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Contents © 1997
by Jim Holman.
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I Looked at the Early Church and There Wasn't a Baptist in Sight

PROTESTANTS DISCOVER CATHOLICISM

By Lesley Payne

In 1992, a member of First Baptist Church in Montrose, California asked for theological guidance from his senior pastor, Ken Hensley. The church member, angered that his wife refused to leave the Catholic Church, had been debating with Catholic Answers by mail. Catholic Answers responded by sending him some apologetics materials. The man felt these were over his head. He asked his pastor to review a tape they had sent him, to tell him where they were wrong.

"I looked down at the cover of the tape," says Hensley, "and it said 'by Scott Hahn.' My eyes almost popped out of my head. Scott Hahn had been an old friend of mine in seminary. I came home and listened to the tapes. I gave Scott a call in Steubenville and said, `What's going on with you? I can't believe you've become a Catholic!' He and I began to talk. I was opposed to Catholicism, but I became committed to the idea that I had to study it through, to be sure I was right to be a Protestant. Scott led me to many titles of books. Over a period of about four years, I became more and more convinced that I would have to leave the Protestant church."

Hensley obtained materials from Catholic apologetics groups like Catholic Answers and St. Joseph Communications, as well as anti-Catholic organizations like Alpha and Omega Ministries. "I ordered every taped debate I could get from all these organizations," he says. "The arguments against Sola Scriptura began to win out in my mind."

But even before he formally rejected the Protestant doctrine of "Scripture alone," Hensley was aware that his view of justification was more Catholic than Protestant. "The Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone for me was something that began to crumble even in seminary," says Hensley. "I had been moving toward a more Catholic view of justification for years, without really realizing it was the Catholic view. So, when I began to read all the literature and listen to all the debates, I began to realize that my view of justification was quite Catholic already. If you collapse on Sola Scriptura and Sola Fide [by faith alone], the rest is sort of like a clean-up operation."

Hensley also read extensively on early Church history and early Christian writings and became "convinced that the early Church's view of baptism and of the Lord's Supper were more Catholic than they were Baptist." For a while, still burdened by anti-Catholic prejudices and concern over teachings about Mary, papal infallibility and other issues, Hensley considered other Protestant denominations. "I wondered if I could become a Lutheran, because Lutherans hold to baptismal regeneration and the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist," he says. "But on the other hand, Lutherans are committed to Sola Fide and Sola Scriptura. Then I thought, 'Could I become Anglican?' But really it's the same thing."

Hensley functioned as pastor of his church long after he had consciously rejected key Protestant teachings. "The more unsure about theology I became," he notes, "the more I tended to not preach theology. I tended to preach more about moral issues, family life, personal spirituality and things like that."

"I tried to walk a tightrope for a long time. I knew that it was an all or nothing thing. If I came to the realization that Catholicism is true, I would have to step out of the only occupation I've ever had. It was my ministry, what I loved to do. But it was also the way I supported my family. I wasn't trained to do anything else. Also, I was the pastor of a relatively small congregation (about 120 people) and we were extremely close. The people in the Church loved me tremendously and I loved them. The suspicion was growing in me that I was going to end up agreeing that the Catholic Church was what it claimed to be. But I couldn't stand the conclusion, my wife couldn't stand the conclusion and I didn't want to walk away from my ministry, my life, my livelihood, my friends until I was completely sure. I continued to think and study, and then preach what I could preach. Of course, there are many things in Scripture that Catholics and Protestants hold in common, so, I didn't feel I was misleading them. When the pressure became too great and I realized I couldn't go on any longer, I made my decision and met with the board of the church and told them. And I was out."

This was last year. Ken and his wife went through the RCIA program at St. Charles parish in North Hollywood and were formally received into the Catholic Church at this year's Easter Vigil. Two other families from his church decided to convert to Catholicism shortly after he left, and a third family has since made the journey.

One of the couples to convert with the Hensleys was Kimberly and Bill Galvan of Tujunga. Bill, a close friend of Ken Hensley, was one of the few who knew about the pastor's study of Catholicism. Bill also began to study Catholicism, initially without telling his wife about it.

Says Kimberly: "Over the last couple of years, my husband would ask me certain questions, such as, 'Do you believe in the Bible alone or do you believe in Bible and tradition?' I would say, 'Bible and tradition,' then he would say, 'Well you're not thinking Protestant.' We spoke for a couple years on differences between Protestantism and Catholicism, and every time I fell on the side of Catholicism."

