Like most people, I've made a list of resolutions to start off the new year, and one of them is to maintain this blog regularly. I enjoy writing these posts, and I'm always gratified by the number of readers that find their way to my humble corner of the internet. The pace of ministry at my parish has intensified, and I just made it through the most challenging part of the deacon formation program. Still, Ablaze Ministries is an important part of what I do, and I need to give it more time! So, if you are still dropping by every so often, you'll st[art to see regular posts once again.

Another resolution that I made is to finally launch the regular monthly Ablaze E-Newsletter. The first one is just about finished, so start looking for it in your inboxes. And if you haven't signed up yet for the newsletter, you can do it right at the end of this post. Please know that I will never share your email with a third party!

So, the engines are firing up once again, we are approaching full power in the ion converters, and we are set for relaunch. During the remaining time of this Christmas season, my prayer is that you would be enriched and transformed by the Spirit of of the Living Jesus, who "tabernacled" with us through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension! And if you would, please lift my family (and this humble apostolate) up to the Lord.

God bless you all!!! 

ABOUT KEITH STROHM

I'm the Director of Evangelization for Queen of the Rosary Parish in Chicago, a teacher with the Catherine of Siena Institute, an evangelist, speaker, presenter, and retreat director. If you would like me to speak at your event, head over to this page. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter.  

Ever since the birth of my daughter and my entrance into diaconal formation, my available free time has been squeezed into twenty-minute blocks. By the time I return home each evening, I am exhausted and seek solace in a book, a movie, or blowing things up in my favorite Massively Multiplayer Online Game. But first, there is dinner that has to be made, cleaning that needs finishing, and the rare opportunity to spend some time with the love of my life. I give little thought to going for a walk, or working out.

And it's started to show--not just in my weight, which has increased steadily, but also in my stamina, my energy level, and my blood pressure. The other day, I realized that I couldn't keep up with my daughter, Siena, after only 5 minutes of playing around.

So, this past week, I started to do something about it. I strapped on my old running shoes and headed to the gym.

Thar She Blows! 

The reality is that coming out of a sedentary lifestyle is harder than it looks. Even though I've been careful not to start too intensely, I essentially look and sound like a beached whale trying to roll itself back to the sea! Not only that, but I've discovered that I still make countless diet and activity choices that favor the sedentary, overeating lifestyle over healthier alternatives.

In fact, coming out of a sedentary lifestyle takes a great deal of discipline--a change not only in actions, but in thought processes--including how you interpret data about your body. What was once considered "bad" and to be avoided, must now be embraced. The experience of running when your "wind is blown" and your legs are tired doesn't signal the end of the journey, but the beginning of real transformation. Entering in to that experience, rather than immediately slamming on the brakes, takes courage and trust in the process.

In short, leaving the deeply sedentary lifestyle requires a worldview shift--one that would not be possible without the support of family and friends, and without an intentional plan of attack.

Perhaps you see where I'm going with this?

Facilitating a Worldview Shift

Honestly, looking at the far side of my journey into health is daunting. Even though I once worked out regularly and ran 6-8 miles every 3 days, it seems crazy and impossible.

For most people, the spiritual journey toward Christ can feel exactly like that. Instead of shedding pounds, they have to shed the burden of a negative self-image, or an overwhelming feeling of anxiety, or shame. They may have to re-evaluate their self-worth in Christ. Even more basic, some must struggle to shift their pattern of thinking--their entire personal philosophy--to embrace the reality of a universe with a Creator. And then, they must deal with the shocking reality that this Creator actually created them for love.

While God's grace will lead them and carry them forward--we can not just assume that people will figure things out, accept reality, and open their hearts to Christ on their own. Our current situation in the Catholic Church should be proof enough.

No, we must embrace the fact that we are called to be channels of that very grace which God pours out on others. In our willingness to walk with people through this journey, we incarnate the love of God, becoming (in a certain sense) a kind of sacrament for them. This is the very model Jesus gave us--replication! He spent three years replicating Himself in 12 men, and they spent the rest of their live replicating Jesus in those they meet.

Parish Application

But how do we live this out in a parish? .

Just like the transition from sedentary, overweight, and out of shape to healthy and fit takes some intentionaliy and support, helping others move through the pre-discipleship thresolds and change worldview takes a planned approach.

