Matt,
I don't want to start a long, involved and potentially contentious thread on this point, but I will make a few suggestions.
You said in your post that you, "absolutely love Catholic mass" but you also said, "I do not wish to become a Catholic, there is too much theology within it which I disagree with".
It is my experience that all Christian churches actually agree on many more points of dogma than they disagree on. In so many cases, the disagreements are due to a lack of clear understanding of the actual beliefs.
If you really want to know what Catholics are (supposed to be) taught to believe, I suggest you get a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition. It will absolutely give you a clear understanding of what Catholics actually believe and why (assuming of course they are well catechized
). In it you will also find the reasons why the Mass is the way it is and how it encapsulates the most important Catholic beliefs.
If, after reading some or all of the Catechism, you still disagree with Catholic teachings, you can then move on to further searching with a clear conscience, knowing you gave that part of your search a fair chance.
Good luck and God bless your journey.
I agree with this. I completely understand your desire to be in a church and have that fellowship; God established the church as a body for edification of His children, as a means to learn and to aid each other in growing, to serve each other, and to help each other to stay in sound doctrine and not to stray into vain imaginations or fables.
But you are also right in that is can be extremely difficult to find a sound church today! So many have fallen into progressivism and followed the way of the world, becoming social clubs and not bastions of Christian theology and sound doctrine.
I've been there - when I graduated college and moved to Pittsburgh, PA in the early 2000's, I had a terrible time trying to find a sound, Biblical church that was teaching sound doctrine. I visited several that were friendly, energetic, had lots of programs going, but the sermons and teachings were shallow and man-centered. I starved spiritually for 3 years before I finally found a sound church I could attend where I could learn doctrine and grow in the Spirit.
I have a young friend of mine who went to college 4 years ago now. He was raised Baptist but in college, he became interested in eastern orthodoxy because he learned so much more of the Bible there than he ever had growing up under his father's preaching in the church at home. He also loved the reverence of their services, the hallowed feelings that came from their traditions, and the fact that they learned Scripture by singing it.
My advice to him when he asked me about it is what I'll say here:
study what that church is teaching in particular. Talk to the preacher/priest and find out what they personally believe - because many churches affiliated with certain denominations do not really believe or adhere to the official doctrines of their particular denomination. Also, study what is considered the fundamentals of the faith - these are the cardinal beliefs that make a Christian a true Christian; other things may be enough for you to say you could not attend that church, but if they deny any of the fundamentals of the faith, they are apostate.
while I personally have a lot of disagreement with many Catholic teachings, I know that they do have the Bible at their core and there are Catholics who are putting their faith and trust in Jesus for salvation and are my brethren in Christ. But I also know that many catholic priests and cardinals are very liberal and deny the very Christ they preach and are leading their congregations to hell because of this, but this is also true in Protestant churches too - Satan is at work all over the world doing what he can to deceive people, and perverting the Truth of Christ into a lie is one of his favorite tactics.
So talk to the priest of that particular church and discuss the gospel with him to see what he personally believes. Because that will guide what he teaches and should aid you in determining if this is a place you can grow in Christ.
One thing I learned in all the years I was away from home and moving around and thus getting a lot of experience in evaluating a church - what is taught from the pulpit is the most important, vital thing. If the doctrinal roots are sound, then other things become a matter of preference.
BUT if there are things this particular church is teaching that you cannot find peace with and that make you uneasy, I'd say consider if that uneasiness is a warning from the Holy Spirit! A church should draw you closer to the the Truth of the Gospel and aid you in growing more like Christ; no matter how friendly the people or how many activities they have or how great the music, if in the end, that church does not fulfill that one thing in pointing to the True Jesus and the True Gospel and not one of their own making , it is not a place to be.
