Converts to Catholicism from Protestantism, what do you love most about your Protestant roots?

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I was raised Southern Baptist, but converted to Catholicism three years ago.

What I love the most about my Protestant upbringing was:

**The preaching! **Southern Baptist preachers can give some amazing sermons!
**The music! ** I still love to listen to contemporary Christian music. Through listening to some of the best modern Christian songs on the radio, it becomes obvious that there are more that unites us than divides us as Christian brethren.

What about you? What were your Protestant roots and what do you still love about them, despite your conversion?
And for Protestants, what do you love that is distinctive to Protestantism or to your particular denomination?
 
mommamaree said:
I was raised Southern Baptist, but converted to Catholicism three years ago.

What I love the most about my Protestant upbringing was:

**The preaching! **Southern Baptist preachers can give some amazing sermons!
**The music! ** I still love to listen to contemporary Christian music. Through listening to some of the best modern Christian songs on the radio, it becomes obvious that there are more that unites us than divides us as Christian brethren.

What about you? What were your Protestant roots and what do you still love about them, despite your conversion?
And for Protestants, what do you love that is distinctive to Protestantism or to your particular denomination?
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I’m Lutheran now, but ended up here by way of Baptist/NonDenom/Reformed and I agree with both of your points, except the music I liked were the good’ol hymns. But even some old hymns to new tunes as well. The fellowship at church before and after the service was always nice. And for the Baptists I heard and hung out with, they loved Jesus, and I really appreciated that attitude.

Not to derail, but curious how you went about your journey and ended up Catholic. PM me if you have time and don’t want to put it in thread.
 
ireadtoomuch said:
I’m Lutheran now, but ended up here by way of Baptist/NonDenom/Reformed and I agree with both of your points, except the music I liked were the good’ol hymns. But even some old hymns to new tunes as well. The fellowship at church before and after the service was always nice. And for the Baptists I heard and hung out with, they loved Jesus, and I really appreciated that attitude.

Not to derail, but curious how you went about your journey and ended up Catholic. PM me if you have time and don’t want to put it in thread.
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I was Assembly of God and they taught me a devotion to the written Word of God and to the Holy Spirit and that the miraculous did not expire when the last apostles died. We won’t go into some of the “bad” things I was taught. But they introduced me to Jesus and for that I will be eternally grateful.🙂
 
I loved that I had parents and teachers who placed a high emphasis on the Scriptures. They emphasized knowing the Bible very, very well, and memorizing as much of it as possible. It is thanks to them that I know the Bible well (still working on living what it teaches).

I miss the singing in church. I loved all the beautiful old hymns, some of which we sing in the Catholic Church as well. But for some reason that I can never figure out, Catholics as a whole don’t seem to enjoy singing at Mass very much. A little Baptist congregation of 30 people can out-sing your average Catholic congregation of 200, any day.
 
I miss singing. I pretty much have that hymnal memorized! lol.
 
My mother’s parents were Southern Baptist and my father’s parents were Pentecostal. I grew up between those two traditions, but spent more time in Southern Baptist congregations. As an adult, I spent a couple of years in the United Methodist Church, and about three years in the Episcopal Church. Here a few things I find attractive about those traditions.

Pentecostal: strong sense of eschatological expectation (not that I agree with a lot of the particulars they teach, but I do think that strong eschatological expectation is consistent with the faith of the Apostles), strong emphasis on personal morality/holiness; strong emphasis on the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer (not that I agree with all of their particular emphases, but the Pentecostal tradition cannot be accused of overlooking the importance of the Holy Spirit); (some of) the music; strong emphasis on evangelism

Southern Baptist: emphasis on the importance of Holy Scripture and the need to immerse oneself in it; devotion to Christ and strong sense of thankfulness for his sacrifice; (some of) the music; strong emphasis on evangelism

Methodist: (at least historic) emphasis on personal morality/holiness; emphasis on justice; hymns of the Wesley brothers; (at least historically) a strong emphasis on evangelism

Anglican: the liturgy
 
EnglishTeacher said:
I loved that I had parents and teachers who placed a high emphasis on the Scriptures. They emphasized knowing the Bible very, very well, and memorizing as much of it as possible. It is thanks to them that I know the Bible well (still working on living what it teaches).

I miss the singing in church. I loved all the beautiful old hymns, some of which we sing in the Catholic Church as well. But for some reason that I can never figure out, Catholics as a whole don’t seem to enjoy singing at Mass very much. A little Baptist congregation of 30 people can out-sing your average Catholic congregation of 200, any day.
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I will go with that! But there are exceptions to everything. I can’t say I approve of so many protestant churches looking more like a Broadway show than a worship service. An example is one church in our city that advertises itself as "a different way to do church’.
 
ireadtoomuch said:
I’m Lutheran now, but ended up here by way of Baptist/NonDenom/Reformed and I agree with both of your points, except the music I liked were the good’ol hymns. But even some old hymns to new tunes as well. The fellowship at church before and after the service was always nice. And for the Baptists I heard and hung out with, they loved Jesus, and I really appreciated that attitude.

