Mega churches...

[jason197754]

So why is it that in the past-in the 1990’s a lot of Catholics left the church for a while and went to those big seeker-friendly Mega churches? And most of those Mega churches are baptist or pentecostal=protestant.

But/so why did many Catholics start going to those churches?

Thanks…

 

[graceandglory]

It’s really not as easy as that.

The evangelical churches promote active evangelism. They train their kids in apologetics. When my baptist friends learned I was Catholic and asked me why I worshiped Mary, I didn’t have the words to answer them. So I left the Catholic Church for a large bible teaching Church that was active in missions, praise and worship, bible study and evangelism. Thankfully, I loved reading Scripture so much and I wasn’t afraid to seek the truth wherever it may be found.

 

[Kirk_O]

I would think most left the Church because they where uneducated in the Church so they end up believing the lies. These so called mega churches are good because they do help spread the word of God but the major flaw I see is that they look at the Catholic Church as a customer base. They think every Catholic is domed to hell and it is their job to save them. They need to believe this, because if wasn’t for the lost Catholics there mega church wouldn’t be mega.

Another reason a lot of Catholics leave the Church is because it is hard teaching. I think of John 7:60 & 66. These mega churches are usually pretty easy to join and all they have to is have faith to be saved. They like this because, a lot of stress is taken off their shoulders (living in sin).

 

[saskatoon]

They probably find more there than in Catholic churches. We have practically stripped ourselves of our Catholic identity, many catholic churches look empty and protestant.
As stated before, lack of education in Catholic doctrine and teachings. The catholic church seems to have dumbed down alot of things and seems to have more fluff than substance.

 

[Lief_Erikson]

I’ve wondered at times about the fact that in Protestantism, ex-Catholics often seem more likely to revert than people who grow up Protestant are likely to convert. I think one of the reasons for this is that ex-Catholics have come from Catholicism and consequently it is an actual option in the minds of a number of them. Many Protestants simply won’t consider the possibility that anyone else is right because how they grew up influences them so strongly. But people who come from Catholicism have once been Catholics, even if marginal ones, so they at least might think of converting to something as a possibility.

I now am coming to consider, however, that a more definite and strong reason why ex-Catholics are more likely to revert than born-and-raised Protestants are likely to convert is that ex-Catholics have experienced the sacraments. Often they also will have prayed to Mary in the past. Those kinds of actions, even if taken in a profound state of ignorance, I believe can have a powerful, long-term impact. I think that’s also why ex-Catholics I’ve met who persist in their heresies are often more profoundly heretical than Protestants who started out Protestant, because they are not fighting the sacramental gift in the way a number of ex-Catholics do.

 

[jc-servant]

So why is it that in the past-in the 1990’s a lot of Catholics left the church for a while and went to those big seeker-friendly Mega churches? And most of those Mega churches are baptist or pentecostal=protestant.

But/so why did many Catholics start going to those churches?

Thanks…

I belong to a parish that grew exponentially in the 90s and converted 1000s of Protestants, so perhaps I can be of some help.

Being welcoming to new people is something that a lot of Catholics and Catholic parishes could work on. I’m a convert and I could not figure out how one even got info on being Catholic for a long time. I saw a Knights of Columbus ad for a study course in the paper finally and sent off for it. Protestants and not just the megachurch variety invite acquaintances to come visit their church either for Sunday services or special programs. They also “visit” other churches like in an exchange of choirs or having pastors trade out being a guest giving a sermon.

They typically have lots of activities where one can come meet people without the pressure of formally starting something like RCIA just to get a foot in the door. Singles groups, bowling leagues, fitness centers owned by the church, coffee shops are just a few of the things that larger Protestant churches offer that allow other people to just drop by and check them out in a casual way and most Catholic parishes don’t have that type of thing. The priest who got our parish started when it was a mission and led it until his death several years ago understood the concept of church as the center of the community. He was an old Irish priest who said when he grew up the church was the center of community life. He bought plenty of land for expansion and implemented his vision to bring us back to that type of church/life connection. Our permanent worship space and completed buildings (as opposed to the multipurpose building we built and used initially) is condusive to his dream. We have a huge walled Spanish style courtyard with outdoor seating, large fountain, trees, hidden speakers always softly playing Catholic music where anyone can stop off while taking a walk in the neighborhood or visit after mass or enjoy a concert in the summer or one of our dinner dances.

I belong to a parish that would be considered a “megachurch” at this point if we were Protestant and a freestanding independent church rather than a part of the universal church. We have more than 28,000 registered parishioners and a lot more who regularly come to our parish who are not registered. We have grown exponentially since we were a mission about 20 years ago because of the city growing but also because we are super welcoming, active in our community and we have lots of things that make it easy for the non-Catholics in the area to come on by. We host an annual carnival for our whole suburban city where everyone feels welcome and prices and activities are clearly family-friendly. When people ask where I go to church very frequently they will say in an excited tone that they know my parish because of the carnival or our work at the regional food bank or a concert they attended or because one of our teens invited their teen to come on retreat with them once.

