Catholics Converting to Non Denominational

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Jimbo said:
Then why worry about the continued existence of the Church when you have Christ’s promise?

Why go to a non denominational church when you have the Real Presence?

Not trying to be snarky. Honestly confused.

We have a non denom close to us. It has a riveting speaker as a pastor, lots of clubs, and a great praise band.

But the pastor ultimately can slip into theological error and they don’t have the real presence.

I kind of feel sorry for them.
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What kind of Theological error does the pastor fall into?

And yes, I missed the Eucharist when I visited the non denom church, but I didn’t partake in their communion.
 
Hope1960 said:
Sola Scriptural means that they rely only on the literal words of the Bible, right?

What does Sola Fide mean?
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Sola Scripture or Scripture Alone means that the Scripture is the final rule of faith and that if scripture and tradition are in disagreement then you rely on scripture. Using “Scripture alone”, Tradition is tested by scripture not equal to it. This is one of the major differences between Protestant/Evangelical churches and the Catholic Church.

Sola Fide means Faith Alone. However, Faith in the Evangelical sense has a much deeper meaning than the Catholic sense. Faith in the Evangelical sense means faith that has changed my heart and affections toward Christ and works are evidence and a result of “faith”. Basically, works flow from faith and if it doesn’t then the claim of faith isn’t genuine. I read one Catholic apologist correctly say that what Protestants mean by faith alone is a “formed faith” alone and not simply “belief alone”. That is, a faith that produces works of love and devotion to Christ.
 
Sola Scriptura means that they rely on the Bible as the final arbiter of truth. They utterly reject sacred tradition. It doesn’t necessarily mean literal interpretation. That’s more of an evangelical Protestant thing.

Sola Fide is justification by faith alone. That you just have to believe that Jesus is Lord and “accept him as your personal Lord and Savior” and you’re done. You are heaven bound.

Ironically, neither of these things is scriptural.

These are broad based 10,000 ft definitions. Each different denomination will have its own twist on things like baptism, etc; and even non denoms (like the one close to me) take certain positions by necessity (baptism is either regenerative or it’s not. Doesn’t make much sense to say ‘we don’t take a stance on it.”

You may also, in a non denom, get a particular pastors take on theology as the ones I have seen rely heavily on that person for interpreting scripture.
 
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Jimbo said:
Sola Fide is justification by faith alone. That you just have to believe that Jesus is Lord and “accept him as your personal Lord and Savior” and you’re done. You are heaven bound.
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It is not quite that simple. To “accept him as personal Lord and Savior” means to be converted from a non-believer to a believer (or from an intellectual understanding of who Christ is to a heart/spirit relationship with Christ) and to surrender your heart and life to the Lordship of Christ. If someone truly “accepts Christ as personal Lord and Savior” then there will be a great change (new creation) and they will repent of sins, seek to be obedient to Christ, and live their life out to serve and honor Christ. Someone can say “I’ve accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior” but if there is not a change of heart and affections, which results in a changed life, then they really haven’t accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord.
 
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Jimbo said:
You may also, in a non denom, get a particular pastors take on theology as the ones I have seen rely heavily on that person for interpreting scripture.
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So do you mean that in some non denomstinational churches, the congregation is being taught by the pastors own personal interpretation of Scripture?
 
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Sure, it’s possible when they view themselves as the arbiter of what scripture means. Tell me what higher authority there is for them to appeal to in terms of scriptural interpretation? They don’t have a denomination or a higher structure to which to appeal.

In reality, my guess is that they tend to follow the lead of whatever tradition the pastor was trained in; be it baptist, presbyterian, etc.

But, back to the original point. Why non denominational over the Catholic Church when the Catholic Church actually has Jesus in the form of the Real Presence? And you are required to worship and receive him once a week?

Are you thinking of doing this in place of Mass? Or just in supplement?

In the end, it would be my opinion that you’d have to be very careful not to get led down a bad theological path by those who aren’t Catholic.


Hope1960
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    November 8
Jimbo:
You may also, in a non denom, get a particular pastors take on theology as the ones I have seen rely heavily on that person for interpreting scripture.
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So do you mean that in some non denomstinational churches, the congregation is being taught by the pastors personal interpretation of Scripture?
 
That’s a fair point, and a more nuanced representation of the Protestant side. But it still isn’t Catholic theology, and from a Catholic is viewed as theological error. This is a Catholic talking about going to a non-denominational Church.
 
