“I looked at Christianity within my own cultural context and wondered, as a foreign missionary, how much of Christianity in America was distinctly Christian and how much was just my own cultural values with a bit of Christianity sprinkled on top? There were two axes that I could measure my own Christian upbringing against: history and universality. How did my understanding of the Bible and my own practice of the Christian life compare to that of Christians in other places and other times? If the Church is the Body of Christ in time and space, then surely the Church as a recognizable, apostolic body did not vanish following the last chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. At the time, I had no inkling that I was looking for ‘one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church…’”
Written Story
I was born into a Muslim family in Kurdistan in northern Iraq. I was the 5th child of a large family. The Arab culture and the religion of Islam were the dominant influences, overshadowing the three other nations in Iraq, the largest of which are the Kurds.
I was a child of the manse. My father was a Presbyterian minister and my mother the director of Christian education. I had a good Christian upbringing and after college served as a lay Presbyterian missionary in Caracas, Venezuela.
I was quite young the first time I saw him, so I don’t remember where it happened. But I do remember being terrified by the sight: that tortured man, thorn-crowned,
“I was a ‘baby’ Christian struggling to live as one, becoming more and more aware of my sinfulness, as well as my inability to make the needed changes.” Marilyn Grodi discusses her journey home.
The founder of The Coming Home Network discusses his conversion from being a Presbyterian pastor.
Musical legend Dion DiMucci’s life radically changed when he turned down a fateful plane ride with Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly.
An excited Southern Baptist associate pastor, Gray Bean, eventually saw the logic of his Protestant doctrines falling one by one. Now he is a Catholic priest!
“The more we studied, the more the beauty, majesty, weight and history of the whole of the Christian world seemed to open up to us. We had not really left our core beliefs behind at all – indeed we love and greatly appreciate what we had been given in our Presbyterian communities – we had only fleshed them out in a real sense.”
Episcopal minister, Steven Anderson, shares his story of conversion along with the logical and biblical reasons why he became Catholic.
Former Methodist and Lutheran seminarian, Jim Anderson is an employee of the Coming Home Network. He made the journey home to the Catholic Church while attending Protestant seminary.
Stunned when a leader in his evangelical church announced that he was returning to the Catholic Church of his youth, Dow Escalante began to study Catholicism to see where his friend went wrong. Little did he know, that Church history and Scripture would bring him Home, too.
The Roman Catholic Church makes great claims of itself. By these, it distinguishes itself from any other Christian denomination in the world. As a matter of fact, many of these
Help us share the truth and beauty of the Church.
Help us share the truth and beauty of the Church.