Having been an RCIA sponsor 6 times since I entered the church, I can tell you that we are the Catholic version of a megachurch in that we have lots of education in the faith for Bible study, apologetics, etc that make our people very good at evangelization as a part of their daily lives. We don’t send people knocking on doors, but give us an opening and we are not afraid to correct misconceptions about our faith or to invite people to mass or something else. This is part of why we have gone from about 75 families in the late 80s meeting in a rented building to a parish that is basically about 1/3 of the population of the city with more than 75 ministries and organizations.

Check out our website and see what can happen when Catholics are filled with the Holy Spirit and guided by a holy priest who is open to lay people taking leadership and initiative under his guidance to start ministries and organizations to help their parish grow and nourish its people spiritually. Our website has our “story” as a parish plus lots of other info and photos.

www.stannparish.org

 

[Lief_Erikson]

Praise God for the blessing He has bestowed upon your parish!

 

[poetryforjesus]

I’ve wondered at times about the fact that in Protestantism, ex-Catholics often seem more likely to revert than people who grow up Protestant are likely to convert. I think one of the reasons for this is that ex-Catholics have come from Catholicism and consequently it is an actual option in the minds of a number of them. Many Protestants simply won’t consider the possibility that anyone else is right because how they grew up influences them so strongly. But people who come from Catholicism have once been Catholics, even if marginal ones, so they at least might think of converting to something as a possibility.

I now am coming to consider, however, that a more definite and strong reason why ex-Catholics are more likely to revert than born-and-raised Protestants are likely to convert is that ex-Catholics have experienced the sacraments. Often they also will have prayed to Mary in the past. Those kinds of actions, even if taken in a profound state of ignorance, I believe can have a powerful, long-term impact. I think that’s also why ex-Catholics I’ve met who persist in their heresies are often more profoundly heretical than Protestants who started out Protestant, because they are not fighting the sacramental gift in the way a number of ex-Catholics do.

I completely agree with you. Sacraments have power whether the recipients know about it or not. I can sometimes sense a difference in temperament in ex-Catholics that are just a little “catholic”, if you know what I mean.

 

[jmcrae]

So why is it that in the past-in the 1990’s a lot of Catholics left the church for a while and went to those big seeker-friendly Mega churches? And most of those Mega churches are baptist or pentecostal=protestant.

But/so why did many Catholics start going to those churches?

Thanks…

I can tell you that when my friend started going to one of these, she thought it was a “Christian music concert” and she felt like she was going out with friends for something fun to do.

I told her, “Watch yourself. I bet they start trying to get you to change your religion.” A couple of months later, she came back and said, “You were right. I’m glad you warned me, because I probably would have. They made everything sound so nice and so easy.”

 

[Lief_Erikson]

I completely agree with you. Sacraments have power whether the recipients know about it or not. I can sometimes sense a difference in temperament in ex-Catholics that are just a little “catholic”, if you know what I mean.

Er . . . not really. I mean I didn’t understand exactly what you were saying. But I too have often noticed a difference among ex-Catholics. Though I don’t want to generalize. There’s a lot of variety amongst people and God deals with people in different ways.

 

[puzzleannie]

So why is it that in the past-in the 1990’s a lot of Catholics left the church for a while and went to those big seeker-friendly Mega churches? And most of those Mega churches are baptist or pentecostal=protestant.

But/so why did many Catholics start going to those churches?

Thanks…

my guess is they never realized or admitted they were already part of the original mega-Church, the universal, worldwide Church founded by Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. that is a facetious answer but has a kernel of truth, in that Catholics only leave the faith when they truly don’t even know what that faith teaches, and the most common excuse (not reason, excuse) for leaving is that some human being attached to the Catholic Church–pastor, teacher, catechist, secretary, usher, nun, DRE, guy who cuts the grass, whoever–dun them wrong. They have a real or imagined grievance against one person or group and use that as an excuse to dump a faith that is too demanding in practice.

 

[jmcrae]

my guess is they never realized or admitted they were already part of the original mega-Church, the universal, worldwide Church founded by Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. that is a facetious answer but has a kernel of truth, in that Catholics only leave the faith when they truly don’t even know what that faith teaches, and the most common excuse (not reason, excuse) for leaving is that some human being attached to the Catholic Church–pastor, teacher, catechist, secretary, usher, nun, DRE, guy who cuts the grass, whoever–dun them wrong. They have a real or imagined grievance against one person or group and use that as an excuse to dump a faith that is too demanding in practice.

I find the same thing. I encountered a guy who was offended because his Catechist gave birthday cards to “all the other kids” except for him. (His birthday was in August, and I am betting that all of the summer birthdays got missed; not just his.) What a thing to lose your faith over - a Catechist who doesn’t think of sending birthday cards when she is “off duty”!

I am waiting for the day when someone says, “Well, I was a Catechist at such and such parish, but I quit the faith because I couldn’t stand the whiny kid that complained about me not sending him a birthday card one summer.”