Not to derail, but curious how you went about your journey and ended up Catholic. PM me if you have time and don’t want to put it in thread.
Click to expand...
I had a very curious journey to Catholicism. I don’t want to derail the thread but I will give a brief rundown on my stops along the way to Catholicism.
Baptized Catholic as an infant because my natural father was a Catholic (he later left the Church)
Mother (who was Lutheran) divorced and remarried a Southern Baptist man while I was still a preschooler.
Mother and stepfather raised me in the Southern Baptist denom, and stepdad later adopted me while I was in grade school. I lost contact with my natural father as a result, until I was a grown woman.
Was very active in the youth group at our church, where I met my future husband.
Asked pastor for a statement of beliefs so I could know what our denomination believed, and was informed no such thing existed.
Future husband and I ended up going to the same college, where our relationship became serious, we became engaged, went back to our youth minister to discuss wedding plans.
Were told he would not marry us; family freaked out on us and tried to break us up; were informed that, despite my membership at that church since the age of 3, I was not a real member there. (We eloped after that, and just said our vows in front of a justice of the peace)
Left that church, tried other churches, and other denominations. Nobody could provide us with anything to explain or support their beliefs. During that time, my parents divorced and married other people, and my husband’s mother and stepfather divorced but got married to each other again. A lot of brokenness and rejection of Christian morality were occurring in our families, despite how much they were railing at us for being so wrong for desiring marriage early in our adulthood.
Began to doubt Christianity and began to read a lot about New Age, Wicca, Buddhism and other Eastern religions. None of it made much sense to me either.
Went through some personal crises, began to explore the Catholic faith due to a flippant comment made by a care provider. Loved it!
Once I began reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and began attending Mass, I knew I was hooked. My pastor informed me that my marriage was not valid, because I had been baptized Catholic, so he quickly brought my husband and I through a process to convalidate our marriage. We were pushed through RCIA in a couple months (we joined in February instead of September). I began receiving Holy Communion prior to the Easter vigil, because of the fact that the Church viewed me as an unconfirmed Catholic, rather than a non-Catholic catechumen.
Okay, not so brief. But strange and wonderful for me and my family!
 
The lead pastor at the church where I grew up was awesome. He would write a completely new hour-long sermon each week, type up little outlines that he would have printed up in the bulletin. He would leave blanks and bullet points for us to fill in as we followed along. We all brought our bibles and pens and highlighters. He pulled together good solid Bible teaching on living the Christian life from all different parts of the Bible. Even children could follow along with his orderly presentation. It was like a mini-retreat every weekend.
When he left the church for another position cross-country when I was an older teen, I felt abandoned. 😦 He was great, and really instilled an appreciation in me for God’s Word being a handbook for living a Christian life.
 
God’s peace. I had a strong Reformed/Presbyterian/ (Calvinist) thread in my pre-Catholic formation, and while I am thankful for the thorough soaking in the Scriptures (at least, the Protestant ones) that I received, I am not so thankful for the misinformation and outright heresy that was often attached to it. Even after all these years I spend a lot of time dismantling the remnants of my puritan thoughts and attitudes that continue to muddy the clear streams of Catholic theology. Fortunately, today we have people like Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Scot Hahn to set us straight!

My particular church is blessed with solid homilists as well as all-around holy priests, some of which I would put alongside any Protestant preacher. The Catholic Church lost a great one in Fr. John Corapi, whom I still pray God would return to us. If you don’t have the best preachers in your church there are plenty of good recordings that you can get through EWTN, etc. Scot Hahn’s lessons are fabulous!

I’m losing my hearing, so the singing isn’t as important anymore. http://forums.catholic-questions.org/images/icons/icon9.gif
Blessings, ~Br. Carlo~
 
mommamaree said:
The lead pastor at the church where I grew up was awesome. He would write a completely new hour-long sermon each week, type up little outlines that he would have printed up in the bulletin. He would leave blanks and bullet points for us to fill in as we followed along. We all brought our bibles and pens and highlighters. He pulled together good solid Bible teaching on living the Christian life from all different parts of the Bible. Even children could follow along with his orderly presentation. It was like a mini-retreat every weekend.
When he left the church for another position cross-country when I was an older teen, I felt abandoned. 😦 He was great, and really instilled an appreciation in me for God’s Word being a handbook for living a Christian life.
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I don’t want to be judgmental, but it looks more like a Bible study than the Lord’s Adoration worship.😉
 
Guilou67 said:
I don’t want to be judgmental, but it looks more like a Bible study than the Lord’s Adoration worship.😉
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That is not judgmental at all, Guilou! You are absolutely right. The sermon in a Southern Baptist church is focused on Bible study. Their worship services do include hymns and prayers, but not much genuine adoration, such as you find at every Mass. But whatever it lacked, I still loved the worship services and especially the sermons. I sometimes still listen to podcasts of sermons on non-doctrinal topics relating to living out our Christian faith, but I am thankful that there are also a wealth of Lighthouse Media CDs that give a Catholic equivalent to the Baptist sermon. 👍
 
I only miss the music. I still listen to the old hymnals on youtube and remember. God bless:thumbsup:👍👍
 
I’m not in full communion, yet; however, I’ve not attended my original denomination’s services in a while. I appreciate my old denomination’s reverence for the bible, and the importance they placed on how the first century christians operated. They did not get all this right and choose to ignore some parts while accepting others, but I believe their intent is generally in the right place. Additionally, I appreciated their zeal for new converts. When someone wanted to join, they would stop everything and practically hold a party in the new converts honor; afterall, a new soul was being added to the Book of Life - Praise God!

