Need some help...

[marianservant]

Okay everyone, I am going to a SA church this or next weekend and I am curious as what to expect. I went to an SA a long time ago but I forget what it was like, I remember being very comfortable though.

The one I am goign to is VERY small, but thats probably beside the point, I was wondering if somone could give me a run down about the SA service?

I am very interested in this denom. and I love the work they do, as a matter of fact when i go I am going ot be volunteering to help them with their chairtable organizations.

Thanks to everyone here at Cyber Corps, and God Bless

 

[LiberatedChick]

I'm in the same boat. I currently attend an Anglican church but I'd like to attend my local SA service and see what it's like.

I'm just really not sure about the CofE's use of sacramants...there seems to be so much dependance on symbols and set ways of doing things. Whilst I love the atmosphere in my particular church I'm not sure if I like the Anglican denomination as a whole.

So yeah, I'm interested too and would very much like to know what I can expect at a service.

 

[InTheFlame]

It's a pretty hard question to answer, because SA churches can vary widely. But typically:

- no liturgy
- relatively unstructured service
- brass band or modern guitars/keyboard/drums to accompany praise/worship songs
- maybe a prayer time or testimony time where people in the congregation get up and pray or speak for a couple of minutes, as they feel led
- sermon about 1/2 hour length
- often lots of people in uniform (but they won't look down on you for not being in uniform!)
- coffee & tea after the service
- focus on personal commitment to God.

Does that help?

 

[coalfarm]

Usually after the sermon there is an appeal time where an invitation to respond to the message is given. Those who wish to respond are encouraged to kneel or stand at the "mercy seat", a bench or table at the front of the meeting hall. Here they will receive prayer, informal counselling if needed, and encouragement from an officer (minister) or a member of the ministry team.

 

[Abiel]

half hour sermon??? WoW!!!!

If we need half an hour, Captain kindly chops it into bite sized chunks!

Honestly, it just varies so much, we have 'high' church and 'low' church, though those that you might think are 'low' are often considered the most 'churchy', but I guess it depends where you are coming from. If you are used to a heavily structured, liturgical service, it will seem very free form, but I reckon most Salvationists know what is going to happen next, even in the absence of liturgy!

 

[Victrixa]

I remember, when I was S.A., how much Salvationists used Order of Services. As a matter of fact, they used them all the time. Funny you guys say you don't have any liturgy, for me the Salvation Army service is kind of liturgical with its Order of Service. You always know what's going to happen next, like at Mass. It was very structured when I went, anyways. Has that changed? Are S.A. services more charistmatic now?

 

[InTheFlame]

half hour sermon??? WoW!!!!

If we need half an hour, Captain kindly chops it into bite sized chunks!

I was mostly trying to differentiate from the shorter (mostly-RC?) 5-10 min talk during communion services.

Honestly, it just varies so much, we have 'high' church and 'low' church, though those that you might think are 'low' are often considered the most 'churchy', but I guess it depends where you are coming from. If you are used to a heavily structured, liturgical service, it will seem very free form, but I reckon most Salvationists know what is going to happen next, even in the absence of liturgy!

It does vary hugely... as people have doubtless noticed by now Compared to my lutheran past (stand up. say something. sit down. sing something. kneel down. pray something... etc) even the most structured salvo service seems rather unstructured In our church, the structure mostly depends on the worship leader... and the position moves from person to person every week. So the structure can change quite a bit week to week, too.

 

[coalfarm]

Salvationists don't have orders of service because we call them meetings, not sercives. Orders of meeting or meeting leads. Just a tadbit of trivia for ya!

Most corps i have been to do not distribute Meeting Leads to the congregation. Perhaps that is something that happened a long time ago or in a specific division or territory because it's a bit of a foreign concept for me...

 

[Victrixa]

Salvationists don't have orders of service because we call them meetings, not sercives. Orders of meeting or meeting leads. Just a tadbit of trivia for ya!

Most corps i have been to do not distribute Meeting Leads to the congregation. Perhaps that is something that happened a long time ago or in a specific division or territory because it's a bit of a foreign concept for me...

