"Catholic" curriculum for a Protestant church?

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: ) that might sound like an oxymoron, but here is the deal. I’m a lifelong prot who loves the Catholic Church, has gone through most of RCIA…but have yet to become Catholic mainly due to the major disruption it has caused with my wife. More on that later…but while i’m still at my Prot church (Nazarene specifically), my pastor has asked me if i might come up with some sort of adult Sunday School “curriculum”, or at least a series of subjects, that go a little deeper than simply “God loves you” (“Christianity 101” i call it) every week at our church. There are many folks like me who have been in the church for decades and are ready for some meat instead of the weekly milk that we usually are served. (Yes, i know…THAT can only truly be found in the Eucharist, but in the meantime…

I would like to get into these subjects:

where we got the bible (yes, i’ve read that title twice by Henry Graham);
the sacraments;
the early church (pre-new testament);
the creeds;
the origin of Holy Days (and holidays)
etc.

My pastor is actually SOMEWHAT open to SOME “Catholic” things. For instance, during communion he ALWAYS calls it “the Eucharist” and always says, “it IS the body and blood”…never “represents” or “symbolizes” (which is rather unique for any modern Prot minister to say). He is also very intrigued by a more serious look at the sacrament of confession, and sees baptism as beyond symbolic as well. In short, there might be a few in this church who might even “swim the Tiber” with me somewhere down the road. I know of Rev. Alex Jones’ story and see it possibly happening here. I would really like to help them get over their “Catho-phobia”, but in subtle ways. In other words, I don’t want to smack them in the face with a “we should listen to the pope” series or “let’s learn the Rosary today”. I know that will just scare them off. So maybe the ancient views of the sacraments might be a good place to start?

Hopefully i have shared enough here to gather some ideas. I keep telling them i am totally committed to seeking the Truth, and i do not care what label is put on it - Catholic, Methodist, Nazarene…or even Mormon (that usually really gets their attention), but i follow it by saying, “and you know what? So far i have found very little truth in Mormonism, and therefore i do not pursue knowing much more about it.” The flip side is that EVERYTHING i keep finding to be true, the Catholic Church already believes! Amazing! A bit like the Chesterton’s shipwrecked sailor…

I have even got my pastor to read a few of Scott Hahn books (“The Lamb’s Supper”, “Lord Have Mercy”), so i think interesting things might be in store.

Any ideas? Again, i’m looking for a way to teach some of this ancient/common stuff without neccesarily making it a “defend the Catholic Church” kind of class…but in the end, if they are paying attention, they would sort of think of that on their own.

in Christ,

james
 
Well there is tremendous amount here and all of it is under an issue of matching the audience. My guess is Wikipedia might be a better starting place. You can use countless books, or newadvent.org, however those sources probably do not match your audience
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For example :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Day_of_Obligation
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creeds
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacraments

You may want to look at “Where Is That in the Bible?” by Patrick Madrid, Our Sunday Visitor ISBN-13: 9780879736934
 
James, what you are trying to do sounds so very interesting. I would love to find out how it goes. I don’t have any concrete suggestions as to what you can do, but I think you can focus on what Catholicism and Protestantism have in common, for instance, the Bible, love for Christ, etc, but go deeper into the spiritual life. Perhaps you could use certain stories from lives of the saints, their quotations to allure some interest and inspiration, without placing too much emphasis on veneration of the saints–only to draw attention to the brilliant examples the saints have set for the rest of the christian community. Everyone loves a good story, a heroic story. Anyway, if you could share later on how your curriculum is taking shape and is affecting your church, I’d greatly appreciate it!
 
won’t discuss the reasons you are not ready to commit to the Catholic Church, since that is not your question. one program you could explore is ALPHA, a Christian evangelization program aimed at those who have not heard the initial message of the gospel, the unchurched, the essentially untaught Christian or potential Christian. the brainchild of an Anglican charismatic preacher, Nicky Gumble, it is solidly Christian so much so that many Catholic parishes use it for evangelization, the follow up with more Catholic resources. I predict however that you will soon come to find yourself uncomfortable with working to attract souls to your current denomination, the more you become convinced of the truth of the Catholic teachings. When that point comes be sure to come back here for more discussion.

