Today I'm going to look at some of a brighter area. Here are 10 areas where we Catholics can learn from our non-Catholic Christian brethren.
1. Personal reading of the Bible + memorization of texts:
Catholics are often lampooned as being Biblically ignorant. This stereotype is well-deserved.
There just isn’t big cultural push for Catholics to study the Bible outside of the Mass. This leads us to have tons of scripture floating around in our heads, but be unable to locate any of it without a Google search.
Non-Catholics, on the other hand, have cultures which were built around the doctrine of Sola Scriptura. And while I think that doctrine is an incoherent disaster, it has at least this virtue; it has led non-Catholic communities to place a heavy emphasis on personal familiarity with the Biblical text.
2. Personal commitment to discipleship:
US Vice President Mike Pence was raised a Catholic, but left for Evangelicalism. When asked why he made the move, he said he wanted a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
It was a harsh indictment of his Catholic upbringing, but his story is not unique. From the perspective of folks like Pence, the Catholic Church offered only a weekly ritual to attend. The Evangelical congregations were promising the adventure of personal discipleship. They were simply making a better offer.
While this personal/relational element does exist in the history of Catholic piety, and was taught in the Second Vatican Council, the message did not filter down very effectively.
3. Emphasis on evangelism and testimony:
Western Catholic culture (for a myriad of reasons) hasn't been very good at evangelism for a couple generations. Historically, spreading the faith was seen as the purview of Jesuit priests. Then the Jesuit order went sideways and... no one was left.
Evangelicals, on the other hand, have a huge cultural drive to share the Gospel. We've all had the experience of strangers asking, "Have you been saved?" and "If you died tonight would you go to Heaven?"
All of this is indicative of a culture which took Jesus seriously when He said, "Go into all nations..."
4. Parish as cross-functional community center:
Much could be said about the bland exteriors of modern “big box” Evangelical churches, but I will always remember my first time walking into one. Upon entering, I encountered a large sitting area, a coffee bar, a bookstore, and a help desk.
I’ve since gone to others which have large indoor playgrounds, gymnasiums, and daycares. In other words, there was a real obvious attempt to make the church a central hub for everything the community needed.
5. Small groups outside of Regular Worship:
Weekly Mass attendance isn't sufficient to form disciples. Many Evangelical congregations have realized this and taken up the practice of forming smaller, focused cell groups which meet in homes during the week. It's an efficient way of educating people and building up the community.
6. Emphasis on doctrinal, expository preaching:
This next one is very close to my heart.
The men who enter into the Catholic priesthood usually do so out of a love for the Church, for ministry, and for the sacraments. That means you can get many priests who tirelessly hear confessions or comfort the dying… but will be hopeless as preachers. This problem has also been exacerbated by some really bad instruction at Catholic seminaries.
Meanwhile, many branches of Protestant Christianity have set aside the sacraments. This made the sermon the main event in their Sunday services and the primary job of a minister. Thus, a poor preacher would quickly find himself out of the job.
Rightly or wrongly, some Catholics have actually sought to supplement their Sunday diet by attending non-Catholic services. Thankfully, there are now people like Bishop Robert Baron and countless lay speakers who are starting to fill the void.
7. Emphasis on the gratuity of salvation:
Philosophy professor Peter Kreeft regularly quizzes his Catholic audience on why they will get to Heaven. The majority answer is, "Because I'm a good person."
Let me say this up front; The gratuity of salvation is a Catholic dogma. However, the Church also places a high value on the development of the moral life and doing works of charity. Sometimes the bigger picture gets lost and we forget it is all ultimately a gift.
As for my evangelical friends, they all seem to have Ephesians 2:8-9 memorized. And while I think a full understanding of salvation needs to extend beyond that passage, it sure is a better starting point than "I'm a good person."
8. Broader understanding of Vocation:
This one comes more specifically from the Lutheran tradition. The Lutheran movement ransacked and abolished the monasteries and convents in their lands. Effectively, the spirituality and calling of celibacy was lost. This was a great tragedy.
However, there was a silver lining. In the absence of celibate vocations, extra focus and thought had to be given to the spirituality of lay vocations. This is a positive development … (even if it was accomplished by such terrible means)… and something Catholics should emulate.
In Catholic circles we talk a lot about “religious vocations”. But when we do, we are almost always talking about people becoming priests, nuns, and monks. Officially, the Church does teach that marriage is also a “religious vocation” – and I’ve had to remind my students of this repeatedly. But in practice, Catholic culture treats marriage as that-thing-you-do-when-you-don’t-have-a-religious-vocation.
9. Extemporaneous Prayer:
In Matthew 6:7, Jesus condemns the pagan practice of heaping up long prayers and invocations in hopes that one of the gods will take notice. That got translated in the King James Version as Jesus condemning "vain repetitions". Christian fundamentalists read that and came to the bonkers conclusion that you can never pray the same prayer twice.
As nonsensical as that is, it had this benefit; it forced those communities to focus entirely on extemporaneous prayer. That is a practice which gets underutilized in Catholic culture because we have a much heavier emphasis on learning the various prayers which have been passed down through the centuries. We could stand to remember that we don't ALWAYS need to use those.
10. Objections to the Catholic faith:
The last one is a bit of a backhanded compliment. The challenges levied by non-Catholics against Catholic beliefs are often the biggest motivations for Catholics to learn their faith.
Case in point; Catholic Answers, the world's largest apologetics organization (responsible for countless people remaining in and coming into the Catholic Church) owes its existence to a Baptist church in California which canvased a Catholic parking lot with tracts. Karl Keating typed up a reply on his typewriter, and the rest is history.
In fact, one of my biggest aggravations I have as a Catholic youth minister is that Evangelicals and Protestants have ceased challenging my students, thus robbing them of a huge motivation to learn. The most "evangelical" people they deal with are Atheists and Secularists.
C'mon guys. Back in my day ya'll were trying to get me "saved". Where is that vigor today?
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