Ironically, it was the first two topics mentioned above that lead me to a deeper discovery of what Christ’s original church was all about, and the third that almost turned me away. I did not buy into the reasons for eliminating the deuterocanoical books of the OT, and early writings give clear support that the earliest Christians did things they way Catholics do today. The third item above made me cool my conversion process and re-evaluate this transition. I was taken back by how seemingly disinterested the director of RCIA was when I expressed my interest in joining. As I posted in another thread, my initial impression was that I had to wait for the next class to begin before we would spend much time together. This impression has since been corrected, but I was nevertheless confused due to the complete opposite reception my old denomination gives its newcomers.
 
I’m a revert, but Bible Studies.
Catholic desparately need to learn Scripture, so they know how to answer thier fundamentalist co-workers, family or just people that show up at their door.
 
LegoGE1947 said:
I will go with that! But there are exceptions to everything. I can’t say I approve of so many protestant churches looking more like a Broadway show than a worship service. An example is one church in our city that advertises itself as "a different way to do church’.
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I agree wtih you. I was never a fan of “worship bands” and “worship teams” or anything along those lines, even as a Protestant. I liked the more traditional hymns, and still do enjoy singing them as a Catholic. But I miss the whole congregation singing. The congregational singing at most Masses tends to be kind of anemic–not everyone joins in, and those who do sing softly. Oh well, I am happy to be Catholic and wouldn’t trade it for anything–I just would like to figure out what it would take to get fellow Catholics to sing. 🙂
 
EnglishTeacher said:
I agree wtih you. I was never a fan of “worship bands” and “worship teams” or anything along those lines, even as a Protestant. I liked the more traditional hymns, and still do enjoy singing them as a Catholic. But I miss the whole congregation singing. The congregational singing at most Masses tends to be kind of anemic–not everyone joins in, and those who do sing softly. Oh well, I am happy to be Catholic and wouldn’t trade it for anything–I just would like to figure out what it would take to get fellow Catholics to sing. 🙂
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Ever been in a non-denom church where the word “tradition” is tantamount to cussing?:o I remember once where a woman was going to sing “How Great Thou Art” as special music and felt she had to apologize for singing a “traditional” hymn.🤷
 
mommamaree said:
snip

What I love the most about my Protestant upbringing was:

**The preaching! **Southern Baptist preachers can give some amazing sermons!
**The music! ** I still love to listen to contemporary Christian music. Through listening to some of the best modern Christian songs on the radio, it becomes obvious that there are more that unites us than divides us as Christian brethren.

snip
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^^^This 😃
 
mommamaree said:
I was raised Southern Baptist, but converted to Catholicism three years ago.

**The preaching! **Southern Baptist preachers can give some amazing sermons!
Click to expand...
I don’t mean to take this thread in a negative direction, but I can’t let this go.
I spent 20 years among among various Baptist churches. Quite a few of them as a preacher myself. And I can only say for the most part that I am ashamed I ever stepped into a pulpit.
Those “amazing sermons” were full of personal interpretation, borderline if not outright heresies that went against what the Church taught for 2000 years. Most of those “amazing sermons” were either pep talks or manipulative ways to get people to “come to the altar” and “pray the sinners prayer” so they can be “as sure for Heaven as Jesus”.
Were threre exceptions? Yeah. But that didn’t make it right or give them a free pass.
I get a little annoyed at converts who complain about the “boring homilies” priests give. They are only boring to some because they are explaining how to take chrisitanity and make it WORK in your life. There not meant to be “amazing pep talks”.
Liberal Catholics can flame me for this. But ah…I’ve been there, I’ve seen it. Best “decision” I ever made was not in Baptist Church, it was return to Christ’s Church.
 
JustaServant said:
I don’t mean to take this thread in a negative direction, but I can’t let this go.
I spent 20 years among among various Baptist churches. Quite a few of them as a preacher myself. And I can only say for the most part that I am ashamed I ever stepped into a pulpit.
Those “amazing sermons” were full of personal interpretation, borderline if not outright heresies that went against what the Church taught for 2000 years. Most of those “amazing sermons” were either pep talks or manipulative ways to get people to “come to the altar” and “pray the sinners prayer” so they can be “as sure for Heaven as Jesus”.
Were threre exceptions? Yeah. But that didn’t make it right or give them a free pass.
I get a little annoyed at converts who complain about the “boring homilies” priests give. They are only boring to some because they are explaining how to take chrisitanity and make it WORK in your life. There not meant to be “amazing pep talks”.
Liberal Catholics can flame me for this. But ah…I’ve been there, I’ve seen it. Best “decision” I ever made was not in Baptist Church, it was return to Christ’s Church.
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:clapping: well said :tiphat:
 
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