Brethren in Christ, God give you Peace.
My wife went out of town which has made me have to work from home for the rest of the week in order to drop off and pick up the two year old at school. So I decided to give my eyes a rest from MD Law regarding Ethics and Conflicts of Interest to go out for lunch.
On the way home, I took a turn that I very rarely take (maybe I was subconsciously avoiding getting back to reading law), which took me past a strip mall with a Calvary Chapel church in it. I suddenly found myself pulling in, parking and going through the door. A few minutes later I am speaking to the head pastor in his office. He turns out to be a fallen Catholic.
I wasn't sure what to say, so I simply asked him to tell me about his religion. What are the doctrines, how do they worship, the structure of their church, how readings are chosen, etc.... As he went through them, I listened and occasionally asked a more probing question to better understand. His explanations were very generic and lacked depth. I was careful to not question him so that my disagreement with what he said was immediately apparent. So that he would explain and I would mostly politely listen and learn.
When you are interviewing someone, there is a technique used to detect anxiety called "calibration." What this means is that you ask lots of non-threating or off-issue questions which your respondent will answer freely and truthfully and you guage their body language, verbal cues, etc.... This allows you to then notice changes when a person answers a question that causes within them some internal anxiety. Such things as a sudden shift in body posture, raising the hands to the face and mouth, crossing legs, tapping feet, increased frequency in blinking.... There is a long list. The point is that when you see a large number of these "tells" appear, when they were not there before, you know that your respondent has become anxious or nervous.
The point of this interviewing lesson is that when he, after about 10 minutes of talking, asked me my religion and learned I am Catholic, he suddenly bladed his body in the chair, crossed his knees, one of his feet began rapidly moving back and forth, he crossed his arms over his chest with his right hand extending up to his chin and covering his mouth and he he kept looking towards the Bible on his desk as he spoke to me (guess he thought the devil had come for him!). It was really pretty amazing.
He then told me that he was raised Catholic and knew the faith. To which I responded how wonderful that must be since I too was raised Catholic, but had no clue about what the faith taught for thirty one years. Especially given that my Catholic education never taught me any of the "whys" of the faith, only those things I was supposed to do.
The more I cited the Bible, the more uncomfortable he would get. And I can assure anyone reading this that I was as gentle as a summer breeze with him. The only slightly probing question I asked him was if he could tell me the historical development and use of the "sinners prayer" as a means to be saved. He could not, instead quoting Romans 10:9-10, 13. I didn't tell him the history behind the sinners prayer, but hoped only to plant the seeds of curiosity. He then told me he had an appointment in five minutes, so a discussion on Romans was not going to happen. Besides, I felt that it was not what I should do anyway for some reason.
I have already written more than I intended for an introduction. I only set all this down to provide some context for the assistance that I seek from all of you, my beloved brethren in Christ.
I do not know if this man's anxiousness was out of a hatred of Catholicism or out of the movement of the Holy Spirit within him to come home. I only know that my going into that office was not by my design.
He left me with a pamphlet regarding water baptism (see quote below). I hope to find time to prepare a short, purely Biblically based response to his pamphlet which I hope will stir his intellect. I can tell you that he cares nothing for history as it concerns writings by early Church Fathers about Baptism, so what is given him must fall between the covers of a protestant Bible.
After prayer, I felt that I should come here as part of drafting something for him and allow others to participate in this. Maybe it has something to do with the Church calling him back. I doubt many people here know me from Adam, so just assume I know nothing, am completely inarticulate and have never even thought about the relationship between Baptism and salvation. That is not that far from the truth.
Here is what the pamphlet read:
For those new to apologetics, take a stab, have fun and learn. For those experienced apologists, teach.
All of us, pray. Particularly the Rosary. The pastor's name is Mark.
If you can plant the seeds of conversion in the leader of a church, think of the possibilities! It is one thing for a follower to be converted. It is something entirely different when the Holy Spirit converts a "shephard!"
