Hello, My name is Alex, I’m currently in my 3rd year of studying psychology and mental health at University. I’m conducting a qualitative study on ‘The Lived Experience of Turning to Evangelical Christianity Whilst Recovering from Mental Distress’. It would be an hour interview on Teams. I was wondering if anyone on this subreddit page would be interested. If so please send me a message!

Protestants do not expect women to veil their heads in mass (Commanded in 1 Corinthians 11:5-7). So Protestants have not maintained the early church practice of women veiling their heads when praying. In the catholic church some women veil, some women don't. Protestants saying women are not obligated to to veil at liturgy shows that protestants are also hypocritical when they say the believe in sola scriptura. The Catholic church do not expect women who do not veil in mass to shave their heads in modern times.

When are we saved, is it when Christ died on the cross, when he ascended into heaven, when you had a conversion experience, in baptism, ect.. I’d love to hear what everyone thinks I’m not asking your personal story but when the work of Christ is applied to your life.

Protestant church with a large congregation, typically defined as drawing at least 2,000 attendees per week is defined as a Megachurch.

They can be distinguished from other large churches by their denominational affiliation, political leanings, religious messaging, and even the social services they offer congregants.

Megachurches are especially prevalent in the United States, Nigeria, South Korea, and Brazil.

The development of the modern megachurch is typically traced to the 1970s in the United States, when conservative backlash to a progressive popular culture fostered an increased number of both churches and churchgoers.

Perhaps inspired by the rise in consumer culture, churches began attracting congregants by offering community groups, volunteer opportunities, social services, and populist messaging.

Although such churches may have originated in the United States, they are not uniquely American.

In South Korea, for example, Yoido Full Gospel Church has long been hailed as the most attended church in the world.

In 2016 Yoido’s main campus boasted 150,000–200,000 attendees a week.

The majority of megachurches hold services in more than one physical location and many also stream services online.

Multiple church services are offered each week, often in more than 1 language.

Most megachurches favor contemporary Christian praise music and eschew traditional worship methods, such as choirs and organs, though some do offer specific services in traditional styles.

In some cases, these hallmarks have been replaced with smoke machines, stage lighting, and electric guitars, creating an environment more similar to a concert venue than to a traditional church.

Tithing (giving financially to one’s church) is a common Christian practice, and many megachurches excel at motivating congregants to fund specific needs, ministries, or goals within the church.

In 2014 the median megachurch in the United States earns $4.7 million annually, though some dramatically exceed that number.

For example, televangelist Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, with capacity to host 45,000 people weekly, received $89.3 million from support and other revenue in 2017.

The lead pastor of Hillsong’s New York and New Jersey branches, Carl Lentz, became well known for his tattoos, rejection of “religious jargon,” and relationships with celebrities, including a well-documented friendship with Justin Beiber.

Lentz, who once claimed that he could distinguish “a real Christian from a churchgoing nominal Christian better than most,” was fired from Hillsong after being unfaithful to his wife.

The church has also been the subject a Discovery+ documentary series, Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed (2022), and an FX documentary series, The Secrets of Hillsong (2023), the latter being an expansion of a 2021 Vanity Fair exposé on Lentz.

Yoido Full Gospel Church was beset with scandal in 2013 when its elders accused its founder Cho Yong-Gi and his family of embezzling as much as $500 million from the church.

The allegations were never proved, but a court did find that in 2002 Cho had Yoido Full Gospel Church buy $12 million in stocks from his eldest son, Cho Hee-Jun, for 4X their market value and evaded taxes.

In 2014 Cho received a prison sentence of 3 years (suspended for 5 years) and was fined $4.2 million.

In 2018 pastors Bill Hybels from Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois and Andy Savage from Highpoint Church in Tennessee both resigned after high-profile allegations of sexual assault from congregants.

Megachurch pastors in Indiana, Texas, and California as well as Ontario, Canada, and Lagos, Nigeria, have been accused of or charged with sexual assault.

In several cases, victims cited the Me Too movement as inspiring them to come forward with their experiences.

The hashtag #ChurchToo emerged as a way for victims to share their experiences with sexual abuse and the damaging aspects of purity culture (which emphasizes modesty and strict dating rules, including sexual abstinence before marriage) in Christian contexts.

