Where Do I Belong?

[pushandslice4]

Hey everyone! I was raised in a Protestant church for around 16 years and then drifted away from church while in college. After getting married and try to settle down, I am trying to find a church home. My wife loves attending non-denominational “Independent Christian” churches and I love attending liturgical ones. I have to work every Sunday and it makes it very hard to attend church. I believe that the Bible is without error. I believe in taking weekly communion but regarding if Christ is present or if it’s just a spiritual thing, I do not know that much about it to make a decision. I do not believe in predestination. I do not believe in gay marriage/gay clergy. I don’t have a problem with it being in a denomination but if I had a gay clergyman/clergywoman I would not stay there. I do not believe in abortion. From my beliefs, I have researched Catholicism, the Episcopal Church, Disciples of Christ, Independent Christian Churches, and Lutheranism. With the Episcopal church, it would be very hard to attend. I would have to attend the 8 am Rite I services. I would rather attend the Rite II since more people attend and the language is more current. There is an Episcopal church that has a Rite II on Saturday nights but it is 45 minutes away. With the Disciples of Christ churches in my area, there are no Saturday night services and the early ones are not early enough. There are some ELCA and LCMS Lutheran congregations that have Saturday night services around here. I think the ELCA is probably a little too liberal for me. I have looked into the LCMS and it seems interesting so I may try that out. My wife and her family have been going to Independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ for years. They are contemporary, non-liturgical, place a high emphasis on scripture, and practice weekly communion. I have visited some and liked them but I still really like the liturgy. With the Catholic church, there are several positives. They have many services on a weekend, Saturday and Sunday as well as services during the week which I really think is good. I like how they focus on a personal relationship with God. With many of their beliefs (Mary, saints, etc.) I don’t know that much about it to believe one thing or another. I have requested several books from the library (conversion stories, belief of the Church, etc.) to try to get some general ideas about it. From my beliefs, where do you think I belong?

 

[ferdie]

You belong to our Lord Jesus Christ. Since you belong to Him you need to find out where he said he will be until the end of time. He surely left an authority for you to follow, for anyone who is seeking the Truth. He will not lead us astray, He left us the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Catholic Church has the Authority of our Lord Jesus Christ. Follow her and you path will be straightened.

Welcome to the forum!!!

 

[Love_is_Patient]

Hey everyone! I was raised in a Protestant church for around 16 years and then drifted away from church while in college. After getting married and try to settle down, I am trying to find a church home. My wife loves attending non-denominational “Independent Christian” churches and I love attending liturgical ones. I have to work every Sunday and it makes it very hard to attend church. I believe that the Bible is without error. I believe in taking weekly communion but regarding if Christ is present or if it’s just a spiritual thing, I do not know that much about it to make a decision. I do not believe in predestination. I do not believe in gay marriage/gay clergy. I don’t have a problem with it being in a denomination but if I had a gay clergyman/clergywoman I would not stay there. I do not believe in abortion. From my beliefs, I have researched Catholicism, the Episcopal Church, Disciples of Christ, Independent Christian Churches, and Lutheranism. With the Episcopal church, it would be very hard to attend. I would have to attend the 8 am Rite I services. I would rather attend the Rite II since more people attend and the language is more current. There is an Episcopal church that has a Rite II on Saturday nights but it is 45 minutes away. With the Disciples of Christ churches in my area, there are no Saturday night services and the early ones are not early enough. There are some ELCA and LCMS Lutheran congregations that have Saturday night services around here. I think the ELCA is probably a little too liberal for me. I have looked into the LCMS and it seems interesting so I may try that out. My wife and her family have been going to Independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ for years. They are contemporary, non-liturgical, place a high emphasis on scripture, and practice weekly communion. I have visited some and liked them but I still really like the liturgy. With the Catholic church, there are several positives. They have many services on a weekend, Saturday and Sunday as well as services during the week which I really think is good. I like how they focus on a personal relationship with God. With many of their beliefs (Mary, saints, etc.) I don’t know that much about it to believe one thing or another. I have requested several books from the library (conversion stories, belief of the Church, etc.) to try to get some general ideas about it. From my beliefs, where do you think I belong?

Well, I think everybody belongs in the Catholic Church.

With that in mind, from what you’ve written, your beliefs don’t seem incompatible with the Catholic Church’s teaching. HOWEVER, I think it’s not a question of finding where you beliefs put you – it’s a question of finding out which church teaches the truth, right?

