Membership requirements
The Concord Pastor wondered aloud the the other day about what requirements for membership we might list in our parish bulletins. He had run across a Unitarian Web site that got him wondering:
I Googled the church and in perusing their website I came across the following with regards to membership in their parish:
Becoming a member of the congregation involves basically four things:
(1) Fundamental agreement
with our principles and purposes;
(2) Regular and ongoing participation in Sunday worship and other congregational activities;
(3) Participation in the work of the church
(4) Financial support as each is able.And I wondered, “Can you imagine walking into a Catholic church and finding something like that on the front of the parish bulletin?”
You can read the entire post here. Be sure to read the comments as well.
What do you think? What would happen in your parish if you posted such a list on your Web site or in your bulletin? How does this align with Paragraph 75 of the RCIA?
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No. I cannot see such a message posted on our parish bulletin. “All are welcome” is all we have to say and allow Word and Sacrament to take the person from there. If the individual is there with a truly open heart and mind, excellent celebration and preaching should take him or her to the next level and beyond – which is to say that those who plan and prepare for liturgical celebration have a major responsibility for doing it right. Who knows, though? Scripture, sacrament, and Holy Spirit alone can probably do it all in spite of the worst efforts of the laziest among us.
The only requirement for “church membership” is to believe into Christ, the Son of the Living God. It is unfortunate that we still look at “church membership” in the same way we view membership in the local “country club”. Tragic!
RCIA is not a ritual for joining or membership into the Catholic Church. It is a process of conversion and metabolic change that never ends, but has its beginning in RCIA.
One does not “join” the church. They receive it as they receive Christ.
I agree that the main requirement is certainly to believe in Christ, but research (by the Gallup organization) has shown that only when people know what is expected of them do they become fully “engaged” in their church – actively living the faith and participating in the life of the community. What Nick suggests is exactly what the Engaged Church people recommend. Being an “engaged” Catholic is more than just “being.” It is “doing” as well as high ownership. Take a look at the book “Growing an Engaged Church” by Albert L. Winseman for more on this.
http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Engaged-Church-Doing-Start/dp/1595620141
Hi Joyce, thanks for chiming in. It wasn’t so much me, as it was the Concord Pastor who was suggesting a bumped up level of engagement. I do mostly agree with him, however. If I were going to suggest for areas of engagement to list in the bulletin or the Web site, I think I’d base them on RCIA 75: word, community, worship, and service.