Shopping for a Church? Give me that Real Old Time Religion Comments

Church shopping is symptomatic of a deep longing for God. However, it suffers from an inadequate ecclesiology, which is a theology of the Church. We do not make the Church in our image, the Church re-makes us into Christ's Image through the grace which is mediated through the Sacraments, revealed in His Word and experienced in our ecclesial life. Continue Reading

11 - 15 of 15 Comments

Theresa
1 year ago
Good Article. I also find myself thinking in terms of "Church Shopping" within (and from) the Catholic Church....which the vast majority of most Catholics would never have even thought of 40-50 years ago....Pope Benedict is taking up Bl. Pope John's Paul II's insight regarding the need for the "New Evangelization" of "once Christian nations", including the USA. The "renewal" envisioned by Vatican II still has some ways to go.... This coming Advent is but the start! Time has proven that it wasn't so much "external" renewal that was needed, as greater "internal" renewal....(And now, what is the % of Catholics receiving the Sacraments on a regular basis...?)
Sylvia
1 year ago
There are two problems I see in the Church, one is that people are "not" evangelizing, and do not seem to be motivated at all "in my cirlces" anyways. The second is, is that even when someone brings someone to the Church, the lack of support and "stares" is ridiculous. For example, I asked a young man if he would like to join me at a prayer breakfast (Catholic), at the time, he had a drug problem, and has ADHD. This said, he was kind of hyper though quite social, but received stares and no reaching out from other members. Others I have brought to a regular (not Latin Mass or Charismatic) Parish, where from another Christian Faith (not evangelical, really, just searching going everywhere or one going to no Church). Again, it is very difficult to bring people back to Church who are so far out left field (eg. New Age beliefs, etc.) I find many Catholics that go to Church, lack "depth".

Another example for me, I met a young lady who right now is a lesbian, where do I bring her and her partner on Sunday if they choose to come? (Actually, I orginally thought of a prayer breakfast, and then slowly the Church, if it is God's will and if it will ever happen.) I mention this because most people don't even think these people or anyone "can change". For those in that boat, please see this:

http://pfox.org/Former_Transgender_Tells_His_Story.html

speaking of which, where I work, I have a transgendered fellow who came in, and his mother. How could I bring him back to the Catholic Church.
Larry
1 year ago
I do not believe I have to go to church to be a catholic, or anything else. For years there wasn't one catholic church that I could stand going to within reasonable drive. Now there is, so we go to it. Yes the church is a gift, but it drifted away from me, not the other way arround.
jpaYMCA
1 year ago
One corrective of a possible mis-interpretation of this principle: it is licit to "shop" for the best parish in your "area", at least if we are to believe the Holy Father's (and Cardinal Burke's) recent comments about the power of "good Liturgy" to help us become better Christians, and the destructive power of "bad/unfaithful Liturgy" in de-christianizing us. In my part of the USA that has meant a two-hour drive to the local Extraordinary Form parish, or to a Byzantine parish not much closer: lex credendi legem statuat orandi ... and vice versa.
John Collier
1 year ago
Hello,
Thank you for this interesting article. My wife and I came into the Church last Easter. As you point out, Most evangelicals see the Church differently from the way Catholics do. They see their relationship with Jesus as the permanent part of their religious life . Everything else is in flux. There is some good about this way of looking at things: Jesus is kept at the center of things; denominational prejudice is kept to a minimum; when the local church goes off the rails, it is possible to find a better place to go. But this way of looking at the Church makes it unimportant. When the average Evangelical ( as I was) saw Bible verses which made important claims for the Church, we would just assume, " someone must know what this means , but I don't. " The Catholic Church is not even on their radar screen. They have never talked to a knowledgeable Catholic about their faith; they have never talked to an unknowledgeable Catholic about their faith; they instinctively think of the early Church as being just like themselves.
Catholics! Talk to your Evangelical neighbor! Tell him you too love Jesus. Introduce him the the Early Fathers.

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