Visiting a church for the first time

[Shelly200]

I had been wanting to visit an LDS church for some time, but haven't been able to for various reasons. However, I finally am able to tomorrow morning. I have seen the video that was passed around explaining what a church service is like, but I still had some questions about what to expect.

Are visitors allowed to come to all three hours of service? Or just the service and Sunday school? How would I know which class to go to?

Are you supposed to bring your Bible to church with you?

Are there any people specifically designated to help visitors know where to go/what to do? Like ushers or greeters?

As a Catholic I'm not allowed to take communion at other churches. How is communion done in the LDS service? Is it passed around, or do people go up to the front?

Am I going to be asked to fill out any forms/visitors' cards? Will I seem rude if I decline invitations to have missionaries visit me, or to come for other activities?

Is there anything else I should know before going for the first time? Any converts who have tips on what it's like to visit for the first time?

[Vort]

You are always welcome to Church, for all three hours, if you like. If you have doubts where to go, just ask someone. You will probably prefer to attend the Gospel Essentials class in Sunday School; the other adult Sunday School class typically offered, called "Gospel Doctrine", is for members with some doctrinal background -- though of course you're welcome to go there if you prefer. You will want to attend the Relief Society meeting with the other women, which is held in the Relief Society room, aka the room with all the soft chairs.

Members are encouraged to bring their scriptures to Church. Visitors are welcomed to do so, if they like. You might find them useful for scriptural citations the teacher uses, and moreso if you are not used to the King James Version of the Bible and usually read another.

Ideally, all the ward members greet and help out the visitors. That's how it generally works in my ward, though each ward is different. The missionaries (if present in the ward -- most wards have at least one set assigned) are there to help you.

Our sacrament is distributed to members of the congregation. It is a renewal of the baptismal and confirmation covenant the members have made. As such, it has no direct applicability to you at this time. But if you wish to take a piece of bread and drink a little cup of water, you are welcome to do so.

The missionaries, if present, will almost certainly ask if you'd like a visit and invite you to other meetings. Other ward members may also invite you to dinner or some such thing. As for filling out cards, I don't believe I have ever seen that done in a ward, so I'm sure you won't be asked to do so. Of course, you are always free to decline any invitation from missionaries or members.

Expect something quite different from a Catholic mass. Some Catholics I have spoken with think the LDS meeting seems more like a business meeting. Those from religions such as Methodist seem to find the meeting pattern less foreign.

The sacrament meeting lasts a bit over an hour. If you go tomorrow, it's Fast Sunday (first Sunday of the month), so the meeting is a bit atypical in that there are no speakers giving sermons on an assigned topic; rather, members of the congregation spontaneously speak as they are moved and express their testimony of the gospel. It will go something like this:

• The bishop or one of his counselors will welcome the congregation and announce the opening hymn and prayer.
• The congregation sings the opening hymn, and a congregation member offers the invocation.
• If there is business to be taken care of, the bishop or his counselor will announce the business to the congregation (typically things like "Sister So-and-so has been released from the Primary board" and "Brother So-and-so has been called to serve as the ward hymnbook coordinator"). If there is any stake-level business, a representative of the stake will similarly announce it.
• The congregation sings the sacrament hymn. After this, the Aaronic Priesthood blesses and distributes the sacrament to the congregation.
• At this point, the Fast and Testimony Meeting diverges a bit from the pattern of usual meetings. The bishop or his counselor bears his testimony, then invites the congregation to do so as they feel led.
• Members of the congregation bear their testimony or sit in reverent silence until about an hour and five minutes after the meeting began.
• When members have finished bearing their testimonies -- and this occasionally can run a bit long -- the bishop or his counselor thanks the congregants for their participation and announces the closing hymn and prayer.
• The congregation sings a closing hymn, and a congregant offers the benediction.

In all wards I have ever been in, sacrament meeting comes first, then Sunday school, then Priesthood and Relief Society meetings last. Some wards reverse this order, with Priesthood and Relief Society meetings first, then Sunday school, then sacrament meeting.

Good luck! Hope you enjoy it. Please report back how you liked things.

