. Like Sagemont, they would begin their service with 15-25 minutes of Contemporary Christian music lead by their worship team. A much smaller church than Sagemont, there was a very comforting family environment to their services. I was able to take my son Yamani with me a few times, and like Sagemont, they had a nursery for children.
One unique feature of their Sunday morning service was in the service of the Eucharist or as we say in Baptist churches, the Lord’s Supper. At the end of Dr. Mike Griffin’s sermon, the worship team would perform in the background as the congregation was called up to receive the Eucharist. They served bread which had been sliced into small pieces for the body of Christ, and wine for the blood of Christ in the service of the Eucharist. These experiences at Sierra Presbyterian were during the months of December 2018 through July 2019 when I was travelling to Nevada City for court dates and initially for visitation with my son, and to bring my son there to visit with his mother. They were kind enough to let me receive the Lord’s Supper each time that I attended service.
The Friday night service; August 7th, a live via internet service.
While previous services have been led by Dr. Griffin, this Friday service was led with prayer and music by Contemporary worship leader Beau Blandford and his wife (I didn’t catch her name). Liturgically and theologically, except for an instance when Dr. Griffin did reference Calvin, for the most part, their services as I recall them were similar to the services at Sagemont Baptist with Pastor Morgan and now with Dr. Matt Carter; teaching from the Bible, and Trinitarian in focus. What I learned from my experiences with Sierra Presbyterian that made an impact on me was the very warm and welcoming sentiment from everyone I met there. Very caring and genuine people. And I was profoundly influenced by their treatment in respect to the Eucharist/Lord’s Supper.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I will speak particularly about the sacrament about the Eucharist/Lord’s Supper; all three churches do offer it each and every Sunday. As one might expect, the sacrament of the Eucharist in a Roman Catholic church is performed in their tradition. In the past, visiting San Juan Diego in Pasadena Texas, I would go up and receive the blessing from the priest with my arms crossed. Since 2015, as a member of Sagemont Church, Pastor Morgan encouraged members to receive the Lord’s Supper which was performed in a different part of the church. It would usually involve a reading of 1 Corinthians 11:23-32; with an emphasis on verses 27-29 about how the sacrament is received:
“So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves” (NIV).
Being raised Catholic, and being baptized and born again, this sacrament is important to me. I was concerned that at Sagemont, in the past, there was not enough of an emphasis on the sacrament, but I see that my concerns are now being met by new Lead Pastor Dr. Carter. I truly enjoyed the experience in researching and writing this report.
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