I’m Catholic

A few days ago I went to a local business to purchase some marketing materials for my church. This is a business that I have been to several times and have always recieved great service and quality products at a reasonable price.
The business is local-family-owned and operated. The owner, his wife, and his son all seem to work closely with one another. And the father and son have always seemed like really cool guys! They have been really nice to me every time I come in, and often seemed very interested in what I was doing at my church…..IF I was INTERESTED in buying a new product from them.
So this time, as I was making small talk with them about their business and while loosely being on topic about my church, I figured that I would ask them if they went to church somewhere in town.
But literally before the question was all the way out of my mouth; the son gave me an awkward look, kind of shook his head a little, and darted off without saying a word as to avoid the conversation all together.
Even more interestingly, and before the words left my mouth, the father almost shouted the word,” CATHOLIC!!” (?)
The guy never wanted me to complete my question and thought he could shut me down by simply yelling the word ‘Catholic’ before I could finish.
So me, being nice, asked,” Oh! Which Catholic Church in town do you attend?”
There was a very long awkward pause as the father and son looked back and forth at each other. The father then looked at me and said,” Uh…. We’re not very ‘good’ at actually going.”
Then it was as if a black impenetrable curtain lowered between us so that I was no longer welcome in their shop unless I was asking mindless questions about their products in order to make them more money.
And to be honest, I don’t even know what the purpose of me writing this post is. I think it speaks for itself.
The question that it poses is,” how do you get people to attend church and join your community in order to hear the Gospel of Christ when they are so opposed to the very word ‘church’?”
Or are people more receptive to hearing the Gospel one on one without the facilitating of the Church? And if so, how do you start those kind of conversations with strangers? Or do you?
Your thoughts welcome: