MegaChurch or Catholic Church?

taylormarshall.com ^ | August 26, 2013 | Dr. Taylor Marshall

[NYer]

Megachurch. Two young ladies. Both had left the Catholic Church. Both were now attending “megachurches.” We had a good chat together. I wanted to understand their reasons for why they left the Catholic Church for a megachurch.

Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Megachurch
43,500 weekly attendance

I was at the bank and somehow I got into a spiritual conversation with two Hispanic executives that worked there.

Why the Megachurch?

When I asked why they exchanged the Catholic Church for the megachurch, they gave me a number of reasons:

1. “My new church has an iPhone app. I can go on my iPhone and get Bible studies, sermons (video and audio). When I travel I can still watch the sermon, either live or later. I feel apart of the community.”
2. “The preaching is dynamic and speaks to my life. I find practical encouragement.”
3. “I felt judged at the Catholic Church.”
4. “People were not friendly or welcoming at the Catholic Church. The first time I went to my new church, I was welcomed by so many people.”
5. “My new church has classes and courses that are interesting and helpful.”
6. “The music is better.”
7. “In the Catholic Church, they use a lot of words that I did not understand.”
8. “People pray for each other and know each other (in the megachurch).”

Although these two ladies didn’t articulate it explicitly to me, I could tell that they were very proud of their new churches. I could also discern in them a surprise that I am so “spiritual” and yet I am very excited about being Catholic. They assumed the “with it” people were leaving Catholicism for the bigger and better and deal.

I asked them what they miss about being Catholic. They replied with two answers:

1. “There are not any crosses in my new church. I know it makes some people feel uncomfortable, but I wish we had crosses.”
2. “What will I do when I die?” They were both unclear about whether they could get anything like Last Rites at the megachurch.

What About the Eucharist?

I asked both about the Eucharist: “Don’t you miss the Eucharist?”

This question didn’t phase them one bit. “Oh we still have communion. They pass out little crackers and cups of juice. I like this better because I thought drinking from one big cup is icky. Spreads germs.”

“But in the Catholic Church,” I replied, “we believe that the Eucharist is the real Body and Blood of Jesus?”

I may as well have said, “Don’t you know that there are Martians in my back pocket.” She was unaware that the Catholic Church taught this. No idea.

The Problem

This, my brothers and sisters, is the crux of the problem. These girls were raised as Catholics, but did not know about the Eucharist. They did not know that the Eucharist is God. They did not understand the Holy Eucharist is the center of the Catholic tradition.

So when they compare our ho-hum Catholic music and pedestrian sermons to snazzy well produced musical productions and highly polished bulleted sermons from handsome professional speakers…where are they going to go?

If they had believed that the Holy Eucharist is truly the Lord Jesus Christ, then they would have stayed. This is the task of the New Evangelization if there is going to be one. Can we communicate the mystery of Eucharist. If we fail in that, everyone is leaving the building.

Godspeed,
Taylor

PS: I don’t mean to suggest that having the Holy Eucharist is an excuse for bad music, bad vestments, bad architecture, and bad sermons. The Eucharist is like a precious diamond. It deserves a platinum setting…not a plastic setting. We can’t say, “Well, we have the Eucharist – so you’re forced to stay and have a miserable experience every Sunday.” We can’t keep the sacraments hostage to mediocracy.

PPS: With 1 billion strong, the Catholic Church is the real megachurch!

Pope Francis at Rio de Janeiro
3 million people

[metmom]

infallible in matters of faith and morals....infallible

Nonsense.

Nobody ever gave anyone such a guarantee.

And considering the lifestyle that seems to characterize most of the RC clergy for most of its history, double nonsense.

[verga]

You are not giving God enough credit...It is impossible for a human female to get pregnant without the cooperation of a human male...But it happened... Apparently modern science has proven that that a female can not provide the necessary chromosome to create a male of the species...That chromosome had to have been provided by a human male, or God... While that flies in the face of what the Catholic religion teaches, there is no other way around it...

You don't know Jack about science. "Virgin" births are incredibly rare but they do occur in nature. The offspring is always female and they rarely are able to gestate to full term, but they do occur.

[verga]

BB you see the trinity only because the Catholic Church defined it for you. If you are intellectually honest when you look at each of the verses you can just as easily see three separate entities, much like the Greek or Roman Pantheon.

[Elsie]

Wow!

I’ve been offline for 3 days and this thing just keeps on going!

%00 more to read?

I think not!

[CynicalBear]

>> "Virgin" births are incredibly rare but they do occur in nature.<<

Please show where you got the scientific evidence for that please.

[metmom]

[verga]

The scientific term is Pathogenesis;

http://leahlefler.hubpages.com/hub/Parthenogenesis-Virgin-Births-in-Nature

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/19555550

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis

Further proof (As if we actually need it)that a home school education is an incomplete on.

This is the part wehre all three of you admit your error. I don't beleive that any of you have the personal integrity to, but I would love to be surprised.

[Iscool]

You don't know Jack about science. "Virgin" births are incredibly rare but they do occur in nature. The offspring is always female and they rarely are able to gestate to full term, but they do occur.

Well one thing IS clear...You DO know Jack...

look-no dad zoo shark is born

[Melian]

I didn’t say the Holy Spirt just inspires the Apostles. But Christ prayed for the Apostles in a special way as the leaders of his Church and promised he would not leave them rudderless. He promised them the Holy Spirit would continue to guide His Church. Obviously, the KJV of the Bible would downplay that.

