"Friendly" churches and swan songs

[AngloCath4]

Thank you, BelieveIt. He almost proves every point made about Protestants being more welcoming and friendly than Catholics.

 

[Brandall]

Every now and then some poster on CAF decides to post a thread, for reasons known only to themselves, about how they are switching churches or denominations because 'the last church/ parish/denomination was sooo unfriendly. And the new church/parish/denomination is so MUCH friendlier.
Speaking from experience on both sides of the Tiber, that is an extremely immature reason to ‘pick’ a church. Take my advice, so much is based on the culture of the area you are living in, or the culture of the church itself. I have been in VERY friendly churches with bad or even crooked leadership, I have been in what appears to be a cold church with wonderful people and leadership.They are just not a touchy-feely type people.
Outside of ‘they have a great music’, I have never heard a more lame reason for picking a church or parish, Protestant or Catholic.
Rant off.
Thoughts?

Since you posted this in Non-Catholic religions, I will start there.

When I was part of a Baptist Church it was quite common to be “led” to another church where God wanted you to be. It was even acceptable for it to be interdenominational as long as the doctrine was similar. Changing Churches was not uncommon nor thought to be unacceptable. Sometimes it was just to be with a friendlier Church. I see nothing wrong with that.

I cannot do a better job than Cat has done at explaining the differences between the Catholic Church and others as far as friendliness is concerned. Fellowship is important and to my way to thinking, there is no good excuse for the Church members not to want to fellowship with each other. It’s unlikely I could ever be happy with a church that is seen as cold, regardless of the reasons without making an attempt to change things.

Our director of stewardship is a former Baptist. Our former Pastor and now Auxilliary Bishop is a former Baptist. They began a program that the current Pastor has embraced and it is making small steps. We will succeed and I find myself as part of the solution.

It’s not about being huggy kissy because frankly, I’m not really that way. However, I like people and am friendly and being nice to someone at Church might be the ministry that I’m supposed to fulfill that day. Their friendship might be the ministry they’re supposed to fulfill that day. We both are better to help each other in our Christian faith is we actually know each other.

There has been a lot of “lame” in this thread but people’s desire to be friendly and desire for friendship has not been among them.

 

[Eric_Hilbert]

Let’s try to stay on topic without making things personal shall we?

 

[glendab]

Shallow love and it’s language. If you love me you would _____________. And that includes God filing in that blank with an endless list of demands.

Glenda

P.S. I’m only responding here because this thread was linked to from someplace else on CAF.

 

[BelieveIt]

For anyone on CAF who has changed parishes or denominations, I pray that you have found peace at your place of worship, and as an added benefit, enjoy the fellowship of those around you. I respect whatever reason you have for making the change. God bless all of you - and Happy New Year.

 

[Faith1960]

I think church hopping happens more often in protestant denominations.

We are all on our own individual spiritual journey.
We want to feel comfortable where we worship.
Maybe location has something to do with wanting to change.

I don’t judge anyone. We are all looking for a place to belong or to be with people we can connect with.

I agree. I grew up in a parish that I didn’t feel welcome in and the parish I belong to now is so much friendlier, though I notice one parishioner who is very cold and unfriendly. If I felt unwelcome, I would probably leave and find a parish where I did feel welcome.
The Eucharist is too important to me to miss, so I wouldn’t leave my denom over this, but there was a time when I was away from my Catholic faith and did check out other denoms, in part, but not only because of the unfriendliness.

 

[JustaServant]

Couldn’t agree more. When we moved to western North Carolina, we visited two parishes; the local Lutheran one, of which we are now members, and one of the local Anglican ones. We know that there are big, friendly, Methodist and Baptist churches around, and non-denoms with great music. Didn’t matter.
That’s not to say that the friendliness of the Lutheran parish wasn’t welcome.

Jon

Thanks Jon. You’re actually one of the few on this thread who understood my point. I figured this was something that would transcend denominational boundaries. Instead we get a debate on which church is friendlier and why. Which is exactly why I posted the OP to begin with.
People love to argue.

 

[Faith1960]

Thanks Jon. You’re actually one of the few on this thread who understood my point. I figured this was something that would transcend denominational boundaries. Instead we get a debate on which church is friendlier and why. Which is exactly why I posted the OP to begin with.
People love to argue.

So true.

 

[Cat]

Never ceases to amaze me how many threads are started on CAF in which people jump on the bandwagon and pontificate about what they ‘think’ the subject of the OP is, when it’s obvious they never bothered to even read the OP, or if they did, they totally missed the point.
I could reiterate the point of the OP, but that would interfere with whatever soapbox people are currently on.
I swear, I’m going to start a thread with absolutely NO POINT, just to see what happens.

May I ask what the point of this post is? I have a cold, so maybe I’m just being thick-headed.

Perhaps I’m being paranoid, but I think this post might be directed to me. I hope not, because I don’t think I’ve done anything that deserves such an UNFRIENDLY retort.

CAF threads are not “business meetings” with an agenda of tasks that must be discussed and dealt with. This is a place for people to talk, and a good conversation may meander all over the place.

I think this thread has been very interesting and helpful and I’m glad you started it. But I don’t get this post at all.

Please forgive me if I am totally off base here. Like I said, I have a cold.

 

[JustaServant]

May I ask what the point of this post is? I have a cold, so maybe I’m just being thick-headed.

Perhaps I’m being paranoid, but I think this post might be directed to me. I hope not, because I don’t think I’ve done anything that deserves such an UNFRIENDLY retort.

CAF threads are not “business meetings” with an agenda of tasks that must be discussed and dealt with. This is a place for people to talk, and a good conversation may meander all over the place.

I think this thread has been very interesting and helpful and I’m glad you started it. But I don’t get this post at all.

Please forgive me if I am totally off base here. Like I said, I have a cold.

No Cat, it is not directed at you.
I hope you feel better.

 

[glendab]

Hello Justaservant.

Never ceases to amaze me how many threads are started on CAF in which people jump on the bandwagon and pontificate about what they ‘think’ the subject of the OP is, when it’s obvious they never bothered to even read the OP, or if they did, they totally missed the point.
I could reiterate the point of the OP, but that would interfere with whatever soapbox people are currently on.
I swear, I’m going to start a thread with absolutely NO POINT, just to see what happens.

Don’t start any threads with no point. There really are many like that here already.

Glenda

 

[Cat]

No Cat, it is not directed at you.
I hope you feel better.

Thanks for the well-wishes. I guess this cold is God’s way of telling me to take a week off (but not off work). It is kind of interesting just sitting around moseying through CAF with Dr. Phil on the TV and a dinner of hot dogs to look forward to later. Usually I’m so busy I’m never home long enough to watch TV or eat at home.

It is an interesting thread.

 

[BelieveIt]

May I ask what the point of this post is? I have a cold, so maybe I’m just being thick-headed.

Perhaps I’m being paranoid, but I think this post might be directed to me. I hope not, because I don’t think I’ve done anything that deserves such an UNFRIENDLY retort.

CAF threads are not “business meetings” with an agenda of tasks that must be discussed and dealt with. This is a place for people to talk, and a good conversation may meander all over the place.

I think this thread has been very interesting and helpful and I’m glad you started it. But I don’t get this post at all.

Please forgive me if I am totally off base here. Like I said, I have a cold.

Yes, the target of the post knows exactly who it was directed at. Believe me.
Better read this quickly before it gets deleted!

 

[glendab]

Yes, Cat. And have some chicken soup with those hot dogs. You are a child of God, so take better care of yourself! Sheesh.

Glenda