The challenge Pope Francis is offering to the church, apparently goes much deeper than merely tinkering with the trappings of the faith.
In an interview last winter, then-Cardinal Bergoglio told Andrea Tornielli of Vatican Insider:
Instead of just being a Church that welcomes and receives, we try to be a Church that comes out of itself and goes to the men and women who do not participate in parish life, do not know much about it and are indifferent towards it. We organize missions in public squares where many people usually gather: we pray, we celebrate Mass, we offer baptism which we administer after a brief preparation.
In a civilized, suburban, comfortable little city on the west coast of Canada, what might it possibly look like to be a church “that comes out of itself”?
It is an understatement to say that we are surrounded on all sides by an overwhelming majority of “men and women who do not participate in parish life, do not know much about it and are indifferent towards it.” Many people around the churches in most Canadian cities today have almost no idea what possible purpose church might ever serve in their lives. There is almost nothing churches can do to attract these people into worship services inside a church building. How can the church even begin to think about going to these people in ways that might be remotely meaningful in their lives?
Where are our “public squares”? Where do “many people usually gather”? Is it even possible to imagine going to these places to “celebrate Mass” and “offer baptism”?
Jorge Mario Bergoglio offers a stern rebuke to any church that refuses to embrace the challenge of these questions.
We need to avoid the spiritual sickness of a Church that is wrapped up in its own world: when a Church becomes like this, it grows sick. It is true that going out onto the street implies the risk of accidents happening, as they would to any ordinary man or woman.… If I had to choose between a wounded Church that goes out onto the streets and a sick withdrawn Church, I would definitely choose the first one …
Are we a “sick withdrawn Church”?
Are we willing to embrace “the risk of accidents happening,” or are we determined to stick to the safety of the familiar protected world of church-land?
What might it take for us to become “a wounded Church that goes out onto the streets” to encounter people in their lives where they are? Is there any way to do this in our cultural setting that might have the slightest chance of being anything other than embarrassing for participants and off-putting for observers?
I am a naturally fairly timid person. I am not given to elaborate gestures in public. Most of my life I have been pretty sheltered behind the sacred walls of the church. I am poorly qualified to propose a vision for what it might look like for the church to “go outside itself.” But I am open to discovering what it might mean to move “out onto the streets” to encounter people where they are rather than always demanding they come to the place where I feel comfortable.
In A Spacious Place 
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April 29, 2013 at 6:53 am
Sonia
For me the challenge to the church is to equip and strengthen believers to share Christ in their daily lives. I often find myself among friends who have had negative experiences of the church or who have never progressed beyond sunday school religion. I am constantly challenged to ‘defend the faith’ when we discuss a situation in book club, or talk about the news, or family crises. I find that your blog (and the issues you address) help me to do this.
All church members already have many friends who have no contact with the church (or am I the only one?) Is that not the way to move “out into the streets”?
April 29, 2013 at 7:58 am
Jennifer
The young do not seem to trust institutions and the old have seen too much inconsistency in the institutions and are disillusioned. Every opportunity I get, I ask questions to people why they don’t go to church and then I listen. I also ask them if they believe in something more or bigger than they can see. Then I listen. They usually have a valid reason to not be in an institutional church…and they all long for some sort of community.
If it is a young person I ask why so many of their age don’t go to church? Then I listen.
That’s my way of going to the streets. I stepped away from organized religion myself. I am in a very small community once again. It is not a sacramental church…more humanist, I suppose. Even here, I know I am in the body of Christ.
April 29, 2013 at 8:16 am
jaqueline
Church coming out of itself does not need to look like church in the street. It might look like inviting the neighbours to the church BBQ in June. Or even more inclusive: send out invites to a Neighbourhood BBQ and St Phil’s just happens to have the space to host it.
The first annual Neil street BBQ …has a ring to it. 😉
April 29, 2013 at 8:42 am
Darla
I see the church already beginning to go outside itself in new ways:
– a priest began sitting out front of his downtown Catholic church every Friday for a few hours to be available to anyone who wanted to speak to him;
– the Anglican cathedral is open to the public for viewing or quiet meditation with both a sign and glass doors that make it look open and inviting;
– free workshops on practices like centering prayer help people learn a spiritual movement directly that even beginners can understand;
– great new resources abound on the internet, our new ‘public squares’, like a ‘pray-as-you-go’ guided version of something similar to lectio divina;
– and spiritual teachers are writing public blogs that touch the hearts and minds of many, many people…like this one!
