Confessions of a Mega Church Pastor: David's Tale and Chapter 1: Old House

I am going to talk about the Introducton: David's Tale and the First Chapter: Old House to Confessions of  Mega Church Pastor. 

First, I want to say that when I started this book, I could not put it down.  I did not start out a Catholic and neither did Allen Hunt, but he kept feeling drawn to be a Catholic through inexplicable forces and coincidences in his life, as did I.  The Introduction, David's Tale, is really Allen Hunt's story. He was pastor of a 15,000 member Methodist church in the Atlanta suburbs, but gradually felt a calling to become a Catholic that he could not deny, even though  he states his family did not change with him and he lost friends and obviously he gave up his pastorate. The first chapter, Old House, explains how Allen Hunt sees the Catholic Church as an old house, much like one that belonged to a family of his friend Steven. When Steven's father moved in with the family years before, he told Steven that everthing he needed was in the house, much as Allen Hunt now sees the Catholic Church. Allen Hunt then goes room by room through a house comparing the rooms to parts of the Catholic Church as he tells us about his transistion. This comparison constitutes the other chapters of the book.

Allen starts out telling about working as a stockbroker and seeing a homeless man sleeping in the doorway and the he hears God speak to him about who he is going to serve in life.  (Of course, I could not help but think of Mother Teresa coming across the dying person and changing her path in life as well.   This thought comes to Allen Hunt later in the book.)  This prompts Allen to become a Methodist minister.

I could identify with Allen Hunt in what may seem to be an unusual way, but it just shows how God and Christ can reach out in ways we do not expect.  I grew up with a Presbyterian mother and, of all things, a Unitarian father.  My mom was Dutch and my grandparents had sent tons of food and clothing to Holland after WW II, plus I had seen endless slide shows of post WW II Holland, concentraton camps, and the devastation of the post WW II flood. My family always tried to help out in some way. In addition, during the days of integration and equal rights in the 1960's, the Unitarian Church was full of passionate souls devoted to that cause.  Strangely enough, television news and even the Unitarians would often mention their allies:  the Council of Catholic Bishops! So as a child sitting in the Unitarian Church, I heard almost every Sunday about the Council of Cathlolic Bishops and all the good they were doing for us!

In the meantime, I had a cousin who became a medical missionary in Africa, and over and over I heard that when everyone else left, Catholic Relief stayed to help in any disaster.  Because of all the social conciousness of the Unitarians and my Dutch relatives, I became very interested in what each church actuallly did to help others. I could not understand how the Unitarians were so concerned with equal rights and the death penalty and still be pro-choice!  I had gone to Christmas mass for years with my high school best friend and always loved the Catholic Church visits with his family.  So of all things, when I got to college, I joined the Cathloic Church Right to Life Committee and was the treasurer!  We did bake sales and bought ads on bus benches for Right to Life Centers.  This was at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas.  I saw from several of my sorority sisters who cried themselves to sleep night after night what the need for this was.

Then, of  course, I met Paul and we got married, and as you know he is about as strict a Catholic as can be.  But when you think of God and Christ moving in someone's life as you read this book, think of me as another example. What are the odds that I would meet, much less marry, a Catholic who had gone to St. Patrick's Catholic School from Phoenix City, Alabama?  How rare are Catholic Schools in that part of the South?

I see exactly what Allen Hunt was talking about when he said he was looking for a Church that had a committment to Christ's teaching no matter what other people thought or whether it was the most popular or profitable moneywise.  He is an example of a person called inexplicably (in some people's eyes)  to choose the Cathlolic Church and he cites one of his old church members who called him "crazy" for doing it.  I love that he is an example of Christ moving in our lives, if we will just listen, to draw us closer to Him.  The door to the house is always open seems to me to be a big part of Allen Hunt's message.  Christ is repeatedly inviting us into His house and giving us the exact directions if we will just listen to the instructions he Has given us over and over in His gospels. Allen Hunt points out the ways that the Cathlolic Church is the church that has remained true to Christ's teachings. Despite this, according to Allen Hunt, there are over 33,000 versions of Christianity that have deviated in some way or other from Catholicism. It is as if certain religions think they know the directions to Christ's home better than the ones He has given us Himself!

Posted in Honor of St. Teresa of Avila