So read those library books, go check out Mass (only, remember that the Eucharist is reserved for baptized Catholics in a state of grace) and feel free to ask any question you might have here.

God bless you on your journey.

Love is Patient

 

[Bob_Crowley]

Hey everyone! I was raised in a Protestant church for around 16 years and then drifted away from church while in college. After getting married and try to settle down, I am trying to find a church home. My wife loves attending non-denominational “Independent Christian” churches and I love attending liturgical ones. I have to work every Sunday and it makes it very hard to attend church. I believe that the Bible is without error. I believe in taking weekly communion but regarding if Christ is present or if it’s just a spiritual thing, I do not know that much about it to make a decision. I do not believe in predestination. I do not believe in gay marriage/gay clergy. I don’t have a problem with it being in a denomination but if I had a gay clergyman/clergywoman I would not stay there. I do not believe in abortion. From my beliefs, I have researched Catholicism, the Episcopal Church, Disciples of Christ, Independent Christian Churches, and Lutheranism. With the Episcopal church, it would be very hard to attend. I would have to attend the 8 am Rite I services. I would rather attend the Rite II since more people attend and the language is more current. There is an Episcopal church that has a Rite II on Saturday nights but it is 45 minutes away. With the Disciples of Christ churches in my area, there are no Saturday night services and the early ones are not early enough. There are some ELCA and LCMS Lutheran congregations that have Saturday night services around here. I think the ELCA is probably a little too liberal for me. I have looked into the LCMS and it seems interesting so I may try that out. My wife and her family have been going to Independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ for years. They are contemporary, non-liturgical, place a high emphasis on scripture, and practice weekly communion. I have visited some and liked them but I still really like the liturgy. With the Catholic church, there are several positives. They have many services on a weekend, Saturday and Sunday as well as services during the week which I really think is good. I like how they focus on a personal relationship with God. With many of their beliefs (Mary, saints, etc.) I don’t know that much about it to believe one thing or another. I have requested several books from the library (conversion stories, belief of the Church, etc.) to try to get some general ideas about it. From my beliefs, where do you think I belong?

I think you ought to stop stuffing around with church hopping, bite the bullet and join the Catholic Church. To do that you need to go through what is called the RCIA course, and you should be able to enroll in that in any Catholic Church.

You can investigate your questions regarding Marianism, Saints, Sacraments etc. at your leisure before, during and after the program. At least in the RCIA you’ll be mixing with Catholics so they should be able to answer some of your questions. Bear in mind that most of them will be lay Catholics, so they won’t have formal qualifications in most cases.

From time to time you could probably talk directly to the priest. And you can always write a letter to the nearest seminary asking for clarification if you’ve really got a problem. Or you can put a question in the apologetics section here.

You won’t solve all your questions beforehand, but when you do join, you’ll wonder what all the fuss was about in most cases.

 

[kristanl]

Scott Hahn and Jeff Cavins also write a lot about the Catholic church and used to be Protestant.
Scott Hahn has a book called “Rome Sweet Home”, which is about his journey in the Catholic faith.
The Catholic church has many more sacraments (7) the ordinary Protestant church, and we believe the Eucharist is the real presense of Jesus. Read John 6 for some biblical support.
We believe that Mary and the Saints intercede for us to God. We do not pray to them directly.
There are 7 additional books in our bible, and more to Daniel. This is not because we added books to the bible, during the Protestant reformation those books were taken out.
We pray the rosary.
We kneel, stand, and sit at mass.
We have adoration and benidiction where you can stare at the Bread (body of Jesus) and pray and read the bible and whatever you want.
We dont eat meat on Fridays during lent. We fast. We have many prayers that we recite as well, many of which are memorized by the average Catholic.
I think it will be great for you to attend a mass, but like someone said earlier, you cannot recieve the eucharist because you have to be baptized in the faith first. (This rule is also for protestants who do not believe in the Real Presense) of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Hopefully some of this helps!!

 

[BrianH]

Conservative liturgical churches are hard to come by. Some of the Anglican ones, if you can find them, are quite small but meet the criteria you stated.
As such I would suggest the LCMS does indeed fit what you said.
Disciple of Christ run the gamut from conservative to liberal so that would depend on the congregation.
I also do not see anything that would prevent you from learning more about Orthodoxy or Catholicism as well although the things you mentioned are not peripheal but central to them.