I'm a convert , but there's something miss from my Protestant church

[water]

The problem is how does fellowhip go beyond Adoration, a bible study, a rosary? In other words, outside the confines of a church? Why can’t so many Catholics discuss spiritual issues while having coffee at a Starbucks? Or while sitting in a bench in a park? Why does it seem that Christian fellowhip ends once Mass or the Rosary is over?

God bless,
Michael

We can do this at a small group of friends. I normally have a good friend coming over to my house once a week and we talk about spiritual issue. But to think that we discuss the issues whenever and wherever, it might not be what I want to do - everything has its time and its place.

 

[Em_in_FL]

My wife and I have volunteered for plenty of service opportunities at the parish, but that’s not at all what I’m talking about. That’s gone quite well - it’s life outside of formal parish activities that’s not gone as well.

And then when we’ve suggested outside activities, nobody’s interested. It’s like they’re satisfied in knowing us only as fellow parishioners, and only within the confines of some formally-structured activity within the parish, and that’s enough for them.

Have you initiated any social gatherings outside of church?

I guess the reason I ask is from my own experience. There were many volunteers that helped to run our parish youth group and there was a strong bond that was formed. We still try to get together for dinners and events and parties even years after the volunteering waned and passed the baton onto the next groups…
Those strong friendships have carried on for many years…

Just our experience!

 

[kage_ar]

The problem is how does fellowhip go beyond Adoration, a bible study, a rosary? In other words, outside the confines of a church? Why can’t so many Catholics discuss spiritual issues while having coffee at a Starbucks? Or while sitting in a bench in a park? Why does it seem that Christian fellowhip ends once Mass or the Rosary is over?

God bless,
Michael

That depends on the person, some people are more introverted and quiet while some are more outgoing.

As you develop friendships within your Catholic community (your Parish, other neighboring Parishes, etc.) - you will find people who you’ll mesh with.

We can also enjoy the fellowship of fellow Catholics while having conversations that are not deeply spiritual. Catholicisim is about the whole person, every aspect of our lives - even drinking the occasional glass of wine with our brothers and sisters!

 

[maggieodae]

Well, I’m not a convert, but there are converts who miss the fellowship they had in their former Protestant church and this deeply saddens them and makes them look at their Protestant past with nostalgia. They feel that the Catholics of their parish show little enthusiasm for Jesus and His Church and don’t go beyond memorized prayers and being physically present in church on Sunday. They miss the fellowship and the sense of family they had in their Protestant churches. Are there any converts here who feel this way? Are there any converts out there who do not have this experience?

As a Catholic, I also feel that good Christian fellowship is often lacking in many Catholic parishes. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only Catholic that takes my faith seriously and that deeply saddens me. Cradle Catholics, do you feel you have good fellowship with Catholics zealous for their faith in your parish?

Thanks and God Bless,
Michael

We have a great parish and we are family. Best Pancake breakfast in the Mid-west.

 

[mikeledes]

We have a great parish and we are family. Best Pancake breakfast in the Mid-west.

What kind of activities do you do? Are people excited about the faith outside the confines of the church?

God Bless,
Michael

 

[JimR-OCDS]

This has always been a problem in Catholic Parishes. I think it has a lot to do with the Catholic culture, in that most are baptised as infants and raised to go to church, whether they want to or not. Attendance at Mass on Sunday and Holy Days, is an obligation under the pain of mortal sin.

As a result, you get a “do the bare minimum” attitude from many Catholics.

Myself, when I came back to the Church, I joined a prayer group, and taught CCD. In these functions, you get the fellowship from parishioners who’s participation is more than just obligatory.

Also, week-end retreats provided the most fellowship and my wife and myself have been making week-end retreats once or twice a year, for the past 30 years.

The other events, like spaghetti suppers and coffee shops, tend to be more social and the people who are into these things tend to be less active in the spiritual part of parish life.

At least this is the way its been in my experience with three different parishes.

Jim

 

[jrabs]

Mike,
My fiancé was a Protestant for 26 years before reverting back to his Catholic roots.

He often comments to me that the Catholic experience is absolutely not like the Protestant fellowship community. The music, the weekly gathering at people’s houses for bible study groups, the feel good messages, the close knit community.

Smoke and mirrors my friend.

Here is the real deal for him. After 26 years of feel good fellowship, he realized some things. When he was going through his divorce, his “good solid Church family” vanished. Not a one contacted him after that. Forget it when he left his church. So much for " church family".

He began to notice that there was rarely ever any hard hitting messages, not much community outreach ( but plenty fund raiser within the church for expansions and ball fields, etc). Nothing with teeth but certainly lots of fluff.

He decided to return to the Catholic church and can see that the the messages are hard at times (at least in my parish), the programs we participate in are usually centered in community outside our parish.

