I got back from Ottawa about an hour ago and took a look at today’s Gazette. I found the following article, “A theatre of prayer without popcorn“, about a new Baptist church in my area using a local movie theatre for Sunday services.
This movie theatre, it turns out, is in the boundaries of my parish, which means by default that the new church is reaching out to my parishioners.
According to the article,
most church leaders are supportive of the new-age church, especially when they are reassured that Renaissance isn’t trying to recruit their members, but rather to reach people who aren’t attending church.
Well, nobody asked me about it! This passage ignores the fact that “member” means something different in Baptist ecclesiology. Catholics define membership by baptism and by territory, not by attendance. Given that over 80% of English Catholics in Quebec don’t attend church (92% on the French side), this church will most definitely be trying to recruit my “members”.
That being said, I must admit that we Catholics have not been doing much to try and reach out to the unchurched. It’s like our attitude is “wait long enough, keep the door open, and they will come home on their own”. Well, maybe. But that doesn’t seem like enough to me. At the very least, an invitation to come home would be nice. And they have to have something to come home to, of course….as long as it isn’t the Repas de Fraternité….