Do you pick your church by the pastor?

[kalt]

Another thread was started to pick at the CC–yet again. But it brought up a good topic - priests/ministers as speakers.

Do you pick the particular church/parish you attend by the priest’s/minister’s speaking ability?

If you haven’t, but had a priest/minister who was a terrible speaker assigned to your neighborhood church, would you move to another church? (Same denomination, different church).

 

[Edwardjohn]

No. We picked our church by the body’s involvement in the liturgy; the work of the people.

 

[4Squarebaby]

It was a major factor at both church homes I chose. From the original pastor and church came the denomination I became a member of. After moving and trying out different churches the home I found happened to be of the same denomination.

 

[rskempf]

I believe we are supposed to support our local church. It may have faults, but then again, that is where you can step in and help. This is where the “soil is fertile.”

Our local church for example, is saturated with liberalism. Attendance at Sacrament of Penance is roughly one or two people per month. Modest dress, even for lectors, is totally “out the window.” The sacred Blood of Christ is poured down the drain after mass.

I stay there to help with reform. My efforts have born little fruit so far. But, I will be faithful and will leave the degree of success to God and His intercession.

Another bonus, I am teaching my children how to combat luke-warmness.

 

[Byzantine_Wolf]

No. We picked our church by the body’s involvement in the liturgy; the work of the people.

I’ve recently realized how important this is.

The first church I ever attended have two excellent priests and an excellent community that took a young convert like myself and accepted me as part of the family, and was even willing to help me spiritually. I can see why God led me to that specific church, as it was very edifying.

The church I’m at now (I moved across the country) has a wonderful priest, but unfortunately I find myself questioning the community. Now, I am not expecting a perfect congregation nor am I claiming I am myself a perfect worshiper (C.S. Lewis has a nice chapter in The Screwtape Letters where the demons plot to turn a man away from a church by tricking him into this very mindset), but whereas the congregation at my last church were spiritually involved, I feel that the congregation in this church is more socially involved. By this, I mean the classic problem of going to church for social reasons rather than spiritual. People seem more willing to talk than pray. The behavior in line to communion is humiliating. The basic knowledge of their own faith is minimal at best. I’m not saying they’re all like this, but it seems to be much larger in number than at my last church.

It’s taught me many things, though - it’s taught me that the only sins I should focus on during worship are my own (or else I’d be very distracted and not even be worthy to go to communion) and it’s taught me that it’s not just well-educated priests who make a church - it’s the community entire. A church is a community, and if the community is weak and not involved in the liturgy at all, then the church suffers.

 

[Salonika]

For me the Minister’s ability to preach was a major factor in my choice of Church.

When we had a change of vicar from one who was an excellent preacher and teacher to one who considered a 10 minute (often recycled) homily to be a sermon and did not believe in challenging his congregation I started attending two churches - the one I was with and another on a Sunday evening where they had two very good preachers.

I needed both my brain and my soul to be fed.

 

[Carlan]

I believe we are supposed to support our local church. It may have faults, but then again, that is where you can step in and help. This is where the “soil is fertile.”

Our local church for example, is saturated with liberalism. Attendance at Sacrament of Penance is roughly one or two people per month. Modest dress, even for lectors, is totally “out the window.” *The sacred Blood of Christ is poured down the drain after mass. *I stay there to help with reform. My efforts have born little fruit so far. But, I will be faithful and will leave the degree of success to God and His intercession.

Another bonus, I am teaching my children how to combat luke-warmness.

Good heavens, that is scandal, you should go to see the Bishop about it at once,and take more parishioners than yourself with you!Carlan

 

[Rence]

In the past, have stopped going to my local parish (and stopped supporting it) because they were too liberal and I wound up getting too upset when attending Mass there. I went to a different parish to attend Mass, and kind of parish-hopped. Once in a while, my mom would attend a different parish because they were the only ones in the city that had them in Latin and she really liked it in Latin. My mom also married her second husband at a favored parish instead of our local parish. She really liked the traditional priests there.

So yes, I have at one time picked where I attended Mass because I liked the priest/parish/community.

 

[rskempf]

To Carlan,

I have written to our bishop and asked for 10-minutes of his time. No response.

I have written to our auxilliary bishop and asked for an audience. No response.

I now write to the Congregation of The Doctrine of The Faith. I still get no response but feel I am doing what I can. The rest is in God’s hands.

Here is another good story. During Easter 2008, in the climax of the homily, our priest declared a rebellion agains our Pope. He and one other priest were ready to defend progress made in the “spirit of vatican ii” against Pope B16’s effort to roll back this progress.

I am still not sure what he was talking about but did not even want to ask.

Welcome to the archdiocese of Chicago!

I ask you give your local church a chance. Keep a low profile and get involved in some of the ministries. Make little changes as time goes on. When there is an opening in the ministry leadership - TAKE IT!

When a new priest is appointed to your parish, help him to keep the parish free of liberalism. Affirm him in his good behavior. Help him stop errant behavior in the parish.