“I grew up United Methodist but considered myself a Protestant mutt. I left the UM church shortly after high school and was a member of a Freewill Baptist church for several years. I became deeply interested in the Catholic Faith during college and even started RCIA way back in 2005 through a friend who attended a parish in West Virginia. Unfortunately, my grandmother had a stroke, which required my mother and I to move in and take care of her of full-time. This difficult period of my life forced me to step away from RCIA, but I never lost the interest or the desire to learn more about the Church and her history…”
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.
“Living with many mutually contradictory doctrines made understanding the faith similar to trying to complete a complex puzzle from a combination of different jigsaw puzzles stirred together.” Evangelical Wesley Vincent noticed that every pastor who preached the Bible seemed to have a different understanding of what it meant to be a follower of Christ.
Najib lived most of his life in Lebanon as a pilot, growing up in a home split between Orthodox and Evangelical beliefs. After rediscovering the Bible and listening to American Protestant radio, Najib decided he needed to find the one, united Church that Christ established. The Early Church Fathers led him home to the Catholic Church.
In the Mormon faith, God was presented to JoAnn “not as the mysterious, ineffable source of all creation, but simply as an evolved human being who meted out salvation much like an insurance agent issues a policy: with little passion and lots of contingencies.” Now, her soul “is at peace and I rest secure knowing that the Lord’s unfathomable grace and mercy are gifts to be received with deep thanks, not to be earned in anxiety.”
My wife, Jeanette, and I were both raised in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and learned to hold strong negative feelings about the Catholic Church. My mother took great pride in being opposed to the Catholic Church; she did not know much about it, but she knew she was against it.
How (Not) to Become Catholic is an insightful look at how a Presbyterian pastor was led to the fullness of truth in the Catholic Church, but from the perspective of what Protestants should not do so as to avoid becoming Catholic such as “Avoid Being ‘Deep in History'” and “Do Not Read the Church Fathers.” A profound and interesting perspective at conversion. Download your free copy today!
Becoming Catholic was never my dream or intent. It is still an all too vivid memory to me, sitting alone at age 40 in a half-lit basement, having resigned from the pastorate. I ached for having abandoned the weekly privilege of a pulpit from which to proclaim God’s truth. Would I ever have this privilege again? Will I ever again have a pulpit? Now they estimate that each week from the “pulpit” of The Journey Home television program I speak to a potential audience of over a billion viewers and listeners. In one night I speak to more people than I ever could have in my entire career as a Protestant minister. This is the humor of our merciful God. Before I converted I had no idea whatsoever how I would support my family let alone how I would continue in ministry. But this is getting way ahead of myself.
Margaret Smith’s world was rocked when a Catholic chaplain brought her to the realization that Christ desired all of his followers to be united as one. Praying for God’s will in her life, she trusted God’s will with an open heart.
After a heart-wrenching encounter with a priest, devout Catholic Paul Lambert fell into a deep depression of sin, alcoholism, and godlessness. After incarceration and much suffering, he discovered the wound he had kept from the Lord and made his way into full communion with the Church of his youth.
In my youth, my whole family was actively involved in many aspects of the United Church of Canada in Calgary, Alberta and in Montreal, Quebec. They were good and creative years. My call to ministry came while serving as a counselor for a church camp outside Montreal. One beautiful summer morning, the sun was dancing off the water and a gentle breeze was blowing.
After leaving the Catholic Church and attending evangelical denominations, Louise Winant sought the truth of Christ and decided to reconcile with the church of her youth. Even after returning, there was one teaching of the Catholic Church — the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist — that Louise could not get over, until Jesus touched her heart.
Our third son was 10 days old on “Reformation Sunday” 1998. The preacher that Sunday at the local Lutheran church we attended was a retired Lutheran school principal, a man in his 70s with a great shock of white hair. He ascended the pulpit and held up a book, a book he proclaimed “the work of the devil!” The book was by a Catholic author on justification. The preacher offered this book as evidence that “the Reformation must go on!” To me, he came across as so angry and fearful, so unreasonably opposed to the Catholic author, that I leaned over and whispered to my husband, Joe, and said “Sounds like a book we ought to read.”
Help us share the truth and beauty of the Church.
Help us share the truth and beauty of the Church.
Help us share the truth and beauty of the Church.
