David Kennard

Last week's presentation was very intersting to me in two main ways. First, our speaker talked alot about Catholicism and how many in his area are predominately Catholic either in the past or in the present and so a major focus of his ministry is to share the Gospel of Grace through faith alone with those who have been raised to believe they must still in a sense earn their salvation. To repalce religion with a relationship with God through Christ. The Catholic church is very close to my heart, honestly because of experiences with a former close friend. I've always been fascinated with the history of the church and in particular the Reformation. I liked alot about the different techniques that the speaker, David told us he and his church use to effectively and in a loving way communicate the simple gospel to Catholics. What continues to strike me is how naieve Evangelical Christians (including a man I deeply admire, the Rev. Billy Graham) are regarding the Roman Catholic church. Most today assume that most if not all Catholics are saved and that there are really no real big differences that divide us and our theology. While that is true to a large extent that our theology is the same with Catholicism, our theology and doctrine differ very radically on two issues: Authority (The Bible being the highest authority, verses Scripture and Tradition being equal) and the biggest which is Justification, ie. Salvation . Evangelicals believe being made right with God is decision of trust and faith in Christ alone while Catholics add works to that category. We would reject this based on Paul's letter to the Galatians who had a similar issue as well we Romans and Ephesians 2:8. The fact is, if catholic theology adds good works to the equation of salvation, then that salvation isn't really biblical. That makes ministering to Catholics in A LOVING way very important. I do not beleive all Roman catholics are lost and not saved but I do believe most Evangelicals are naieve.

Secondly and finally I strongly disagreed with some of David Kennard's "politically correctnness". Omitting terms like "Born-Again" are ion my view a serious thing. True most don't know what it means, but thats why you teach them. And while I agree with an emphasis on small groups it defintely comes across more as a social club in my view when theres practically no bible study at all nor real prayer time. Thats my view, agree or disagree.