Stories from my old Protestant Church

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jmoneyideas

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When I first came to the Lord it was at a little Non Denom aka totally Protestant, Calvinistic Church and I started my walk with the Lord on a Daily Basis, reading the bible, attending Church as much as 4 times a week. This was a little new Church and the Pastor was very charasmatic and really for the First year teached on The Bible. Then the whole thing Changed about 8 months ago, The Church was Growing and and Different People started to Influence things. The Pastor actually kicked a person out and told them to Fellowship somewhere else, now this person knew the Bible and always asked good questions ect but one day he was told to leave after questioning a teaching. As time moved on the Preaching was less and less Bible based and more Opinionated / Theology oriented. The Pastor made many members come in on saturdays for hours of directional teaching towards where he wants the Grow…When I mean hours I mean HOURS… He requested members to be there at 7am and they didn’t get home until 6pm:eek: I refused to attend these but my wife told me all about them. Then came the Anti Catholic reatoric that was really being pushed on the Members of the Church, which I am sad to say was filled with mostly ex Catholics. Here is one thing that really got me though…

One day he had us all come in and he said he was going to be doing Basic Theology teachings because he said the Lord has called him to Ordain 2 people next year from the Church…I was like hit the ABS Breaks… He was going to Ordain people…So I attended one of these Classes with about 8 others and I was just Shocked. It was nothing like I expected. The teaching were all over the place and just plain wrong…Everyone seemed to be in Competition to see who knew more or agreed wth him as to get points or something. I never went again but my wife did and would come home telling me all these things that he said, now at this point I already really was doiung my own research so I was pretty capable of correcting certain things, Thank God for this site and Wordonfire.com for opening my eyes and heart to the true church. Thank fully My wife has finally decided to leave that Church with me and she although she is Catholic is attending RCIA with me…😃

So I wonder if any of you have and crazy stories of things that caused you to make a Change in Churches?
 
Almost, though it’s probably not a story that will give you warm fuzzies. I went to college at UW Madison and attended the Newmann Center / parish there (late 80’s).
  1. Mass started with “In the name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sanctifier…”
  2. A woman wore vestments and clearly considered herself a concelebrant (gave homilies, extended hand and mouthed words of consecration, held the chalice at the great amen…)
  3. The priest attempted consecration on leavened bread obviously containing honey and it was crumbly as could possibly be.
  4. Every participant was a ‘eucharistic minister’ for the person in line behind him/her.
  5. The polished concrete floor around the altar was coverd with crumbs afterwards (good thing in restrospect that it was an invalid material for a host, eh?).
  6. No recognizable catholic art, statues, windows, images. Plain concrete interior oriented to make people look at each other.
    (btw, I’m told the new bishop rhetorically fashioned a whip and drove these rascals out, so don’t assume the Newmann Center is a trove of heretics these days, I really haven’t been back since)
    I was young and ignorant enough not to be able to articulate what I knew was wrong, but I very nearly left the Church for a vibrant and faithful evangelical group. What stopped me was finding an honest catholic parish nearby and seeing the contrast between the Eucharist there and the grape juice and crackers shared at the non-denom community my friends went to. Turns out that even Kumbaya catholics can even recognize Jesus sometimes! 😉
But a lesson learned here relevant to you is that you will find bad eggs in the catholic community too. We just enjoy the security of having someone beyond our immediate pastor to look to for reliable answers to life’s big questions. Oh, and some rather important sacraments too. Welcome home!
 
manualman said:
But a lesson learned here relevant to you is that you will find bad eggs in the catholic community too. We just enjoy the security of having someone beyond our immediate pastor to look to for reliable answers to life’s big questions. Oh, and some rather important sacraments too. Welcome home!
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Yes I am aware of some issues…The Parrish I attend now has recently brought in a new priest who people just say is such a blessing. The story is the old priest was kind of harsh and the attendance dipped very much, but from what i can tell it is pretty much packed when I go except for the Early Masses when it just me and about 40 of the Over 60’s hanging 😛

It does make me sad to know that there are freinds who I dont really see anymore and have distanced themselves from me since leaving the church. Although it is funny my ex pastor just called me to see if my family would like to attend a candlight service at his Church Christmas eve…? I don’t know if I should…plus I got Midnight mass too
 
Back when I was in high school I used to go to these Monday night services with friends. One night the pastor started going off on the prosperity gospel, eventually coming to his main point - God won’t help you unless you give money to the church (an offering plate was of course passed around right after).

Now I’ve always believed in giving money to the church, but telling a group of people largely made up of those without any income that unless they find some money to give to the church, God doesn’t care about them? That crossed a line for me.
And so began my crisis of faith which eventually took me to the Orthodox Church.
 
jmoneyideas said:
Yes I am aware of some issues…The Parrish I attend now has recently brought in a new priest who people just say is such a blessing. The story is the old priest was kind of harsh and the attendance dipped very much, but from what i can tell it is pretty much packed when I go except for the Early Masses when it just me and about 40 of the Over 60’s hanging 😛

It does make me sad to know that there are freinds who I dont really see anymore and have distanced themselves from me since leaving the church. Although it is funny my ex pastor just called me to see if my family would like to attend a candlight service at his Church Christmas eve…? I don’t know if I should…plus I got Midnight mass too
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Consider this: you are Catholic now and HOME. The break needs to be complete. What you described about your former church sounds eerily cultish, and the pastor is trying to get you back. You don’t really want to get into that again, do you?

The Catholic church offers the fullness of Truth–all of it. Why settle for less?
 
