Jack Mulder, a former member of the Reformed Church in America, speaks on what led him to the Catholic Church.
While Elizabeth enjoyed the blessings of being brought up in a devout Christian environment, she always had a nagging doubt about being “once saved, always saved.” Her desire for the truth and her husband’s Catholic background led her to investigate the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Reflecting on my life, I recognize God’s hand leading me through the times of joy and sorrow. I can now trace the turns in the road that led me to the best thing that happened to me in my life: coming home to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
by Dr. Kenneth Howell. I am deeply grateful for how I grew up. I was baptized into the Presbyterian Church when I was an infant, grew up in a good, solid congregation that had a vibrant youth group in my teen years. I attended a Presbyterian college, a Reformed seminary, and taught in a Reformed seminary before becoming a Catholic. As I look back I can now see three ways in which the Reformed Faith prepared me for becoming a Catholic.
I was raised in a small-town, Southern Baptist church in Virginia where I, along with my sister, my two brothers, and our parents, attended Sunday School and church nearly every Sunday that I can remember. In my early teen years, I responded to a preacher’s invitation to accept Christ as my Lord and Savior and was baptized. The experience of the waters of baptism seemed to be one of re-birth. I felt as though my sins were washed away and there was a new beginning and opportunity for me ahead. However, I did not experience much growth in grace during my later high school years and I went away to college in 1970 very disappointed with my hometown and the Christians that I knew.
I was born into a loving, believing community, a Protestant “mother church” (the Reformed Church) which, though it had not for me the fullness of the faith, had strong and genuine piety. I believed, mainly because of the good example of my parents and my church. The faith of my parents, Sunday School teachers, ministers, and relatives made a real difference to their lives, a difference big enough to compensate for many shortcomings. “Love covers a multitude of sins.”
Author Nancy Groom shares her faith journey which began and continued for many years in the Christian Reformed Church. Her Calvinist theology formed the basis of her perception of God
I was like many teenagers: The Church’s proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ just did not seem relevant to my life. I never made a conscious choice to be an atheist; rather, I just assumed that the Church had nothing to say to me.
William was raised a Presbyterian with deep roots in that heritage. After school he became a secular humanist. Finally, in his forty’s, he realized he needed God in his life.