No Price Too High: A Pentecostal Preacher Becomes Catholic: The Inspriational Story Of Alex Jones [ペーパーバック]

As Alex Jones writes:

Some of the reactions I got when Catholics found out I was coming into the Church were disheartening. One priest actually asked why I would want to come into the Church. And there were other Catholics who expressed similar sentiments. There was no universal concept. They felt everyone has his own religion and it works for him--so great! They believed the unity lies in the belief in God and in Jesus Christ, not in the governmental unity of the church. Hey, we're all going to heaven, so just stay where you are! They are trying to be magnanimous. What they failed to realize is that when a person's heart has been stirred to see the truth of the Church, that kind of thinking comes across almost as that of an apostate....I don't think those people know what they are saying. It is a tremendous hindrance to tell someone seeking the truth to say where he is.

This is the story of a Pentecostal preacher (and one time anti-Catholic) who decided to pattern his worship services after the worship services of the earliest Christians. As he began to research this, he discovered that the earliest Christians were indeed Catholic. He found in the early writings of the church fathers, references to the sacraficial nature of the Mass and evidence that the Pope did indeed have authority over Christ's church.

The second half of the book details his wife Donna's struggle as her husband began to feel drawn toward Catholicism.

Eventually Alex Jones would convert to the Catholic faith, taking over 50 members of his congregation with him. Today, he is an ordained Catholic deacon. A must-read for Catholic converts and for Pentecostal Christians who may be interested in Catholicism.

"No Price Too High" is the true story of Pastor Alex Jones' movement from being a lifelong Pentecostal to being baptized a Catholic (with his wife and 50% of his congregation) in 2000 at the age of 60. In doing so, Jones had to abandon his career, the church he founded, and face innumerable personal and professional obstacles.

Jones' journey towards Catholicism began with a Wednesday night Bible Study when he asked participants "How would you like to get into a time machine and go back two thousand years to the time of the early Church?" They liked the idea so Jones' embarked on an investigative journey into Church history - a journey in which he discovered the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, Apostolic Tradition, and the truth about the Catholic Church.

Jones' provides ample details about his theological "conversion" and the difficulty of accepting a Church he believed all his life to be "not Christian." He shares his experience of coming "face-to-face" with authentic Christianity as it was handed down by the Apostles to the first generation of bishops, the Apostolic Fathers. And why he could not turn back.

While "No Price Too High" highlights what he misses and the barriers presented by the US Catholic Church to non-euro centric cultures, Jones has, through recent travels, experienced African (has many of the those things he misses) and Eastern versions of the Church. He has found the Catholic Church to be truly one and catholic (universal).

Jones does not claim the Catholic Church to be perfect and without its problems. He knows that there are "imperfect people (in the Church) with hidden agendas and imperfect people struggling with racism, duplicity, immorality, injustice, hypocrisy, and spiritual lethargy" - the usual list of human failings. But as a former pastor of two Pentecostal congregations, he knows that all who work in any human endeavor encounter the same human failings!

"No Price Too High" closes with a narrative by Jones' wife, Donna, detailing her difficult journey towards Catholicism. She was "purely Pentecostal" and did not follow blindly.

Alex and Donna Jones' inspirational story will be of interested to spiritual seekers, particularly Catholics who have left the Catholic Church for Evangelical and Pentecostal churches and non-Catholics enrolled in RICA programs (required for entry into the Catholic Church). Seeing the Catholic Church through the eyes of the Joneses, who had to dig deep in abandoning their lifelong-held faith, will be an eye-opener for seekers and/or those who are confused about the Catholic Church.

Alex Jones serves today as a Deacon in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit.

My mother gave me this book for Christmas because I am a recent convert to Catholicism and because she saw the wonderful reviews that this book was receiving on Amazon.com. I read the book in a matter of a couple of days and I absolutely loved Alex Jones' conversion story. He came to the Church much in the same fashion that I did - by researching and finding the truth. Granted, I had a lot less to loose in my conversion and I also didn't do as in-depth of a study before converting. The latter could possibly be attributed to the fact that I already had a base knowledge of Catholicism from my mother's side of the family. This book is an excellent tool for anyone considering coming into the Church as it answers common questions that people have. It's also wonderful for practicing Catholics who need to brush up on their Church history and need to remind themselves just why they are Catholic in the first place.