What church should I belong to?
Recently I was asked the question “what church should I belong to?” This can be tricky because no matter what I church I recommend I am sure to upset someone. But if I’m honest, (and I try to be) I must answer the question with decorum, sensitivity, and above all, truth. Therefore, in all honesty, I must profess that the last thing I want to do is to make this decision for someone else. YOU must be the one who makes this decision because YOU are the one who must live with the consequences of it (which can be eternal).
If someone is asking “what church should I belong to” it usually means that they are unhappy or unfulfilled in their own church. To which I say GOOD! Because this means that God is prompting you to examine your relationship with Him more deeply. I taught Catechism (Sunday School) for many years and on day-one the first question I normally would ask the students is “why are you Catholic” (which was generally met by a lot of blank stares). I then let them off the hook by saying “it’s okay to say because your parents were Catholic”.
In full disclosure I am a Catholic (and proud of it!) Catholicism works for me because I believe it to be the church that Jesus Christ founded and historically it is the mother church of every other Christian religion. However, I fully realize that for myriads of reasons, it may not be everyone’s cup of tea. In fact, according to the IRS in America, there are over Forty thousand different denominations calling themselves Christian. Forty thousand! How can this be? If the Church is Jesus’ bride, then is Jesus a polygamist? How can anyone decide on the right church with so many choices? To me the question comes down to one simple thing.
Truth.
Humans were created to live in truth, and we just don’t feel comfortable living a lie. It feels icky somehow and if we are truly seeking God, then we will find Him in the truth. As I said before, I am Catholic, but I accept the reality that not everyone is. In this ministry I’m not interested “sheep stealing” or poaching people out of their pews. What I am interested in is helping them find truth by speaking it. This may mean that I might say some things that are startling, jarring, or perhaps even scandalous to them. But I promise to do my best to speak the truth rather than to simply say what someone wants to hear. I will answer any and all questions that come my way about the Catholic faith, but the last thing I want to do is to lie or misrepresent my faith in order to sway someone into joining it. My goal is the same as Jesus’ in John 17:21 when he said, “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you.”
What is truth?
Here are some rules about truth:
- Truth is reality
- The definition of truth is simply “what is”. If it reflects reality, it is true.
- Truth is independent of what we think of it.
- If I don’t like the truth, it does not change or make it go away.
- Truth exists if I am ignorant of it.
- If there is a quarter in your pocket and I didn’t know it was there it does not change the fact that it is there.
- Truths can be objective
- These concern the object of discussion and thus are true for all. For example, “it is Tuesday” can be true.
- Truths can be subjective
- These concern the observer (the subject) and thus may not be true for all. For example, “Tuesday is my favorite day”.
- Something that is objective cannot be both true and false at the same time, in the same way.
- For example, a circle cannot be triangular shaped.
In John 18:38 Pilate asks Jesus, “Que Veritas?” (what is truth?) and as rational human beings we should constantly be in search of truth. I mentioned that I am Catholic. Does that mean that:
- …the Catholic Church contains the totality of truth?
- No. No church does. The best we can do on this side of heaven is to seek the fullness of truth.
- …I love everything that the Catholic Church teaches?
- No. In fact, there are things that the Catholic Church teaches that I flat out, do not like. Things like, there is a place called hell, and there might be people that I know going there.
- …the Catholic Church is full of perfect people?
- No way! And I know that is false because I’m in it!
But despite these shortcomings, I still call myself a Catholic. Why? Because it inspires me to be more than I am and by doing so it gives me a target to shoot for, not a hoop to jump through.
Ecumenism
We are a divided people and the last thing we need is more division and more lies in this world. What we do need is just the opposite – unity and truth – and I will do my best to speak that to anyone I meet.
- Let’s say, for example, you are Baptist. I would not pray for the intercession of Mary with you because you and I have different understandings of the role of Mary.
- Does that mean by doing so I dimmish the Catholic view of Mary? Of course not!
- If you are Pentecostal, I may pray in tongues with you.
- Does that mean I have abandoned my Catholic faith because Catholics don’t speak in tongues? (wink – we do by the way) Of course not!
- And if you are a non-believer, I will use a completely different approach.
- But I will tell you about Jesus and how he has helped me.
But what I won’t do is lead you to Jesus via a lie. I will respect your beliefs, but I will gently point out truths as they arise. For example, I prayed with a man once who did not believe that fornication was sinful if it was consensual. This came up at a particularly sensitive time of our prayer meeting and it would have been easy for me to simply gloss over it. But I couldn’t, because it would have been a betrayal of not only the truth of the Catholic Church, but universal Christian teachings and of Jesus Himself.
This is why I would not lead a Baptist to pray the Hail Mary prayer. To simply say “repeat after me: Hail Mary, full of grace…” he (or she) would not believe the words we are praying, and I would have just led a Jesus loving Christian into what they believe to be is a lie. You may ask, “by not mentioning Mary, have I been unfaithful to my faith”? Not at all, I did not denounce her, I just simply didn’t mention her. In fact, in the Bible, when dealing with a vegetarian, Paul says in 1 Cor 8:13 “Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.” Was Paul being false to the faith or to his own beliefs? No. He was being Ecumenical.
Truth has no agenda
My agenda is to help people through whatever difficulty or problems they face, and I believe that the best way to do so is to bring them closer to Jesus. Why? Because HE will be the one who will be helping you, not me. We may meet and talk for an hour or so, but it is HE who will be walking with you for the rest of your life, not me. Long after I’m gone and forgotten, He will be the one that remains, and that is as it should be. Jesus’ only agenda is for you to get to know Him better. Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, “there are not one-hundred Christians in the world that disagree with what the Catholic Church teaches, but there are millions who disagree with what they think the Catholic Church teaches.” and I suppose that the same applies to all churches, so be willing to dig out the truth on any questions you may have.
I mentioned that I taught Catechism for years; I also taught RCIA/OCIA (which are the classes one takes when they want to join the Catholic Church) and whenever we had a new student who was from a faith tradition I did not know about, I would go to my Church on Saturday night (to fulfill my obligations) and then go to their church to observe first hand what that church teaches, how they worship and how they treat newcomers. It was a fascinating experience, and I learned a lot by doing so because I observed the results firsthand. If you are looking for another church, may I suggest you do the same?
Conclusion
So, what church should you belong to? Well, if I’m truthful, I can’t answer that question. Only you can after a fair amount of research.