Disciple-friends as Coaches

One of the most efficient ways to move into wellness from a lifestyle of sloth is to find a really good trainer or dietician--someone who has deep and experiental knowledge. The same is true of the process of discipling others. We must begin to cultivate a cadre of disciple-friends--spiritual companions who can help others travel through the thresholds.

It may be that you have enough intentional disciples within your parish already to start forming a group of disciplers (even if you have disciples in your parish, many Catholics do not feel comfortable leading others to Christ), here's how you could form them, depending upon their level of experience:

• Gather these folks into small groups and have them read and reflect together on the book Forming Intentional Disciples.
   
• Take part of each meeting and have participants start "breaking the silence" about Jesus and their relationship with Him. This will help get them more comfortable with talking to others about Jesus.
   
• Take some time to go over the kerygma, the Great Story of Salvation, with them and help them connect the kerygma with their own story. Once that is accomplished, help each person prepare a short "witness talk" or testimony. You can find some guidance here. They may not need it right away, but eventually they will have to share their testimony with those they are helping through the thresholds.
   
• Spend some time helping them become comfortable asking others where they are in their lived relationship with God and truly listening to the response.
   
• Teach them about the disciplines of living as a disciple in such a way that they can begin teaching them to others. I highly recommend using Deacon Ralph Poyo's very short book Pick Up Your Cross and Follow Me. It is the most practical book on discipleship that I have ever read--and it has a helpful checklist so you can track your progress in each of the disciplines!
   
• It would be exceptionally helpful for each of the disciple-coaches to discern their own spiritual gifts. One of the best ways to do that is to have them attend a Called & Gifted Workshop. All of the spiritual gifts will be useful at some point in a person's journey. Knowing where you are supernaturally empowered will help you step out intentionally and use those gifts where they will have the largest impact.

In the course of journeying with others, it often becomes necessary to walk with them through an area of woundedness and fear. If you are committed as a parish to the process of making disciples, it would be good to have your pastoral team ready to provide whatever pastoral care might be necessary. It would also be exceptionally fruitful to have trained healing prayer teams that include those with charisms of intercessory prayer, healing, and encouragement.

If you do not have a group of disciples who are ready to become disciple-coaches, I would recommend starting with a small group of those who are in a later pre-discipleship threshold  (Openness and Seeking) and take the time to disciple them.

This whole process takes time, energy, and planning. Think of it like training for a marathon--a ton of work, but the results are worth it. Instead of helping people come out of a sedentary lifestyle, we are walking with them as they come out of the kingdom of darkness and into the Kingdom of God!

In the wake of the devastating demographic and religious practice information coming out of places like the PEW Research Center and the Gallup Organization, churches and ecclesial communities have been scrambling to stem the tide of falling membership and aging congregations. A lot of energy (and money) has gone into the creation of studies, programs, and processes intended to renew and revitalize church life in the U.S. In many ways, a mini-industry has sprung up; various companies and para-church organizations have developed material that churches in great number throw money at like drowning men and women desperately reaching for a life preserver.

One of the most popular of these "church help" materials is a book called Growing an Engaged Church, by Albert Winseman. There is also a related set of materials called Living Your Strengths and the Strength Finders process. These materials have made a great impact in the U.S., and many Catholic Parishes (and a few dioceses) have embraced this engagement approach. Such a focus on engagement is practical, measurable, and responsive to programmatic solutions. 

As a comprehensive solution to the Church's current issues, it is also a dead end!

The reason can be seen clearly in the very definition that Winseman gives engagement. For him, engagement is defined as a rational and emotional commitment to the spiritual community: its congregants, its leaders, and its vision.

Do you notice what is missing--or more directly--who is missing?

Jesus: Alpha & Omega

He's called that for a reason. We were "chosen in Him before the world began" and destined for adoption in Him (Ephesians 1). Our creation comes from Him and our eternal destiny is given us through Him.

And yet, in the quest for growing an engaged church, it is precisely engagement with the community which is seen as one of the key pillars of spiritual health. Somehow, committment to the community will provide fulfillment and transformation. Belonging leads to believing is the underlying mantra of this approach--to which I respond: "Belief in what?"

If Jesus isn't the specific source of communal life and activity, people can easily subsitute relationship with the community for relationship with Christ. The locus of "relational exchange" can move exclusively along the "What do I get from the community/What do I offer the community" axis and can obscure the Person of Jesus.