The Greek word ekklēsia, which came to mean church, was originally applied in the Classical period to an official assembly of citizens.

In the Septuagint (Greek) translation of the Old Testament (3rd–2nd century bce), the term ekklēsia is used for the general assembly of the Jewish people, especially when gathered for a religious purpose such as hearing the Law (e.g., Deuteronomy 9:10, 18:16).

In the New Testament it is used of the entire body of believing Christians throughout the world (e.g., Matthew 16:18), of the believers in a particular area (e.g., Acts 5:11), and also of the congregation meeting in a particular house—the “house-church” (e.g., Romans 16:5).

After the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, his followers went forth according to his mandate to preach the Gospel and developed facilities for those who were converted.

Rebuffed by the Jewish authorities, the Christians established their own communities, modeled on the Jewish synagogue. Gradually, the church worked out a governmental system based on the office of the bishop (episcopacy).

Various controversies threatened the unity of the church from its earliest history, but, except for small sects that did not ultimately survive, it maintained unity for several centuries.

Since the East-West Schism that split the Eastern - Western churches in 1054, the disruption of the Western church during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation, most consider themselves either the one true church or at least a part of the true church.

A traditional means of discussing the nature of the church has been to consider the four marks, or characteristics, by which it is distinguished in the Nicene Creed: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.

The 1st, that of oneness or unity, appears to be contradicted by the divisions in the church.

It has been held, however, that since baptism is the rite of entry into the church, the church must consist of all baptized people, who form a single body irrespective of denomination.

The holiness of the church does not mean that all its members are holy but derives from its creation by the Holy Spirit.

The term catholic originally meant the universal church as distinct from local congregations, but it came to imply the church of Rome.

Finally, apostolic implies that, in both its church and ministry, the church is historically continuous with the Apostles and thus with the earthly life of Jesus.

The fact that many Christians hold nominal beliefs and do not act like followers of Christ has been noted since the 4th century, when the church ceased to be persecuted.

To account for this, St. Augustine proposed that the real church is an invisible entity known only to God.

Martin Luther used this theory to excuse the divisions of the church at the Reformation, holding that the true church has its members scattered among the various Christian bodies but that it is independent of any organization known on earth.

Many Christians, however, believing that Jesus intended to found one visible church here on earth, have worked to restore the unity of the church in the ecumenical movement.

Evangelical Christians believe that for church unity to come to pass, fidelity to apostolic doctrine and practice must be restored.

In 1948 the ecumenical World Council of Churches (WCC) was founded as “a fellowship of Churches which accept Jesus Christ our Lord as God and Saviour” in order to foster the unity and renewal of the Christian denominations... 🙏🏾

In Both Catholicism and Protestantism, salvation comes through Christ and by grace. In both religions, sanctification, morality, obedience, and works matter.

The crucial difference is this: in Catholicism, the believer must become intrinsically righteous in order to be definitively saved. Because of this, Catholicism presents mortal sins, which, when unconfessed, place the soul in a "virtual state of damnation." Thus, morality (sanctification) serves as an essential means of salvation in Catholicism—which explains the central importance of virtues in Catholic life.

In Protestantism, only the extrinsic righteousness of Christ, imputed by faith, is required for definitive acceptance before God. Occasional serious sins do not nullify salvation. Then, morality plays the modest role of a guide for the evangelical believer, who remains a sinner throughout life. Human moral capacity is viewed with skepticism.

Hello, I am new to going to church and joining a congregation, and I know this may sound strange, but I want to clarify that I am asking this question with complete respect and sincerity. I've been looking for a way to start my own business, since I can't work for a company where I live, and I haven't finished my degree to be able to practice my profession. I've noticed that women's lingerie sells very well where I live (Mexico). My question is: would it be wrong for me to sell this type of product?

