Thursday, January 6, 2011
ch 2 "Dining Room"
As a former Methodist/Presbyterian I could relate to Hunt's belief that communion was just symbolism but 3 events led him to the Catholic church. Being asked by a nun why he didn't belong to the Church caused him to consider how the scriptures were so consistant in talking about the Eucharist. Secondly, in many other churches the sermon was the focal point of the service. I think that is true in most protestant churches. Some members are "married" to the minister rather than the church and its beliefs. Finally, Hunt sees the need to spend time "pondering the mystery of Jesus' gift to us and His presence with us."
Intro and Chapter One: Extended Family
Allen Hunt's story resonated with mine, too. I grew up in a Methodist family, and so I too was not exposed that animus against Catholics that sometimes we encounter in the South (it came as something of a shock when I experienced it--as a Catholic--for the first time). My neighbors were good Catholics and I was always intrigued by their faith: the mass, the rosary, those mysterious holy days of obligation. But in my neck of the woods, Catholic is what you were born, not what you became, unless you had to to marry a Catholic.
Five years into this journey, I never cease to be amazed at the treasures this House contains. I am constantly encountering new experiences, new devotions, new explanations of things that are at once familiar and still very new. One of the things that strikes me most is that among the treasures of the Catholic Church is her ..well..catholicity.
In all my years of worshipping as a protestant, the congregations were invariably very homogeneous--sharing economic status, skin color and for the most part culture. Not so in my experience in the Catholic church, even here on Lookout, which is a pretty small community.
It really came home to me at the Eucharistic Congress last June. The Saturday mass starts out with a Eucharistic procession, and churches from all over the Archdiocese send groups to participate, with banners and great felicity. It goes on forever, and the entire hall is ringed by the banners that the groups leave behind in stands for the rest of the congress. I remember watching the Vietnamese community and being not so vaguely jealous of how beautiful the women looked in their traditional dress. There were various social and charitable groups, like the Knights of Columbus, with the men dressed in uniform and their ladies stately and elegant. There were African women in their colorful dresses and impossibly intricate--and very lovely--head scarves. There were Hispanic groups processing with Our Lady of Guadalupe. But perhaps the most unusual to me was a group of Aztecs, in full regalia, who preceded Our Lady with an exuberant dance complete with feathers, head-dresses, ankle bells and drums. It reminded me of David dancing in front of the Ark of the Covenant (as well it should, given that is exactly what it was--only they were dancing in front of the Ark of the New Covenant). There were traditionalists, charismatics, young, old, immigrants and native born Americans, of all colors, shapes, stripes and inclinations. It was loud, it was enthusiastic, it was passionate, and it was reverent. And it was so very different from anything I had ever experienced before.
Five years into this journey, I never cease to be amazed at the treasures this House contains. I am constantly encountering new experiences, new devotions, new explanations of things that are at once familiar and still very new. One of the things that strikes me most is that among the treasures of the Catholic Church is her ..well..catholicity.
In all my years of worshipping as a protestant, the congregations were invariably very homogeneous--sharing economic status, skin color and for the most part culture. Not so in my experience in the Catholic church, even here on Lookout, which is a pretty small community.
It really came home to me at the Eucharistic Congress last June. The Saturday mass starts out with a Eucharistic procession, and churches from all over the Archdiocese send groups to participate, with banners and great felicity. It goes on forever, and the entire hall is ringed by the banners that the groups leave behind in stands for the rest of the congress. I remember watching the Vietnamese community and being not so vaguely jealous of how beautiful the women looked in their traditional dress. There were various social and charitable groups, like the Knights of Columbus, with the men dressed in uniform and their ladies stately and elegant. There were African women in their colorful dresses and impossibly intricate--and very lovely--head scarves. There were Hispanic groups processing with Our Lady of Guadalupe. But perhaps the most unusual to me was a group of Aztecs, in full regalia, who preceded Our Lady with an exuberant dance complete with feathers, head-dresses, ankle bells and drums. It reminded me of David dancing in front of the Ark of the Covenant (as well it should, given that is exactly what it was--only they were dancing in front of the Ark of the New Covenant). There were traditionalists, charismatics, young, old, immigrants and native born Americans, of all colors, shapes, stripes and inclinations. It was loud, it was enthusiastic, it was passionate, and it was reverent. And it was so very different from anything I had ever experienced before.
I loved it.
In years past, I would not have entered into different kinds of worship so easily. Now I have discovered the great wealth in different traditions, and, while I find great joy in my own particular way of entering into the mysteries of the mass, and the practice of my faith, I have also gleaned a great deal from others. I take great pleasure in the exuberance of Latin and African liturgies. I find great comfort in the quiet of the Trappists at Holy Spirit in Conyers. I delight in Latin, and I find an unexpected home in the personal expressions of prayer that are the norm in the Eastern Catholic Churches. I love the rich liturgy at the Cathedral and I love the simpler worship in Trenton. It's all my family, and I have only begun to explore the contents of the house....
In years past, I would not have entered into different kinds of worship so easily. Now I have discovered the great wealth in different traditions, and, while I find great joy in my own particular way of entering into the mysteries of the mass, and the practice of my faith, I have also gleaned a great deal from others. I take great pleasure in the exuberance of Latin and African liturgies. I find great comfort in the quiet of the Trappists at Holy Spirit in Conyers. I delight in Latin, and I find an unexpected home in the personal expressions of prayer that are the norm in the Eastern Catholic Churches. I love the rich liturgy at the Cathedral and I love the simpler worship in Trenton. It's all my family, and I have only begun to explore the contents of the house....
I make it a point to seek out different worship experiences when I travel--making family visits. I've heard mass in Irish, in Latin, and in Spanish, in a smattering of Tohono O’odom, and--as they say around here--I'm fixin' to go hear mass in Korean, as I have discovered a Korean community here that has a vernacular mass at one of the local parishes. I've worshipped in old mission churches and temporary quonset buildings. Many different rooms in that old house, but the Architect is the same, and so is the Food, so I am always at home. There’s always a place in that old house for one more, and there will be someone who shares a convert’s story....and many more who will want to hear it, and embrace it and their new sibling in Christ.
In short, my spiritual world has exploded! The rooms of that old house hold so many brothers and sisters, and we have so much to share. If it is the wish of Christ that we all be one, there is no better start that to be drawn together by our worship of Him and to discover each other in the rooms of this old house. In His service--Martha
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
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
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
Monday, January 3, 2011
Getting Ready
We will be posting soon on Allen Hunt's Confessions of a Mega Church Pastor, so please check back regularly. Our hope is to put up posts for comment each Tuesday and Thursday. Enjoy the book and let us hear from you!
Luke
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