(I just LOVE Alex Jones! He is Godly, Spirit-Filled man, a GREAT teacher of the Word of God and the Catholic Faith. AND the Church is so lucky to have him! Thank you, Alex!)
BLACK PENTECOSTAL CHURCH VOTES TO BECOME CATHOLIC
by Diane Morey Hanson, Credo June 19, 2000DETROIT - When the Rev. Alex Jones preaches, his deep passion-filled voice resonates off the white domed ceiling of Maranatha Christian Church on Oakman Boulevard in West Detroit. But that won't be for much longer.
The spacious and ornate formerly Greek Orthodox church has been sold.
That's because the predominantly African-American congregation has dwindled from 200 to about 80 over the last two years as Pastor Jones, 58, has changed the Pentecostal worship service to a replica of a Catholic Mass.
And on June 4--a Sunday celebrating Christian Unity and the Ascension of the Lord--the congregation voted 39-19 to take the next steps necessary to become Catholic.
Theirs is the story of a journey of faith that is filled with surprise, anger, hurt, doubt, love and joy.Are you crazy?"I thought some spirit had jumped him," said Linda Stewart of her Uncle Alex, pastor of Maranatha (Aramaic for "Lord come"). "I thought that in his quest for truth he had gone off and lost his mind."
The reason for Stewart's concern was that her uncle, like a father to her since her dad died years ago, had changed the Wednesday Bible study to a study of the early Church Fathers. And he was gradually changing the Sunday worship into a dead ringer for a Catholic Mass: kneeling, Sign of the Cross, Nicene Creed, Eucharistic celebration--the whole nine yards.
"We were taught that the Catholic Church was the great whore," Stewart, 43, explained. "We were taught that the pope was the anti-Christ. Mary?--Mary?--no way! We had been happy and going along and just enjoying Jesus and then here he comes and throws this monkey wrench in.
"I was angry!" said Stewart. "And I thought, 'You're crazy to think we are going to do this!' "
The seed for "this" had been planted several years ago when Jones attended a debate between anti-Catholic author David Hunt and Catholic apologist Karl Keating of the radio show Catholic AnswersKeating asked a pointed question: Whom would you believe in the case of an accident--someone who was there as an eyewitness or someone who came along years later? To learn about the early Christian Church, Keating stressed, it is necessary to read the early Church Fathers who were there from the beginning.
"It made sense, but I wasn't ripe for change then," said Jones. "I put it away in my heart and pondered it, but it didn't all come together until I read the Fathers and saw a Christianity we didn't have in our church."The changeJones was startled. "I saw that the center of worship was neither the preaching nor the operations of the gifts of the Spirit, but the Eucharist as the actual body and blood of Christ," he said.
In the early spring of 1998 Pastor Jones and his Wednesday evening Bible study decided to reenact an early Church worship service.
A month later Jones instituted a Eucharistic celebration every Sunday. "My congregation thought it was ridiculous," he recalled. "They thought once a month was sufficient.
"I knew that people would leave," he said, his voice tinged with sadness. In addition to theological issues, there were racial, cultural and social differences to deal with.
"The only black institution African-Americans own is church," said Jones. "When you give that up and go to a white-owned institution that is insensitive to the needs of black Americans, it's not easy."
The book Crossing the Tiber, by Milan Bible teacher Steve Ray, provided Jones with Scriptural teaching on Baptism and Eucharist. Jones was referred to Ray when he called Sacred Heart Seminary and spoke with Bill Riordan, formerly a theology professor there. He began to meet with Ray on a regular basis and converse almost daily by phone or e-mail.
Jones's Wednesday evening Bible study became a study in the early Church Fathers, the Catholic Catechism, Mary, the saints, purgatory, sacramental theology, and the development of doctrine.
"I began to tear away at Sola Scriptura (Bible only)--the heart and soul of the Protestant faith," said Jones.
People started to leave.
Even Jones's niece considered doing so. "Every Sunday I would come home and say, 'That's my last Sunday. I'm quitting and I'm not coming back.' " But, said Stewart, because she trusted her uncle as a man of God she did come back and gradually things began to make sense.
In the process of changing Maranatha's worship service Jones thought, "Why should I recreate the wheel?" There was already a church that did this--the Catholic Church.
