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Hi, John —
Consistently attending a non-denominational church is not advisable, especially
if you are not super well grounded in your faith. Your Catholic faith will
be challenged, and appeals will be made to Scripture in favor of doctrines
that contradict Catholicism. Now, Catholicism can withstand those charges
and hold its own, but if you are not well equipped to answer them, you
will find yourself slipping steadily away from the Catholic faith.
It's entirely possible you will respond well and be motivated to look
into these things and learn to defend the Catholic faith and become a better
Catholic for it. That is what happened to me when
I hung out in the Evangelical
world but typically these things come out badly.
People end up leaving the Church because they find something that's so
much more appealing than what they find in Catholicism. What we have
to remember is that what matters is the Truth, not whether we feel good
in a worship service.
Non-denominational Protestant churches are very appealing, I will grant
you that.
I know: I attended one as a Catholic for several years. The fellowship
is far better than you see in a Catholic Church. The service feels good.
You see a lot more genuine Christian love, and have more opportunities
to practice it. All of that makes it very tempting to leave the Catholic
Church, or at least to imbibe Protestant doctrine.
Spend enough time around them and unconsciously you may start to think
and believe like them. Then you may be led astray and abandon the Catholic
faith entirely. Already it seems your heart is drawn to this group.
For these reasons, participating is not advisable, however, if you do opt
to continue going,
do yourself a favor and study the Biblical basis for
Catholicism. Study the history of the early Church, and remember what Venerable
Cardinal Newman said:
To be immersed in history is to cease to be Protestant.
What these people believe was manifestly not believed by the early Christians (the first three centuries). These movements are of recent origin, and
do not reflect historical Christianity, nor the Christianity of the Apostles.
They claim to be based on New Testament Christianity, but they are mistaken.
What we believe, to a very large extent, can be proven to have been believed:
- within the first three centuries of the Church
- before Christianity was
legalized
- before the debates over whether Jesus was God
- even before the
contents of the Bible were settled.
People will tell you it was invented
in the Middle Ages, but history shows differently.
Do yourself a favor and read some books about Catholic converts. Books
such as:
Another good book to read is Catholic and Christian by Alan
Schreck.
This explains why it is not at all contradictory to be both Catholic and
Christian (contrary to what many Evangelicals will claim), and will give
you a bit of introduction to the early Church Fathers (essential for understanding
early Church history and doctrine).
Remember: Don't accept their doctrines, or what they say about Catholicism:
- without challenging them
- without investigating the Catholic side (use
our site has as a help), or
- looking within the context of history.
I took
a significant detour myself into Evangelicalism, and after much study of
the Bible and early Church writings, determined that Catholicism was the
most Biblical faith, and returned to the faith.
I hope you don't go, but be prepared if you do, and Godspeed.
Eric Ewanco
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