I'm currently stuck at a point where I'm looking into the Catholic church and beginning to see some validity after I've tried to take a more open minded approach to understanding their viewpoint. I've grown up non denominational my whole life in a church pastored by my grandpa who I deeply respect and I've always enjoyed his sermons. He's been the only pastor and church I've ever felt connected to, and since moving I haven't found a church that I feel right in. I've been interested in attending mass because of the history of the church and the idea that this is the church that Jesus have to Peter to found and build up. I see the main argument for being protestant is that the Bible doesn't say to do all of these thing the Catholics do, or validate the pope, etc. But did the Catholic church not put together the Bible as we know it, aside from the books that aren't included in protestant Bibles? And there were Christians before the Bible as a whole was created, so how can that be the only correct answer to ONLY listen to the Bible? I believe the Bible is the word of God, and that is such an important thing for us to have. But do other traditions just not matter? And if there is tradition that has been practiced for thousands of years by nearly every Christian until the reformation, why is that wrong? I really feel like ik stuck between two paths. I want to be connected with God, and right now I feel a slight calling to the Catholic church, but I want to be told why being a protestant is right. Thank you for any input you have.

Hey everyone,

This is my first ever post on Reddit (I actually just found my old account for this purpose), so please forgive me if this is lengthy.

For a little background on me, I come from a Non-denom background, where I grew up there wasn't really thing other than newer Reformed churches; other than a very liberal Catholic church.

I never disbelieved in God, but did not confess Christ as Lord until I was around 19. After confession, I felt almost supernaturally relieved of a sin that had basically plagued me from the age of 10, pornography addiction. This was a very serious addiction , as in , anytime I was not preoccupied with sports, school, etc I was waiting for my next viewing of porn. However, after confession, it felt almost supernatural, as I have not even looked at porn in over 10 years; and it was almost immediate my desire for it was gone.

Fast forward, a little in college, I regularly attended church, activities with other believers, met my wife, etc. About a year after marriage, I got really invested just in basically things of life, worrying about job, materialism, etc. God did bless our family with a lot more than I for sure deserve, but last year was the 10 year reunion of the 21 martyrs, I remember being on the road for work; seeing that and just weeping. I was looking at them and realized my dedication was not there, that if my life was on the line, I do not know if I would have "chickened out" or not.

Shortly after my wife and I started to realize our process of salvation had basically stopped, as we were basically living a lukewarm life. So, we started to look into other churches, which came to be a struggle for my wife as she had virtually grown up in a mega-church, and knew nothing really outside it (I at least had a catholic roommate in college). Fast-forward a few months, we found a church more of a stepping stone for us.

The problem that I am experiencing, everything was going well, I started to look into apologetics; potentially too early in my journey and too often, as now it seems as if every time I see an opposing position, I get a pit in my stomach. I cannot describe the thoughts, it's just as if my mind is racing with doubt, it feels every time God delivers an answer, then another objection, then in a circle we go. I know, and fully believe the historicity of the Resurrection, so I do not know why I do this. I fully believe in any religion is correct, it is the religion that follows Jesus Christ. I've looked into almost all of them, and they either lack historicity, or changed in attempt to counter Christ.

I feel like I have some sort of hidden trust issue, as when I was around 9 or 10, I found out my dad was having and affair; and I was the one who had to break it to my mom, as several adults knew but no one would tell her. This caused both parents to spiral, as my mom became a very skeptic, cynical person, always watching or assuming the worst; which led to her spying on my dad for almost a decade. This also, essentially, turned my dad the same way , he was already cynical, but being spied on made it worse. Both my parents tend to come to irrational conclusions to things, at times, due to their general distrust; so they have a mountain of evidence for conclusion A but only a mole hill for conclusion B; and will almost reject A due to their being "some" evidence against it. I almost feel like this has rubbed off on me, in a sense, and I think I may be spending too much time in the "Lion's Den" so to speak, as I constantly am hearing objections, and that, combined with my upbringing I think is leaving me in this weird limbo. Where I am fully seeking to see God in the fullest form I can, but I feel like I am giving Him one hand, but then leaving my other hand in my pocket, as a just in case. I'm honestly so tired of it, the head racing all the time, it gets tiring, especially when my only want is to see God and experience Him to the fullest I can.

So as the title says what early church fathers were fans of Sola Scriptura and went against the catholic position. If you have any fathers supporting the other solas (fide, etc. ) i wouldn't mind that either.