Baptist Fatih

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My husband & I were both raised Catholic. My mother was however a Baptist as is here family. I have always enjoyed the bible study and sunday school that the Baptist Church has to offer. Our problem is that we were raising our kids Catholic but as the kids have gotten older (14 & 10) the catholic church in our town has no youth group unless your child goes to the Catholic School. And it was this way when my husband and I were in school also. The public school kids were segragated from the Catholic School in church activities, summer baseball leagues, basketball, etc. SO…long story short we were losing our 14 year son…he had not one friend at the public school who attended any church. What a nightmare…We sent our kids to CCD (catechism) classes that were for only public school kids b/c the catholic school kids rec’d theirs during the normal school day. There was a total of 1 child in his class. We wanted our kids to have Christian friends. The local Baptist church had an after school program called kids for Christ. With over 100 enrolled this seemed like the logically place to send our kids as this was were the public school kids were hanging out. It is an awesome youth ministry. Our son has new friends who are Christians our daughter is involved in the same program and a prayer group. All of which is unavailable at the Catholic Church. The problem is my husband & I both miss the Catholic Mass. But apparantly no one has missed our family for over 1 1/2 years we have not attended mass. Not one phone call from our parish…we missed Sunday School at the Baptist Church and they call. I guess we feel we did when we were kids, “Outsiders” b/c our kids don’t attend the Catholic School. We are lost!!! Has anyone been through anything like this???
 
I am not a parent, but I am a Catholic. 😉

I can’t really comment much on your situation, but I do feel that I should ask you to please go back to Mass! As Catholics it is a grave matter to miss mass on sundays (unless of a serious reason of course.)

Nothing is more important God, (God is Truth; you have the fullness of Truth is the Catholic Faith), don’t shed your Faith for any vain thing such as friendship…trust in Our Lord, follow Him, He orders all things for our greater good (even if that means suffering and hardships, for this is how God treats His friends.)

I pray that things turn around for you, and may the Holy Spirit strengthen you and your family and “lead you into all truth.”

Your brother in Christ,
Lee 🙂
 
I guess I should have mentioned that we attend Sunday School every week and attend the baptist church service each Sunday. We have not stopped going to church just the Catholic Church. I want my kids to have a personal relationship with God and they have that now.
 
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haysr:
I guess I should have mentioned that we attend Sunday School every week and attend the baptist church service each Sunday. We have not stopped going to church just the Catholic Church. I want my kids to have a personal relationship with God and they have that now.
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Now I am confused. Are you baptist or Catholic? :confused:
Are you saying that your children cannot have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as faithful Catholics? :confused:
 
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haysr:
I guess I should have mentioned that we attend Sunday School every week and attend the baptist church service each Sunday. We have not stopped going to church just the Catholic Church. I want my kids to have a personal relationship with God and they have that now.
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There is a big difference between a Baptist service and a Catholic Mass.

In a Catholic Mass heaven and earth come together and we receive the Body and Blood of our Lord, truly and substantially present in the most holy sacrament of the altar, the Eucharist. (The is nothing more intimate, nor more personal than receiving the very body, blood, soul and divinty of our Lord, Jesus Christ, in the Eucharist…NOTHING.)

This is not what hapens in a Baptist church service (I know, I used to be one.)

Come back home. :]
 
But apparantly no one has missed our family for over 1 1/2 years we have not attended mass.
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Jesus has.

And the relationship your kids now have with Christ is just a small thing compared to what they can have through the Real Presence of Christ.

But my question is, why aren’t your kids enrolled in the Catholic School? Are there scholarships available if money is an issue? And most important, why is there no youth group for Catholic youth who attend public schools???
 
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haysr:
I guess I should have mentioned that we attend Sunday School every week and attend the baptist church service each Sunday. We have not stopped going to church just the Catholic Church. I want my kids to have a personal relationship with God and they have that now.
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Why didn’t they have a personal relationship with God before?

In Christ,
Nancy 🙂
 
Our son started out attending the Catholic School but after our first parent teacher conference (1 1/2 months into kindergarten) we were told that our son was not college material. After two years of pure you know what. His kindergarter teacher and 1st grade teacher from the Catholic School said to move him that he had been labeled by the principal. We were also told that he was too popular by the principal. And after “dropping” in on his classroom to observe we decided to switch to the public school after the end of 1st grade.

