“Engagelism”

Sounds like the Emergent Church has got into your keyboard…

If you look it up and I look it up, then, let us talk later. I will have to think about it, or that one for awhile. The treasures of the Catholic Church belong to each and every person in joint and common tenancy and for all future generations, the treasures are held in trust. “You give them something to eat yourself.” Our Lady brings all honor and glory to God. Our Lady will not accept any prayer that she will not bring to God first. Sometimes instead of using hurtful words about yourself, use you name,Patrick. A person’s name is the best and the worse thing anyone can say about that person.

I get caught up in the minutiae too.  So much so that I end up not even trying to discuss with non Catholics or non believers because I figure there’s no point in trying - it will take too long to get to the answer to their question because I know too much of the why of a topic and speak too little about the Who of our faith.  Maybe that’s why our Protestant brothers and sisters are so successful at evangelizing.  They start with the foundation-Jesus Christ. Thanks for speaking about this.  I hope the conversation with your friend will continue.  I know I will think differently the next time I find myself in a similar situation.  Thank you.

Funny that you should write on this, Pat.  Just yesterday (Easter, mind you), I got a blistering attack on my facebook page from a former Catholic woman living with her girlfriend.  Coming up with the craziest attacks I have yet seen on the Catholic Church.  (And that is saying a lot).  Unfortunately, she defriended me (and apparently blocked me) before I could answer much.  The pain that these people must feel is intense.  I mean, when you push God away? 

Anyways, thanks for writing this.  It’s giving me something to think about.

Been there. Done that. Now the trick is to keep living in the moment. Don’t let the next opportunity pass you by when you are in the midst of it. The devil wants you to keep looking back at that moment of failure. The devil is accusing you of being a failure and of not being worthy to call yourself Christian. Instructions for this type of situation: 1) laugh at the son of a !@#$% (the devil, that is), 2) proclaim CHRIST IS MY LORD AND SAVIOR! and 3) call upon the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s rich love and mercy so that you might be more disposed to be a true light of Christ at the next opportunity.
Lastly…repeat steps 1-3 time and time again.

In my own evangelization, I’ve found that almost every theological objection is a personal question in disguise.

Hi—maybe you should start by showing and telling your friend how having Jesus Christ in your life has changed your life. You can do this by apologizing to him and asking for his forgiveness.  Humble yourself to him and tell you know the people of the Church are not perfect but it is the Church that brings Jesus to you through the Sacraments and how important that is.  Remember that most people have never had extensive contact with a Catholic that is really trying to live out their faith. Pre-evangelization is done by establishing trust by showing others radical love with radical hospitality and service.  We don’t evangelize by catechizing them. That comes later after they desire Jesus was known by in their lives and want to learn how to love and serve him.  The early Church was known by its radical love for each other and those around them—that and the Martyrs is why Christianity spread so fast. Arguing with someone outside the Church about the “inside baseball” is putting the cart before the horse. Hope this helps—I will now step off my soap box.

Thank you, so much, for this article Pat - I really needed to read it.

Dear Mr. McCormick, I believe your comments are right on target - thank you for your timely reminder of how we really and truly evangelise our brothers and sisters.

Pat, When attempting to evangelize, I find it important to first try and determine to whom you are speaking.  Is he/she a non believer?, marginal believer with little training?, someone who has a problem understanding God?—or merely someone with a flippant or cavalier attitude about the Lord.  How you choose to approach the person depends greatly upon the seriousness or lack thereof concerning the discussion.  First and foremost I find Catholics are very poorly equipped in how to evangelize anyone.  Regardless of the person you are speaking to, I find fellow Catholics err whenever they present church legalism.  This is a big turnoff and rightly presents the person of Christ unfairly.  Jesus did not immediately confront people with legalism but rather with His understanding their need or inquiry.  There is always time later for why church says “this” or “that.”  We should be presenting Christ,—not a church structure or organization.  That area of conversation can come later on.  Christianity is about forgiveness, not condemnation.  So speaking about mortal and veniel sins, no meat on Frday during Lent, fornication, etc is as ineffective as mentioning the benefits of daily mass and receiving the eucharist.  Speaking of these things have no effect to a non or marginal believer or even a fallen away Catholic.  Jesus did not waste time arguing with Caiaphas or Herod since they were not really interested.  Pilate, (on the other hand) seemed more willing to understand so Jesus dialoged with Him.  The Roman Centurion (a Gentile “dog)—he too, was open to hearing and respected the teaching of this Jewish rabbi.  What is likely highly more effective is for you tell YOUR own story of how God has (and is now) working in your own life.  You will always find people willing to listen to YOUR story instead of what Rome says or what the Bishops say.  You need to first meet the person where they are.  When we tell someone to pray, how about we as Catholics LEAD the person in prayer—OR—better yet, we pray for the person right on the spot in his/her presence.  And not some rote prayer, but prayer in your own words.  It is extremely unfortunate that Catholics are poorly trained in how to evangelize.  More people have been hurt or driven away by emphasizing church legalism more than anything else.  This is true of Catholicism as well as some Christian churches.  Always remember the gospel is about forgiveness, restoration then redemption.  But first find a baseline with whom you are speaking to.  Even Jesus said there were some towns whereby he could not perform healings because of their unbelief.  Sometimes we are wasting our time.  We are only called to share the gospel.  We are not responsible for the results.  The results are action of Holy Spirit, not us.  We take no credit since that belongs to Him alone.