[dahlia]

When I first visited (and as a former Catholic), it was a little different, very 'Protestant,' if you get me. The music is different and there is a lot of it. I was happy to take the Sacrament, as I felt it had been missing in my life. If you are still an active Catholic, this might not be an issue with you and you may want to hold off on taking it.

Members of the church give talks during the service. You might get a kid who can barely read his/her prepared talk or an older person who will whip out their Scriptures and have a ton of citations to support the talk. Personally, I find this very appealing about the Church. You aren't talked down to by someone on high, but you enter into 'conversations' with other members of the ward. Very nice. There can be laughter, there may very well be tears, even from the men. This is normal.

Come back and let us know how it went.

[Guest]

Whoa, you went today?

That's gonna be a bit different than regular meetings because it is a Testimony Sunday. There won't be any "sermons". It will be an "open mic" for all the members who wants to bear their testimonies. It's cool stuff but, I'm a little apprehensive because these meetings sometimes have members that express strongly what they found was lacking/missing in other chuches and for a visiting Catholic, it might sound a bit off-putting.

One thing I really felt was wierd when I first attended an LDS service as a Catholic was the "boring" music. I was a member of the Catholic choir and we were a big choir complete with strings and drums with a cantor. The LDS sacrament service music is very very low key compared.

So, how did it go? I'm interested to find out.

[Shelly200]

Thanks for the replies!

...I actually didn't get to go yesterday, because the friend that was going to go with me ended up not being able to go. So we're going to try again this coming up Sunday. Which, I guess will be better, since it will be a normal service. I knew there was a special fasting day once a month, but I didn't know which Sunday it was. Now I know.

I'm not too worried about it being too different for me, because I'm a Catholic convert; I was Southern Baptist before, so I'll be more used to the 'mundane' way everything goes, as well as the set up of Sunday school (I assume). The friend who is going with me, though, is a cradle Catholic, and she's worried that she'll be intimidated by people asking her to convert. She's really only going because I'm asking her to... she doesn't know much about the LDS church, and doesn't really have much of an interest. She's just being a nice friend. So she doesn't want missionaries to magically show up at her house the next day or anything. I told her I'd field any requests that go our way... I'm not really interested in converting, but I'm interested in learning more about the teachings and culture of the church, so I wouldn't be averse to talking to missionaries or visiting with members.

Hopefully everything will work out for us to go this Sunday. I was sad I didn't get to go yesterday, because I had to go out of my way to get to Mass on Saturday night... and I'll have to do so again this weekend, so hopefully we'll make it. I don't like vigil Mass as much as Sunday Mass.

Another quick question.... would it be completely outrageous and disrespectful to wear medals to the service? I always wear two medals (the Miraculous Medal and a St.Thomas More --my Confirmation saint-- medal)... as in, I wear them everyday, without fail, no matter what. I would feel really weird not wearing them. The Thomas More medal is long enough that I could probably stick it down the top of my shirt/dress, but the Miraculous Medal is too short for that. I don't necessarily mind it being a dead giveaway that I'm Catholic (because I think it'll be pretty obvious anyway), but I don't want to be rude...

[pam]

I like this video that explains exactly what to expect.

[Just_A_Guy]

From what I can gather on Wikipedia, the Miraculous Medal doesn't look too different from some of the medallions that the Church gives to teenaged girls as part of its Young Womanhood recognition program, which some women (like my wife) occasionally wear even as adults.

I doubt anyone will really notice; and even if they do I suspect you'll be just fine. :)

[Vort]

Another quick question.... would it be completely outrageous and disrespectful to wear medals to the service? I always wear two medals (the Miraculous Medal and a St.Thomas More --my Confirmation saint-- medal)... as in, I wear them everyday, without fail, no matter what. I would feel really weird not wearing them. The Thomas More medal is long enough that I could probably stick it down the top of my shirt/dress, but the Miraculous Medal is too short for that. I don't necessarily mind it being a dead giveaway that I'm Catholic (because I think it'll be pretty obvious anyway), but I don't want to be rude...

