Imagine that tomorrow you wake up and all of our church buildings are gone. And not only the churches, but all of the parish offices, Catholic schools, and so on, along with everything inside of them. Every physical resource vanished, and every person who works for the Church left with nothing beyond what the average American possesses. If you were tasked with advancing the evangelizing mission of the Church in your region and this was your starting point, how would you go about it?
Read MoreWhen we talk about the kerygma, I think that there are three aspects of it that we need to understand. In the first place, there is the message that makes up the content of the kerygmatic proclamation. Second, this proclamation is intended to produce a particular response on the part of the hearer. Finally, when this message is met with its intended response, we can expect to see certain fruits in that person's life.
Read MoreWhat is we looked at the parish as a school of evangelization that focuses on training her members to evangelize outside of parish walls? There are two main objections that come to mind in this regard. First, the parish has always been a provider of pastoral care for her members. Would the focus on becoming a school of evangelization mean setting aside the valuable pastoral care our parishes provide? Second, many might object that a great number of parishioners need much more foundational formation themselves before they would be ready to be trained in evangelization. Sure, we need to do some evangelization training, but isn't it unrealistic to think that we could make that the central focus?
Read MoreThere is a maxim of evangelization that I have often heard and used over the years that goes, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." The saying is helpful as far as it goes, as it points would-be evangelizers to the necessity of building a relationship of trust with others through kindness and love before bombarding them with information. But there's still a bit of a false premise hidden in the statement.
Read MoreMalcolm Gladwell's Blink is a book about snap judgments, why they are sometimes better than our reasoned-out deliberations, sometimes worse, and how to identify which is which. It provides insights and challenges with implications on ministry and life.
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