This is a perfect opportunity to show your Christian bona fides and seek forgiveness with authentic sorrow and humility. Our society preaches the virtue of pride, so a little humility goes a long way. It is my experience that people are often genuinely taken aback/impressed when you apologize for your mistakes, rather than equivocating or arguing or simply ignoring them.

As for the “inside baseball”: I have experienced this phenomenon. These days, I try to begin any discussion, whether with a seeker or a hater, with the consideration of first principles. Is there transcendent, immutable, and universal truth? If so, what is it, and how do you know it? If not, then what sort of discussion can really be had, since there is only subjective emotion and those arbitrary convictions produced by subjective emotion. This, the specter of Relativism, should be posed rhetorically to the interlocutor. It can be very effective.

I get that way quite a bit, too, and unfortunately I’m much better at being a jerk than understanding that the people challenging me are really just searching for God. It’s tough to see that sometimes, but on the bright side, in the future you’ll be more likely to see that some people really aren’t aware that the Church isn’t made of money/full of pedophiles/sending people to hell/making women into brrod mares for the pope, however annoying and arrogant they are in their inquiry.

I have been frustrated as a Catholic who read her way into the Church ten years ago, has studied the faith, and gotten a masters degree in theology along the way. My frustration is that no question about the Catholic faith can be answered with a “sound bite” or slogan, or other shorthand. Because of the interconnectedness of all Catholic doctrine, practice and teaching, a decent answer demands about 45 minutes of scripture, history, tradition and spirituality. Not many of my friends want to hear my lectures so…I need to work on succinct little paragraphs filled with “zingers,” some of which come to me a couple of hours after my friend has departed!

I’m so glad I came upon this article and many thanks to “In the pew”.
My Easter was not as I wanted to spend it…because I had to be around family that are Catholic-in-name only - but by the grace of God, I managed to bear it all! I have found that if heart cannot speak to heart -don’t waste your time. If people are not genuinely seeking the truth; only want to trump their purported intellect over you; or dumb God down - it’s really not worth disturbing your peace.

Pat,
You are worthy of the name Christian. Because a Christian is not this perfect person who has all the answers, who never says a dumb or hurtful thing. A Christian is someone who knows they need Jesus, and who knows that without Jesus, they could do nothing, accomplish nothing, not even have a single good thought or do a single worthy thing.

Every time I try to explain my faith from my head, I come out looking like a sanctimonious hypocrite, and there will always be some answer I don’t have. If I talk from my heart, and talk about the kind of person I am without Jesus, and talk about his love, and admit that I can’t answer every factual question but that I know the difference he makes in my life, I do better, and what I say seems to mean something or help someone.

The parable of the Sower and the Seed fits this discussion.  The sower (us) is called upon to share the gospel (the seed).  The sower would fling the seed in the field and we know the seed fell on fertile soil, on rocky ground and among the thistles.  Some seed takes root and produces a good harvest while the seed falling in other places does not.  All we are called to do is sow the word.  We do not perform the harvest.  The Holy Spirit handles that.  I have long since stopped worrying about “convincing” anyone and to what degree I am successful.  That’s not my job.  We are only asked to share the gospel of Jesus Christ (the Good News) with others.  As Jesus said:  “He who has ears, let him hear.”  Jesus did not argue with people or bend over backward to convince anyone.