I've seen it happen in parish after parish. In fact, I would say that it is a particularly Catholic peril: That one can substitute a relationship with the Church for a personal relationship with Jesus. A sustained and strategic focus on community engagement can elevate fellowship to an idolized status--community becomes alpha and omega, the stable reference point upon which everything is based and everything is judged. How much has the community grown? How many committed members do we have, etc.

The heart of the matter is this: Jesus didn't commission the Church to create engaged parishioners! He doesn't ask us to get more people committed to the activities of the community. The Church's mission is to make disciples--to help men and women encounter Christ, entrust their whole lives to him, and then work as lay apostles preaching the gospel, transforming society, and making His Kingdom present.

Fundamentally approaching every activity with this reality in mind is the only way we will start to transform our parishes. This reality is the lens through which we must view everything if we hope to live as Church the way Jesus calls us to.

Abandon Ship?

So, what you are saying is that parishes should stop everything they are doing if it involves this engaged approach? I could almost hear that question audibly as I worked through the first part of this post.

No. That is not what I'm saying!

There is a tremendous amount of research and science behind the Engaged Church approach, and I recognize its wisdom and value. Community engagement, committment to a group that is equally committed to you, can be a powerful way to help individuals move through the pre-discipleship stages of spiritual development. Things like Strength Finders, whose ease of use and instant analysis that doesn't require any ongoing discernment, can be a key way that individuals in early thresholds can experience a process of self-discovery that helps prepare them for the rigor and extended nature of charism discernment, for example.

I'm merely suggesting that we begin with the end in mind--Jesus Christ and the formation of men and women who choose to follow Him as Lord and Savior. Community engagement can be a critical part of our strategies or our toolboxes--but we should never confuse the tool for the One who gave us minds to fashion such tools.

Corporate tools and best practices, insights from social science, psychological models--all of these things can be of tremendous help as we move toward the renewal of our parishes as communities of disciples. But we want to be careful that these tools don't become like the One Ring in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and begin to rule us. We must subordinate and integrate these tools with Revelation, not begin to shift Revelation to accommodate these tools.

In this way, we can be as "shrewd as serpents, and as simple as doves." (Matthew 10:16) 

ABOUT KEITH STROHM

I'm the Director of Evangelization for Queen of the Rosary Parish in Chicago, a teacher with the Catherine of Siena Institute, an evangelist, speaker, presenter, and retreat director. If you would like me to speak at your event, head over to this page. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter.  

I wanted to take a week off from my blog and that almost extended to two months! Sorry about the blog silence. I ran into a number of conflicting and overlapping deadlines--including my final project for my 3rd year of deacon formation--and that threw me for a loop.

I did manage to have three days of pure summer vacation, but now that my (final) formation year has begun, and my parish ministries "reset" for the fakk, I'm back in the saddle.

Thanks for your patience.

Advances in digital communication over the past twenty years have not only revolutionized commerce, but have also had a profoundly transformative effect on human communication, networking and interpersonal relationships, data management, data storage, data sharing, and cultural formation. In short, the entire scope of human work and play—the human endeavor—within developed nations has been radically touched by the rise of a Digital Culture. As a result of this new and growing digitization of the human person, information can be sent and absorbed at a speed, breadth, and variety heretofore unknown, thus virtually eliminating the gap between observer and participant in the events of the world around us. Streaming video and easy uploading allow for consumption of content almost at the precise moment that an event occurs, and such ease of digital communication subverts the normal cultural, social, and political mechanisms used to control the flow of information—as seen in the role digital technology played in alerting the world to the issues with the 2009 elections in Iran.

The current state of affairs in new media and digital communication presents the Church with both a call to service and an opportunity for evangelization. In the midst of growing technological advancement and cultural change, Pope Benedict XVI says that the Church must live out a “diakonia of culture in the present "digital continent," traversing its paths to proclaim the Gospel, the only Word that can save man.”*  In following the Great Commission of Jesus, found in Matthew 28:18, the Church must therefore use technology to proclaim the Gospel to the digital nations while simultaneously illuminating various forms of digital communication with the light of the Gospel itself. It is an interesting twist on the old adage that “the medium is the message.”

