ND Church I’ve Been Considering

[lanman87]

Her husband is a Student Pastor. I don’t know what that is, either.

The Student Pastor’s job is to teach and mentor Middle school and High School Students. A good one will hold in-depth Bible Studies and have open and honest conversations with teenagers about teen issues and Shepard them into growing in their faith and living a Godly lifestyle. They will also plan mission trips, retreats, and so forth for the teenagers. Student groups tend to be a mixture of fun (pizza parties), seriousness (Bible Study or topical study), and Ministry (Mission activity).

My sons experience was things like Super Bowl parties and silly games, but they also went through David Platts book Radical, (which I highly recommend for any American Christian), and he went on several mission trips. One was to work in a homeless shelter/soup kitchen in Texas and another was to help clean up in New York after Hurricane Sandy.

Student groups can be both good and bad experiences. Some of the kids are strong Christians who are serious about their faith and others are just there to be with friends or because mom and dad make them go. Being a Student Pastor is certainly a high calling.

 

[Paytheon]

Nice reply Father. However I want to correct one error, Jesus, “He”, never claimed to be God. He clearly stated he was the “Son of Man”.

 

[edward_george1]

This isn’t an error. He applied the Divine Name to himself. He called himself I AM.

-Fr ACEGC

 

[halogirl]

And ‘whoever has seen me has seen the father ‘

 

[twf]

I wasn’t there, but from the context of your post, I would assume he was referring to secular, non-religious people. He was speaking to a Catholic audience… comparing men of “the world” with men of “the faith”.
When I hear a priest say in a homily that Catholics are pro-life while others are not, I don’t assume that he’s denying that various other faiths are also pro-life…he’s speaking in the context of the broader secular world.

 

[TC3033]

The Student Pastor’s job is to teach and mentor Middle school and High School Students.

Yep, I’ve also heard them referred to as the youth minister.

They will also plan mission trips, retreats, and so forth for the teenagers. Student groups tend to be a mixture of fun (pizza parties), seriousness (Bible Study or topical study), and Ministry (Mission activity).

My sons experience was things like Super Bowl parties and silly games

I remember doing stuff like this growing up too. We would do football parties, softball games (and had a church softball team), go to MLB games in the summer, skiing trips in the winter, hay rides, all kinds of stuff.

Honestly, I’ve found it kind of strange (and sad) that my wife’s parish doesn’t have any youth stuff like this. They may do something once or twice a year, but it’s always inside the church walls (or the yard). Nobody ever really gets to know anyone else.

 

[twf]

We have Catholic high schools. Entire schools run by the Church… with all the activities that schools have. Protestant churches are compensating for the fact that their youth are in secular schools. You’re comparing apples and oranges .
Of course that’s not always the case- but many parishes do have vibrant youth programs as well. Some organize international pilgrimages such as to World Youth Day. When I was a teen converting to Catholicism, I believe the youth of my parish flew to Poland for such a pilgrimage.

 

[twf]

Our parishes can’t afford the kind of staff these churches have. These people tithe. Literally. My wife goes to an evangelical “mega-church” and wouldn’t ever dream of missing giving ten percentage of her gross pay to the church… these churches are rich…drowning in money. Thus they can hire armies of staff. The Senior Pastor, the Business Administration Pastor, the Youth Pastor, the Children’s Pastor, the Missions Director, the Music Pastor, etc etc etc etc.
(For the record I also “tithe”, but I split my offerings between various Catholic charities, the local parish, the archdiocese, etc.).

 

[halogirl]

As far as ND Churches, how can it be
that anyone can be a pastor if they merely complete a course? I’ve known that happen. The more I look into it, the more I think it’s dodgy. Unfortunately I live in a very secular area and came into the RCC thru first attending a Methodist one and working in a catholic environment. The RC churches in our town are well attended but nobody here chooses to convert before going thru a Protestant one first. To get some idea, there is a population of 106000 people in my town and there were ten of us on my RCIA course. I guess I’m saying that maybe ND churches might be a necessary evil in some cases to get people somewhere closer to the real church but honestly they are even less clear than mainstream Protestant ones. Why take a retrograde step? As far as gyms, staff and smoke machines, it just smacks of the whole prosperity gospel stuff. Avoid.

 

[halogirl]

Yeah and isn’t it funny how so many of mega church pastors end up with private jets and allegedly dodging taxes

 

[twf]

Yeah. In my home town my parents’ evangelical pastor (of a church of maybe 150 people), took home $80k a year plus a housing allowance. The priest at the local parish of 400-500 people was paid $24k plus housing…
Maybe 25-30% of the parish budget went of salaries compared to 80% at the evangelical church.

