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The Evangelizing Catholic: A Practical Handbook for Reaching Out
Practical advice for putting evangelizing programs into effect by individuals. Discusses one-on-one encounters, specific parish programs, and public relations and mail campaigns. †
160 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1998
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May 9, 2020
Evangelization - the word that makes Catholics break into a nervous sweat. Despite the fact that this book was written over 20 years ago (1998), Father DeSiano's slim book is still an excellent guide for how Catholics can get over their fears and preach the Gospel.
Chapter 1, "Preliminary Observations", sensibly starts with trying to define evangelization - what it is and what it is not. The author looks at Vatican documents and at the text of Scripture to demonstrate that evangelization is not walking door-to-door, carrying picket signs, or breaking out into Gregorian chant during your lunch break. It is not apologetics, arguing, "when were you saved", or trying to convince people why they are wrong. It most certainly isn't manipulation for material or social benefit. Rather, evangelization is fundamentally about human sharing - how does our faith affect us? According to the author, Catholics are decent at WITNESSING the Gospel - living a life inspired by Christ - but abysmal at PROCLAIMING the Gospel - occasionally using their words to communicate what their faith means to them. This chapter is relatively brief, as the author believes that lengthy conversations about what evangelization means are a navel-gazing excuse to not actually have to leave the committee meeting and start evangelization.
Chapter 2, "Personal Evangelization", is built on the simple premise that evangelization is fundamentally about sharing your own story and being vulnerable. There are innumerable opportunities throughout the day, in ordinary human interaction, for people to even subtly or obliquely witness their faith. And fundamentally, this is genuine - nobody wants shoehorned testimonials. Some examples the author provides are welcoming new neighbors to the community, and if they are Catholic inviting them to attend your parish. Or defending the dignity of immigrants if people are holding unjust or bigoted opinions towards them.
Chapter 3, "Parish Evangelization", is the heart of the book. While the actual evangelization always involves person-to-person dialogue, the heart of any evangelization must be the parish life. Catholics are no alone - we are part of a Communion that is both church and sacrament, and as such our local faith community is the source and support of all evangelical activity.
Most Catholic parishes are somewhat inward-looking, and aside from the inward focus of pretty much every social group ever, there are two reasons why: most parishes are focused primarily on serving the existing community, and it can be hard to identify people outside the church if you are a church-person. But parishes must resist the challenge to fall into the comfortable inertia of serving their own people only and ignoring everybody else. Nothing energizes and revitalizes a parish more than rediscovering the missionary soul of the Church.
The first subtopic is about welcoming - regular members, new parishoners, and visitors of all types. When we go to our usual parish, it is easy to fall into autopilot and not notice all the little details - while whenever we go to a parish while we are travelling, we notice every single little element that is different from what we are used to. So when we look at our own parishes, are our "peculiarites" good or bad? How did people behave in the parking lot? What was the environment like? Where did people physically position themselves? What were the ministers doing beforehand? Did anybody welcome you? Was their any fellowship after the liturgy? Registering new members should involve more than an impersonal (or too personal) form - it should involve real human follow-up, maybe even a meeting with the pastor and with parish leaders, and regular follow-up. Parishes should have a visitor's sign-in book, a greeting ministry, visitor cards, and activities designed for socializing and meeting after the Mass. Fundamentally, parishes need to humanize the church experience by making every person feel like a welcome part of the community.
The second subsection involves "Public Relations". The author is upfront to highlight two preliminary points: marketing is only a tool, it is not the product; the product must be a prayerful community of intentional Christians. With that starting-point, the parish should first make sure that the church materials - signs, bulletins, brochures, etc. - are relevant and well-designed. As for outreach, the most important thing to keep in mind is that the more personal a piece of outreach is, the more likely it is to generate a response. We throw out most of our mail. For something to stand out, it has be to genuine and directed. For example, contacting people who are grieving, special communications to families who just moved to the parish or had a child, congratulatory letters to people who received a sacrament, outreach to people who seem to have stopped coming to church, mailings to the whole community to let them know about events, etc. In addition, about one third of people who are "registered" at parishes rarely actually attend Mass. Since we have their names and contact info, surely we can check in to make sure they are doing alright and to ask if we can support them. As strange as it may sound to most churches, "Outreach" or even "Mailing" can be an effective apostolate.
