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Coupla things in response to your post and the thread.

1: Your situation is a little similar to mine, except for the fact that I didn’t walk away from a Catholic church, I walked away from an ELCA Lutheran church. They didn’t speak Latin but they might as well have spoken Latin, considering the unfortunate SJW gobbeldygook that they KEPT ON SPOUTING. It was like I was thirsty but they kept on giving me salt water. Went to a small startup LCMS congregation at age 19 and never looked back. Now just a month ago I was ordained as an LCMS pastor, and I credit huge swaths of that to the fact that I FINALLY got to hear Jesus being preached.

2: We here in the Missouri Synod (and it really should be all Lutherans, but the ELCA has drunk the SJW Kool-Aid) make a point to preach both Word and Sacrament. Sacrament being defined as something physical that has the Word attached to it, specifically for the purpose of delivering God’s grace. (Now that’s a little complicated; we still believe in salvation by grace through faith, but for now let’s just say that belief in Christ is what saves, just that the manner of that belief can come in pure Word, but also in the Word attached to the waters of baptism or the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion. Aaaanyways.) But the focus HAS to be on the work of Christ, not our own works. We can’t work our way into eternal life; he died for us. A church service that doesn’t have the Word is no worship at all.

3: I am just praying that if the persecution that Paul speaks about arrives, that I will have the strength and the faith to persevere through it.

After reading your post, I just figured I might as well share my own experiences between churches where Jesus is central and churches where Jesus is... not.