"I began to realize that the church of the upper room was the Catholic Church," said Jones. "All the rest had a later beginning date and a founder. I had found the church of Jesus Christ and I was willing to lose everything."
On that, he was tested.Trouble on the home front "At first I thought he was caught up in the excitement of having services like the early Church Fathers," said Donna Jones, Alex's wife of 33 years. "This was going to be a one-time thing. Then he began changing things drastically and I began to really wonder what was going on. I became disturbed because I felt he was going off on the wrong track."
Sometimes, said Pastor Jones, his wife and his three grown sons, Joseph, Benjamin and Marc, were openly hostile about the changes. But that wasn't surprising.
"He had preached that the Catholic Church was full of idol worship," said Donna. "So when he started embracing it I said, 'Something's wrong here. He's turned a corner on me.' "
Alex and Donna began arguing and debating the issues, sometimes into the wee hours of the morning.
"I started to research the Catholic Church because I wanted to refute what he was preaching," Donna explained. "I needed ammunition. But as I began to read about the Church Fathers a change began taking place in my heart."
In the summer of 1998 Dennis Walters, the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) director at Christ the King Parish in Ann Arbor, met the Joneses at Steve Ray's home.
"I decided, rather than let them sink or swim on their own," said Walters, "I would offer my help."
Walters provided them and Maranatha's elders and deacons with Catholic Catechisms and answered their many questions about Catholic doctrine.
Since March 1999, Walters has met with the Joneses every Tuesday for four or five hours. "I have gone through most of my RCIA stuff with them," he said.
For Donna, that brought up even more questions. "I got to the point where I felt so desperate for answers that I would be driving down the street and I would be talking to the Lord like I was having a conversation with another human being in the car," she said. "My lips were moving and I didn't care who saw me."
She struggled with the real possibility that entry into the Catholic Church could mean her husband would be out of a job.
"So I said, 'Lord, what am I going to do after 25 years of ministry? What about my nails? I won't be able to get a pedicure or manicure,' " she laughed. "Then the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said, 'I'm not asking about your comfortability. I'm concerned about conforming you to the image of Christ.'"
Just eight months ago Donna turned to her husband one evening and announced, "I'm Catholic."Cautious path to RomeBut the process of entering the Church isn't quite that abrupt. Maranatha has been communicating with the Detroit Archdiocese for more than a year. The archdiocese is proceeding with caution since there is much to be worked out, including RCIA, remarriage situations, and possible Catholic ministry positions for the ministers at Maranatha.
Ned McGrath, communications director for the Detroit Archdiocese, released this statement to Credo: "In the spirit of the Great Jubilee, Cardinal Maida and the Archdiocese of Detroit have been open to inquiries from other Christian leaders and/or their congregants regarding possible transition into individual membership in the Roman Catholic Church. To date, these conversations can and should be described as introductory, private and inconclusive."
A few weeks ago Bishop Moses Anderson, Detroit's only African-American bishop, attended a Sunday service at Maranatha. After the service he answered questions and told the congregation that the bishops were excited about the situation there. "He said they were taking so long because they didn't want to appear to be taking advantage of the situation," said Walters.
While there is a possibility that Pastor Jones could enter the seminary and become a Catholic priest or deacon, none of that is certain, although married pastors of other faiths have done just that.
Steve Anderson, of White Lake, was a priest at a Charismatic Episcopal Church before leaving his church and priesthood to join the Catholic Church. Married and the father of three young boys, Anderson received permission from Rome to become a Catholic priest and will enter Sacred Heart Major Seminary in the fall to begin three years of study before being ordained for the Diocese of Lansing.
Ironically, Anderson met Jones a few years ago while in a busload of Detroit-area pastors headed for Promise Keepers. "We happened to sit next to one another," said Anderson. "I wasn't planning on becoming Catholic at that time. We talked about the early Church Fathers and became good friends."
Jones is not worried about his future as a minister. He said he is prepared to do whatever Cardinal Adam Maida directs him to do.
"I may have to go out and get a job now," Jones laughed. He had been a teacher in the Detroit Public Schools for 28 years, 17 of them overlapping his pastoral work.To be or not to be CatholicIt all finally came down to the vote on June 4. The question: Do you want to take the next steps necessary to enter the Catholic Church?