The Holy Spirit touches us all, of course, but guides the Church leaders in a unique way. Only Catholics trace their roots back to the original 11 Apostles. Other religions started some time later: directly opposing Christ’s wish for his Church to stay unified. Catholicism is the most Biblically accurate religion there is... which makes sense since it was the only one instituted by Christ Himself. We trace our leadership right back to Peter, Christ’s bedrock foundation.

We also don’t pick and choose between the easy Scripture and the difficult. We take all of it as Christ’s word. He said we must eat His flesh and drink His blood, and that’s just what we do in the Eucharist. It was too hard a teaching for the weak then, and it’s too hard a teaching for the weak now. Christ lets them go. He meant everything He said!

Protestantism is the LEAST unified religion on the planet. That alone indicates it is not Christ’s Church. Every 3 seconds, a new Billy Bob decides he’s got a better personal interpretation of Scripture and starts a church. I would never put my soul in the hands of any religion that was not unified, holy, and anciently Apostolic. It flies in the face of Christ’s own Holy Spirit-inspired Scripture.

[Religion Moderator]

You don't know Jack

Reading the mind of another Freeper is a form of "making it personal."

Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.

[Iscool]

This is the part wehre all three of you admit your error. I don't beleive that any of you have the personal integrity to, but I would love to be surprised.

You earned one too...

[Iscool]

Reading the mind of another Freeper is a form of "making it personal."

Good catch...I didn't realize that as I typed it...

[Iscool]

We also don’t pick and choose between the easy Scripture and the difficult. We take all of it as Christ’s word.

You guys keep proving this is just a meaningless cliche'...

I didn’t say the Holy Spirt just inspires the Apostles. But Christ prayed for the Apostles in a special way as the leaders of his Church and promised he would not leave them rudderless. He promised them the Holy Spirit would continue to guide His Church.

The Holy Spirit touches us all, of course, but guides the Church leaders in a unique way.

Apparently you boldly deny that the average Catholic is indwelt with the Holy Spirit in spite of all the scripture posted in this thread...

I can understand a religion teaching this apostasy but I can not fathom people believing it especially when a bible is available to them...

[metmom]

Further proof (As if we actually need it)that a home school education is an incomplete on.

Document that this is taught in public schools.

[metmom]

But Christ prayed for the Apostles in a special way as the leaders of his Church and promised he would not leave them rudderless.

And he's going to what? Leave the rest of us to flounder? He gives the Holy Spirit to all believers and since it's the same Holy Spirit, none of us are left rudderless.

John 17:9-26 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

[CynicalBear]

>>Obviously, the KJV of the Bible would downplay that.<<

Well, let’s see what your credibility is. This from the KJV.

Acts 15:8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; 9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

Shizam! There goes your credibility. You really should do just a little research before making comments. Especially if you’re going to attempt snide. Makes ya look bad.

>> The Holy Spirit touches us all, of course, but guides the Church leaders in a unique way. Only Catholics trace their roots back to the original 11 Apostles.<<

Seriously dude! You need to do your research. Acts 15:8 wasn’t talking about “church leaders”. What part of no difference between us and them” do you not understand? That RCC that you brag about has lied to you big time.

>> Catholicism is the most Biblically accurate religion there is..<<

ROFL! Just that one verse shows they are not “accurate”. It’s ironic that it was Peter who inspired by the Holy Spirit said those words. The very apostle the RCC claims to follow can’t even tell the truth about what the Holy Spirit said through Peter.

>>We trace our leadership right back to Peter<<

ROFLOL!!! Yer killin me here! Peter said no difference between us and them” and you want me to believe the RCC follows Peter? Seriously?

You can repeat all the propaganda lines (aka lies) from the RCC you want but don’t expect those who follow scripture rather than some men in pointy Dagon the fish god priest hats to fall for those lines (aka lies).

>> We take all of it as Christ’s word.<<

Give me a break. Catholics don’t even take the Holy Spirit’s words through Peter from Acts 15:8. Don’t expect us to believe they take anything else from scripture over what they make up.

[CynicalBear]

>>This is the part wehre all three of you admit your error.<<

Well, let’s see if we were in error or not first shall we?

Parthenogenetic offspring in species that use either the XY or the X0 sex-determination system have two X chromosomes and are female. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis]

Looks like you have just proved youreself wrong again. Notice that if they get all of their DNA from the female they are female? Jesus was male. Ooops. Seems you have shown documentation that desproves what you said about Jesus getting all His DNA from Mary.

This is the point where you really need to admit your statement about Jesus getting all His DNA from Mary had to be incorrect. I would hope you have the personal integrity but I probably won’t be surprised.

[verga]

Document that this is taught in public schools.

That is where I learned it 30+ years ago in New York and we teach it here in Va and I live in a rural district.

Now please demonstrate the tiniest amount of Christian charity and integrity and admit that I was correct.

[verga]

My original post:"Virgin" births are incredibly rare but they do occur in nature. The offspring is always female and they rarely are able to gestate to full term, but they do occur.

I would say that matches up quite nicely.

Still waiting on you three to admit your error.I won't hold my breath.

[Jvette]

I shall pray for you.

Your posts here and for years have been an inspiration to me.