ILFF day 2

Man oh man I do not know how people do this early-morning stuff. This week the alarm goes off at 6:02 am (no, that’s not a typo, not 6:20… 6:02) and we slither into the shower and hit the road by 7:15 or so. There was quite a debate about how we’d be getting in there this week, by train or by car, and if by car what route? Plus, with our tendency to run late-ish, catching a train might be too tricky. Although, we’ve been impressively timely so far.
After yesterday’s review of the Church documents calling us to change, and a look at the pioneers of looking at faith formation in a new way, today we took a look at the alarming statistics that describe the state-of-the-church today. We heard things like that young adults “like being Catholic” but don’t exactly know what that means… and we saw poll results that showed that staggering amounts of young adults believe you can be a “good” Catholic while disbelieving in some of the core beliefs of the Church (like the resurrection of Jesus, and the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist) and that most people, across the generations (yes, even the elders!) believe you can be a good Catholic even if you don’t go to Mass regularly. How about that!!
Scott and I have talked about this for years- that the “pray, pay, and obey” Catholics are not going to be with us long (as they die off and go pay the price for starting to eat meat on Fridays in the 70’s), and that while the up-and-coming generation of consumers, while they may pray (and they do!) they are not going to pay OR obey. They really are consumers, ready to comparison shop and get the most bang for their buck- that is, this generation won’t be bound by duty to a church that doesn’t feed them.
We spent a lot of time today talking about marketing and businesses designed to give consumers an “experience” along with their goods and services. Think the difference between Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks for a good example of this. People are willing to pay $3.00 for a “tiny cup of burnt coffee” from Starbucks and sit in their comfy chairs because they FEEL good there. Interesting, no?
At my first parish we had a special Mass to which the Cardinal would be coming. It was a big big deal, and everyone got into gear- the decorations were beautiful, the choir was in place to make beautiful music, greeters stood at every door to welcome everyone, the worship aide was helpful. Why? Because we were expecting a special guest. What would the Church be like if we believed that EVERY week a special guest was to be with us. A special guest in the presence of Christ, at the very least, and then, 250-500 other very special guests in the form of our parishioners. What if the music/environment/ministers/homily were excellent EVERY WEEK because of this fact?
What a wonderful world it would be…