As the congregation entered through the big wooden doors of Maranatha, they dropped their yellow ballots into the box.
No matter what the outcome, the Jones family, including all three boys and their families, knew they would continue their journey into the Catholic Church.
Applause erupted when the vote in favor of becoming Catholic was announced, but the victory was bittersweet.
While Jones encouraged the 19 who voted no to stay with the church family as they continue the journey, he knows some will leave.
"That's one of the most painful aspects of it, seeing people you love walk away because they don't understand," he said. Even members of neighboring churches are upset. "It is like I've joined the enemy, like I've betrayed them. I get calls at home from people who say, 'I love you. I'm praying for you, but I don't understand what you're doing.' And no matter how hard you try to make them understand, they are closed to the idea."
Among the 19 at Maranatha was 64-year-old Leola Crittendon. "I'm one of the originals," she said. She and her husband have been active members of Maranatha from the beginning. "It's like the death of a church. It's heartbreaking."
Crittendon said she never attended the Wednesday evening sessions because she knew she didn't want to become Catholic. "It was just not for me."
Pastor Jones, she said, is like a brother to her and her family. "We love him dearly, wish him well and pray for him daily."
But the family will look for another church, said Crittendon. "Pastor Jones said this is God's will for him, but it is not God's will for me and my family."
For others, it was a decision to celebrate.
"I am very happy," said Jones's niece Linda Stewart. "I can't wait to be in full communion with the Church because I really believe it is the Church that Christ left here and I want to be a part of that Church."
Said DeGloria Thompson, a divorced mother of two grown children, "It is exciting to be right in the mainline of the Church of Christ."
"I'm ready," said Gregory Clifton, 41, father of four young children. "I love to come and take the Eucharist."
The Rev. Michael Williams has been an elder at Maranatha for 12 years. "I know for sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this move is a godly move and the direction we are heading in is a godly direction."
The Rev. Alex Jones knows that too. "This is definitely the work of the Holy Spirit," he said.
"When it was revealed to me that this is His Church, it wasn't a hard decision to make even though I knew it could cost everything," he said.
Now the need is for a new church home. The members of Maranatha have 30 days to find one. Jones isn't worried. "We trust God to find us one," he said.
For Pastor Jones and the Maranatha congregation--this story is to be continued...
(end)
The spacious and ornate formerly Greek Orthodox church has been sold.
That's because the predominantly African-American congregation has dwindled from 200 to about 80 over the last two years as Pastor Jones, 58, has changed the Pentecostal worship service to a replica of a Catholic Mass.
And on June 4--a Sunday celebrating Christian Unity and the Ascension of the Lord--the congregation voted 39-19 to take the next steps necessary to become Catholic.
Theirs is the story of a journey of faith that is filled with surprise, anger, hurt, doubt, love and joy.Are you crazy?"I thought some spirit had jumped him," said Linda Stewart of her Uncle Alex, pastor of Maranatha (Aramaic for "Lord come"). "I thought that in his quest for truth he had gone off and lost his mind."
The reason for Stewart's concern was that her uncle, like a father to her since her dad died years ago, had changed the Wednesday Bible study to a study of the early Church Fathers. And he was gradually changing the Sunday worship into a dead ringer for a Catholic Mass: kneeling, Sign of the Cross, Nicene Creed, Eucharistic celebration--the whole nine yards.
"We were taught that the Catholic Church was the great whore," Stewart, 43, explained. "We were taught that the pope was the anti-Christ. Mary?--Mary?--no way! We had been happy and going along and just enjoying Jesus and then here he comes and throws this monkey wrench in.
"I was angry!" said Stewart. "And I thought, 'You're crazy to think we are going to do this!' "
The seed for "this" had been planted several years ago when Jones attended a debate between anti-Catholic author David Hunt and Catholic apologist Karl Keating of the radio show Catholic AnswersKeating asked a pointed question: Whom would you believe in the case of an accident--someone who was there as an eyewitness or someone who came along years later? To learn about the early Christian Church, Keating stressed, it is necessary to read the early Church Fathers who were there from the beginning.