The final parish subsection is the "Home Visit". The author dispels some notions that a lot of people (myself included) had in regards to home visits. The visit will probably not have any immediate effect; there will be no arguing, convincing, or persuading; and the visitor is not the primary agent. Rather, the one and only purpose of the visit is for the visitor to listen to the host. The host is the one who controls every dynamic of the interaction, and should be allowed to. The purpose is to not to "win souls for Christ" with a 15-minute spiel; rather, the purpose is to experience the grace of a neighborly dialogue, to put at least one human face on the parish, and most of all to listen to the needs and experiences of the host. The author includes a tremendous amount of sensible practical advice - home visits should involve exactly two adult visitors (never solo, never three, never under 18); there should be a skeleton conversation so that the visitors can clearly state their purpose (e.g., we are looking for Catholics in our neighborhood, are there any Catholics in this household?); no more than 20 home visits per team per day; make sure to have a checklist of necessary materials (parish cards for the hosts, notebook to take notes, etc.); have a debriefing session.
Chapter 4, "Evangelization Teams", examines the necessary role of having a real team dedicated specifically to planning evangelization. Everything the Church does is evangelizing in some way - but is it directed and is it effected? Above all, the purpose of the team is to look beyond the life of the parish members and to see into the margins and the periphery. Who is watching out for visitors and guests? Who is thinking about the unchurched and lapsed Cathlolics? Who is the voice for people who feel betrayed, scandalized, or angry at the Church? Who is looking out for people who want a faith community, but feel alone and do not know where to begin? In addition, it is essential that the evangelization team reports to the parish council directly (and not to the pastor, or worse be independent), so that evangelization becomes an integral part of parish life.
Finally Chapter 5, "The Larger Context", is a beautiful essay about the purpose of evangelization.
This is a great book, I would highly recommend it.
Chapter 1, "Preliminary Observations", sensibly starts with trying to define evangelization - what it is and what it is not. The author looks at Vatican documents and at the text of Scripture to demonstrate that evangelization is not walking door-to-door, carrying picket signs, or breaking out into Gregorian chant during your lunch break. It is not apologetics, arguing, "when were you saved", or trying to convince people why they are wrong. It most certainly isn't manipulation for material or social benefit. Rather, evangelization is fundamentally about human sharing - how does our faith affect us? According to the author, Catholics are decent at WITNESSING the Gospel - living a life inspired by Christ - but abysmal at PROCLAIMING the Gospel - occasionally using their words to communicate what their faith means to them. This chapter is relatively brief, as the author believes that lengthy conversations about what evangelization means are a navel-gazing excuse to not actually have to leave the committee meeting and start evangelization.
Chapter 2, "Personal Evangelization", is built on the simple premise that evangelization is fundamentally about sharing your own story and being vulnerable. There are innumerable opportunities throughout the day, in ordinary human interaction, for people to even subtly or obliquely witness their faith. And fundamentally, this is genuine - nobody wants shoehorned testimonials. Some examples the author provides are welcoming new neighbors to the community, and if they are Catholic inviting them to attend your parish. Or defending the dignity of immigrants if people are holding unjust or bigoted opinions towards them.
Chapter 3, "Parish Evangelization", is the heart of the book. While the actual evangelization always involves person-to-person dialogue, the heart of any evangelization must be the parish life. Catholics are no alone - we are part of a Communion that is both church and sacrament, and as such our local faith community is the source and support of all evangelical activity.
Most Catholic parishes are somewhat inward-looking, and aside from the inward focus of pretty much every social group ever, there are two reasons why: most parishes are focused primarily on serving the existing community, and it can be hard to identify people outside the church if you are a church-person. But parishes must resist the challenge to fall into the comfortable inertia of serving their own people only and ignoring everybody else. Nothing energizes and revitalizes a parish more than rediscovering the missionary soul of the Church.
