Avoiding Babylon Why This Ex‑Protestant Pastor Came Home to the Catholic Church...and Brought 17 People With Him!
A shaky ad read and some friendly ribbing give way to a rare, candid conversion story: a Reformed pastor worn thin by 2020, family burdens, and Sunday dread begins asking God for an exit ramp he can’t yet name. An old friend—now Catholic—offers a simple challenge: read the Catechism to learn the Church from the Church. So he does, pencil in hand. Circles for “yes,” rectangles for “I need more,” triangles for “no way.” Then daily Mass. Then Latin Mass. What surprises him first is the familiarity—the lectionary, the reverence, the shape of worship echoing his Lutheran childhood. What changes him next is Scripture: Hebrews 12 reframes worship as a present communion with the saints; Isaiah 22 and Matthew 16 connect the key and the office in a typology he already loves to preach.
Meanwhile, life doesn’t pause. His wife grieves, becomes a guardian overnight, and shoulders state paperwork while he strains to shepherd a congregation on an empty tank. One prayer breaks through the fog: Mary, be a mother to my wife while she’s losing hers. Grace answers. The exit ramp appears on a Florida trip when his wife says, Maybe this is it. He resigns gently, stays through year‑end, and answers one summer’s worth of honest questions—including a sermon on Mary’s perpetual virginity built from the Reformers themselves. In January, they slip out of town to worship quietly. Friends notice and ask. There’s no recruiting, just real answers. The Holy Spirit moves: four couples and their children, plus two reverts, begin OCIA and enter the Church. Seventeen souls. More ripples follow—his oldest starts OCIA in another city.
We also talk about the temptations after conversion: platform, hot takes, “professional Catholic” life. He chooses stillness over speed, daily Mass over instant punditry, Our Lady and the saints over arguments for their own sake. He’s drafting a practical guide to help Catholics “speak Protestant,” especially on typology and authority, but only with spiritual direction and doctrinal checks. If you’ve ever wondered how Scripture, suffering, and friendship might converge to redirect a life—and a community—this story will meet you there.
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