About Baptist and Catholic churches

Ok, say theres a small Baptist church that starts a very small school attached to it and what if the pastor or whatever who runs it, wants to convert himself to Catholic... and he does, can he do this and quickly make that school and church he runs, a Catholic one now? does he have to go through the state, etc to do so and hows that work?
im talking about a very small town one. obviously the attendees wouldnt be happy, and would lose some, but just curious how that'd work or if its happened before, under a short time.

or... say a baptist church decides to move to another area or just end it and then a catholic pastor or protestant pastor or whatever wants to buy the building and use that for their own catholic school/church.. can that easily be done?

thanks!

[edit on 20-2-2009 by tacobellsquid]

When the pastor converts to Catholicism, he would just be a member of the Catholic Church, he would not be a priest. So he would not be able to convert his old babtist church into a Catholic one.

Bill

reply to post by tacobellsquid


I'm not sure where the conspiracy is here, but:

Scenario one:

Seems to be more than one question. Can he convert? Yes. Can he change the Church over to a Catholic church? Yes, if
1) He owns the building
2) The Catholic Church is interested in acquiring the building and using it as a Church.

Would it have to go through the state? Yes, just like any other transfer of ownership.

Scenario two:

No, it wouldn't be easily done. It wouldn't be up to the individual Priest. It would at least be a Diocesan decision.

BTW, I'm assuming that you are talking about this happening in the USA.


Have a nice weekend.

Eric

reply to post by tacobellsquid


tacobellsquid:

Hello to you I think I might be able to answer your questions. I was a admin. secretary at a large United Methodist Church for over 6 years. The church was owned by the District and the District belonged to a Conference. In this case this church is not owned by the people who attend it. Only the District Office decides who the pastor is and what ever happens to the building.

Now, if you have independent churches that are owned by the people who attend there, then they have the say so by their board of trustees of what happens to the building, not the Pastor.

I assume the church you are talking about is not in the Southern Baptist Convention. If they were most likely the building would belong to the SBC. Now, if this church was owned by the Pastor and he decides to become Catholic, yes, he can change the school and church to Catholic. Then the people would have to find a new Baptist Church and the parents of the children who were attending a Baptist school now attending a Catholic School would need to decide if they wanted to keep their child in the school.

If you have an independent church that the people have left and gone to another church, then yes, whoever owns the building can sell it or let a different faith use the building.

I hope I have helped.


Peace to you,
Grandma

reply to post by Grandma


Baptist churches, even the Southern Baptist Convention, don't practice the same land ownership [for lack of a better term] that the Methodist and other denomanations do [such as the Presbyterian church]. In other words, since Baptist churches are all independant from each other [even SBC churches] the church owns the land/building. Churches leave the SBC often and churches enter it often, actually. If a SBC church were to start in a town, it's completely autonomous--being in the SBC has more to do with identification. It has to do with the idea of church government basically--Baptists tend to be congregational while the Methodist church [for example] tends to be heirarchical.

@tacobellsquid: Since Baptist churches are congregational, the congregants make the decisions in the church. Usually anyway. So, if in theory their pastor were to convert to Catholicism, the church could only become a Catholic church if the church members voted to do so. Which isn't likely to happen because of the huge gap between Catholic and Baptist theology and service style--Catholics are very litgurgical while Baptists have virtually no liturgy.

I would think though that if a Baptist pastor were to convert to the RCC, he would probably just step down because, he wouldn't be qualified, in his new belief, to teach anymore [in a church setting] because he's not a priest in the RCC. Or the church would just vote to have him removed and then they'd call someone else to be their pastor.

reply to post by octotom


In Southern Baptist Churches the elders are the deciding factor. The elders of most SBC vote on everything. If the elders do not vote for the conversion that it will not happen.

The two can not become one, or aka can not switch places...

Baptist have elders, or at least deacons. Southern Baptist have deacons, as the SB Convention rules behind the scenes.

Catholic have higher authority, Diocese. The Baptist doctrines and Catholic doctrines are very different. Take for example just his one paragraph below. Says alot!

www.ourcatholicfaith.org...

Not until several members of the Catholic clergy (Luther, Calvin, etc) began to preach heresies did the Protestant reformation begin. Below are several scripture passages that define the authority of the Church. The most important point to understand is that obedience to the Church IS obedience to God.

I attended a Southern Baptist church for a while and the congregation voted on everything, from the budget, to calling pastors, to what color the rug should be. Well, more specifically, the members voted on everything.

Remember though that how the church is run is based on what the congregation wants. Each Baptist church is autonomous also. So, perhaps the church(es) that you're thinking of, the elders/deacons did all the voting.