Sola Scriptura Pt. I

I would like to begin with a formal apology. Our recent announcement concerning our upcoming conversion to Catholicism has kicked up a little bit of dust, so to say. It is only natural that those we love and have journeyed with would have questions and/or concerns about our decision. I admit that I may have responded in anger to some of the concerns that were brought about, and for this I ask your forgiveness. It has never been my intention to point out how Protestants are wrong and why Catholics are right. Are Protestants Christians? Yes. Are Catholics Christians? Yes. We are all Christians. We all declare Christ as Lord. However, there is a key difference between Protestantism and Catholicism. Catholics understand and proclaim the importance of Scripture for faith and salvation, but we also hold to Church Tradition as a pillar of faith. This is where Protestants disagree.

Reverence and Unity

My wonderful wife, Amanda, has laid the groundwork for the beginnings of our spiritual journey. And so we shall begin with coffee and television.

            Shortly after becoming a Christian through the Southern Baptist church I began attending a non-denominational church complete with a full coffee bar. This was a new and fresh way for me to view church. It was liberating for me. This became home for me. That was in 2003. Now we are in the year 2014, more than ten years later. Coffee is still served in an adjacent room to the chapel of most churches in America, and along with this we have TVs set up so that the congregation may sip coffee in a comfortable chair while worshipping their God via a television. Who could ask for anything more? I am speaking on this topic for two reasons. First, we noticed that there is little to no reverence for God in non-denomination churches. And secondly, that this idea of being comfortable in church addresses the problematic issue of division.

Our Conversion Story: Part 3: The Wyoming Years

This is Part 3 and the final part of our story. In case you missed them, Part I is here and Part II is here.

I apologize in advance for the novel that this post has become! Also, apologies for the at times strong wordings. We mean them to be strong not harsh. We have all the respect for the various approaches to Christianity. These are but expressions of the struggles that passed through our minds along the way and currently.

            Wyoming has been a time of complete transition for us. We went from believing that a house church was the way to Catholicism. We both discovered passions in our lives that we had not previously seen. We also came to face some of our deepest failings including the depth to which we will go to avoid conflict and to please those around us.

Our Conversion Story: Part 2: The Tallahassee Years

This is Part 2 of our Conversion Story. If you missed it, you can find Part 1 here.

            Motivated by our new sense of urgency for the Gospel, a love of prayer, and a desire to share both with Tallahassee, we left Indiana. The end goal was for Mark to get a degree which would allow us to teach as a way into ministry in China (the country we dreamers were in love with at the time). Choosing Tallahassee allowed Mark to spend some final time in his hometown after leaving it suddenly three years before.

            Tallahassee was difficult for both of us to say the least and I am not only speaking about our hatred of humidity and poor relationships with the sun and heat. Our time appeared to begin with promise. Despite all warnings of the difficulty to do so, I secured a teaching job through miraculous intervention. However, this teaching job was at possibly the worst school with the worst principal and as I started teaching late, I received as welcome gift any student who had had behavioral problems assigned to my class. I loved the children dearly but it made for a rather difficult first year of teaching. Let’s just say that a teaching degree from Wyoming did not prepare me for an inner city Florida classroom! Mark after being unable to find work elsewhere ended up at Chick-fil-a. To him, this felt a step backwards. He had left Tallahassee with dreams of going to school in Montana only to return three years later and work in the same job he had before he left. Having left ministry with barely enough to break even, we had to spend the first five months living with Mark’s family. It was hardly a triumphal entry or even first year. Our dreams faded as hopes placed in worldly situations and events failed to come to fruition. The location had changed, the jobs had changed, but the answers had not.

Our Conversion Story: Part 1: The Nav Year

           This series of posts is designed to explain our path to Catholicism. I’ll (Amanda) tell the story and then, Mark (mostly) will explain the theology over the course of the next few weeks, months, and perhaps years. Our hope is that this story will serve to show how the Lord began to lead us in the direction of the Catholic Church long before even we realized it. It’s a rather epic and brutally honest story, if I do say so myself, full of thumbprints from God that we can only see in retrospect.
         For those of you who may not know, I grew up in a Christian home. We were in church every Sunday and prayed together as family before each meal. My parents were wonderful role models of faith and seeking God’s Will. I went to several churches during my childhood but most of the switching was between Presbyterian and non-denominational churches. Mark grew up largely without religion. He points to an altar call at a Southern Baptist Church when he was 18 as the moment he chose to follow God. As a couple, we attended predominantly non-denominational churches and were highly involved with a Christian missionary/campus ministry group called the Navigators. So, there’s the lead-up to the juicy details as Mark called them.

            If we are honest with ourselves, it began nearly 5 years ago. We were newly married and incredibly enthusiastic. We are both dreamers, BIG dreamers. We were a few months from my graduation and then, the world would be our oyster. One week the plan was to be missionaries in Mongolia, the next in New Zealand, and finally, we settled on EDGE Corps members (a branch of Navigator ministry for recent college graduates) at Purdue University. We believed and expected big things from God. If He really was the creator of the universe and we were so eager to go and serve, then how could the result not be huge? We asked God to use us, to send us, and to leave His thumbprints all over our lives. What we did not realize was how long, how difficult, how unexpected, and yet, how beautiful our path would be and still is.

The road goes ever on and on...

Still round the corner there may wait

A new road or a secret gate,

And though we pass them by today,

Tomorrow we may come this way

And take the hidden paths that run

Towards the Moon or to the Sun.

              John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, perhaps the smartest man that ever lived, penned these words a long time ago. But the truth that lies in the verse speaks more to my soul now than it ever did before. There is a new road that lies before my wife and I. We are pursuing the road to Catholicism with eager feet.