Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Cordial Catholic

Home
Catholic
Why Aren’t More Evangelicals Becoming Catholic?

Why Aren’t More Evangelicals Becoming Catholic?

Last updated on: December 5, 2018 at 10:36 pm by K. Albert Little

Why Aren’t More Evangelicals Becoming Catholic? 2018-12-05T22:36:07-04:00 K. Albert Little

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Photo Credit: Archdiocese of Boston.

I was an Evangelical Protestant, and I loved it.

Then I became a Catholic.

As a convert, I didn’t join the Church with any sort of starry-eyed vision of paradise. I knew what to expect. I knew all about bad Catholics. Bad music. Badly done liturgy. But the timeless, ancient pull of the Catholic Church prevailed and I joined, in spite of some obvious shortcomings.

After all, like St. Peter said, “Lord, where else can I go?”

If the Catholic Church was the one, holy, and apostolic church that Christ founded then what other option was there?

But there’s lots wrong with the Catholic Church. And even if, as Christ promised, the “gates of Hades” would never prevail against it that doesn’t mean we should ever, even for a second, grow complacent with our faith or with our Church. Our faith, after all, should be attractive. Not because it fulfills the precise desires that the world holds up as important—not because the Church can get us rich quick, give us a happy and spotless life, or offer is the wide and easy road to ultimate success. Rather, the Church should be attractive because it offers precisely what the culture lacks, but what we all, deeply, desire most.

Does the Catholic Church truly offer this? I would argue, emphatically, yes.

If the Catholic Church is the Church founded by Christ and if Christ is really who he said he was than the Church should be the most fully, ultimately fulfilling thing on earth.

But does it always do its job?

Is the Catholic Church really attracting non-Christians, and our non-Catholic Christian believers? After all, Evangelicals are becoming Catholics but why not in hordes? Why is there no massive influx of non-Christians pounding down the doors of the local parishes churches, demanding to have what we have because it’s so counter-culturally attractive?

I think the problem is fundamental, yet shockingly simple to solve: If the Catholic Church believes that she is what she says she is, she needs to explain it better, know it better herself, and live it out.

Teaching Christians What Catholics Believe

The Catholic Church is incredible. The longer that I’m Catholic and the more I read and write the more I realize that this is merely the tip of an enormous iceberg; an iceberg I intend to spend a lifetime slowly scraping away at. Because I love the Catholic Church and I couldn’t have fathomed its length and depth when I first began my conversion process.

That said, as an Evangelical Protestant who considered himself fairly well read in matters of faith, theology, and religion I knew incredibly little about the Catholic Church before I made a conscious effort to dig in deeper. What I did know, for the most part, was always almost nearly backwards. In the end, I knew essentially nothing. In fact, what I learned about the Catholic faith was often exactly contrary to what I’d thought before.

Fundamentally, non-Catholic Christians don’t know what Catholics believe, and if they think they do, like I did, they’re most likely wrong.

And this is a problem.

If the Catholic Church is going to attract Christians who love Jesus and are seeking after Him, if the Church is going to attract non-believers as well, it needs to become better at explaining what it believes.

Because, like I said, the Catholic Church is immense. For the Christian deeply devoted to Christ there is so much to love. There are myriad of ancient, rich devotions; an incredible depth of literature and prayers; a beautiful and holy rhythm in the liturgical calendar; and the availability of fulsome daily devotion like the Liturgy of the Hours and the opportunity for Eucharistic Adoration and Daily Mass.

When I began to read about Catholicism from Catholics authors themselves it became clear to me that what I’d known about Catholics was mostly wrong. Instead, the Catholic Church was incredibly appealing and made a lot of sense. But earnest Christians, and non-believers alike, don’t give the Catholic Church a second thought because they don’t understand, I’d wager, what the Catholic Church believes.

In the Catholic Church is the fullness of Christ. Catholics need to say this and then keep on explaining. Make the claim, stake out that ground, and then explain what exactly that means. Because the Catholic Church can’t be ashamed of being so bold-faced in making that claim, and Catholics can’t shrink back from explaining how we can receive such grace from the sacraments and from the Catholic faith life because, as Catholics, we must want all Christians, and everyone on earth, to share in this, these incredible gifts.

Teaching Catholics What We Believe

Likewise, the Catholic Church, as I’ve written before, needs to do a much better job at explaining to Catholics what it believes. What they believe, as members of that Church.

Here’s what I mean.

In my journey so far I’ve met a dozen or so incredible Christians who, by their own admission, used to be Catholic.

So what’s the Catholic Church doing wrong?

In large part, the Catholic Church simply isn’t doing a great job at teaching Catholics what they believe and why it makes sense. Because it does make sense, on the deepest levels.

Because what’s happening in the sacraments like Baptism, Confirmation, in the Celebration of the Mass, and in Confession, just for example, is incredibly biblical, incredibly symbolic, and unfathomably rich. I’m talking about weighty, historic references to the Old Testament, tied together with the words of Christ and the symbolism of something like water, wine, or bread.

There’s rich stuff going on in the Catholic Church and its buoyed by two thousand years of thinking, teaching, and rich theology, but not all Catholics know about it. As a devout Christian, I’ve found such fulfillment and beauty in what others, who were born and raised Catholic, had no notion of. How you can go thirty or forty years in a pew at Mass and not realize that when the priest holds up the Host during Communion he is harkening back to the journey of the ancient Israelites, the fulfilment of scores of prophecy, and divinely and cosmically linking the whole congregation back to the Upper Room during the First Communion ever celebrated.

It’s mind-blowing, as a convert, to peel back layers like an almost infinite onion, but so seldom understood by the average Joe Catholic.

The Catholic Church needs to teach it’s members what they believe. Catechesis and spiritual formation needs to take a dominate role in both the parish church and in the family. Catholics need to talk to each other and, most important, begin to live out what they learn.

Believing What We Believe

This, then, is the final step and without a doubt the most difficult. We must believe what we believe, and live that out.

Fundamentally, we Catholics attract no one to the faith by our own efforts. We win no one by having the best arguments or the wittiest retorts. But we pray, provide opportunities, and respond to the gentle push of the Holy Spirit. So we must pray and, likewise, act accordingly. This is both easy, and very hard.

We must learn about our faith, be able to speak eloquently about our faith, and then attractively live out our faith daily.

And it’s that attractive living that’s so important. It’s that evangelization which is the Kingdom of God.

If we believe, as Catholics, that we have access to God’s grace through the sacraments and membership in what we believe is the very real, physical Church that Jesus Christ founded then we need to live accordingly. That means that being Catholic should be the most exciting thing in the world, right? After all, we’re working in tandem with the plan of the Creator of the Universe if we cooperate.

The Catholic Church needs to explain itself better to non-Catholic Christians and to unbelievers alike. It needs to explain itself better to itself—to Catholic Christians. And, it needs evangelical Catholics who are ready to really believe in what they learn, and to live that out. This is the essential missionary posture of the Catholic Church and this, I humbly submit, is what’s needed to help swing those doors open just a little bit wider and let that much more light shine in.

Because, at the end of the day, what we have here is good. It is very good. And it is to be shared.

Previous Post

November 7, 2018

What's the Biggest Difference Between Catholics and Evangelicals?

Next Post

January 8, 2019 Who Do Atheists Have to Thank?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Appearances Christian Living Explaining the Faith Podcast Tough Questions Uncategorized Why I'm Catholic

Select a Month January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 October 2017 September 2017 July 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

The great day of the Lord is near—a day of wrath, distress, anguish, trouble, ruin, and what?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Plague and famine Blood and thunder Darkness and gloom Fire and brimstone

Support this
Column