Video: Ed Stetzer Interviews Michael Carpenter in Rome

Jet Set: Rome, Day 2

After breakfast of espresso, croissants, and a glass of sour green juice, we hopped on the Metro to attend mass at St. Paul’s Basilica (Cathedral). The church building is quite plain on the outside, but the inside is ornate with mosaics, friezes, gold leaf, and statues. The altar is flanked by immense statues of Peter and Paul in menacing poses.

The service was exactly what you’d expect- white-haired priests in robes sing-chanting the reading, prayers, and blessing. We sat, stood, sat, stood, and pretended to kneel along with 500 others; tourists, local visitors, and regular churchgoers, but mostly tourists. The service was in Italian, with some Latin thrown in for transubstantiative effect.

Afterword, we gathered around under a shade tree in the church’s courtyard to discuss Catholicism, Roman culture, and ministry in a post-Christian context. Some of the guys are former Catholics and were able to share from their experience. It turns out that there is some disagreements among missionaries that work with Catholics- some call new believers out of the Catholic Church, while others encourage them to stay connected and assign new meaning to the rituals. We decided that there’s probably not one right answer. We’d love to hear your thoughts if you have experience working with Catholics and cultural Catholics.

After lunch, we put ourselves in the shoes of an immigrant to Rome. We bought our lunches at a little Italian grocery store, and to help us see things from an immigrant’s perspective, we limited ourselves to spending only 5 euros. We ate out under the shade of the train station, and heard the first-person stories of those who had left their homes in search of a better life in Rome. Immigration brings lots of opportunities for ministry to people who would otherwise be inaccessible.

The afternoon was spent touring the Colosseum, drinking coffee, and talking shop with church planters working here and pastors from the States. We ended the day with a fine meal of pasta and fried fish at a traditional Romano restaurant. One of our hosts is fiends with the owner, so we got a special sampling platter of desserts. Oh, and then more espresso.

Our conversations among the group have uncovered some very different understandings of what it means to be a church and the best way to get to that. I hope we get the chance to continue our discussion. We’ll keep you posted on how that goes.