That came off wrong. I apologize. I’m not condescending. I love the Real Presence and wish everyone had it.
 
I was just toying with the idea of checking that church out. Maybe converting IF I liked it, but while I really enjoyed the music, lighting and sermon, I decided against leaving the Catholic Church.

After the service was over, the pastor said something like “see you again next week”, and I thought, “that’s it?”
I mean Catholics can go to daily Mass if we choose, we can enter the Church for prayer during the week, we have Adoration, we can light candles during the entire week, we have the tabernacle to pray to and, of course we have the Eucharist.
 
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I think I understand now.
And I do get it that some masses can be infuriating; taking the amazing miracle of the mass and making it seem like a board meeting.
 
I can answer that very simply, people are leaving the Catholic Church because they are losing touch with the truth, as time goes by truth starts to become subjective, people will turn truth into more of a subjective truth, into a feeling rather than doing right or wrong. There are over 30,000 different Protestant denominations, by the way Catholics are Christians also. I am actually A non-denominational convert to Catholicism, I’ve learned a lot about the faith, about the history of the faith because I was on a journey to find truth… Learning about the Protestant reformation, the early church fathers, The catechism etc… Opened my eyes, even simply learning that Catholics are the first Christians until the separation happened in the 1500s open my eyes that if Catholics were first, then catholicism is the fulfillment of truth. But now days more than ever people go based on how they feel. “Well this church is fun, and makes me feel good” You’ll hear things like that, but if you take away the music from a protestant church you have nothing but a chitchat, but if you take away music from mass, you still have a beautiful mass, we greet one another, we pray, we are with Jesus, we eat, we drink together, we say the Lord’s Prayer every time…mass is really beautiful if you learn and understand the beauty. Good luck on your journey. Praying that God leads you to truth.
 
Sesielop86 said:
But now days more than ever people go based on how they feel. “Well this church is fun, and makes me feel good” You’ll hear things like that, but if you take away the music from a protestant church you have nothing but a chitchat, but if you take away music from mass, you still have a beautiful mass, we greet one another, we pray, we are with Jesus, we eat, we drink together, we say the Lord’s Prayer every time…mass is really beautiful if you learn and understand the beauty. Good luck on your journey. Praying that God leads you to truth.
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Very true. I loved the music at the non denom church. They had awesome lighting and a fog machine. The sermon was really good too, but after all that, there was nothing left except “see you next week.”
I think I need to practice my faith and spirituality all week long. Not just for an hour and 15 minutes, one day a week.
 
Hope1960 said:
I think I need to practice my faith and spirituality all week long. Not just for an hour and 15 minutes, one day a week.
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That’s kind of unfair to say. Many non-denom’s that I know (specifically in my family) practice their faith 24/7/365.
 
TC3033 said:
That’s kind of unfair to say. Many non-denom’s that I know (specifically in my family) practice their faith 24/7/365.
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How? In what way? The preacher said he’d see us next week and several things made me feel this church is lacking the spiritual things I need weekly:

Adoration

Open doors to pray during the week

Candles, with a kneeler in front, to light and pray

Priests who are (IMO) more trained to counsel parishioners.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help/Benediction

The Tabernacle

The EUCHARIST

Etc.

The non denominational church does have Small Groups that meet weekly and quarterly which can enhance ones spiritually, but compared to the Catholic Church, the faith I grew up in, fails to measure up, IMO.
 
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Are you asking how you’re being unfair or how we can live out our faith 24/7/365?

I’d like to give a better response tomorrow, and you deserve it, when I can get to my PC vs my phone. My wife (Catholic) and I would disagree with you on priests. We love my preacher at my church back home and hoped he’d be the one to marry us (unfortunately it didn’t work out). Just a few months ago the priest here had a homily about how he didn’t understand why Catholic women sometimes go for non-Catholic men…because these “others” don’t respect women like Catholic boys do. As a “mixed” marriage family that was quite awkward (at best) to have our oldest two boys hear that about their dad.
 
How I live my faith every day is done through prayer, being the best dad that I can be, best husband I can be and following the fruits of the spirit to be the best Christian I can be. Some (probably a lot at our church) gather for weekly bible study…others don’t. That’s their prerogative, but that doesn’t mean to me that they aren’t faithfully practicing daily.

Like you said, you grew up in the Catholic faith so I wouldn’t be surprised that another faith tradition doesn’t stack up and that’s OK. I just think it’s a bit unfair to say that other Christians don’t practice their faith daily.
 
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