ND Church I’ve Been Considering

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AlbertDerGrosse said:
May I ask you, how well do you know the folks at the church outside of the immediate clergy and staff? Have you gotten to know enough of the average Joes in the pews to get a sense of the culture of the church?
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No. I haven’t gone there very long, just maybe three months, and haven’t gotten involved with anything.
I’m going to Confession and Mass this Saturday.
 
I don’t know if that means you aren’t going back, but if you do maybe it would be worthwhile to go to whatever kind of fellowshipping they have after their church service in order to get a feel for the culture of the church outside of the pastor whom it seems you’ve already determined is a bit of a blowhard?

I don’t say this in order to push you toward giving them another try. Not at all. I’m a Catholic and I wish you’d just stop going altogether and find a place in the rich tapestry we have here that is the Bride of Christ. Nevertheless, I know that isn’t convincing and so I think the next best thing is to show you that this church and its take on the Gospel is probably not what it’s cracked up to be. The best way to do that is to rub elbows with those not making money off of your possible conversion.
 
Actually, in hindsight let me back up a bit.

Hope, you say you’ve discussed this a lot in previous threads. I’ve never seen any of these. Could you link us to a couple of them so we can get a bit of your background story? It might help a bit. Thanks.
 
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AlbertDerGrosse said:
As I mentioned, I’m torn. We no doubt live in a wayward and very hedonistic society now so perhaps a similar position should be created in Catholic parishes as outreach to both the fallen away and those on the periphery. Make them “comfortable”, and then slowly “accompany” them as Pope Francis says toward the very end of the Gospel which is the person of Jesus Christ. That person being the very personification of Truth itself, which once discovered cannot be compromised with.

I just hope that in such a Catholic hypothetical and in the Evangelical case you’ve actually mentioned there would be some kind of nudging away from one’s own comfort eventually. This is where a lot of the current talk in the Catholic Church today about “accompaniment” falls short: it’s really just a shorthand for complacency not a radical transformation of one’s life after encountering the Gospel.

Sorry. I’m blathering on here in a sort of stream of consciousness sort of way.
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I appreciated your post. I do in fact find it quite intriguing. I am not sure that it is the job of a church either Catholic or Protestant to make people comfortable. I think rather, it is to make a radical transformation of ones life attractive which only happens when one is made uncomfortable with the complacency and lifestyle that accompanies a heart not truly surrendered to the claims of Christ.
 
Wannano said:
I appreciated your post. I do in fact find it quite intriguing. I am not sure that it is the job of a church either Catholic or Protestant to make people comfortable. I think rather, it is to make a radical transformation of ones life attractive which only happens when one is made uncomfortable with the complacency and lifestyle that accompanies a heart not truly surrendered to the claims of Christ.
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I think it is the job of a church to do both, but in different ways. I think a church should try to be a comfortable home for its parishioners, somewhere that they’re comfortable taking their problems, supporting and being supported by their fellows. It should be a refuge from the outside world. But the church should not bend the faith for the sake of people’s comfort. The words coming from the pulpit should make us all uncomfortable.
 
Hope1960 said:
The lead pastor, whom I’d describe as a showman, had a lot of rude comments about the Catholic Church, all the while trying to make it sound like he wasn’t against the Church.
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Why would you take for serious someone who is conniving about his intentions? So he wanted to sound like he wasn’t criticizing, but he did, all the while making it sound funny. What is funny about the spiritual truth of God?
 
Hope1960 said:
Well, I took that class at the Non Denominational church I’d been considering. The lead pastor, whom I’d describe as a showman, had a lot of rude comments about the Catholic Church, all the while trying to make it sound like he wasn’t against the Church.

He was saying that there’s “very few things the CC got right;” “none (or maybe some) of the stuff the CC teaches is in the Bible, they just made it up out of thin air;” “Catholics lied since the 1300’s and its in writings”…among other things. He said that you can ask priests things, (challenge him) to find stuff the Church teaches in the Bible and it’s just not in there.

I’ve learned a LOT here, much of what’s is in direct opposition to what this pastor said. How do we know our teachings, traditions etc. are correct?
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This really bothers me. I don’t understand why Pastors do this. I think even non-Catholic Christians can admire so much about the Church without bashing it. Besides, we all came from the Catholic Church.
 
I know, my husband feels the same way and he’s not a member of any church.
 
It’s really sad. I’m a LCMS Lutheran and realize where my church came from. Mass is beautiful. I always tell people who say terrible things about the RCC (even that Catholics aren’t Christian) to go to a Mass and then get back to me. Their tone usually changes.
 
Hope1960 said:
Thanks for your (name removed by moderator)ut. You’ve been helpful. Update: I received an email from the Guest Services Director, asking for my opinion on the presentation.
I told her that I didn’t like his comments about Catholics, use of the word f***, and s****, and that it was abrasive and I expect more from a pastor.
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I also told her this in email after she made an excuse for him: “I understand, but I think that a pastor needs to be better at choosing his words more carefully. People look up to him so he needs to be less crass, in my opinion.”
 
Hope1960 said:
@PattyIt, my book arrived!
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It’s good and informative so far, but some of it is over my head but I’ll keep plugging on because it seems to address all the stuff we’ve been talking about here.
 
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