What are some of the major differences between Lutheran and Southern Baptist religion?

Depending on the particular Lutheran church, the service may be practically identical to either a Catholic or a Baptist service, or somewhere in-between. To be honest, the better, more credible Lutheran churches will be more like Catholics in their worship format. The move toward "contemporary" Baptist-style services really comes from a very different and un-Lutheran understanding of the purpose of the church service.

There is a script of all the things that are said or chanted by the pastor and congregation, which we call the "order of worship," and this is found in a section at the front of the hymnal. You will be told in the bulletin or at the start of the service which page the order of worship is found on. This is where you spend most of your time, and you can use a page from your bulletin as a bookmark when you go to sing a hymn. It can be a little confusing the first few times, but you get used to it surprisingly quickly.

The bulletin frequently has a summary of the service to help guide you through it as well, and some churches print the whole order of worship there.

As far as differences from Baptists, the biggest thing Baptists are concerned with is that we baptize babies, and that we baptize by pouring water on the head rather than by immersion. But this is just the most visible aspect of deep differences in our understanding of how salvation works.

We don't believe in a "born-again experience" in the sense that Baptists do. Rather, we believe that salvation is something the Holy Spirit works in a person through external means. Those means are the Word of God, and the sacraments. Simply put, one way of reading Matthew 28:19-20 is that Jesus was telling us exactly how disciples are made, and that it involves two steps: Preach the Word of God, and baptize. We believe that these two external actions, and *not* a personal choice of the recipient, are what save a person. We also believe that they may happen in either order (note that in Jesus' instructions baptism comes first), which is why we baptize our children shortly after birth.

Of course, there's *much* more than this, but that's the most important difference, in a nutshell.

One more thing: We believe that in Holy Communion we receive Christ's actual body and blood. Therefore, many Lutherans practice closed communion. If this church practices closed communion (or if you are uncertain), then you must not go forward under any circumstances. But even if they don't, you still should not go forward unless you have first spoken with the pastor. Receiving Christ's body and blood is serious business, and doing so in unbelief (thinking it's just a symbol counts as unbelief) is just not safe.

Baptist Dating Service

Get Smart, above, is mostly right.

Except Baptists started in England, and central Europe, not North America. A first Baptist was John Smith -- but not the one that helped found Jamestown, Va.

"Ana-baptists," meaning people who were 'baptized' again, broke off from the mainstream Protestant faiths over the issues of infant baptism.

From the First Anabaptist break, came the Mennonites and Amish, their European cousins became the Baptists.

Lutheran and Anglican (Episcopal) are closer to Catholic. Baptist and Presbyterian are almost interchangeable doctrinally, but the Presbyterian service is a little more formal. Some Baptist and Presbyterian are more Calvinistic, and some are more near Armenian-thought not completely. .

Lutheran's are the oldest and first branch of protestant's that broke away from the Catholic Church centuries ago in Germany at a time when the Catholic Church was corrupted by politics of the times (no separation of Church and State) and wanted to rule other countries. Lurther also wanted to marry a nun and have children.

Henry the 8th thought this was a way to have the Catholic Church butt out of English politics so he created the Church of England and the St James bible in English so everyone could read and understand the bible. Knowledge is power. (King Henry also wanted a divorce that the Church in Rome refused to grant).

Baptist is a protestant church that was founded in America in the 1600's (that believed in the separation of Church and State) The members were the designers of the American constitution and the belief in the separation of Church and State and freedom of religion went into it.

Modern times when I read the baptists leaders want to do away with the separation of Church and State is ironic.

Lutheran's are a branch off of Catholicism, when back in the 16th (?) century Martin Luther tried to make reforms in their theology.

You can expect a lot of singing, you can expect them to do many of the same things Catholics do, like Mass. It should be easy enough to follow along, just do what your friend does and don't worry, no one expects someone from another faith to understand all the details. They'll help if you need it :)

Yes I agree with the above

very good question