At the parish level, new media and digital technology offer tremendous opportunities for evangelization and the formation and equipping of disciples for their particular mission. On a technological front, the interactivity of Web 2.0 tools allows for more than just passive “reading” of information. Rather, technological innovation currently supports the possibility of participation and dialogue while users engage with the tools, media, and content of a parish website. This allows for an online component to broaden a parish’s reach in terms of both evangelization and formation (including the recruitment of students and parent involvement related to a parish school).

Sociologically, an interactive, new-media-enriched online presence will become increasingly necessary as more of the Millennials (roughly, those born between 1980 and 2000) and the following group, the D-Gens (Digital Generation) come of age. These young men and women are what educational writer Marc Prensky calls Digital Natives, and they have a fundamentally different approach to learning and life because:

They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age. Today's average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV). Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives.** 

Due to their developmental experience with this technology, Digital Natives not only prefer digital over more traditional forms of media, but they think and process information differently than their predecessors. Communicating effectively—whether it is marketing a particular program or the value of a parish school, or sharing the fundamentals of the gospel—requires a radically more interactive approach. This is also somewhat true for many members of Generation X, who bridge the gap between Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants (those who are not fundamentally at home in a digital culture), most of whom come from the Baby Boomer Generation.

In the current life of the Church, most Gen X’ers and Millennials represent “Lost Generations,” a demographic gap in the makeup of our parishes. According to the Pew Study in 2009, 13% of those Gen X’ers who self-identified as Catholic attend Mass at least once a week, and only 10% of Millennials who self identified as Catholic attend at least once a week.***  The urgency here is that in 2009, 50% of Catholic adults are either Gen X’ers or Millennials, and that number will only continue to grow. And yet, these groups have the lowest engagement with religious practice of all the generations currently alive. In order to reach them, we will have to preach the Gospel in a familiar idiom, utilizing the social communication tools of the day. God, it turns out, is a God of bytes, as well!

Given the above context, I believe that it is critical for parishes to redesign both their school and parish websites to better utilize current technology as a means of living out their mission to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Redesigning both school and parish websites together (if the parish has a school) will allow them to take advantage of several “economies of scale” that will reduce the overall cost of the redesign, create a seamless brand message, and offer an integrated user experience. 

Practical Application

When thinking about redesigning a parish or school website, keep the following things in mind:

• Know your primary audience. When we redesigned the Queen of the Rosary parish website, we made a clear choice that our primary audience would not be parishioners. Our parish site is built primarily for those who are seeking Christ on the internet. Now, our parishioners can also find everything they need quickly and easily, but since we were focusing on evangelization, we did not build our website for "insiders." One of the results of this choice is that each year there is at least one (and sometimes more) person(s) who find their way into the Inquiry phase of RCIA simply because of our website.
  
  
• Hire the Right Designer. That's right, I typed the word "hire." Avoid using "volunteer" help within the parish unless that volunteer is a professional web designer or an extremely skilled and talented amateur. Too many parish websites look homegrown (and many of them have a user interface and feel that is 5-10 years behind) because they have gone this route. I'm not casting aspersions on the generous folks who know some code and want to help. However, exceptional web designers understand the principles of graphic design, the value of various "real estate" spaces on the computer screen and habits of user interaction for the development of good User Interface development, and the science of Search Engine Optimization. If we want to compete with the various alternatives in the culture, we have to (at least) be on par with their sophistication and quality (see Mediocre is Okay By Us!) There are some phenomenal catholic-focused web designers out there. But do your research. Look at the portfolio of any designer you are thinking about hiring. Some designers offer basic templates that can be customized. This is a great way to get a professional design without having to pay what you might for custom-designed sites. At Queen of the Rosary, we hired a company called Sheepish Design that specializes in Church websites. Not only were they exceptionally talented, but at the time, we payed only about $1500 for the design of our site.
  
  
• Think About Ease of Updating. Once a site is designed, the home page shouldn't remain too static. Encourage people to one back to your site by offering new content. To do this, you'll need to think carefully about what platform you have your designer build the website on. Some designers simply build a site with HTML code, requiring that any updates to content be done by someone with coding skills. You'll want to avoid this path at the parish level, as it will mean paying someone who knows code to update the site, or finding someone who knows code at the parish and who will place your updates as a priority in his or her schedule in perpetuity. Instead, think about a Content Management System that will allow non-tech oriented folks to make updates easy and efficiently. There are a number of great CMS around--including WordPress and Squarespace. We use Squarespace at Queen of the Rosary parish because it is dirt simple to update with absolutely no code required. Squarespace will also host the website for free, so you don't have to venture into the world of webhosting and deal with yet another company. However, a number of very popular Catholic bloggers, including Brandon Vogt use WordPress and love it! Some web design companies may also have their own proprietary CMS. The point is to make your choice about platform with ease of updating in mind.
  