May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all,
P12
My wife went out of town which has made me have to work from home for the rest of the week in order to drop off and pick up the two year old at school. So I decided to give my eyes a rest from MD Law regarding Ethics and Conflicts of Interest to go out for lunch.
On the way home, I took a turn that I very rarely take (maybe I was subconsciously avoiding getting back to reading law), which took me past a strip mall with a Calvary Chapel church in it. I suddenly found myself pulling in, parking and going through the door. A few minutes later I am speaking to the head pastor in his office. He turns out to be a fallen Catholic.
I wasn't sure what to say, so I simply asked him to tell me about his religion. What are the doctrines, how do they worship, the structure of their church, how readings are chosen, etc.... As he went through them, I listened and occasionally asked a more probing question to better understand. His explanations were very generic and lacked depth. I was careful to not question him so that my disagreement with what he said was immediately apparent. So that he would explain and I would mostly politely listen and learn.
When you are interviewing someone, there is a technique used to detect anxiety called "calibration." What this means is that you ask lots of non-threating or off-issue questions which your respondent will answer freely and truthfully and you guage their body language, verbal cues, etc.... This allows you to then notice changes when a person answers a question that causes within them some internal anxiety. Such things as a sudden shift in body posture, raising the hands to the face and mouth, crossing legs, tapping feet, increased frequency in blinking.... There is a long list. The point is that when you see a large number of these "tells" appear, when they were not there before, you know that your respondent has become anxious or nervous.
The point of this interviewing lesson is that when he, after about 10 minutes of talking, asked me my religion and learned I am Catholic, he suddenly bladed his body in the chair, crossed his knees, one of his feet began rapidly moving back and forth, he crossed his arms over his chest with his right hand extending up to his chin and covering his mouth and he he kept looking towards the Bible on his desk as he spoke to me (guess he thought the devil had come for him!). It was really pretty amazing.
He then told me that he was raised Catholic and knew the faith. To which I responded how wonderful that must be since I too was raised Catholic, but had no clue about what the faith taught for thirty one years. Especially given that my Catholic education never taught me any of the "whys" of the faith, only those things I was supposed to do.
The more I cited the Bible, the more uncomfortable he would get. And I can assure anyone reading this that I was as gentle as a summer breeze with him. The only slightly probing question I asked him was if he could tell me the historical development and use of the "sinners prayer" as a means to be saved. He could not, instead quoting Romans 10:9-10, 13. I didn't tell him the history behind the sinners prayer, but hoped only to plant the seeds of curiosity. He then told me he had an appointment in five minutes, so a discussion on Romans was not going to happen. Besides, I felt that it was not what I should do anyway for some reason.
I have already written more than I intended for an introduction. I only set all this down to provide some context for the assistance that I seek from all of you, my beloved brethren in Christ.
I do not know if this man's anxiousness was out of a hatred of Catholicism or out of the movement of the Holy Spirit within him to come home. I only know that my going into that office was not by my design.
He left me with a pamphlet regarding water baptism (see quote below). I hope to find time to prepare a short, purely Biblically based response to his pamphlet which I hope will stir his intellect. I can tell you that he cares nothing for history as it concerns writings by early Church Fathers about Baptism, so what is given him must fall between the covers of a protestant Bible.
After prayer, I felt that I should come here as part of drafting something for him and allow others to participate in this. Maybe it has something to do with the Church calling him back. I doubt many people here know me from Adam, so just assume I know nothing, am completely inarticulate and have never even thought about the relationship between Baptism and salvation. That is not that far from the truth.
Here is what the pamphlet read:
For those new to apologetics, take a stab, have fun and learn. For those experienced apologists, teach.
All of us, pray. Particularly the Rosary. The pastor's name is Mark.
If you can plant the seeds of conversion in the leader of a church, think of the possibilities! It is one thing for a follower to be converted. It is something entirely different when the Holy Spirit converts a "shephard!"
May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all,
P12
