This past weekend our Confirmation students visited two other local congregations as a way to explore how other Christian denominations speak, sing, and pray in worship. Saturday afternoon they attended mass St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish and Sunday morning joined our neighbors for worship at Lakota Hills Baptist Church.
Pastor Lowell caught up with a few of our youth after the visit and asked them to reflect on their experiences.
Hannah (6th grade)
When asked to reflect on the church visits, Hannah mentioned, “I’ve never been to a Catholic Church, even though most of my friends are Catholic. It was pretty interesting. The worship was kinda the same, except for the kneeling and that St. Max was pretty big.” Their Saturday afternoon service was the smallest of the weekend with only 600 in attendance!
Her favorite thing at Lakota Hills Baptist was the “singing and a long message, followed by more singing.” All the singing was a new way for her to worship. Hannah mentioned that they didn’t have communion this past Sunday, so she didn’t feel as involved. Because there were only two elements to the service, singing and sermon, it felt like more of a spectator moment.
Isaac (8th grade)
When Isaac was asked about something different that he experienced, he said that kneeling at some parts of the service was new for him. The worship style at St. Max was like our 8 am service with hymnals, while the worship style at Lakota Hills was more like our 9:30 and 11 am worship moments. When asked about one his favorite thing from the weekend, Isaac responded that he liked that the “sanctuary was symmetrical” at St. Max.
Delaney (7th grade)
“It was really cool to experience what people do in other churches.” Delaney noted, “at St. Max, I was a little nervous at first, even before we walked in. When we went in, there were all sorts of portraits of important church figures, like Pope Francis, the Reverend, the Pastor, and a few others. The church service overall was different and much more formal and quiet, which is the opposite of our church. I was surprised there was guitar and no organ.”
“After getting a minimal amount of sleep, we walked across the street to Lakota Hills. As we sat down, the projection on the wall was a countdown of how much “greeting time” we had left. In that time, all of us were probably greeted at least 4 times. When church started, they just played about 10 minutes’ worth of music, which was way too much for me all at once. Then, we sat down and the pastor read the Bible for a little while. Then he had about a 45 or 50-minute-long sermon, which we all dreaded. I listened to some of it, but most of us were at least half asleep for most of it. At the end, we sang a few sending songs, and then we all went into a separate room [with one of their church leaders] to talk about their beliefs and any questions we had. The biggest part of being Baptist is your choice to be baptized or not. Baptism to them is kind of like confirmation for us. After that, we walked back to church and I was happy ... Lord of Life Lutheran Church is the place for me. Click here to read about Delaney’s favorite moment.
Big “thanks” to our hosts in both congregations for their hospitality, with special gratitude to Father Geoff Drew, pastor, and Jeremy Helmes, worship director, at St. Max. Following worship, they spent thirty minutes with our group answering questions about the Catholic church and worship, as well as sharing a powerful story about their namesake, Maximilian Kolbe, who voluntarily gave his life for a fellow prisoner in Auschwitz. Read about him here.