  
• Appoint a Webmaster. This doesn't have to be as formal as it sounds. However, appoint somebody as the coordinator and point of contact for your website. Have them keep an updated spreadssheet or document listing any usernames and passwords associated with running the website--this is especially important if you are using a "volunteer" parishioner. Lots of things can happen in a parish, and a volunteer webmaster who leaves in a huff can generate a lot of chaos and wasted time for the person who has to put all the pieces together again. For example, because of the ease of updating through Squarespace, each area of parish life at Queen of the Rosary has a representative who is responsible for updating their page(s) of the website. However, I am the person who coordinates the website as a whole. If it "goes down" for some reason, I interact with Squarespace or our email provider to find out what's happened, and I troubleshoot anything that might happen (since I'm only slightly familiar with tech stuff, I spend a lot of time talking to experts during the rare time that there is a problem).
  
  
• Plan Your Redesign. Web aesthetics, User Interface upgrades, and technology are constantly changing. Don't rest on your laurels after your site is designed. start thinking about ways to improve it immediately. For example, while I am absolutely over the moon about the design of our Home Page at Queen of the Rosary, I have spent a great deal of time thinking about how to upgrade our secondary pages throughout the site. Also, I would like our Home Page to have a little more interactivity--perhaps a video player that we use to rotate a video every couple of weeks. With that in mind, two and a half years after our initial launch, we are diving back in to a redesign (and I think I waited 6 months too long). Keeping a list of improvements based on user feedback and your own analysis will make the redesign easier and more fruitful.

I hope you have found this post and suggestions helpful. If you have a list of web resources (designers, tools, platforms, etc.), would you please list them in the comments below so that readers can take a look at them?

*Benedict XVI. Address to the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Social Communication, October 2009.

**Prensky, Marc. “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.” On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001) Page 1.

***Weddell, Sherry. Whither RCIA? Part Two: Millennials Rising. Intentional Disciples
   (http://blog.siena.org/2009/08/whither-rcia-part-two-millennials.html) August 2009.

ABOUT KEITH STROHM

I'm the Director of Evangelization for Queen of the Rosary Parish in Chicago, a teacher with the Catherine of Siena Institute, an evangelist, speaker, presenter, and retreat director. If you would like me to speak at your event, head over to this page. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter.  

Frustrated man is frustrated by mediocre ministry!

Several years ago, in a wonderful discussion that ensued in the comment box of the Christian Music post at the Institute's old blog, Intentional Disciples, we talked about the issue of quality in contemporary Catholic music . I've been thinking and reflecting quite a bit on the notion of quality and ministry (not just in music, but in all areas of apostolic endeavor). For a variety of reasons, the unspoken Catholic cultural norm seems to be that poor or sub-standard quality is acceptable because what we are doing is a ministry and we shoud be grateful that a number of folks have stepped up to volunteer. It's almost as if we are embarassed to hold ourselves to a high standard.

I think, first off, that part of the issue is how we view the work of ministry--the notion that individuals are simply volunteers and not competent lay apostles called and gifted by God for very particular and powerful vocations in the world. Seen as simply volunteers, men and women get a pass for just showing up. This happened frequently in my last parish. When I remarked to one of the leaders of a music ministry group that we should have higher expectations (and formation) for those who help lead musical worship at Mass, her response was to say, "Well, they're just volunteers; they don't do this for a living, you know."

And yet, if we take the theology of Stewardship seriously, we are called to give our first fruits, the best we have to offer, to the Lord and His work! What I hear when I engage with the theology of Stewardship is that excellence is not optional. What we do for the Lord (which is to say, all that we do) should be undertaken wholeheartedly, surrendering all that we have to the Lord for the sake of other people.

This excellence needs to extend not just to "product" (what we are offering), but also to "process" (how we are offering it). Why? Because if we are serious about the Lord's command to go out and be salt and leaven for the world, we must compete with the other offerings that the world presents to men and women, offerings that are often packaged carefully and have a great deal of resources put behind them.

