Effective Protestant Pastors
I wonder about protestant pastors who are doing great ministry in reaching people for Christ and equipping other Christians to do so. Does it make sense to talk with them about the catholic faith? The answer seems obvious that it is always good to talk about the catholic faith. The trouble is that in the short term the effect of such conversations is to cause fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Essentially the first step in coming to the church is to see the depth of the problems with protestantism. Most protestants see the problems but downplay their seriousness. They don’t want to consider the possibility that there might be a problem in the very foundations of their world and life view. One reason they don’t think about that too much is they just become depressed and lose their effectiveness. This is because becoming Catholic is unthinkable. So pondering how Sola Scriptora is not working to bring us the truth of Christ just shakes your confidence in doing your ministry. Why would you want to do that?
Sure there are churches that are splitting up and churches that are falling into heresy. People there certainly need to re-examine their underlying assumptions that my personal reading of scripture should carry so much weight. But what about protestant churches that don’t seem to be headed for any of those problems? The ones that seem to be doing quite well. As a Christian you can’t help but praise God for all the hearts being turned to Jesus. Should we as Catholics avoid messing with that? Sure the foundation is flawed but a building with an imperfect foundation can still be used effectively for quite a while. Should we challenge the pastors of such churches with the same questions that have caused so many other pastors to begin a long and hard journey to the Catholic church?
The other thing that makes you wonder is the lack of opportunities for people with that kind of skill set in the Catholic church. You know it will likely take somebody many years before they are ready to swim the tiber and even after they do so you wonder if they can be nearly as effective in the Catholic church. Most are not going to be priests. So it is hard to imagine God using them as effectively as He is using them in the protestant world. Sure there are some examples but generally speaking the church is not set up to allow lay people with these kinds of gifts to make a big impact.
The trouble is the truth is the truth. How can it be God’s will to hide the truth? We are supposed to trust God to work out all that other stuff. It might be easier to take if you ended up harming your own career. If someone else becomes Catholic and ends up getting shafted by church politics that is worse. Especially if it was not that hard to see it coming. I guess I worry more about the scenario where they don’t become Catholic but just loose some confidence in the protestant way of thinking. Still God works in light and not in darkness. How can you do anything but let your light shine?
What is worse you end up making a judgement call you are not quite qualified to make. That is when is a ministry effective enough to make you stop questioning it’s leader? How do you measure that? Certainly it isn’t pure numbers because some ministries teach such a flawed message their numbers really don’t count. I don’t know how to draw lines but it does seem some protestant ministries are just very beautiful and powerful. I don’t want to be asked point blank if I feel they should just abandon it. It just does not feel right. I know feelings are not what it is all about but I know they will likely share that feeling and I don’t have much of an answer beyond trust in God.
