The early church created the catechumenate to help transition converts from pagan Roman culture and into the fellowship of the church. The early church existed in a time when Christianity was in the minority, and those coming from the Roman culture needed a new culture, they needed to be enculturated into the truth, life, and way of Jesus Christ. But it was not merely for new converts it was also a place for Christians to deepen their experience of God as well as learn how to effectively navigate the cultural waters of the Roman Empire.
The Catechumenate at Christ the Redeemer gets its inspiration from this early church practice, but we have adapted it to fit our cultural context today. The social landscape is different today than it was in the days of the Roman empire, but as our culture becomes post-Christian, we find that the Christian way of life in our secular age is now a minority position the same way it was in the early church. The catechumenate was needed then and it is needed now.