Is There Danger in Striving for Exellence?

Now, I know there are folks here who are reading this and thinking that becoming too molded to the way the world does things could water down the gospel we are presenting, but excellence in quality does not automatically mean abandonment of gospel truths. I'm not advocating profligate spending to make things slick and shiny for the sake of being slick and shiny. Simple presentation is effective--and there is a world of difference between simple presentation and poor presentation. If we can't be bothered to present the richness of our relationship with God well, why should anyone be bothered to listen?

The reality of lay apostolates being what they are, I'm also not advocating the need for perfection right out of the gate. In the early days of the Catherine of Siena Institute, for example, I'm sure things were held together by duct tape and prayer. However, a committment to continued excellence and improvement of what we have to offer (that is to say, the principles of solid stewardship) is fundamental to the living out of our vocations. What God has called us to do, He calls us to do well!

Excellence in process is also central to our response to God. The principles of Stewardship call us to work toward the maximum result from the resources we have been given (check out the Parable of the Talents sometime). Part of that comes from how we manage the ministries we have been given (whether a "formal" apostolate or the (super)natural extension of just living our lives).

In an older issue of Christianity Today, there was an article on Rich Stearns, the CEO of WorldVision, one of the largest Poverty Relief Agencies in the world. In that article, Jonathan Reckford of Habitat for Humanity has this to say:
 

...at times, people in the nonprofit world believe that being grassroots and faithful is enough--that results and good management don't matter . . .The idea that an organization that's using other people's money to serve God would be less well run than a business or corporation is atrocious. . . .We ought to have much higher standards than the business world."

We wouldn't think of running our households poorly, or in approaching our careers in a lackadaisical or sub-standard fashion. So, we do we tolerate that same approach to ministry? Again, returning to our approach to liturgical music--the idea that someone gets a "pass" just because they volunteer does not make sense. We wouldn't tolerate it in any other area of our life. Take a neurosurgeon, for example. We wouldn't let someone operate on our brain just because they stepped forward to volunteer. We want someone with extensive training, a well-developed skill, committment, and in-depth knowledge. Nothing less will do.

The last time I checked, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is at least as important as brain surgery.

To be sure, we don't just operate in the world on our own human resources. We have the power of God working with us. But just as we must cooperate with grace for our own salvation, offering a human response to His Gift, so too must we cooperate with God for the salvation of others, giving to God our committment, our talent, our gifts--our very best--for the sake of others. This union of divine action and human will yields powerful results both in personal holiness and in the sanctification of the world

Poor and sub-standard quality in ministry does not honor God, nor does it honor the men and women we have been called to serve. The problem is that we, as a People, don't really reflect on this reality that much. And so, we have a culture within Catholic parishes that tolerates and, in subtle ways, encourages mediocrity. We must work tirelessly to reverse that trend and help build cultures and structures that see excellence in ministry as the normative response to God's call.

In that way, we can all hope to hear the voice of Christ at our lives' ends saying, "Well done, my good and faithful servant.

ABOUT KEITH STROHM

I'm the Director of Evangelization for Queen of the Rosary Parish in Chicago, a teacher with the Catherine of Siena Institute, an evangelist, speaker, presenter, and retreat director. If you would like me to speak at your event, head over to this page. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter.  

It happens to many of us, eventually.

Whether we are regular unpaid help at our parish, or if we have a full-time position on staff. At some point if we are not very careful, we will burn out. Like a gas grill whose tank is empty, our flame will flicker and sputter and, finally, disappear. I'm not talking about normal stress that comes with working among a group of people, with all the attendant politics and personal foibles that comes with it, nor the fatigue one might feel when one's shoulders are set "to the wheel" for an extended period of time.

Rather, I'm talking about the out-of-control, downward spiral often accompanied by bitterness, frustration, and a defensive attitude that screams "I don't care anymore" as loud as it can. Burnout can be ugly and, unfortunately, it can cause collateral damage--among our ministries and to our friends, families, co-workers, and fellow parishioners.

Burnout is often connected (as a cause, an effect, or both) with an experience of a collapsing prayer life, a struggle with a pattern of sinfulness (vice) or acedia--a state of spiritual listlessness or torpor. And just a quick aside--not every experience of dryness in prayer is a good thing. While desert experiences are normative for many disciples, part of the way that God forms and trains us to move to a deeper faith and trust in Him, sometimes our experience of dryness in prayer can be a result of an obstinancy, a pattern of sinfulness, or the experience of acedia. A well-trained and perceptive Spiritual Director can be invaluable in discerning the root of such experiences.