the Great Bible Adventure is a great first best bible study for any Christian, and is prepared under solidly Catholic auspices, taught on DVDs by Jeff Cavins, using a method of presenting salvation history he developed with Scott Hahn. In its first version, Our Father’s Plan, it is on EWTN videos with available study guide. in GBA he has expanded and perfected the presentation, with a lot of study aides.
 
puzzleannie said:
the Great Bible Adventure is a great first best bible study for any Christian, and is prepared under solidly Catholic auspices, taught on DVDs by Jeff Cavins, using a method of presenting salvation history he developed with Scott Hahn. In its first version, Our Father’s Plan, it is on EWTN videos with available study guide. in GBA he has expanded and perfected the presentation, with a lot of study aides.
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The Great Bible Adventure is a wonderful series but I wouldn’t say it is good for any Christian:

Red Flag #1 to non or anti-Catholic Christians: It utilizes our bible which contains the deuterocanonicals.

Red Flag #2: Jeff’s entire premise is using scripture to show that the Catholic church is the One True Church. He pretty much concludes each lesson showing how that particular segment points to Catholicism.

Red Flag #3: If your denomination does not have apostolic succession or doesn’t regard that as essential to being a good, saved Christian then Jeff’s discussions about the importance of succession will offend.

I say this because of the ‘do unto others’ commandment…I know how I would respond if a member of my church who is responsible for developing spiritual growth classes were to use resources based on the King James bible, or bring in dvds or guest speakers whose focus is to detract from the importance of the seven sacraments (somehow suggesting there really are only two which matter). I would walk out of the course straight to the pastor to issue my concerns that there was a wolf in our midst. The GBA is a bit too ‘in your face’, in my opinion, for what you’re attempting to accomplish.
 
Jeff Cavins and the Great Adventure series jut came out with a new one: Epic. It’s Church History. It looks awesome.

Church history is something so many are lacking, especially knowledge of the early Church.

That may be something to look into.
 
Any ideas? Again, i’m looking for a way to teach some of this ancient/common stuff without neccesarily making it a “defend the Catholic Church” kind of class…but in the end, if they are paying attention, they would sort of think of that on their own.
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Take a look at this website: fathersofthechurch.com/. It might give you some ideas on what to teach about the early church. Also, if you can take a look at some of the author’s books. The Fathers of the Church and The Mass of the Early Christians might be especially helpful. Oh, and I haven’t read this myself but I’ve seen some very good reviews: Four Witnesses: the Early Church in Her Own Words . Also , read up on the Didache , a document many scholars now date to the 1rst century.
 
You have an awesome opportunity to share the Truth.

Perhaps the best way to learn something is to try and teach it… I know it works for me. And Q & A sessions are often very profitable.

I will certainly be praying for your efforts to succeed in God’s will and His time… and I know others here will also be praying that you not tire in your work, nor tire of your work.
 
Wow, thanks so much to all of you who responded to my post. The “GBA” looked pretty good, but like the poster said, would probably end up offending more than it helps, in that it would defend Catholicism at the end of each segment/lesson.

Either way, i have forwarded on a few links to my pastor and we’ll see what happens. At this point, i’m still leaning towards simply starting with a few weeks/sessions on the sacraments: what they are, where they come from, and what they do in our spiritual lives. I think this can be approached from a historical standpoint, go from the Jewish roots of the sacraments, to the early church, even refer to the seven original Catholic sacraments, and then talk about the Nazarene fews of the few sacraments that we have left. The more i look at this, the more it looks like a minefield…and i told my pastor so. If we really want to seek the Truth in the early church, ancient teachings, etc., we will have to end up talking about the Catholic Church at some point. The other option is to only speak of things going on today…social issues and things that SOUND more “relevant” to the people in our Sunday School class. Little do they know that the most “relevant” stuff there is is to be found in the original church . . .

I’ll keep you posted as to how my pastor replies…

in Christ,
 
If your pastor continues to be responsive and likes Scott Hahn, please be sure and have him listen to Dr. Hahn’s conversion story and read Rome Sweet Home. So much is explained about the Catholic faith from the Protestant perspective (even the Protestant minister perspective).

Also - I love the following websites, they have free and low-cost resources that could come in handy to you:

catholicity.com/cds/
lighthousecatholicmedia.com
 
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