Any Lutheran ( LCMS ) converts?

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ireadtoomuch

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I’ve been Lutheran for about 2 years officially, started investigating Confessional Lutheranism ( CL ) probably 1.5 years before that…so 3.5 years on this path.

Before that, PCA Presbyterian for about 8 years.I’ve read about Jason Stellman, read some things on Called to Communion website.

What drew me to CL is that it seemed more ‘catholic’ than other forms of Lutheranism, but the experience at our current Lutheran church is that it’s weak on just about everything I though CL was about…except Law+Gospel preach, they do that well there, and it seems like they are trying really hard to be less Lutheran and more evangelical.

Anyway, wondering if 1) any Lutherans here that are now catholic and what pulled or pushed them to jump 2) was it a solo choice, or did you have a spouse/family to bring along as well? How did that go? 3) if i want to ‘know more’ about RCC, who from our local Catholic Church should I contact? Just send an email to their office and see if anyone would like to talk? Thought about checking to see if they had any Men’s groups.

Is this the right forum for this question?
 
ireadtoomuch said:
I’ve been Lutheran for about 2 years officially, started investigating Confessional Lutheranism ( CL ) probably 1.5 years before that…so 3.5 years on this path.

Before that, PCA Presbyterian for about 8 years.I’ve read about Jason Stellman, read some things on Called to Communion website.

What drew me to CL is that it seemed more ‘catholic’ than other forms of Lutheranism, but the experience at our current Lutheran church is that it’s weak on just about everything I though CL was about…except Law+Gospel preach, they do that well there, and it seems like they are trying really hard to be less Lutheran and more evangelical.

Anyway, wondering if 1) any Lutherans here that are now catholic and what pulled or pushed them to jump 2) was it a solo choice, or did you have a spouse/family to bring along as well? How did that go? 3) if i want to ‘know more’ about RCC, who from our local Catholic Church should I contact? Just send an email to their office and see if anyone would like to talk? Thought about checking to see if they had any Men’s groups.

Is this the right forum for this question?
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I might get in trouble with the Mods for saying this but, in my opinion, at least initially, any forum would be appropriate if you really want to know more about the Catholic Church.

Stick around. The discussions are lively and some times very heated. Jump in when you are ready.There are many people of good will on both sides of the aisle who are ready and willing to give you answers to your questions.

Join us in the quest and welcome.👍
 
ireadtoomuch said:
I’ve been Lutheran for about 2 years officially, started investigating Confessional Lutheranism ( CL ) probably 1.5 years before that…so 3.5 years on this path.
Before that, PCA Presbyterian for about 8 years.I’ve read about Jason Stellman, read some things on Called to Communion website.
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ireadtoomuch said:
pablope;10642658:
I picked up two used books at my local library 2-weeks back. One was 'The Essential Catholic Catechism: A Readable, Comprehensive Catechism" by Alan Schreck. The other book was a TAN book, small-ish and fairly straight-forward, no nonsense. Looked like an old reprint of a much older book.
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I have read a few TAN books in my life and, yes, I believe most of them are reprints of older works.

I have never seen anything in them that is somehow a misrepresentation of the true teachings of the Church. However, some of them reflect an older application of those teachings than might be more commonly encountered today; sort of like the difference between reading a 19th Century book on how a gentleman should act upon meeting a lady versus a very appropriate discourse on the same subject today. The philosophical and moral underpinnings wouldn’t be different, but the emphases and methodologies might be.

On the other hand, any TAN books I have read are pretty much fluff-free and tightly written, which cannot be said of some modern publications on Catholic subjects.
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Welcome to the forums; don’t forget the search option as well if there’s anything of interest you’d like to study.
 
I’m a Catholic convert from the LCMS, raised by an LCMS pastor in fact (and my brother is one now as well).
ireadtoomuch said:
Anyway, wondering if 1) any Lutherans here that are now catholic and what pulled or pushed them to jump
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My wife is a cradle Catholic, although that is not the only thing that pulled me into Catholicism. In fact I was quite adamant when we first married that while my wife could go to Mass as much as she wanted and I’d even go with her sometimes, we were going to be members of an LCMS church and raise our kids in the LCMS.