Kids need interaction with their peers on a faith level. Our church refuses to have a Catholic Youth Group. They have groups for the kids who attend the Catholic School and a separate CCD group for the public school kids…no intereaction between the two. We (public school parents) have begged, volunteered, and pleaded for a youth group b/c the Catholics out number the other religions hands down. We have all been told NO!!! And as a result most of the kids now go to the KIDS FOR CHRIST program offered by the Baptist Church. There is fellowship, bible study, etc. and they are among the kids they go to school with. My son’s CCD class was down to one other kid. My daughter’s class had 2.

Our CCD program was very structured and started right after school and went until 4:30 with no breaks, etc. The kids hated it b/c they were tired and had already sat at a desk all day. They needed 5 minutes of down time, snacks, whatever, but again the parents were told no.

And the final straw for me was when my son asked to look up the gospel reading in the bible. The CCD teacher handed out the bibles and then got called away. The substitute took the bibles away from the kids and told them they didn’t need them.

I was done!
 
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haysr:
Our son started out attending the Catholic School but after our first parent teacher conference (1 1/2 months into kindergarten) we were told that our son was not college material. After two years of pure you know what. His kindergarter teacher and 1st grade teacher from the Catholic School said to move him that he had been labeled by the principal. We were also told that he was too popular by the principal. And after “dropping” in on his classroom to observe we decided to switch to the public school after the end of 1st grade.

Kids need interaction with their peers on a faith level. Our church refuses to have a Catholic Youth Group. They have groups for the kids who attend the Catholic School and a separate CCD group for the public school kids…no intereaction between the two. We (public school parents) have begged, volunteered, and pleaded for a youth group b/c the Catholics out number the other religions hands down. We have all been told NO!!! And as a result most of the kids now go to the KIDS FOR CHRIST program offered by the Baptist Church. There is fellowship, bible study, etc. and they are among the kids they go to school with. My son’s CCD class was down to one other kid. My daughter’s class had 2.

Our CCD program was very structured and started right after school and went until 4:30 with no breaks, etc. The kids hated it b/c they were tired and had already sat at a desk all day. They needed 5 minutes of down time, snacks, whatever, but again the parents were told no.

And the final straw for me was when my son asked to look up the gospel reading in the bible. The CCD teacher handed out the bibles and then got called away. The substitute took the bibles away from the kids and told them they didn’t need them.

I was done!
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I still don’t understand why your kids didn’t have a relationship with God before. What did you and your husband do to foster one?

In Christ,
Nancy 🙂
 
As far as a personal relationship with God…they have always had one, and I have always felt attending Church on Sunday was a part of that relationship. Our kids had gotten resentful …about attending church. And they wanted to be with their school friends at Kids For Christ. And quite frankly our Catholic Church could care less what the kids feel. They are made to feel like outsiders b/c they do not attend the Catholic School.

We have always prayed and worshiped together as a family. The kids just wanted more…they wanted to study the bible with their peers, etc.
 
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haysr:
Our son started out attending the Catholic School but after our first parent teacher conference (1 1/2 months into kindergarten) we were told that our son was not college material. After two years of pure you know what. His kindergarter teacher and 1st grade teacher from the Catholic School said to move him that he had been labeled by the principal. We were also told that he was too popular by the principal. And after “dropping” in on his classroom to observe we decided to switch to the public school after the end of 1st grade.

Kids need interaction with their peers on a faith level. Our church refuses to have a Catholic Youth Group. They have groups for the kids who attend the Catholic School and a separate CCD group for the public school kids…no intereaction between the two. We (public school parents) have begged, volunteered, and pleaded for a youth group b/c the Catholics out number the other religions hands down. We have all been told NO!!! And as a result most of the kids now go to the KIDS FOR CHRIST program offered by the Baptist Church. There is fellowship, bible study, etc. and they are among the kids they go to school with. My son’s CCD class was down to one other kid. My daughter’s class had 2.

Our CCD program was very structured and started right after school and went until 4:30 with no breaks, etc. The kids hated it b/c they were tired and had already sat at a desk all day. They needed 5 minutes of down time, snacks, whatever, but again the parents were told no.

And the final straw for me was when my son asked to look up the gospel reading in the bible. The CCD teacher handed out the bibles and then got called away. The substitute took the bibles away from the kids and told them they didn’t need them.

I was done!
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Yours is a difficult situation. I will pray for your family.
However, fellowship is not a substitute for the real presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

Prayers and blessings,
Mickey
 
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haysr:
As far as a personal relationship with God…they have always had one, and I have always felt attending Church on Sunday was a part of that relationship. Our kids had gotten resentful …about attending church. And they wanted to be with their school friends at Kids For Christ. And quite frankly our Catholic Church could care less what the kids feel. They are made to feel like outsiders b/c they do not attend the Catholic School.