CB_Catholic said:
Consider this: you are Catholic now and HOME. The break needs to be complete. What you described about your former church sounds eerily cultish, and the pastor is trying to get you back. You don’t really want to get into that again, do you?

The Catholic church offers the fullness of Truth–all of it. Why settle for less?
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I agree…I told my wife that it is in our best interest to not attend. She is upset a little because her best friend goes there as well. The other thing is I expect it to be even more AntiCatholic since he knows about our desicion to come home.
 
Nine_Two said:
Back when I was in high school I used to go to these Monday night services with friends. One night the pastor started going off on the prosperity gospel, eventually coming to his main point - God won’t help you unless you give money to the church (an offering plate was of course passed around right after).

Now I’ve always believed in giving money to the church, but telling a group of people largely made up of those without any income that unless they find some money to give to the church, God doesn’t care about them? That crossed a line for me.
And so began my crisis of faith which eventually took me to the Orthodox Church.
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A friend of mine went to a Joel Osteen Service in a Large Stadium Jacksonville FL and was so appalled when the first 30 minutes of the service was about his missions and needing money to continue to grow…Then people came in with Large cans the 30 Gallon bags to collect money. Then the preaching was about 30 more minutes then it was all about his books and where people can purchase them.
 
jmoneyideas said:
A friend of mine went to a Joel Osteen Service in a Large Stadium Jacksonville FL and was so appalled when the first 30 minutes of the service was about his missions and needing money to continue to grow…Then people came in with Large cans the 30 Gallon bags to collect money. Then the preaching was about 30 more minutes then it was all about his books and where people can purchase them.
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Duh! It takes advertising !:rotfl:

Sorry!

My old protestant church recently ok’d ordaining openly gay pastors. Attendance has plummeted, many are “shopping” for a new church. Looks like the 150 year old church may close. Makes me so sad, for those who are lost and those who refuse to be found.:sad_yes:
 
Not stories that bad but we did know it was time to look elsewhere when the Christmas production was about a single mom and how she needed to be in church more, giving more money, and forgetting about her job obligations. Not one single mention of our Lord and Saviour born on Christmas Day…it was one of those non-denom churches.

We cut all ties…and I have NEVER regretted it! In fact last year At this time I was thanking our priest for his part in helping me to see the gift of my Catholic faith:thumbsup:
 
Stories from my old Church, hmmm.
Positive? My wife and I loved working in the church nursery and doing Sunday School. The AWANA club was always fun. We had a small building so the screams of the kids would sometimes drown out the preacher during Bible study (which was not necessarily a bad thing :D). I will admit I learned a lot of Bible in those days.
 
JustaServant where in West Virginia do you live? I grew up in Morgantown
 
Had a good friend from Parkersburgh. I left West Virginia in 1981 for Dallas and sure do miss the hills of home.
 
cajunhillbilly said:
Had a good friend from Parkersburgh. I left West Virginia in 1981 for Dallas and sure do miss the hills of home.
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It’s weird, I never thought I would like small town life. But life down here grows on you and I can never think about moving to a big city again.
 
I have many positive stories…
One is that I finally came to a general knowledge of God. They also did a lot of things for the Kids which for once got my kids thinking about God and Doing Good. Before the Church went a different Direction there was many hours of good Bible reading and General knowledge of Scripture. The worship was not the greatest, some days better than others…I also was not a big fan of the Wild speaking in tongues and some things that reminded me of Voo-doo with people rolling around of the floor and going in to what reminds me of a epileptic fit …🤷
 
Stuff like this is why I left Protestantism, in all its various permutations, and actively sought out the Catholic Church.

I cannot recall a time when this kinda stuff was going on in my presence that I didn’t feel an underlying notion of evil in the room. I never thought it was the Holy Spirit doing these things, but, at the worst- a spirit indeed. At the best, people given over to their own desire for something efficacious, since, well, they don’t have any real Sacraments or ways (gasp: ritual) to keep them in line and understanding things. Nor is there a system of doctrine in place to answer the more tricky questions, nor even agreement on the Bible itself.

I recall, vividly, a time when a friend of a friend jumped up and just started sprinting around church during the sermon. Pastor stops and starts yelling “Amen! Hallelujah!” etc while dude continues to run around the church building inside.

Total chaos.

What makes it bad is these people and this mindset makes people think if they too don’t either 1) give themselves over to this influence or 2) don’t experience it, that they are left out of the fruits of the Holy Spirit and obviously doing something wrong. Maybe not tithing enough? :rolleyes:

It is, in fact, evil.

It is why I maintain a staunch traditional view, even as I am still learning the tradition.

It is why, even though I am not confirmed yet, I maintain I am a Roman Catholic. Why? Because I reject all but the teaching of the Church and I am able to find tradition in the Church which I crave.

Those laser light show projectors do put on a good show, don’t they?😉
 
jonbhorton said:
Those laser light show projectors do put on a good show, don’t they?😉
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Perhaps this is the reason people were having those “fits”.
Dropped the true Church for just one week. After my first worship service i felt that something was missing while there, It dawned on me what was missing the truth and that truth is Jesus Christ.
 
In all fairness such displays tend to be tied to the Pentecostal movement and many of the Protestant denominations reject the Pentecostal ‘displays of spirit’ for the same reasons we do - they come from a place that is very suspect.

In the Bible the Spirit moved to bring people into the Church. These displays only seemed aimed at serving those already IN the church… and that doesn’t mesh. God isn’t a God who just entertains us.

Anyway, I just wanted to point out that such displays tend to be rooted in the Pentecostal movement, not in ALL Protestant denominations.
 
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