Journey Home

Lee Sondeno was a Pentecostal worship leader, and Dr. Marcus Peter was an evangelist and preacher in the Assemblies of God. They share the stories of how each of them became Catholic, and look at some of the main differences between Pentecostal and Catholic theology.

They also explore some of the key experiences and practices that Catholics and Pentecostals share in common, as a way of helping Catholics to have more fruitful conversations about the Church with their Pentecostal loved ones.

Ken Reiman was raised without any formal religious background, although he was exposed to many traditions, especially Buddhism through spending summers with his grandmother in Japan. He gradually moved from atheism to agnosticism to deism, unsure of what religious tradition was true.

Once he felt drawn to Christianity, the questions about scripture and tradition that he asked led him to the Catholic Church. He was eventually baptized in Beijing. He shares how his experience working as a U.S. diplomat has been shaped by his faith journey.

Both Wade and Neena grew up strongly Christian, and at the same time that they were beginning their life together, Wade got a contract playing minor league baseball for the Detroit Tigers. Even in the midst of an intense travel schedule, they still made time to attend local Methodist churches when they could.

The struggle to find a solid church home while they were on the road led them to seriously consider the question of Christian authority, especially on questions of morality. Wade's realization that his own mother had chosen life for him despite challenging circumstances led him to dig deeper into the pro-life question; in the midst of that, he discovered the writings of Pope John Paul II, and realized there was a lot more to the Catholic Church than he'd realized.

Roger came from a Fundamentalist Christian background and went on to become a Baptist pastor. When cracks in his "sola Scriptura" foundation began to appear, it shook his faith, and he wondered if Christianity was true at all. Through the help of a friend who started walking him through apologetics, he began to realize that "sola Scriptura" was not the only framework for understanding Christianity, and that the Catholic Church’s three-legged stool of Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium was how Jesus had set things up to begin with.

Jeff and Lois were both raised in Christian households, and Lois’s parents were missionaries. They met at a Wesleyan school, and began ministering together while still attending college, eventually serving as a pastoring couple for 34 years. Growing questions about what was meant by “the Church” bothered them, as well as difficulty in resolving theological disputes within their own congregations. Who had the right interpretation of Scripture? After two of their children became Catholic, Jeff and Lois began to explore the Church, eventually resigning ministry and receiving the Sacraments of Initiation.