Expert: Brian Thompson - 11/11/2008

Question
Hey, im doing an assignment of the AOG church service compared to that of the Catholic church. I was just wondering if you could tell me about what are the parts to a Assemblies of god service and explain them. Also could you plz answer the following questions if possible.

Purpose of the service
- what are the beliefs held about the objectives of the ritual? (power of action? Significance of key aspects? and why do people prefer to pray in a service rather than at home?)

Structure of the ritual
-Stages
-Significance of gestures or phrases (is it true that the assemblies of god service is very music based?)

Participants
- Who are the special people
-What are their roles
- Is there special dress required (Color, symbolism)
what symbols are used and what are their meanings.

I know it is a lot to ask, if you could just answer what you can i would be extremely grateful.

Answer
I don't normally answer assignment questions however I am in a unique position to give you a perspective. I was raised a Catholic but wandered off in my teens and came back into the church by a different door.

A pentacostal church is very different to a catholic church in form and emphasis and this is no more apparent than in ritual and litergy. The AOG doesn't possess a ritual or a litergy.

The form of the service is typically
Song Service consisting of praise and worship; songs may run for up to an hour
Announcements; putting particular emphasis on items in the bulletin such as home cells, coming events
Communion; may be preceded by a short preach emphasing some aspect of Christ's life or teaching. May be passed around or congregation come forward to a table
Offering; may be preceded by a short preach emphasing some aspect of giving and may be plural if offerings are taken for missions or some special purpose such as a love offering for a visiting preacher. Bag may be passed or congregation come forward
Sermon; may run for from half an hour to an hour and a half
Prayer Ministry; may follow as a response to the preaching or as a response to a salvation call or as a healing ministry call, will end when all needs have been met. Could occur in any part of the meeting

Total time for an AOG service probally two hours if not constrained by the timing of a second service. There is a seperate Children's Church to which the children and youth attend with specific emphasis on an age based program

In reality all of the above are optional and can be arranged in any order and can take different forms although the one common component is the use of (Bread and Wine) traditional elements in the communion.

The services are led by the Pastor, usually a person appointed to the position after study but it can be led by a lay person, there are musicians and a worship leader and the Pastor may be assisted during the prayer ministry by other Pastors and members of the Church. In all of the above the Pastor and particularly the  worship leader try to be sensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit and so some parts may be interrupted by a prophesy or tongues or the emphasis change.

This is in my opinion far better than ritual since it opens the meeting to place the emphasis where the Holy Spirit directs and gives the people opportunity to respond.

There is no special dress because afterall this is a family meeting although some people forget to observe certain standards, those in authority are usually well dressed, Hope this helps you