My Churchy Thoughts

The mass I attended last Sunday evening reminded me unexpectedly of the nondenominational evangelical church that I attended as a child. After letting go of the wave of anger, judgment and sadness that initially hit me, I thought about how the church service I grew up going to was similar to and different from the catholic service.

Similar
- focus on large crowd experience
- set structure that flows from one section to the next
- praise choruses projected onto the wall
- raised hands
- kneeling

Different
- special objects used for worship besides bible
- specific times to kneel and raise hands
- short sermon/homily

I've heard that protestant churches are losing members and that nondenominational evangelical churches are growing. It seems to me that protestant churches are less focused on the crowd experience and more on individual experience of personal faith. I wonder if people are drawn to that group experience in this individualistic society, whereas when the protestant denominations began people were drawn to them because society was more group oriented.
Who knows?