We have always prayed and worshiped together as a family. The kids just wanted more…they wanted to study the bible with their peers, etc.
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It’s not really a “Catholic Church” issue at all but rather a “your individual parish” issue. I understand the frustration of feeling like second class citizens because my kids went to public school, I just never considered putting them in a Protestant atmosphere as an alternative. I’m Catholic because I’m convinced it’s the church that Jesus established as recorded in Matt 16:18 so to me, sending my kids to a Protestant bible study would never enter my mind as an option. They might recieve SOME truth there, but not the “all truth” that Jesus promised his Church. For me that’s a big, huge deal!

Is it your feeling that it doesn’t matter what your kids learn the bible means just as long as they’re learning the bible?

In Christ,
Nancy 🙂
 
My best friend has told me that she could never be Catholic because their sermons are boring. What I told her seems to apply here.

Truth taught in a dull, uninspiring manner is still truth. Error taught in an uplifting, inspiring manner is still error. Youth groups are kind of the same way. Even though the presentation of the faith wasn’t the greatest and the people weren’t the warmest at your Catholic Church your kids were still getting the truth. Even though the Baptist youth group is entertaining and exciting your kids are still being fed some error.

I guess the question then becomes what is more important; objective truth or the feeling one gets while learning?

In Christ,
Nancy 🙂
 
I can see by your post, that your community doesn’t have the fellowship that some other communities have.

But just because a community lacks fellowship- this is no reason to slough off our Catholic Faith for one that is more fun or more welcoming or whatever.

There are many crosses we bear as Faithful Catholics. Maybe yours is to introduce a great children’s fellowship program in the Catholic Church.

There have been a number of people who have posted- who have shown great disdain for the ‘welcome’ they received in their home Catholic Parish. And rather than attempt to make the change- or find like minded individuals to ‘buddy up’ with- they bail.

My own Catholic school has a good religious program- but it isn’t great. I offered my advice to the administration to implement a more rigorous program (like Baltimore Catechism), but it did not pass. So I am supplementing my daughter’s religious education through home school materials. It is first the duty of the parents to educate their children in the Faith- not the Church’s.

It is a blessing that you spend so much time in family prayer at home- certainly not enough families do this. But you are doing your children a disservice by relenting to their desires for a fun and easy environment- rather than visiting Jesus in the Church that He gave us.

I pray that you give your family the gift of the Catholic Faith again, and introduce your children to Jesus’ REAL presence through communion. You do not need a ‘church’ to educate your kids on Faith. Your kids can make friends at school. And they can invite religious friends over to your home for prayer if they need religious peer interaction.

You need not abandon Christ’s Church over an issue of Welcome. Jesus welcomes you and your family no matter what.

I pray you find clarity in this matter.
 
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haysr:
As far as a personal relationship with God…they have always had one, and I have always felt attending Church on Sunday was a part of that relationship. Our kids had gotten resentful …about attending church. And they wanted to be with their school friends at Kids For Christ. And quite frankly our Catholic Church could care less what the kids feel. They are made to feel like outsiders b/c they do not attend the Catholic School.

We have always prayed and worshiped together as a family. The kids just wanted more…they wanted to study the bible with their peers, etc.
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I am so sorry to hear that your parish is like this. Sometimes parishes can become very cliquish, as any church may, and they can’t see the forest for the trees or it’s pure human snobbery.

You and several other parents who have had the same difficulties ought to take your situation to your bishop. Explain the whole thing to him but don’t accuse any particular person of anything. He will want to explore solutions with you not personalities. And if the bishop won’t help you go over his head to the cardinal and all the way up to the Vatican, if necessary. Your teens have as much right to a youth group as the kids in the Catholic school do. It sounds to me like your parish needs to have shake up. I pray God your bishop will do that.

Having said all that, though, the primary responsibility for educating your children in the Catholic faith rests with you, their parents, not with the parish. If your parish won’t help you, it is up to you to get materials on the faith and teach your children. Go to your local Catholic bookstore or go to some of the Catholic publishers websites to see what they have available. Sometimes we have to be counter cultural or go it alone in order to follow Christ as he wants us to. And you are seemingly in that situation.

Is there no other parish within reasonable distance from you that does have a youth program? Even if it is 50 miles away it would be worth it to get your kids involved in activities within their own faith community. They aren’t going to be kids forever and if you want them to remain Catholic it is up to you to see that they do.
 