No we do not have much in terms of personal relationships with other parishioners. We do attend weekly coffee hour, but he has come to know that what Catholicism offers is deeper and richer then what he has previously experienced.

He misses bible studies - but does admit that often the bible studies were chat sessions and not led by anyone with authority to teach or instruct. Just given to personal interpretation - whoa where that can lead.

And in the end, it is really what you bring to the table and how much you want to get involved in your church. I bet with some digging, you may find programs and events that fulfill your desire for church community.

 

[djrakowski]

Mike,
My fiancé was a Protestant for 26 years before reverting back to his Catholic roots.

He often comments to me that the Catholic experience is absolutely not like the Protestant fellowship community. The music, the weekly gathering at people’s houses for bible study groups, the feel good messages, the close knit community.

Smoke and mirrors my friend.

While I don’t doubt that what you’ve written is true from your husband’s perspective, it’s absolutely not true from mine. The fellowship we experienced as evangelicals was real.

Further, we didn’t have ‘feel-good’ messages. In fact, the parish I’m now attending is the only church I’ve ever attended that has a similar degree of challenging, meaty sermons as compared to my old church.

It most certainly wasn’t smoke and mirrors in my case.

 

[jrabs]

While I don’t doubt that what you’ve written is true from your husband’s perspective, it’s absolutely not true from mine. The fellowship we experienced as evangelicals was real.

Further, we didn’t have ‘feel-good’ messages. In fact, the parish I’m now attending is the only church I’ve ever attended that has a similar degree of challenging, meaty sermons as compared to my old church.

I did not write to include all perspectives. Just his. And that things are not necessarily better in the Protestant fellowship camp as it would appear from the outside.

I did not mean to offend anyone by relaying my fiancés experiences. Of course that is not everyone’s experience…yet if you are Catholic now, then there still was some underlying reason for the conversion or reversion - though that is off topic.

 

[djrakowski]

I did not write to include all perspectives. Just his. And that things are not necessarily better in the Protestant fellowship camp as it would appear from the outside.

I did not mean to offend anyone by relaying my fiancés experiences. Of course that is not everyone’s experience…yet if you are Catholic now, then there still was some underlying reason for the conversion or reversion - though that is off topic.

Yes, there was an underlying reason for my conversion - the truths of the teachings of Catholicism. I didn’t leave my old church because of a bad experience, but because I started digging into the teachings and history of the Church.

 

[anamchara]

While I don’t doubt that what you’ve written is true from your husband’s perspective, it’s absolutely not true from mine. The fellowship we experienced as evangelicals was real.

Further, we didn’t have ‘feel-good’ messages. In fact, the parish I’m now attending is the only church I’ve ever attended that has a similar degree of challenging, meaty sermons as compared to my old church.

It most certainly wasn’t smoke and mirrors in my case.

Ours was not smoke and mirrors either. Our pastors were well educated and always gave a very deep scholarly message, frankly no different then what I hear in homilies today. You and I came from different sides of the Protestant world Dan, but both were very meaningful. Although not complete.

 

[mikeledes]

Yes, there was an underlying reason for my conversion - the truths of the teachings of Catholicism. I didn’t leave my old church because of a bad experience, but because I started digging into the teachings and history of the Church.

Despite the fact that I have a hard time finding good fellowship, this is the one thing that keeps me in the Church. I have faith that the truth of the Gospel of Christ is found in its fullness in the Catholic Church. I have faith that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist and that no matter how great the fellowship in Protestant churches, that fellowship can never replace the poweful experience of receiving my Lord and Savior in the Eucharist. It would be great if I could have the kind of fellowship found in the Protestant churches and the Eucharist, but in the end I’ll settle for the Eucharist if I have to chose.

I think the best we can do is to take the initiative. Even if only one or two people show up, that’s better than none. You start small and then it grows. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Hey if you can find just one Catholic that you can have fellowship outside of the church, that would be a great start. Do you know any committed Catholics that would be interested?

God bless,
Michael

 

[Cairisti]

Well, I’m not a convert, but there are converts who miss the fellowship they had in their former Protestant church and this deeply saddens them and makes them look at their Protestant past with nostalgia. They feel that the Catholics of their parish show little enthusiasm for Jesus and His Church and don’t go beyond memorized prayers and being physically present in church on Sunday. They miss the fellowship and the sense of family they had in their Protestant churches. Are there any converts here who feel this way? Are there any converts out there who do not have this experience?
Michael

Is this a timely topic or what? I’ve been thinking about this for a number of months. I converted a year and a half ago, but lately I’ve really begun to miss the fellowship I had in my ole Methodist church to the point I"m ready to “swim back”. The parish I’m at is fairly active, and I’ve joined the RCIA team and gone to some of the activities,since I don’t know anyone but as a single person, I’ve found none of the things are welcoming for us single folks. To go from a welcoming and inviting community to a community where few sing or make you feel part of the parish is really difficult. (And if you don’t have “support” in your Catholic faith, well, I can see why one would leave.)

