Ive recently been blessed with the opportunity to worship with my Protestant bretheren at The Meeting House, a Mennonite-based church that happens to be the fastest growing church in all of Canada. As a Catholic, this experience has been invaluable, as it has clearly shown me where the Catholic church needs to grow.
I expected first of all blown away by the preaching. Thats the old cliche; that Protestants have great preaching while for Catholics its all about the Mass. Well this is certainly true. But what really struck me was the issue of discipleship. The Meeting House had regular projects for the entire congregation to follow Christ more closely. Their focus at the time was relieving the suffering of AIDS victims in Africa through the assembling of 'Care Kits', and by sending volunteers to work abroad in Zimbabwe.
However I want to stress that this is not simply ambitious social work; the remarkable thing about the Meeting House is that their projects are truly done in a spirit of community. This is cultivated organically as half of the worship takes place in the context of intimate house-church gatherings where the congregants actually get to know each other personally and can truly feel that they are on this great journey of faith together.
It was seeing this sort of thing week after week that made me realize that as Catholics, we may have charity divisions within our church that are effective (i.e. Development and Peace), but the average parishioner is far removed from any meaningful participation in collective service projects, beyond the occasional 'second collection'.
But the deeper issue is not about whether or not we are doing enough 'good works'. The deeper issue is discipleship. It seems as though as Catholics, we are cultivated through the sacraments of first communion and confirmation--but then its like we plateau; just when were at the gate and ready to go, we are given few opportunities to actually live out this calling in the context of our faith community.
Ive met many Catholics who want to do more through their church but just dont know what to do (Ive been there myself!). They hand out the hymnals or volunteer at sunday school, and this may occupy them for a short season, but these are young people who are highly skilled and have much to offer, and soon find themselves back in the pews frustrated and withdrawn.
The question the Catholic Church must ask is, How can we foster discipleship in our congregations that is a lifelong journey of growth and service in Christ, and is also a communal response to God's salvific activity?
Thankfully, ecumenical exchanges such as this can help illuminate this question.
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