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Catholic4aReasn:
…Truth taught in a dull, uninspiring manner is still truth. Error taught in an uplifting, inspiring manner is still error. Youth groups are kind of the same way. Even though the presentation of the faith wasn’t the greatest and the people weren’t the warmest at your Catholic Church your kids were still getting the truth. Even though the Baptist youth group is entertaining and exciting your kids are still being fed some error…
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:blessyou:

Della- your advice was spot on as well. 🙂
 
I guess I’ve come to decide that I want them to know the bible and have that study and discussion with their peers. My husband and I can study with them, read with them but they still need that interaction with their peers. Our parish does not offer this to them so I feel I have no alternative. I believe my entire family will always be Catholic but right now for our kids sake we have to make this sacrifice. I know how my son feels…Catholic School kids don’t socialize with Public. My husband and I feel that it is more important for our kids to have Christian friends regardless of relgion. And it just happended that the Baptist embraced and saw a need in our town. It is just sad that our own parish did not. And yes we all miss the Eucharist, Easter Service, Etc.

And there is an ache and emptiness b/c of missing the Eucharist.
 
The Eucharist is our daily bread. The power belonging to this divine food makes it a bond of union. Its effect is then understood as unity, so that, gathered into his Body and made members of him, we may become what we receive. . . . This also is our daily bread: the readings you hear each day in church and the hymns you hear and sing. All these are necessities for our pilgrimage.131

The Father in heaven urges us, as children of heaven, to ask for the bread of heaven. [Christ] himself is the bread who, sown in the Virgin, raised up in the flesh, kneaded in the Passion, baked in the oven of the tomb, reserved in churches, brought to altars, furnishes the faithful each day with food from heaven.132

1389 The Church obliges the faithful to take part in the Divine Liturgy on Sundays and feast days and, prepared by the sacrament of Reconciliation, to receive the Eucharist at least once a year, if possible during the Easter season.224 But the Church strongly encourages the faithful to receive the holy Eucharist on Sundays and feast days, or more often still, even daily.

**2177 **The Sunday celebration of the Lord’s Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church’s life. “Sunday is the day on which the paschal mystery is celebrated in light of the apostolic tradition and is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the universal Church.”

“Also to be observed are the day of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Epiphany, the Ascension of Christ, the feast of the Body and Blood of Christi, the feast of Mary the Mother of God, her Immaculate Conception, her Assumption, the feast of Saint Joseph, the feast of the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul, and the feast of All Saints.”

**2181 **The Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice. For this reason the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor. Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin.
 
In the Baptist Church you will find the love and support that you will not find in other churches. Stick with it. OH the truth will soon come to you in that church.
 
I think it is normal to want to form friendships with the people in your church. It sounds as if that was very difficult in your old parish. Besides CCD, did you and your husband participate in any activities there? I find my children (who don’t attend our parish school) often make friends with my friends’ children. I made friends by attending groups for adults that my parish offers (probably similar to your Sunday school, but during the week–and people there notice when I miss.) Not every Catholic parish has those same types of groups. I’m not technically in the boundaries of the parish I attend, but the one where I live didn’t offer them and wasn’t as friendly, so I drive a little farther to find them.

Maybe try a different parish that has some programs for your family. Learn more about Catholicism (so that you’re not tempted to leave it)and maybe YOU can be the one to form the groups that you wanted for your children that you couldn’t find. Sadly, there are lots of people organizing those groups for kids in Protestant churches who were once Catholic. I know because I was away for seven years, attending a Protestant Church, and actively assisting with the types of programs you now seek.

All that being said, friendship with other Christians isn’t the purpose of church; friendship with God is. It is great that your children now have a personal relationship with God, but it is sad that they didn’t develop that earlier. Friendship with God is something that your whole family could have inside the Catholic Church. You, as their parents, have the primary responsibility of teaching them to know, love and serve God. And in order to do that, you must know, love and serve Him too.

There is a lot of information here at Catholic Answers to teach you more about the Catholic Church. (I could be wrong, but I suspect you don’t know as much as you should, otherwise you wouldn’t be leaving it.) And you can click on “SHOP” on the top of your screen and find some incredible books here at Catholic Answers. I highly recommend you explore the site and also order some books that interest you. (I’m not affiliated with it-I’m just a book worm and a Catholic Answers forum addict.) While it is good that your family has continued to go to church, I am sad that you stopped attending the Catholic Church. Please come back. Please learn more about your Catholic faith. Please help make a Catholic Parish the friendly kind of place where you, your children and others can develop a personal relationship with Jesus while knowing Him and His teachings more fully.
 
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