And let you consider one reader’s take:<\/p>\n
\nYou wrote, “Where is our missionary impulse to the unchurched among us?”<\/p>\n
Good question. The answer is ‘which one’?\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
You first have the ‘churchy types.’ They’ll respond in large part to what I call ‘high commitment’ organizations or movements such as Regnum Christi, Teams of Our Lady, Christ Renews His Parish — they run the gamut, liberal to conservative, doesn’t matter. But, most ask for a time commitment each
\nweek on the part of parents or married couples that, after work, homework, afterschool stuff, etc, leave little time for family devotion. In addition, they suffer from the spastic volunteer arm — volunteering for any need that arise. At times, these groups provide a dodge for folks to avoid the family due to difficulties at home — and the domestic church suffers accordingly. Not for all but for some, Church becomes refuge.<\/p>\nMany who fall into this category that successfully juggle family, time, Church are intact, two-parent, one-income, white collar, professional families. And like attracts like. Reality. They, as a group, have no interest in evangelization if it involves inviting in those unlike themselves. In fact, they now opine about the need to clean out the deadwood, to restore the ‘faithful remnant’ — so that they do not have a full parking lot or SRO mass crowd.<\/p>\n
In short, evangelization for this group is limited to their friends and families — there is just not enough room for anyone else. Also, the evangelization ‘fad’ has faded — they are on to bigger and better things.
\nEvangelization by association suits them.<\/p>\nThen there are the angry cynics — who show up and loudly criticize everything the Church stands for — but dammit, it’s their church, too. Unfortunately, they are joiners — and piss off all others when they show up
\nat the evangelization committee with agenda in tow. They are willing to bring in anyone — anyone who sets the teeth of the ‘churchy’ types on edge, or agrees with them and their agenda, or who they can mold in their image. Evangelization for revolution’s sake.<\/p>\nThen you have the ‘apathetic’ crowd. They show up, because they know at a visceral level that they need to be there, check off another day of obligation, and move on. I don’t know if apathetic is a fair
\ncharacterization for all in this group but rather ‘resignation’. They make a point of showing up faithfully following the rules as best they know how but, well, believe themselves so far behind the eight ball on church matters that how could God care about them. They send their kids to CCD, the parish school, volunteer but often are told they are not needed by the 10% who gripe about what the 90% don’t do — but like it that way. Eventually they quit volunteering.<\/p>\nThe constant back and forth of the homily pendulum and priest’s pet projects bewilder them.<\/p>\n
These folks do not connect with church junkies, for religious and socioeconomic reasons. Cynics annoy them.The reality is that this group harbors many ‘undercover’ evangelizers who through their daily witness bring others to Christ and the Church. Intentional evangelization programs aggravate them — they don’t
\nperceive themselves as the Church’s cheerleaders but worker bees, ill-educated and unworthy to do such holy work. Evangelization by accidental witness.<\/p>\nLastly, you have the networked crowd — who use the Church as the all-important social, political network. Church has become a means to an end — and the priests, bishops, parish and diocesan staff are its co-dependents. You see them among the ‘churchy’ types — they may flit in and out, taking on leadership roles, putting in face time but not really committed as the others. They’ll play the angry cynic if it suits their
\nneeds. However, they and their envelopes insure they have access to the hierarchy — and to the trappings of church that dovetail with the American formula for success — access to quality private schools, prominent civic and business contacts, etc. They, by virtue of their place on Father’s Thursday foursome, get appointed to head the evangelization committee — and build a program that taps those not attending registered with the bank accounts to bankroll the next building project that earns them the recognition and power they crave. Then, they declare evangelization a failure and advocate for a return to the status quo. Been here, seen it.Evangelization not necessary.<\/p>\nUnlike a new, nondenominational Protestant church that forms around one missionary vision, we have been around long enough that we have grown a myriad of human visions that obscure Christ’s vision. Before we
\nembrace fully the vision of the Protestant churches who appear successful, I’d suggest an examen on the part of ourselves to discern where we have substituted our own for Christ’s.<\/p>\nA meditation on how we fulfill Matthew 28 a place to start?<\/p>\n
It always comes back to Christ, doesn’t it? Funny how that happens…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}