In my time.... hehe - hey I'm 38, twice your age! - here in Canada - 15 to 20 years ago, anyhow, orders of services were used in every Salvation Army 'meeting' I attended and as a S.A. officer (and as a cadet and as a soldier even), I prepared orders of services (I prepared meetings)! So I certainly know what I'm talking about!

I find that the S.A. meetings of those years (I don't know how it is today) were just as structured and organized and to a certain point liturgical as Lutheran divine services or Roman Catholic Mass.... I'm talking about the structure of 'meetings', services, etc.

 

[InTheFlame]

You tell him, Vic! Just as liturgical, you say? Would you expand on that a bit? Pretty please?

 

[Victrixa]

Hi InTheFlame

Not 'just as liturgical' but 'to a certain point' liturgical... What I mean is that the S.A. meetings that I've witnessed and been to or even prepared were extremely structured. There were orders of service all the time. You know, you had this piece of paper with the Order of Service on them. You could start with a Psalm, then a prayer, then a band selection, then another prayer, then a testimony or two, then a songster selection, then the Scripture reading, then the sermon, then the altar call (to the Mercy Seat), etc. etc. etc. Everything was planned in advance and followed as was indicated on the Order of Service.

Liturgy is a bit like that in its organization. All the elements of the Mass are in a set order like that. You know what's going to happen next.

 

[Abiel]

I would say, planned in advance, not charismatic, but open to the Holy Spirit, in the sense that the plan can be thrown to one side if needed

 

[Sascha Fitzpatrick]

Vic,

What you described is very similar to the 'City Temple' we have here for the Salvos - very structured, very traditional, etc etc.

Mine and ITF's are very different to that - hers is actually less traditional than mine even I'd say.

We do have an order of service thing - but just handed out to those 'performing' at church - ie the greeters, the preacher, the sound guys, the singers/musicians, etc etc.

Also, we don't have the brass band like most traditional Sally's do. We have a drummer, a keyboardist, a guitarist, a bass guitarist, sometimes percussion, and 3x singers usually.

It all depends where you go.

Sasch

 

[LiberatedChick]

Well I'm going to my local SA church tomorrow. Kinda nervous, but that's normal for me...stupid anxiety normally rears it's ugly head when I try and break away from things I'm used to.

 

[elm0]

Well, how was it starelda?

 

[LiberatedChick]

It was great I loved it...as you can see my icon has changed, I think I've found the kinda church I want to be part of The sermon really spoke to me and everyone was very friendly. One thing that bugged me about the CofE church was that everyone either kept to themselves or the groups of people they knew well (even the rector) and so someone relatively new felt like an outsider. I found almost the complete opposite at the SA this morning...everyone was very welcoming. The meeting was obviously different to what I'm used to but I liked it.

 

[InTheFlame]

Kewl! Great to hear, Starelda

 

[Sascha Fitzpatrick]

I'm so glad you had such a great time Starelda!

That's something our captain and children's/youth ministry leaders have really encouraged with us - to not stay within our comfort zone, and to go talk to people who we don't know, and may be visiting.

I'm thrilled you had a great time!

Sasch

 

[Kizza]

I'm in the same boat. I currently attend an Anglican church but I'd like to attend my local SA service and see what it's like.

I'm just really not sure about the CofE's use of sacramants...there seems to be so much dependance on symbols and set ways of doing things. Whilst I love the atmosphere in my particular church I'm not sure if I like the Anglican denomination as a whole.

So yeah, I'm interested too and would very much like to know what I can expect at a service.

I'd like to know more about the CoFE's use of sacraments, dependance on symbols and set ways of doing things. Thanks for bringing these things to my attention, starelda.

 

[LiberatedChick]

Well it's not really just the CofE or any one denomination. I said about the CofE because that's the denomination I was at the time. It's the use of sacraments in general that I've become uncertain of.

There's a PDF file of a book called Closer Communion on the UK Salvo website http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/www_uki.nsf/vw-sublinks/8F7CBD47258836C780256F960050B768?openDocument

It was reading this book out of curiosity about the Salvation Army beliefs that has lead me to question whether holy communion and baptism are necessary sacraments as I thought they once were. Yes, it's a tradition but imo doing things because they've always been done rather than because they should be isn't the right way to go about things. And did Jesus actually intend to set up holy communion? That's a question few people seem to ask.