You mean like a medallion? Sounds like religiously themed jewelry of some sort. I can't see why that would be considered disrespectful, as long as it's not a medallion button blaring "MOR(m)ON KULTISTS R GOING 2 HELL" or something of the sort.

[Shelly200]

Yes, medals as in medallions... we just call them medals. I wasn't sure, because I know that the Mormons can't wear or use crosses (and, by extension, I assume crucifixes), so I wasn't sure about medals. If I strode up into my mom's Baptist church wearing a cross I'd have no problem... if I strode in wearing a Miraculous Medal I'd have people giving me the weird "this girl's a Catholic, and Catholics go to HELL, and I better not touch her or I'll catch Mary-worshiping cooties" looks. I wasn't sure how the LDS base would react. For some reason Mary is a touchy subject with non-Catholic/Orthodox... I don't want to ruffle any feathers.

I'll try leave my Mormons Aren't Christians t-shirt at home. Good advice.

[prisonchaplain]

It's been quite some time agoi now, but I remember having LDS missionaries visit our church once--and they were in uniform. Most of us were glad that they came to check us out, and were not off-put by the clothing. Religious medallions would seem to be far less conspicuous...of course that's my humble, non-LDS opinion.

[bytebear]

Just to be clear, there is no restriction on wearing crosses. The church simply does not use the cross as an icon of worship. And so there is a cultural aversion to using the cross personally, but there is nothing forbidding it.

[Spartan117]

I've seen people wearing crosses in every ward I've ever been in. You should absolutely wear your confirmation medal, or a cross, or an olympic gold medal, or a rosary. Bring your red letter Bible, too. You wear whatever you would wear if you were going to your own church. Bring whatever light and knowledge you have.

[Shelly200]

Haha, The Rosary is not a necklace! That's like nails on a chalkboard to Catholics! And red letter Bibles are more a Protestant thing, which I remember reading as a kid... though, come to think of it, there's a Bible I'm really wanting to buy because I like the translation, but it's a red letter edition, and I hate those. Eh. Oh well. One nice thing about Mormons is that there's only one translation to get for all of your holy books... I have a weirdly large collection of Bibles that I've accumulated over the years. Which is only getting bigger now that I can add Catholic Bibles to the mix.

And strangely enough, now that I'm Catholic I still don't own a crucifix necklace. The first piece of Catholic jewelry I got was my St.Thomas More medal (look him up, he's awesome). I actually don't see many Catholics wearing crucifixes these days... I think most Catholics who wear religious jewelry (beside scapulars) wear the Miraculous Medal to receive the graces promised through its wearing.

I have never seen a Mormon wear a cross before, though. I knew they weren't used in worship, and just assumed they couldn't be worn as jewelry either.

[Guest]

Yea, no worries about the medals. I used to wear my scapular to the LDS church as well as my cross necklace before I converted and nobody noticed, or if they did, they didn't mention it. But then, they all knew I was Catholic.

[jayanna]

Some people in my ward wear crosses, though not often. I don't think there would be anything said to someone wearing one. We really prefer our lives and actions to be the symbol of our religion to those observing us, rather than using outward symbos as identifiers of ingroups. IF there is an actual rule about it, I have never heard one and to be honest, I really doubt there is one.

I wanted to add, I think you should wear your medals if you want to. You might meet some members that know what it is and strike up a conversation. I hope you enjoy the meetings, and yes you are more than welcome to attend all 3. When in doubt, the Elders (look for the name tags) will tell you where your next meeting is. The sacrament is passed around and you can simply pass it to the next person without taking any, no problem.

Edited February 7, 2012 by jayanna

[mnn727]

I have never seen a Mormon wear a cross before, though. I knew they weren't used in worship, and just assumed they couldn't be worn as jewelry either.

My wife wears one all the time. There is nothing wrong with wearing it.

To be clear though the reason we do not have crosses on our buildings is because while many people have been killed for their beliefs, only Christ took upon himself the sins of the world, died and then rose from the dead. (ie Christ lives)

Edited February 9, 2012 by mnn727

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