The LCMS in our area is rapidly declining though, and there is really not an LCMS congregation around here that is alive and vital–I believe within the next few years some will close and some will join the ELCA. Speaking of which, in my desperation not to be Catholic I attended an ELCA congregation for a while, until I found out that their employee health plan funds elective abortion.

When my son was born I wanted to have my dad baptize him, and my wife agreed based on the fact that the Catholic Church recognizes Lutheran baptisms as valid. But the problem of raising our son in a divided home made me reconsider my staunch “never going to be Catholic” position and I decided to find out what the Church teaches about itself, as opposed to what I thought I knew about the Church from Lutheran school, and I thought if I could “stomach” authentic Catholic teaching then I wanted to become a Catholic so that my wife and I could be unified in our faith and thus be better able to pass on the faith to our kids.

So one night I stayed up all night reading There We Stood, Here We Stand as well as just about every tract here at Catholic Answers. I spoke with the priest at my local parish, who dumped me into RCIA. I attended a couple of sessions led by a deacon who wanted to talk about virtually nothing other than his views on illegal immigration, and it was at that point that I realized that as a baptized Christian I did not need to go through RCIA:
Because they have already been baptized, they are already Christians; they are, therefore, not catechumens. Because of their status as Christians, the Church is concerned that they not be confused with those who are in the process of becoming Christians.
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“Those who have already been baptized in another church or ecclesial community should not be treated as catechumens or so designated. Their doctrinal and spiritual preparation for reception into full Catholic communion should be determined according to the individual case, that is, it should depend on the extent to which the baptized person has led a Christian life within a community of faith and been appropriately catechized to deepen his or her inner adherence to the Church” (NSC 30).
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I brought this to the attention of the parish director of faith formation, and after asking me some questions to make sure I was sufficiently catechized in the Catholic faith, she scheduled me to be received into the Church through the Rite of Reception at a Sunday Mass.
 
ireadtoomuch said:
I’ve been Lutheran for about 2 years officially, started investigating Confessional Lutheranism ( CL ) probably 1.5 years before that…so 3.5 years on this path.

Before that, PCA Presbyterian for about 8 years.I’ve read about Jason Stellman, read some things on Called to Communion website.

What drew me to CL is that it seemed more ‘catholic’ than other forms of Lutheranism, but the experience at our current Lutheran church is that it’s weak on just about everything I though CL was about…except Law+Gospel preach, they do that well there, and it seems like they are trying really hard to be less Lutheran and more evangelical.

Anyway, wondering if 1) any Lutherans here that are now catholic and what pulled or pushed them to jump 2) was it a solo choice, or did you have a spouse/family to bring along as well? How did that go? 3) if i want to ‘know more’ about RCC, who from our local Catholic Church should I contact? Just send an email to their office and see if anyone would like to talk? Thought about checking to see if they had any Men’s groups.

Is this the right forum for this question?
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Take a look at the Lutheran Site The Wittenburg Trail. wittenbergtrail.org/
 
I was raised in and educated by the LCMS but eventually joined the ELCA for a variety of reasons regarding biblical higher criticism, LCMS refusal to join international Lutherans to re-establish historic episcopacy in America, LCMS refusing to accept female clergy and gay marriage.
 
ireadtoomuch said:
I’ve been Lutheran for about 2 years officially, started investigating Confessional Lutheranism ( CL ) probably 1.5 years before that…so 3.5 years on this path.

Before that, PCA Presbyterian for about 8 years.I’ve read about Jason Stellman, read some things on Called to Communion website.

What drew me to CL is that it seemed more ‘catholic’ than other forms of Lutheranism, but the experience at our current Lutheran church is that it’s weak on just about everything I though CL was about…except Law+Gospel preach, they do that well there, and it seems like they are trying really hard to be less Lutheran and more evangelical.