When Kimberly Galvan finally learned about her husband's interest in Catholicism, she at first opposed his conversion. After Hensley left the church, the Galvans attended Mass with him at his new parish. "It was such a beautiful service--it really changed my heart," notes Kimberly. "For the first time in my Christian life, I had really worshiped a majestic God, where we focused on God completely. When we went back to the Baptist church, I felt like we were mocking God, because it was such a low church service. We didn't fit in anymore."

Once they decided to convert, Kimberly and Bill wanted to explain their decision to the other church members, but the church board asked them not to discuss the situation. Contact with other members of their former church dwindled slowly. Some parents attempted to put an end to Kimberly's "accountability group" (involving prayer, Bible study and counseling to encourage purity) with four teenage girls from the church. The girls fought dissolution of the group. Notes Kimberly: "I think one of the reasons they wanted to keep coming is that everybody else has walked away from them. Our church completely crumbled when our pastor left, so they really had nobody else to lean on."

Upon converting, Kimberly also had a problem with the leader of her homeschooling support group. "She compared me to a Mormon," says Kimberly. "She said, 'I wouldn't allow a Mormon in here because this is a Christian group.' I told her, 'I am a Christian--a Catholic Christian.'" The leader decided that, since Kimberly was a Protestant when she joined the support group, she would be allowed to stay.

Bill Galvan says that his acceptance of Catholicism came when the Protestant doctrine of Sola Scriptura one day just fell down for us like a house of cards, and the idea of an authoritative church being established by Christ and the idea of the church in the first century being led by bishops who were appointed by bishops and ultimately by the apostles seemed to be a much sounder foundation for the Church. As my pastor Ken said when he first told me about his interest in Catholicism, 'I've read everything there is to read of the early church, and I've come away with the idea that there isn't a Baptist in sight.'"

If you throw out Sola Scriptura and accept the idea of an authoritative church, it's only one more step to the fact that the Catholic Church is that Church," says Bill. "I think Scott Hahn says that, if the Church is Christ's actual authority on earth, you submit to that authority and pray to God that everything else will come along in time. Mary is probably the hardest thing for a Protestant convert to get a hold on. Protestants are very careful to get all their points of theology down.

"I heard a debate between a Protestant and a Catholic theologian. The Protestant said we should not pray to Mary because Mary is dead and the Bible tells us not to pray to the dead. I agreed. Then one day the scene from the Bible of Christ's transfiguration comes to my mind--he's up on the mountain talking to Moses and Elijah--but they're dead! I thought the issue is not as cut and dried as a Protestant might like to think."

Bill says the Mission played a role in his decision to join the Catholic Church: "My Lutheran mother got her hands on a copy. If while I was becoming a Catholic the only thing I had seen was something more 'mainstream,' it would have been tougher. One of the things troubling the Church now is a pervasive modernism. Take the kneeling issue--that the church would be more concerned about personal dignity--I cringe at that aspect of the Church today. So, getting a paper like the Mission showed me some Catholics are also having a problem with this. It wasn't like walking in alone."

Though their conversion affected only the Galvans' social life, Ken Hensley gave up much more to become a Catholic. At first, he worked as a waiter, then obtained a job as an executive recruiter. The change also impacted his children--ages nine and 14. "My 14-year-old daughter was a leader in her youth group," says Hensley. "She really loved our church. At 14, she's not exactly at an age where she cares about theology."

Asked what Protestant converts like himself can bring to the Catholic Church, Hensley said, "In Protestant evangelical churches, there's a focus on wanting to know God's word, on reading, studying, memorizing and understanding Scripture. And there's a focus on applying God's word in your life." He also notes greater emphasis on small group activities in Protestant churches--Bible studies, prayer groups and fellowship. "From my perspective coming into the Catholic Church, it's sort of like--you go to Mass Sunday and then you go to Mass the next Sunday."

Hensley was asked by his parish pastor to teach a couple adult education classes, which were well-received. He will also be speaking and teaching classes for St. Joseph Communications.

But, he adds: "I was received into full communion with the Church just this past Easter vigil. I and my family need a time to learn what it means to be Catholic. I'm not focused right now on what I'm going to do or bring in. I think that would be a little arrogant to immediately jump up and see what I can do."

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