Lapsed Catholics/Lapsed Protestants

[JustaServant]

Thought about this yesterday in relation to the Tebow thread. I would like Catholics and non-Catholics to answer this question:
Lapsed, nominal, “non-practicing” Catholics AND Protestants. We both agree it is a problem.
Do you believe they are Christians?
What is YOUR solution for bringing them back into the fold?

 

[Cat]

Thought about this yesterday in relation to the Tebow thread. I would like Catholics and non-Catholics to answer this question:
Lapsed, nominal, “non-practicing” Catholics AND Protestants. We both agree it is a problem.
Do you believe they are Christians?
What is YOUR solution for bringing them back into the fold?

I believe they are Christians by virture of their Triune Baptism, and therefore, I believe they still have the hope of heaven.

My solution for bringing them back into the fold is prayer and fasting.

Also, I think that those practicing Christians who are in regular contact with them will be helpful if they renounce sin, live out their faith without hypocrisy, and demonstrate daily their joy and peace in the Lord–this will cause the “lapsed” Christian to become “homesick” and long to return to Jesus and His family and participate in full with the Church (or with his/her ecclesial body if they are Protestant).

I believe that hypocrisy on the part of practicing Christians is immensely harmful to the Body of Christ because it causes weaker Christians to doubt the efficacy of faith in Christ and gives them an excuse to continue to stray away from the Body of Christ.

But I believe the Holy Spirit can still work to “woo” a lapsed Christian home even if other Christians thwart His work by practicing sin and being unrepentant and hypocritical. Prayer and fasting is of paramount importance.

 

[ManOnFire]

The liberal entertainment media culture is promoting lust ahead of love and entertainment of the self ahead of romantic sacrificial love for spouse and kids, so more Catholics and Protestants will look like hypocrites the more we keep watching and paying for more…

 

[Barbkw]

My suggestion is to support Catholic programming / internet access that reaches people at a local level and at a national level.

 

[JustaServant]

Here’s the quote from Itwin on the Tebow thread that got me wondering what other Protestants might think:

That persons who were born into a church, but have minimal contact with that church in later life is to put simply fair game. To say, “I’m not gonna witness to that person because he/she is already affiliated with another church,” would be seen as missing an opportunity to help that person.

I don’t mean to offend anyone, and I certainly do not advocate placing Catholics outside of Christianity. However, I can see the situation is really complex.

I am not unsympathetic to the concerns expressed on this forum and there are evangelical Protestants who do take this into consideration. In the words of the Pentecostal theologian Frank Macchia, Protestant missionaries and evangelists should take into account that “infant-baptized persons not currently active in the church have already in a profound sense been laid claim to by God in the bosom of the historic church.”

Rephrasing my question for Protestants.
We both agree it (“persons who were born into a church, but have minimal contact with that church in later life”) is a problem.
Do you believe these people are Christians?
What is YOUR solution?

 

[GunnerQuick]

I was watching EWTN yesterday and they had Father Robert Barrons talk on the seven deadly sins on. He was talking about slouth and in particular spiritual slouth which he deemed as a sort of religious indifference. He said that it is because of realitivism which creates this indifference and to heal and come home takes a new understanding of zeal. That it starts with the people and through the holy spirit must find in themselves the zeal that will bring them home.
I believe that they are still Christians by virtue of their baptism.As for a solution… The only thing any of us can do to directly help is to live the christian life and be an example, It might take a while but eventually what we do will have an effect. maybe your zeal is what they need to find thiers.

Pax,
Blake

 

[Publisher]

Thought about this yesterday in relation to the Tebow thread. I would like Catholics and non-Catholics to answer this question:
Lapsed, nominal, “non-practicing” Catholics AND Protestants. We both agree it is a problem.
Do you believe they are Christians?
What is YOUR solution for bringing them back into the fold?

A person is a “Christian” when they believe and behave a Christian. Unless there is a “change” to the “inward man” that seeks to conform to “the image of Christ”…they are not a “Christian”.

We have a “committee” that calls on “lapsed” members and seeks to understand their needs and determine the Meetings response.

 

[AbideWithMe]

Here’s the quote from Itwin on the Tebow thread that got me wondering what other Protestants might think:

Rephrasing my question for Protestants.
We both agree it (“persons who were born into a church, but have minimal contact with that church in later life”) is a problem.
Do you believe these people are Christians?
What is YOUR solution?

JustaServant–

I’ve been a lapsed Christian twice, for a number of years each time. At one point, to use the old phrase, I was “living in sin”, so there’s no question I was lapsed rather than just going through a dry period or dark night of the soul. In my case, both times I had my faith very badly shaken on an intellectual level. It was only following that major shaking that I succumbed to living out my lack of faith.

I knew, even in the midst of living in a way that said otherwise, that I wasn’t at home. I missed God. Jesus said, “Whoever drinks from the water that I give him will never thirst again”, and that, on some core level, has been true for me since I became a Christian as a teenager. I was devastated at losing all but a single shred of my faith. I knew the substitute I was accepting was just that–a substitute for the relationship I really wished to regain. I guess you’ve heard Chesterton’s saying: (Jesus speaking) “I caught him. I caught him with an invisible hook and a line that will let him wander to the ends of the earth but bring him back with a twitch upon the thread.” (my paraphrase from memory)

So, was I still a Christian while living like that? I would definitely say yes.

