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

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Calgary = Calvary

I hate auto-correct

[Alas Babylon!]

[CynicalBear]

That’s not what I said Mrs. Don. I took those images to mean that because others did it we shouldn’t condemn only the Catholic Church. Or, you meant that they were just using images and trying to get us to believe that is all that Catholics do.

Well, no one else kneels before the image and asks the image to do something for them. Do I think they were worshiping images? NO You seem to have made an assumption that the man in the graveyard was praying rather than just contemplating the life of the deceased and missing that person. You said those kids sitting on the floor listening to a speaker were kneeling. You comparisons were not what you had hoped I’m thinking. And now your understanding of what I meant is in total error as well.

[CynicalBear]

>> The Creed says Christ was "born of the Virgin Mary" --- which, if I'm not mistaken, all Christians believe.<<

Let me compare it to something. Mormons also claim they believe in Jesus. Do you believe they mean the same thing as you?

>> Weren't the Apostles the founding preachers/teachers/church-planters, so to speak, of the Christian Church?<<

Not like the Catholics would have us think.

[CynicalBear]

>>Are you married?<<

Yes.

>>Do you or your spouse wear wedding rings?<<

No.

>>Can you show me where they are found in the Bible?<<

They are not as the wearing of wedding rings has nothing to do with worshiping God.

Surely you don’t expect anyone to think wearing wedding rings is comparable to the use of paganism in the Catholic Church worship of God do you?

[CynicalBear]

>> Yes, the Catholic Mass resembles the eternal heavenly worship.<<

There is no replacement for Christ on earth. Scripture does teach that the anti Christ will try.

>> These scriptural descriptions of divine worship should not seem foreign to Protestants.<<

What makes you think I am a “Protestant”? Are you so narrow minded as to think that anyone not a Catholic is a Protestant?

>> In the Mass, Christ, acting through the person of the priest,<<

Scriptural proof of that concept please.

>> makes present the sacrifice of Calgary, offering Himself to the Father<<

Christ did that once for all time and not to be repeated. Catholics evidently believe when Christ said “it is finished” He wasn’t serious.

[SoothingDave]

No Catholic kneels before an image and asks the image to do something for them.

[SoothingDave]

I applaud you on your consistency on avoiding a wedding ring as pagan.

Do you think any professed Christian who used such a non-Biblical thing in a church wedding is guilty of paganism?

[CynicalBear]

LOL Nice try. Neither did the pagans. They all had gods who the image represented. Nice try tho.

[CynicalBear]

>> Do you think any professed Christian who used such a non-Biblical thing in a church wedding is guilty of paganism?<<

Are they using it to worship God or simply as a sign of commitment to each other and a sign to others of that commitment? Nice attempt at obfuscation tho.

[BipolarBob]

Actually only two mysteries are about Mary

I don't know anything about any mysteries, but does your Church not refer to Mary as "Mother of God" or Queen of Heaven"?

[metmom]

There’s a difference between Jesus sitting on His throne and the priest sitting on something that resembles a throne.

[johngrace]

"Do you have so little faith in God that He wouldn’t get His will done regardless of what man does? I have faith that He could have used rocks if need be. Luke 19:40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. When are Catholics going to start giving God the credit instead of man? "

REALITY CHECK?

HE Did Not use ROCKS to become man. He Choose to have a Mother. He had to have a Mother. If he is sinless by Obeying the Ten Commandments those requirements have to be met by him having a human mother. He has to obey the honor to his Mother and Father in the Ten Commandments. Otherwise he is not our Savior. He would not have obeyed the Ten Commandments if he came from rocks. Also it was always his Mothers free Choice otherwise God is a Tryant and not God. If it was forced it is wrong.

[metmom]

And here's everybody kneeling at a Nativity Scene devotion sponsored by Campus Crusade members in Children's Ministry (I don't know if you can see it, but there's the Star of Bethlehem):

I see a bunch of kids sitting cross legged.....

But here's a veteran praying on Memorial Day. Do you think he's committing idolatry? Of course not. No reasonable person thinks that. He's praying to God --- I feel fairly confident of that.

Of course that's what anyone would conclude.

But he is not kneeling and bowing his head before a statue.

The second commandment says not to BOW DOWN before the images. Bowing is bowing.

Anyone can argue till the cows come home that what it is is not worship, but God circumvents that by making it clear that it's BOWING we are not to do.

And bowing is bowing.

[CynicalBear]

You can’t be serious. That’s what you got out of God’s statement about “the rocks would cry out”? Seriously? Take your focus off of man and put it on God.

[metmom]

And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live." So Moses made a bronze serpent... Numbers 21:8-9

The discussion is about bowing down before the image. God FORBIDS bowing down or serving them.

You do realize what happened to that bronze serpent eventually, don't you?

2 Kings 18:1-4 In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).

[metmom]

Actually, we do believe in Mary's perpetual virginity, but that's not what's specifically affirmed in the Nicene Creed. The Creed says Christ was "born of the Virgin Mary" --- which, if I'm not mistaken, all Christians believe.

Of course Christ had to be virgin born to fulfill prophecy, but that is it. There's no requirement for Mary to remain a virgin after that. The angel did tell Joseph to take Mary as his WIFE. And he did not *know* her until AFTER she gave birth to Jesus.

[editor-surveyor]

The WHORE, or her DAUGHTERS, what’s the difference?

They’re both condemned.

[ansel12]

No I don’t see your point at all, or what all your posting has been about or how you keep claiming inaccurate numbers, or what your confusion about them is.

My post 52 was a simple enough post, responding to a strange claim, but you went on some odd and senseless journey about it for some reason.

[johngrace]

Your saying in your original argument that God did not need Mary His Mother but he could have been made from Rocks instead of being born of a woman? Correct me if I am wrong. Your original statement is what?