 

[Paytheon]

Thanks for correcting me. My favorite two words in the Old and New Testament…“I AM”

 

[halogirl]

I totally get going from atheist/agnostic to believing after going to an evangelical church. But if you’ve experienced the real presence and confession there is no going back to what is less

 

[Hope1960]

Our parishes can’t afford the kind of staff these churches have. These people tithe. Literally. My wife goes to an evangelical “mega-church” and wouldn’t ever dream of missing giving ten percentage of her gross pay to the church…

Yeah, I don’t like the idea of tithing. They do have boxes set up everywhere to drop in your money but I think that it’s likely that they pressure their congregation to tithe after awhile.

 

[Hope1960]

As far as ND Churches, how can it be
that anyone can be a pastor if they merely complete a course? I’ve known that happen. The more I look into it, the more I think it’s dodgy. Unfortunately I live in a very secular area and came into the RCC thru first attending a Methodist one and working in a catholic environment. The RC churches in our town are well attended but nobody here chooses to convert before going thru a Protestant one first. To get some idea, there is a population of 106000 people in my town and there were ten of us on my RCIA course. I guess I’m saying that maybe ND churches might be a necessary evil in some cases to get people somewhere closer to the real church but honestly they are even less clear than mainstream Protestant ones. Why take a retrograde step? As far as gyms, staff and smoke machines, it just smacks of the whole prosperity gospel stuff. Avoid.

The head pastor does have a Masters degree, the student pastor only has a bachelors.

What does gyms, staff and smoke machines have to do with the prosperity gospel?

 

[halogirl]

The parishioners are told that if you give you receive it opens up a tide of financial blessings etc etc . Well let’s just say those items don’t come cheap do they? As you have said they pass the bucket around and bam new gym. I would rather see the money go to the poor. There are gyms in the community already

 

[halogirl]

And a masters degree doesn’t mean he is validly ordained. He is an educated motivational speaker who is a Christian but he’s not a priest. I don’t mean by a course, that he has a college degree I mean I have experienced ND churches where you just have to complete a church run course and when you are done you are a pastor

 

[TC3033]

We have Catholic high schools. Entire schools run by the Church… with all the activities that schools have. Protestant churches are compensating for the fact that their youth are in secular schools. You’re comparing apples and oranges .

I’m not going to say you don’t have a point…but I can only go off of what I currently experience. In the town I live in, perochial education only goes through 6th grade. After that if you want to go to a Catholic or Lutheran high school you’re looking at (the closest I can think of for either) is about a 60 min drive.

At my wife’s parish there’s about 500 registered members, and in the RE program (before they changed it) there was over 120 kids K-6…maybe 20-30 kids K-6 attend the parish school (it’s few enough where they have to combine grades). I’ve been at Mass where the crux of it seemed to be a commercial to get kids into their school.

I just find it strange, in my n=1 experience, that there wouldn’t be a ministry or something for youth where you can tell the school is really hurting for students.

The parishioners are told that if you give you receive it opens up a tide of financial blessings etc etc . Well let’s just say those items don’t come cheap do they?

Eh…maybe at some ND, churches but not all (I’d say not even close to the majority). In 40 years I’ve never heard a sermon like this live.

As you have said they pass the bucket around and bam new gym. I would rather see the money go to the poor. There are gyms in the community already

That’s a pretty uncharitable, TBH, quite stereotyping of ND churches. Have I been to a couple who have gyms…sure, but not many…especially ones who could “pass the bucket” and build a new one.

The ones that do have gyms normally give them back to the poor. I know places where utilizing a church gym is much…much cheaper than a community gym, they are used for special olympics and other such events.

I know the Lutheran Church in town has a small gym. I guess I don’t see the harm in a church having a gym for parishioners and other members of the community to use. I know at one church they have a Sunday evening basketball league for the church members. It could be a really good evangelization tool, don’t you think?

I also don’t hold an opinion where if a church has nice things that they don’t give back to the poor either…

 

[halogirl]

I am mainly talking about mega churches such as Joel Osteens with regards to this. I am not saying God isn’t there in those churches I just don’t think even in the smaller ones you can get away from ‘tithing’ and it makes me suspicious so I am sorry if you felt I was uncharitable. That wasn’t my intent.

 

[lanman87]

I’m not going to say you don’t have a point…but I can only go off of what I currently experience. In the town I live in, perochial education only goes through 6th grade.

Also, it is not like Evangelicals don’t also have schools. There are at least two private Christian schools within 5 miles of where I’m sitting that are Evangelical/Non-Catholic. One is affiliated with a large Baptist Church and another with the Church of Christ. The Baptist school also serves as a cover school for homeschooling parents in the area. FWIW- the nearest Catholic HS is over 20 miles away.