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Originally Posted by DMD
In Endicott, NY, the Protestants have apparently accomplished the seemingly impossible. There is a rather large congregation in a suburban former United Methodist building called the "Russian Ukrainian Baptist Church." Seriously, the Ukrainians there are from the eastern border areas with Russia, but still..... wink

Found them on Facebook:
Ukraine Russian Baptist Church [facebook.com]

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Continuing with the topic lets not forget our "friends" with the Carpathian Mountain Outreach program: Carpathian Mountain Outreach 2013 [euroteamoutreach.org]

They even have a new video trailer out:
Outreach 2013 [vimeo.com]

You could have followed their "progress" on facebook:
Carpathian Mountain Outreach Facebook [facebook.com]




Last edited by Ray S.; 10/03/13 10:55 PM.
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Dear Ray,

As you know, we need to be literally "soaked" in Holy Scripture and Tradition to counter this and other groups.

Fighting fire with Fire!

Cheers,

Alex

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Coming from an Protestant and Evangelical background I think I can add a little to the discussion. This is an exciting topic for me.
I was raised in a typical Protestant denomination, which at the time was liberal and I believe it is even more so now. I didn't see much of God there (not that He can be seen other than working through people), so when I hit the teens years I had a lack of faith and entered a period of rebellion. People who said they were Christians didn't seem very different than other people, and I simply had no interest. It was a miserable life and I can say I was without hope and without God.
This continued for a number of years until through God's grace I became convicted of my own sin and realized my own need for a relationship with God. I began to see God as real and faith began to grow. The Christianity I began to experience was what I call Evangelical. I wanted a close personal relationship with God (certainly not what I grew up with). I saw it was possible, and I received Christ while praying in my living room. I believe I was converted and cleansed (which I really wanted).Then I began looking for a church. I had no idea where to go or anything about churches.

So this is one important key to understanding the large numbers in Evangelical churches. They are generally people who are longing for God, have little or no experience with liturgical churches, and their religious experience is a deeply personal one.

I now realize that one can have a deep personal relationship with God in a traditional, liturgical, and Sacramental church, but at the time I did not know that.

Many are taught or have a separate understanding that to have a close and proper relationship with God it should be Evangelical or Protestant.

By the way most consider Protestant churches to be the old mailine denominations, where as the Evangelical churches are more non-denominational. There is some blending of the two at times though and it can be hard to tell them a part.

I know this has been too long (see what happens when I get started?) so I will close with this last thought. Through God working in my life, and through studying I have learned so much about Catholicism that I am blessed by. I am very surprised by it all, in a good way. It all started with Pope Francis.

To be honest I'm not sure what God has in store for the future, and I am still trying to figure it all out.

Pray for me.

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I just thought of something else regarding liberal churches. When Evangelicals mention liberal churches they generally mean churches that have adopted liberal theology, secular and humanistic thinking. This can lead to dangerous trends (so we are told) and in the long run a lack of faith. Liberal theology in many ways is self destructive.

For instance if a church or denomination adopts the idea that all religions are the same (this can be done overtly or in subtle ways) then why bother and why go to church?

So the trend lately is that the more mainline denominations are shrinking and losing people, while the churches that attempt to closely follow God's Word, and have what is seen as a relevant cultural expression of worship are exploding with people.

Just some more thoughts. God bless,
David

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I agree, David-MD. I grew up a Southern Baptist. One of my brothers is a Baptist pastor. People want something (Someone) to put their trust and faith in. I'm afraid to say it, but if you walk into the "average" Latin Rite church today for Mass, you can see people doing all kinds of things except the worship of God; their bodies are present, but their minds and spirits appear to be on some other planet. Young people can sense this very easily; anyone can sense it. It can be very distressing.

The destruction of the Church is coming from within, one faithful at a time, coupled with our allowing ourselves to become so "politically correct" and secular. We have to realize that a return to Faith begins with ourselves. How much do WE truly believe? Is "sitting through" Sunday Mass or Divine Liturgy before heading to Cracker Barrel or Walmart to buy groceries going to keep us or our children in the Faith? We can all see the answer to that question. "O Lord, I believe, Help Thou my unbelief!"

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But some one remarked to me that all these verifiable miracles only happen in these churches, then ask the question,…..is someone trying to tell me something! Why should I be part of any other belief?

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In a single word -- ENTERTAINMENT!

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Entertainment indeed!
Have seen some such churches advertise the size of their movie/video screen, the sophistication of their public address system especially the capacity of their electronic speaker system and the variety of musical instruments.
We Catholics can smile at this, but it certainly attracts many to those kind of
non Apostolic churches.

Last edited by Pavloosh; 10/13/13 02:42 PM.
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I am mad!

Sunday I visited a BCC several hours away from my house because I was traveling. There were about 30 people at Liturgy. The people of the BCC couldn't be more gracious.

I was ready to leave after Liturgy because I had a long drive home. On my way home not far from the Church I had to stop because of two traffic cops. They were letting out people from the mega-church (near the BCC). I must have waited 5 minutes until they let me go. Not much further down the road the same thing happened again. However, this time it was another mega-church that was letting people out. After waiting a few minutes they finally let me go and I was able to get on the interstate for my drive home.

Sitting in the traffic seeing all the cars go by got me thinking. Why is it that these two Churches have about 1,000 people going to Church at the same time but our BCC has about 30?

Here is the video from the two mega-churches last Sunday service:
Riverbend Sunday Service [riverbendchurch.com]
Calvary Community Church [vimeo.com]

Think about it. Instead of receiving the Holy Mysteries a few blocks down the road a 1,000 people sat through a rock concert and called it Church.

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I decided to do something about it. I think I am going to write an email to each Pastor at the mega-churches website and personally invite them to go to Liturgy with me. I am going to try and word the email in the most humble and charitable way possible.

I know they will not go to Liturgy but perhaps I could strike up a dialog. Thoughts? Suggestions on what the email should say?

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Don't everyone answer at once

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Sounds good to me, Ray.

You may be interested that the OCA head of the dept. of evangelization, Fr. John Parker, just just did an interview for Ancient Faith Radio with Rick Warren [ancientfaith.com].

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Originally Posted by Ray S.
I think I am going to write an email to each Pastor at the mega-churches website and personally invite them to go to Liturgy with me. I am going to try and word the email in the most humble and charitable way possible.

I know they will not go to Liturgy but perhaps I could strike up a dialog. Thoughts? Suggestions on what the email should say?
Ray,

I suppose it can't hurt! wink

Seriously, though, you could start out by congratulating them for the success they've had in attracting people and building up such a big congregation. Then, go on to tell of your experience with the Byzantine Liturgy and how spiritually uplifting you find it to be, and how ironic it seems that so few people attend. You could then extend the invitation, along with a request for their impression, suggestions, etc.

One caveat I would add is that like other Protestants, Evangelicals run the gamut from seeing Catholics as brethren in Christ to seeing the Catholic Church as the "whore of Babylon." Greet them as brethren, of course, but don't be *too* surprised if they don't receive you that way.


Peace,
Deacon Richard

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Ray,
May the Holy Spirit guide you and give you the right words.

I chair our local Life Chain; we have various denominations....Eastern & Western Catholics, Orthodox, Evangelicals, Baptists and even some Methodists. But I didn't get a response from our local "Mega-Church."

I discovered that they want everyone to participate in their events, like "Church in the Park" but they don't take part in anyone else's activities. They are very good at proselytizing, but they aren't ecumenical.


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