Matthew Warner over at the Fallible Blogma is sponsoring a cause to support various Catholic speakers. Essentially, bloggers from around the world are encouraged to support a Catholic speaker and help them to get their name in the spotlight so they can better share their message. Please head over to Fallible Blogma to check out a whole host of fantastic Catholic speakers being supported.
When I first saw Matthew Warner’s call to help support a Catholic speaker, my first reaction was to find Peter Kreeft and do a write up on him. I was excited, ecstatic, and all those other words to describe my feeling of giddiness at the thought of telling the world about my favorite Philosopher. To my dismay, my dreams were smashed by another blogger who was far more quick on the draw than I. Mournfully, I perused around the list of speakers looking for another to support. Not thinking too much of it, I randomly picked the name of an orator that I knew absolutely nothing about. To my surprise, I found more than I had bargained for.
Who is Michael Cumbie?
Michael Cumbie is an ex-Southern Baptist preacher that converted to Catholicism after 23 years of being a Pastor. Think about it, he gave up his livelihood that supported his family, his passion of preaching the gospel, and pretty much his entire life that he had spent 23 years building. His willingness to give it all up amazed me. But what truly made an impact on me was the fact that, although he thought that he would never preach again, he is now traveling the world sharing his story and the truth about Catholicism.
When you hear Michael Cumbie, the first thing that you will notice is that he sounds like a Southern Baptist preacher (go figure). However, the funny thing is that, although you expect someone with his fire and zeal to be preaching about protestant theology, it is almost uncomfortably pleasurable listening to him speak about the Church and the sacraments. With Michael, you feel a joy about the Church that can only be expressed by someone that was without it for a long time. His humor, his intellect, and his emotion take you along with him on the roller coaster that he felt during his conversion.
More Than Your Average Speaker
Michael Cumbie has a great way of explaining a lot of what the Church teaches in normal, every day language. Yet, you can tell that he had been studying the Scriptures all of his life by the masterful way he ties the Church and the Bible together, and shows how the two are complementary and not contradictory.
There was only one thing that bothered me while checking out Michael’s ministry, and that was that there wasn’t much out their on the Internet that you could listen or watch in long durations. I had to find bits and pieces here and there (and even do a little Google hacking) to fully enjoy his inspirational talks.
Conclusion
I highly recommend Michael Cumbie to anyone that desires to know more about the Catholic Church and wants to have a great time laughing and thinking along the way. He is a phenomenal speaker, and when I contacted him about a possible interview for this post, he was very accommodating and kind, but was unable to do so because of prior engagements. Perhaps in the future I will update this post with an interview with him.
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