Hear the stories of Catholic Converts from a Pentecostal background and learn what led them to embrace the Catholic Church.
“During the years in the Charismatic Church, I joined the praise and worship team as a vocalist and pianist. The non-denominational church I attended in New Jersey around 1985 was one of the fastest growing churches in the community. There were many former Roman Catholics and Baptists also attending. We considered all established denominations (both Protestant and Catholic) as ‘dead’ in the Holy Spirit.”
– Deacon Kevin Stephenson
A FEW GREAT VIDEOS
Kenny Burchard 18:36
Kenny Burchard was a Foursquare pastor for a number of years, but even becoming Christian in the first place as a teenager was a source of conflict in his family, because of his parents’ complicated feelings toward religion. During his time as a pastor, he began to make several discoveries about Christology, Scripture, history and the sacraments and found himself agreeing with Catholic thought on more and more questions. Kenny shares how he came to the conviction that it wasn’t enough for him to just agree with the Catholics on all these things; he needed to join them in their communion with Christ. Watch Kenny’s story.
Rachel Bulman 55:33
Rachel Bulman was born in the Philippines and adopted by Pentecostal missionaries. She had a strong Christian identity growing up, but began to have questions about divisions in Christianity, and where her place was in all of it. When she began dating a Catholic, it was the first time she’d been confronted with the reality of anti-Catholicism, and she knew she needed to learn more. The more she explored, the more she fell in love with the Catholic Church, through the sacraments, the intellectual tradition, and through devotion to the Blessed Mother. Watch Rachel’s episode.
Mark McNeil 56:09
Mark McNeil was raised Baptist, but when he encountered the ideas of a local Oneness Pentecostal congregation, he was intrigued. Its pastor used Scripture in a way Mark hadn’t encountered before, to argue that the Trinity was an invention of the Catholic Church, and that God merely changed his identity at various points in history. After years of adhering to this belief, Mark began to realize that his proof-text approach to the Bible had major flaws, and accepting the authority of the early Church regarding the Trinity helped lead him to accept the authority of the Catholic Church on other matters as well. Watch Mark’s episode.
A FEW GREAT WRITTEN STORIES
A Oneness Pentecostal Minister Becomes Catholic
Michael Garcia
“In my teens, I slowly began to drift away from the Church by not receiving Communion and eventually not attending Mass at all. I always seemed to find an excuse for not going. After high school, I entered the United States Navy, and my church attendance eroded even more, but I always felt that God was somehow with me. At this time, my older brother was getting involved with a United Pentecostal Church (UPC), and I saw a change in his life.” Read Michael’s story.
His Open Arms Welcomed Me
Dr. Paul Thigpen
“I served as a missionary evangelist in Europe, an associate pastor of a charismatic congregation, and a writer and editor for several Christian publishers. Those were good years, years of settling into a deep relationship with the God I’d once abandoned. He gave me a beloved Christian wife and two children who learned to seek His face from a tender age. But at last the time came for yet another conversion in my life — and another baptism of joy.” Read Dr. Thigpen’s story.
To Love Him and Make Him Loved
Dr. Terry and Renee Wortz
“As one of five sons of an Assemblies of God pastor, my family was always the first to arrive at the church and the last to leave. I have always understood that Jesus loves me and wants to have a close relationship with me. I was taught that you could tell Christians by their deeds. However, it was not so much what they did that identified them, but rather what they did not do. I was taught that Christians did not go to movie theaters, did not play cards, did not smoke, and did not drink alcohol.” Read Terry and Renee’s story.
More Inspiration for the Journey
Explore the full archive of conversion stories from Christians of Pentecostal background.
Explore Full Archive
RECOMMENDED BOOKS & OTHER RESOURCES FOR PENTECOSTALS
No Price Too High
by Deacon Alex Jones
Alex Jones was an “on-fire” Pentecostal minister in Detroit. He greatly loved his people and they loved him. In seeking to give his flock the most genuine experience of the early Church prayer and worship services, he carefully read Scripture, the Fathers of the Church and writings of the early saints. The more he read, the more Alex came to the startling conclusion that the present day Catholic Church – and the Holy Mass – is the same exact “worship service ” from the very early Church. He began to share his findings with his parish, and eventually he, and most of his parish, joined the Catholic Church.
Journeys Home
Edited by Marcus Grodi
Journeys Home contains the stories of men and women who, having surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ, heard a call to follow Him more completely. Many of them were pastors or missionaries. Others were lay men and women who, though working in secular jobs, took their calling to serve Christ in the world very seriously. In each case, their desire to follow Christ faithfully, and to remain faithful to the truth He taught and the Church He established through His apostles, led them to embrace the Catholic Church.
From Full Gospel To The Full Gospel: The Journey of a Pentecostal Minister to the Roman Catholic Church
by G. Francis Vonwald
“When I was a young minister I thought that I had the whole truth. I was a Pentecostal minister preaching what I thought was the full Gospel. Am I now saying that I was wrong. Actually, the answer is no. I simply didn’t have all the weapons for spiritual warfare. Had the Lord spoken to me to become a Catholic any earlier in my life, I would not have obeyed. I would simply have reasoned that it wasn’t the Lord speaking to me.”
