I am the ‘head of evangelization’ at the parish. I put it in small caps because it is a title that I didn’t realize I ‘owned’ until one night at a meeting I was invited to attend and I received a flow chart that had me as a ‘head’. This title does not scare me, however, it concerned me when I listened to the group that handed me the title and they were expecting that I ‘add more’ to the parish to implement more evangelization. I looked at their ideas on the flow chart and it troubled me because our parish is already doing most of what they had listed.
So what were they really wanting me to do?
It’s been about 6 months since I attended that meeting and what I’ve come to realize is that most of those that attended that meeting (and many other parishioners) are desperate to want to get their own family members involved or back into church. Even though we offer Bible studies, speakers on family issues, family faith gatherings, retreats, Catholics Returning Home, CCE, etc etc if their specific family member isn’t interested then there must be something else.
Honestly, after a few months I put my hands in the air and kept going with the specific job requirements given to me in this part time position because there is only so much I can make happen in 20 hours a week. However, the question came back to me again as I was told to address it to our Faith Formation office today in a meeting. This offered me the opportunity to take a fresh look at evangelizing our parish and the community by going over what the definition is with those that I work with who put most of the programs together that specifically evangelize.
Evangelize – to preach the gospel (or to live it out)
I felt it appropriate to be driven to look up the definition of evangelizing on the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi who’s most popular quote is: “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”
The meeting wasn’t for three more days but I mulled this over trying to decide what it was that our parish needed to implement in order to evangelize to those already in the pews and to those sitting at home waiting for a personal invitation to be called back home. We did not come up with any great ‘event’. We have everything already in place. However, through the meeting and discussing it verbally I think we came to understand our focus on every ‘event’ and ‘program’ needs not only to bring others closer to Christ but hopefully bring everyone closer to feeling empowered to take their faith back out into their own families and to their friends.
When I came home I received a phone call from a young woman who was recently diagnosed with devastating illness and she is struggling with her relationship with God because she is angry and hurt. I spent an hour on the phone with her listening and preaching the truth of God’s promise. In the end she agreed to turn to Mary our Blessed Mother to help her through this dark time.
I think the biggest key for our parish to be an ‘evangelizing’ parish is to recognize that evangelization truly happens outside of the vicinity of the parish. It happens through a phone call, or over a chance meeting at lunch, or in a good deed. Our job as a staff of the parish is to make certain everyone receives as much of the knowledge of the Gospel as we can offer but the evangelization of our community life is on everyone.
We had some other practical ideas and I’ll make sure they are implemented but I felt called to share this nugget of wisdom today.
Blessings
Shannon