"It made sense, but I wasn't ripe for change then," said Jones. "I put it away in my heart and pondered it, but it didn't all come together until I read the Fathers and saw a Christianity we didn't have in our church."The changeJones was startled. "I saw that the center of worship was neither the preaching nor the operations of the gifts of the Spirit, but the Eucharist as the actual body and blood of Christ," he said.
In the early spring of 1998 Pastor Jones and his Wednesday evening Bible study decided to reenact an early Church worship service.
A month later Jones instituted a Eucharistic celebration every Sunday. "My congregation thought it was ridiculous," he recalled. "They thought once a month was sufficient.
"I knew that people would leave," he said, his voice tinged with sadness. In addition to theological issues, there were racial, cultural and social differences to deal with.
"The only black institution African-Americans own is church," said Jones. "When you give that up and go to a white-owned institution that is insensitive to the needs of black Americans, it's not easy."
The book Crossing the Tiber, by Milan Bible teacher Steve Ray, provided Jones with Scriptural teaching on Baptism and Eucharist. Jones was referred to Ray when he called Sacred Heart Seminary and spoke with Bill Riordan, formerly a theology professor there. He began to meet with Ray on a regular basis and converse almost daily by phone or e-mail.
Jones's Wednesday evening Bible study became a study in the early Church Fathers, the Catholic Catechism, Mary, the saints, purgatory, sacramental theology, and the development of doctrine.
"I began to tear away at Sola Scriptura (Bible only)--the heart and soul of the Protestant faith," said Jones.
People started to leave.
Even Jones's niece considered doing so. "Every Sunday I would come home and say, 'That's my last Sunday. I'm quitting and I'm not coming back.' " But, said Stewart, because she trusted her uncle as a man of God she did come back and gradually things began to make sense.
In the process of changing Maranatha's worship service Jones thought, "Why should I recreate the wheel?" There was already a church that did this--the Catholic Church.
"I began to realize that the church of the upper room was the Catholic Church," said Jones. "All the rest had a later beginning date and a founder. I had found the church of Jesus Christ and I was willing to lose everything."
On that, he was tested.Trouble on the home front "At first I thought he was caught up in the excitement of having services like the early Church Fathers," said Donna Jones, Alex's wife of 33 years. "This was going to be a one-time thing. Then he began changing things drastically and I began to really wonder what was going on. I became disturbed because I felt he was going off on the wrong track."
Sometimes, said Pastor Jones, his wife and his three grown sons, Joseph, Benjamin and Marc, were openly hostile about the changes. But that wasn't surprising.
"He had preached that the Catholic Church was full of idol worship," said Donna. "So when he started embracing it I said, 'Something's wrong here. He's turned a corner on me.' "
Alex and Donna began arguing and debating the issues, sometimes into the wee hours of the morning.
"I started to research the Catholic Church because I wanted to refute what he was preaching," Donna explained. "I needed ammunition. But as I began to read about the Church Fathers a change began taking place in my heart."
In the summer of 1998 Dennis Walters, the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) director at Christ the King Parish in Ann Arbor, met the Joneses at Steve Ray's home.
"I decided, rather than let them sink or swim on their own," said Walters, "I would offer my help."
Walters provided them and Maranatha's elders and deacons with Catholic Catechisms and answered their many questions about Catholic doctrine.
Since March 1999, Walters has met with the Joneses every Tuesday for four or five hours. "I have gone through most of my RCIA stuff with them," he said.
For Donna, that brought up even more questions. "I got to the point where I felt so desperate for answers that I would be driving down the street and I would be talking to the Lord like I was having a conversation with another human being in the car," she said. "My lips were moving and I didn't care who saw me."
She struggled with the real possibility that entry into the Catholic Church could mean her husband would be out of a job.
"So I said, 'Lord, what am I going to do after 25 years of ministry? What about my nails? I won't be able to get a pedicure or manicure,' " she laughed. "Then the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said, 'I'm not asking about your comfortability. I'm concerned about conforming you to the image of Christ.'"
Just eight months ago Donna turned to her husband one evening and announced, "I'm Catholic."Cautious path to RomeBut the process of entering the Church isn't quite that abrupt. Maranatha has been communicating with the Detroit Archdiocese for more than a year. The archdiocese is proceeding with caution since there is much to be worked out, including RCIA, remarriage situations, and possible Catholic ministry positions for the ministers at Maranatha.