However, if someone is a nominal Christian who’s just been baptized but nothing more–if they 've never understood that more than baptism is needed; or if they self-identify as a Christian mainly because that’s what their ancestors were and therefore they aren’t Hindu or Muslim or Buddhist, etc; then I don’t see any reason to think they are Christians.

A seed can be planted at baptism. Without care and tending, it will rot and become something that will never grow, or if will dry up and lose the potential for growth. Or, it may remain dormant for many years. But without water and good soil and tending, it’s useless.

Well, that’s my non-Catholic perspective.

 

[Barbkw]

I was watching EWTN yesterday and they had Father Robert Barrons talk on the seven deadly sins on. He was talking about slouth and in particular spiritual slouth which he deemed as a sort of religious indifference. He said that it is because of realitivism which creates this indifference and to heal and come home takes a new understanding of zeal. That it starts with the people and through the holy spirit must find in themselves the zeal that will bring them home.

Found a written copy of some of Fr. Barron’s talk on slouth:

knightsofdivinemercy.com/2011/04/04/sloth-the-noon-day-devil/

**The following are excerpts from Fr. Robert Barron’s DVD series, The Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Lively Virtues:
**

We are now halfway up the Mount of Purgatory; we are now at the [yawn] dead center of Dante’s poem.

So here he considers sloth.

What is sloth?

Thomas Aquinas calls it “sorrow in regard to spiritual good.”

I can’t muster any energy for spiritual good.

The medieval called it “the noon day devil.”

You know, it’s a hot day at noon and you just had your lunch and all you want to do is yawn and take a nap.

Sloth is lethargy for spiritual things.

I can’t muster any energy, interest or enthusiasm for the things of the spirit.

It is boredom, depression and inactivity at the spiritual level of life.

Karl Barth said, “I don’t think pride is the deadliest of the deadly sins … I think sloth is.”

All the other deadly sins will have us race toward the sin, collapse and come back to God.

Whereas sloth is just that I’m bored, indifferent and could care less. And I tend, therefore, just to rest there in the “dead center.”

Here’s an expression of it … secularism. We live in the greatest nation but, in many ways, the most secular. But a secular society is one that is experiencing spiritual sloth; indifference to spiritual matters.

Pope Benedict XVI points to relativism as evidence of spiritual sloth.

In speaking of the need for a New Evangelization, He (then Cardinal Ratzinger) said,

“the true problem of our times is the ‘Crisis of God’, the absence of God, disguised by an empty religiosity.” A kind of lukewarm; going through the motions of one’s faith which ends up collapsing completely.

A real concrete statistic around this is that 70% of the baptized faithful are staying away from Mass on a regular basis. And we’re doing well in comparison the European countries.

Vatican II said the Mass is the source and summit of the Christian life … everything lead to and flow from the Mass.

The Eucharist is everything, and 70% could care less about it.

Yes, there are many reasons around why some do not go to Mass, but I suspect that, for most, they are suffering from spiritual sloth; they could just care less.

What’s the antidote for sloth? Zeal for the mission.

Nobody is ever given an experience of God without being sent. God has loved you into being.

Understanding this helps us to just relax and say to him, “Okay, God, send me.”

Cardinal Newman said, “We have all been made for some quite definite purpose.”

Let that line sink into your heart … it is a very simple but very powerful idea.

We are to be a conduit of His love in some definite way … that’s your mission. And finding it gives you this zeal that overcomes sloth.

So, here is some practical advice: Work hard at discerning your mission.

What’s your prayer life all about; your spiritual life all about? One way to name is that it is all about finding your mission.

Ask for your mission in prayer and you’ll never suffer from distracted prayer.

Ask the Lord, “What do you want me to do? And then say, “Send me.”

Ask, and then be ready to get the answer.

Go to Mass as often as possible with this question in mind. Trust me, he’ll send someone or some sign.

If you are looking for your mission, practice the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy on a regular basis and chances are you will find out what it is.

Dante’s Marian counter example shows that the slothful are – like in a gym – made to run, run, run. And as they run, they hear this quote from Luke’s Gospel: “She proceeded in haste … she proceeded in haste.”

Remember after the annunciation? Mary has her mission: “Be it done to me according to Your Word!”

I’m not going to live in the boring space of my little ego … I want an adventure! … it’s going to come from You, Lord God. And now, up she goes … she proceeded in haste through the hill country to visit her cousin Elizabeth.

She knew what to do and she did it.

That’s zeal for the mission! And that comes from that strong sense of doing God’s will.

 

[Angela77]

Catholicism needs to modernize itself with technology. We can maintain the rich beliefs and traditions of the Church while sharing them int today’s technological world.

 

[akasseb]

Various dioceses across the country have been airing TV spots from the Catholics Come Home evangelization initiative. What impact has this had on you? Is anyone thinking of entering the Catholic Church?

(Disclaimer:I have no connection to CCH. I am simply curious)

 

[CourtAdvocate]

I have not plans of returning to Catholicism, nonetheless I have seen the ads.

My conviction where it is today will not change again.

 

[4Squarebaby]

Rephrasing my question for Protestants.
We both agree it (“persons who were born into a church, but have minimal contact with that church in later life”) is a problem.
Do you believe these people are Christians?
What is YOUR solution?

Not in my opinion. my brother and I were born and baptised into the United Methodist Church. By our early teens the networks were showing sports every Sunday morning as we drifted away as a family. I went on to become a Richard Dawkins and he is still a Minister Muhammed in the Nation of Islam.

Jewish Radio talk show host and Dennis Praeger suggest those who have questions, or are coming to a belief in God should revist the church, if any of their youth first