 

[anamchara]

We need to wake up, brothers and sisters, and seriously do something about this. Not only do we need to improve catechesis, but we must also establish a spiritual support system, namely, good fellowship groups. Christianity is not only meant to be vertical (God), but also horizontal (fellow Christians). The Cross is a combination of the vertical and horizontal and that’s the way Christian spirituality should be as well.

Amen brother! Well put Micheal.

This has always been a problem in Catholic Parishes. I think it has a lot to do with the Catholic culture, in that most are baptised as infants and raised to go to church, whether they want to or not. Attendance at Mass on Sunday and Holy Days, is an obligation under the pain of mortal sin.

As a result, you get a “do the bare minimum” attitude from many Catholics.

I think this is the biggest problem.

 

[mikeledes]

Is this a timely topic or what? I’ve been thinking about this for a number of months. I converted a year and a half ago, but lately I’ve really begun to miss the fellowship I had in my ole Methodist church to the point I"m ready to “swim back”. The parish I’m at is fairly active, and I’ve joined the RCIA team and gone to some of the activities,since I don’t know anyone but as a single person, I’ve found none of the things are welcoming for us single folks. To go from a welcoming and inviting community to a community where few sing or make you feel part of the parish is really difficult. (And if you don’t have “support” in your Catholic faith, well, I can see why one would leave.)

Everything happens for a reason. There is a reson why this topic came up today.

God Bless,
Michael

 

[anamchara]

I think the best we can do is to take the initiative. Even if only one or two people show up, that’s better than none. You start small and then it grows. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

I fully agree and this is what I’ve come to. You know you are in the right place so you need to make the best of it. Hard as it is at times.

 

[anamchara]

Is this a timely topic or what? I’ve been thinking about this for a number of months. I converted a year and a half ago, but lately I’ve really begun to miss the fellowship I had in my ole Methodist church to the point I"m ready to “swim back”. The parish I’m at is fairly active, and I’ve joined the RCIA team and gone to some of the activities,since I don’t know anyone but as a single person, I’ve found none of the things are welcoming for us single folks. To go from a welcoming and inviting community to a community where few sing or make you feel part of the parish is really difficult. (And if you don’t have “support” in your Catholic faith, well, I can see why one would leave.)

It is timely! I grew up in the United Methodist Church, so nice to meet you

 

[water]

Is this a timely topic or what? I’ve been thinking about this for a number of months. I converted a year and a half ago, but lately I’ve really begun to miss the fellowship I had in my ole Methodist church to the point I"m ready to “swim back”. The parish I’m at is fairly active, and I’ve joined the RCIA team and gone to some of the activities,since I don’t know anyone but as a single person, I’ve found none of the things are welcoming for us single folks. To go from a welcoming and inviting community to a community where few sing or make you feel part of the parish is really difficult. (And if you don’t have “support” in your Catholic faith, well, I can see why one would leave.)

It is timely! I grew up in the United Methodist Church, so nice to meet you

I am single too, but my parish has plenty of things for me to participate. Are you looking for some activities where you can contribute to or you are currently looking for activities that support you?

 

[TDiGaetano]

Right now I am currently attending two catholic parishes.

One where I went through confirmation and my father is a member of the Knights of Columbus. This church is mostly focus’d around the “teen” age group has the Junior high fellowship and the High School fellowship.

I would have to say that the church population is probly split between people 10-20 and 40-80+ I would suspect that most people between 21-40 are usually to busy with work and family to reach out to develop relationships in the church.

The church how ever does have daily activies that start at around 9:00 am and go till about 8:00pm during the week problem is most people are working at these times.

The second parish I go to is near my girlfriend’s house where I am near on some sundays and need to attend mass. That church has an elementry school with it. There is a broader age range in this parish. It has several group gatherings unlike the first church most of its meetings are in the evening around 6:30-10:00 They have a friday and monday apologetics meeting. I believe there is also a bible study that meets during the week. These two churches are about 12 miles apart.(There are at least 5 other catholic churches with in the same distance that I know of could be more) So it maybe a 30 to 45 min drive, but the points are most Catholics end up working to provide for their families and there are Catholic parishes that do have group meetings just at different times to conform to the community in which it serves. If a Catholic finds spare time away from his or her family and wants to be a part of something at his or her parish he should talk with the pastor of the church and talk about starting up some programs if they don’t exist.

 

[Leopard]

mikeledes:

Can you post and opinion in the following thread?

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=3182038#post3182038

My opinion, and I mean this as politely as possible, is that you shouldn’t solicit responses on other threads.