Ned McGrath, communications director for the Detroit Archdiocese, released this statement to Credo: "In the spirit of the Great Jubilee, Cardinal Maida and the Archdiocese of Detroit have been open to inquiries from other Christian leaders and/or their congregants regarding possible transition into individual membership in the Roman Catholic Church. To date, these conversations can and should be described as introductory, private and inconclusive."
A few weeks ago Bishop Moses Anderson, Detroit's only African-American bishop, attended a Sunday service at Maranatha. After the service he answered questions and told the congregation that the bishops were excited about the situation there. "He said they were taking so long because they didn't want to appear to be taking advantage of the situation," said Walters.
While there is a possibility that Pastor Jones could enter the seminary and become a Catholic priest or deacon, none of that is certain, although married pastors of other faiths have done just that.
Steve Anderson, of White Lake, was a priest at a Charismatic Episcopal Church before leaving his church and priesthood to join the Catholic Church. Married and the father of three young boys, Anderson received permission from Rome to become a Catholic priest and will enter Sacred Heart Major Seminary in the fall to begin three years of study before being ordained for the Diocese of Lansing.
Ironically, Anderson met Jones a few years ago while in a busload of Detroit-area pastors headed for Promise Keepers. "We happened to sit next to one another," said Anderson. "I wasn't planning on becoming Catholic at that time. We talked about the early Church Fathers and became good friends."
Jones is not worried about his future as a minister. He said he is prepared to do whatever Cardinal Adam Maida directs him to do.
"I may have to go out and get a job now," Jones laughed. He had been a teacher in the Detroit Public Schools for 28 years, 17 of them overlapping his pastoral work.To be or not to be CatholicIt all finally came down to the vote on June 4. The question: Do you want to take the next steps necessary to enter the Catholic Church?
As the congregation entered through the big wooden doors of Maranatha, they dropped their yellow ballots into the box.
No matter what the outcome, the Jones family, including all three boys and their families, knew they would continue their journey into the Catholic Church.
Applause erupted when the vote in favor of becoming Catholic was announced, but the victory was bittersweet.
While Jones encouraged the 19 who voted no to stay with the church family as they continue the journey, he knows some will leave.
"That's one of the most painful aspects of it, seeing people you love walk away because they don't understand," he said. Even members of neighboring churches are upset. "It is like I've joined the enemy, like I've betrayed them. I get calls at home from people who say, 'I love you. I'm praying for you, but I don't understand what you're doing.' And no matter how hard you try to make them understand, they are closed to the idea."
Among the 19 at Maranatha was 64-year-old Leola Crittendon. "I'm one of the originals," she said. She and her husband have been active members of Maranatha from the beginning. "It's like the death of a church. It's heartbreaking."
Crittendon said she never attended the Wednesday evening sessions because she knew she didn't want to become Catholic. "It was just not for me."
Pastor Jones, she said, is like a brother to her and her family. "We love him dearly, wish him well and pray for him daily."
But the family will look for another church, said Crittendon. "Pastor Jones said this is God's will for him, but it is not God's will for me and my family."
For others, it was a decision to celebrate.
"I am very happy," said Jones's niece Linda Stewart. "I can't wait to be in full communion with the Church because I really believe it is the Church that Christ left here and I want to be a part of that Church."
Said DeGloria Thompson, a divorced mother of two grown children, "It is exciting to be right in the mainline of the Church of Christ."
"I'm ready," said Gregory Clifton, 41, father of four young children. "I love to come and take the Eucharist."
The Rev. Michael Williams has been an elder at Maranatha for 12 years. "I know for sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this move is a godly move and the direction we are heading in is a godly direction."
The Rev. Alex Jones knows that too. "This is definitely the work of the Holy Spirit," he said.
"When it was revealed to me that this is His Church, it wasn't a hard decision to make even though I knew it could cost everything," he said.
Now the need is for a new church home. The members of Maranatha have 30 days to find one. Jones isn't worried. "We trust God to find us one," he said.
For Pastor Jones and the Maranatha congregation--this story is to be continued...
(end)
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