These may not be ‘elaborate public gestures’ on the streets, but they are thoughtful, sincere and truly helpful.
April 29, 2013 at 11:53 am
Jennifer
Wonderful!
April 29, 2013 at 12:36 pm
Steve
Darla, I am not very knowledgable about theology so I had to look up the term “lectio divina”. I found a wiki that has this as part of its description:
“Traditionally Lectio Divina has 4 separate steps: read, meditate, pray and contemplate. First a passage of Scripture is read, then its meaning is reflected upon. This is followed by prayer and contemplation on the Word of God.”
I love this thought and for me that is what being Christian is all about. Everything else emanates out from this one little discipline as the Word of God begins to be part of our being. It’s not what you do or what you believe, it’s what you are being transformed into that matters most.
“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:18
April 29, 2013 at 11:09 am
Steve
“Is there any way to do this in our cultural setting that might have the slightest chance of being anything other than embarrassing for participants and off-putting for observers?”
I have thought long and hard about this subject. I tend to be private and shudder at the thought of going out and “evangelizing”. But I think there is another more effective and more biblical way. It requires one to shift focus from a recruiting mentality to a drawing one. The way to do that is to be a healing and accepting presence, a person devoted to the service of others. We are witnesses, not salesmen. The Christian life portrayed in the Bible is one that sets itself apart, we are called to be in the world but not of the world. Getting people into churches should be the product of our efforts and not the object of it. Some one made a comment on this blog that we don’t need God to love others but what he does not understand is that we are called to a life if demonstrating a supernatural love that one can only receive from God and possession of that super natural love is what sets us apart. People are attracted to the light, if we are light they will be attracted.
Surveys have shown that Christians for the most part are statistically identical to the rest of the population, there are virtually no distinguishing characteristics. Can you imagine what it would mean if just one statistic changed. Suppose instead of a 50% divorce rate Christians only had a 10% divorce rate. That single fact alone would draw people into churches, that fact alone would say there is something different about people who go to church. As it stands, we do not have much to commend ourselves, there is not much if any evidence of the transforming nature of Jesus in our churches.
Maybe the church coming out of itself would be a good thing, to go into public identifying as Christian would lessen our anonymity and make us realize the world is watching us. They are looking to us and wishing they could find something to make them think there is anything to this religious thing. I think the world is also desperately seeking, there are so many who have a spiritual longing but cannot see or find any answers in the Christian church.
So all this gets me back to a point I’ve made before. If we in the Christian church could stop arguing and fighting with each other, if we demonstrated in our lives the supernatural love of Jesus, if we were different and reflected to character of Jesus, people would be drawn to the church naturally without us trying to convince anyone why they need religion.
It all starts with prayer, real prayer. The recognition of a need outside our on combined with prayer is powerful. It is a power we have available to us and exercised corporately there is no limit to the good we could do.
In the final analysis I think doing something is always better than doing nothing even if produces a bad outcome. So I think it is good that Pope Francis is advocating the church’s reaching out.
April 30, 2013 at 5:52 pm
RobBar
I replied to CP’s Facebook a few days ago,
but here is an extract of what I wrote
=========================================
Quote: ” I will try to forward the article from my Barbadian news feed on Facebook. A few months ago some friends of my sister in law visited Barbados and were invited to a Methodist church in Holetown Barbados They had a wonderful welcome by the members and were than invited to other events going on such that is the church they will visit next time in Barbados. This same church just married a couple from England (she 58 , he 61) where she had Barbadian roots (father) much like me married to my Bajan woman. They had marriage consulting earlier I gather by the woman minister and asked if the church would marry them and arrange everything. (barley any family I gather). Well the flower girls were from the church , so was the best man , so was the father to walk her down the aisle , and the reception in the church and the flowers . The whole ruddy church was involved,,, that is reaching out
My muse
Rob