The first subtopic is about welcoming - regular members, new parishoners, and visitors of all types. When we go to our usual parish, it is easy to fall into autopilot and not notice all the little details - while whenever we go to a parish while we are travelling, we notice every single little element that is different from what we are used to. So when we look at our own parishes, are our "peculiarites" good or bad? How did people behave in the parking lot? What was the environment like? Where did people physically position themselves? What were the ministers doing beforehand? Did anybody welcome you? Was their any fellowship after the liturgy? Registering new members should involve more than an impersonal (or too personal) form - it should involve real human follow-up, maybe even a meeting with the pastor and with parish leaders, and regular follow-up. Parishes should have a visitor's sign-in book, a greeting ministry, visitor cards, and activities designed for socializing and meeting after the Mass. Fundamentally, parishes need to humanize the church experience by making every person feel like a welcome part of the community.
The second subsection involves "Public Relations". The author is upfront to highlight two preliminary points: marketing is only a tool, it is not the product; the product must be a prayerful community of intentional Christians. With that starting-point, the parish should first make sure that the church materials - signs, bulletins, brochures, etc. - are relevant and well-designed. As for outreach, the most important thing to keep in mind is that the more personal a piece of outreach is, the more likely it is to generate a response. We throw out most of our mail. For something to stand out, it has be to genuine and directed. For example, contacting people who are grieving, special communications to families who just moved to the parish or had a child, congratulatory letters to people who received a sacrament, outreach to people who seem to have stopped coming to church, mailings to the whole community to let them know about events, etc. In addition, about one third of people who are "registered" at parishes rarely actually attend Mass. Since we have their names and contact info, surely we can check in to make sure they are doing alright and to ask if we can support them. As strange as it may sound to most churches, "Outreach" or even "Mailing" can be an effective apostolate.
The final parish subsection is the "Home Visit". The author dispels some notions that a lot of people (myself included) had in regards to home visits. The visit will probably not have any immediate effect; there will be no arguing, convincing, or persuading; and the visitor is not the primary agent. Rather, the one and only purpose of the visit is for the visitor to listen to the host. The host is the one who controls every dynamic of the interaction, and should be allowed to. The purpose is to not to "win souls for Christ" with a 15-minute spiel; rather, the purpose is to experience the grace of a neighborly dialogue, to put at least one human face on the parish, and most of all to listen to the needs and experiences of the host. The author includes a tremendous amount of sensible practical advice - home visits should involve exactly two adult visitors (never solo, never three, never under 18); there should be a skeleton conversation so that the visitors can clearly state their purpose (e.g., we are looking for Catholics in our neighborhood, are there any Catholics in this household?); no more than 20 home visits per team per day; make sure to have a checklist of necessary materials (parish cards for the hosts, notebook to take notes, etc.); have a debriefing session.
Chapter 4, "Evangelization Teams", examines the necessary role of having a real team dedicated specifically to planning evangelization. Everything the Church does is evangelizing in some way - but is it directed and is it effected? Above all, the purpose of the team is to look beyond the life of the parish members and to see into the margins and the periphery. Who is watching out for visitors and guests? Who is thinking about the unchurched and lapsed Cathlolics? Who is the voice for people who feel betrayed, scandalized, or angry at the Church? Who is looking out for people who want a faith community, but feel alone and do not know where to begin? In addition, it is essential that the evangelization team reports to the parish council directly (and not to the pastor, or worse be independent), so that evangelization becomes an integral part of parish life.
Finally Chapter 5, "The Larger Context", is a beautiful essay about the purpose of evangelization.
This is a great book, I would highly recommend it.
Currently Reading
August 27, 2010Again, as I'm in the mood. Other denominations do a better job, in theory, of reaching out to others outside and inside of the church doors. I wanted to learn from a Catholic point of view, how 'they' (we) think we should go about it..Thus far only skimmed, but it is useful to be aware of thus far.
August 8, 2011
A number of good suggestions. Now if only we as individuals and institutions can bring ourselves to actually do something about it more effectively.
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