Anyway, wondering if 1) any Lutherans here that are now catholic and what pulled or pushed them to jump 2) was it a solo choice, or did you have a spouse/family to bring along as well? How did that go? 3) if i want to ‘know more’ about RCC, who from our local Catholic Church should I contact? Just send an email to their office and see if anyone would like to talk? Thought about checking to see if they had any Men’s groups.

Is this the right forum for this question?
Click to expand...
Hi IRTM.

If it isn’t too invasive, have you narrowed things down to a “I’ll probably do X or Y” type of thing?
 
Peter_J said:
Hi IRTM.

If it isn’t too invasive, have you narrowed things down to a “I’ll probably do X or Y” type of thing?
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I don’t consider it invasive at all. In fact I’m wanting to have more dialogue about it all. Why do you ask?

I’ve pretty much written off anything to do with evangelicalism. Our current Lutheran church is somewhere between mildly confessional and evangelical, but acting more and more evangelical as time goes by.

I’ve attended two masses at two different Catholic churches. One was a Saturday night vigil Mass and the other was a Friday noon Mass. I’ve asked to meet with someone at one of the churches to learn more about them.

I’ve got three Catholic books I’m working my way through and I supplement those daily with Catholic blogs and various articles.

Currently seeing some of the Protestant foundations crumbling and Catholic positions as mostly misrepresented or misunderstood.
 
ireadtoomuch said:
I don’t consider it invasive at all. In fact I’m wanting to have more dialogue about it all. Why do you ask?
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Well, no big reason.

In my own line of … living, I tend to encounter a lot of protestants who are considering Catholicism and Orthodoxy.
 
I was raised PCUSA. My husband and I left due to what we viewed as the denomination becoming “of the world” rather than just “in the world.” We became LCMS because, in ways we can’t even explain, we had come to believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It was LCMS that led us to the Catholic Church. After reading Luther, I had to be Catholic! I listened to Catholic Answers Live on the radio, and my husband read The Fathers Know Best. There’s more to it, of course. But the bottom line for us was that Christ established one church that wasn’t meant to be divided. Of course bad things happen. That’s true of every institution. But when a room of a house is dirty, you sweep out that room. You don’t move or burn down the house. I waited a year for my husband to decide to become Catholic. It was a good exercise in patience for me. I attended daily Mass for 6 months. I felt a draw to the Eucharist like nothing I have ever felt before. Everyone’s journey is different. I wish you great joy in yours.
 
Vicki_Leigh said:
I was raised PCUSA. My husband and I left due to what we viewed as the denomination becoming “of the world” rather than just “in the world.” We became LCMS because, in ways we can’t even explain, we had come to believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It was LCMS that led us to the Catholic Church. After reading Luther, I had to be Catholic! I listened to Catholic Answers Live on the radio, and my husband read The Fathers Know Best. There’s more to it, of course. But the bottom line for us was that Christ established one church that wasn’t meant to be divided. Of course bad things happen. That’s true of every institution. But when a room of a house is dirty, you sweep out that room. You don’t move or burn down the house. I waited a year for my husband to decide to become Catholic. It was a good exercise in patience for me. I attended daily Mass for 6 months. I felt a draw to the Eucharist like nothing I have ever felt before. Everyone’s journey is different. I wish you great joy in yours.
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Thanks for sharing. It made me think that the road to Rome can occur in stages for some people yearning for a sacramental relationship with God. There are some in my parish who, like yourself, were previously Presbyterian and once exposed to a fuller catholic expression of the faith decided to convert. I am not suggesting that ultimately we should all become Roman Catholic but many Lutherans pray for the day that the Church becomes one again.
 
You should check out the issues etc find a church page. They have a whole list of confessional lutheran churches. You could also check out the ACLEC any one who supports that would be very confessional.
 
They don’t preach law/gospel sermons in the RCC, I can assure you. And I say that as a dedicated law/gospel preacher myself.
 
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