But what to do if you are suffering from burnout? Is rehab possible?

Fanning the Flames

The good news is that our God is a God of restoration, renewal, mercy, and wholeness. There are very concrete things that we can do to navigate through this period and dispose ourselves to His renewing grace. Here are my suggestions in no particular order (assuming that you are a lay man or lay woman):

• Take some time to do an in-depth examination of conscience and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you patterns of sinfulness, areas in your life that are not under the Lordship of Christ, and thought habits that set up obstacles between you and God (for example, a habit of thought that is filled with self-judgment or self-hatred will cause someone to believe that while God might heal and forgive others, there is something about themselves that is unloveable, and therefore God just wouldn't deign to forgive or heal them).
   
• Once the Examination of Conscience is complete, run, don't walk, to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Penance. Give all of that junk to the Lord and trust that He will forgive and restore you.
   
• Although times of burnout are often times when we want to pray the least, make a concrete schedule of prayer that includes several opportunities for prayer throughout the day. If it's available somewhere near you, give particular emphasis to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (daily, if possible). If you are spiritually prepared, receiving communion during these masses will go a long way toward restoration. A note here for parish staff members--resist the gravitational pull of someone enlisting you to help at these masses. Make this a time for you to fully participate as a member of the assembly in the pews. Go to another parish for mass, if necessary.
   
• To facilitate the other bullet points and to help with recovery, take a step back from your area of ministry for a time (if you are a staff member, I would encourage you to take some vacation--a minimum of three days, maybe stretched out over a weekend to give you 5 full days off). During this time, make it clear to your pastor or ministry coordinator that this is time that you are taking for you. Resist being contacted about that ministry or area; assign a delegate who can handle things while you take some time off.
   
• Then get a life! Okay, so that might be a little facetiously stated, but seriously cultivate, explore, or return to a hobby or other area of your life that has nothing to do with direct ministry at all. Train for a marathon, remodel the house, dive into a series of books you've been meaning to read. Whatever it is, make sure it is something that you enjoy.
   
• When you are ready to return to work/your area of volunteering, meet with the coordinator or your boss and set clear boundaries. If you are paid for 35 hours a week of ministry--inform your pastor or boss that you are restricting your time working at the parish to those 35 hours. If your boss feels that they need you for more hours than that in order to "get things done," it is incumbent on them to provide compensation and a reworked job description and job offer. It is then incumbent on you to prayerfully discern whether you should work those additional hours. The little secret at the heart of a lot of parish work is that staff members and volunteers routinely work far more hours than they are compensated for or were assigned to work. Whether the pastor/boss/coordinator never intends for that to be the case, it often occurs. This is, at its heart, an issue of justice which parishes need to address.
   
• To facilitate setting clear boundaries, work with your boss/volunteer coordinator to set clear priorities. If everything is a priority then in reality nothing is important. The fact of the matter is that, unless you have a network of gifted and well-formed individuals who have taken personal responsibility for coordinating an area of your work, you personally can only start and maintain a relatively small number of "plates spinning on a pole." Setting clear priorities helps you know where to expend your limited focus and amount of time.
   
• Cultivate a network of gifted and well-formed individuals who have taken personal responsibility for coordinating an area of your work. Burnout often results from the physical, mental, and spiritual drain that comes from working on things in your ministry/area of work for which you are not gifted. Discern your spiritual gifts (charisms) and then deputize or, if you are very lucky, hire individuals who have charisms in areas where you are not gifted (or talented). Form them well and then give them space to work/coordinate that area of responsibility (but DO still hold them accountable).
   
• Maintain the disciplined schedule of prayer that you put together as an emergency rehab. Keep developing your prayer life and find a solid spiritual director.
   
• Strive to build good and honest lines of communication with your boss and coworkers. Passive aggressiveness and conflict avoidance have been elevated to art forms within many parishes. Refuse to give in to it. Act counter culturally by respectfully addressing issues and conflicts that arise. Don't let them fester. Be open to speaking the truth in love to your coworkers and boss--and truly listen when someone respects you enough to do the same.

Hopefully, you've found a few things in this post helpful. These suggestions come from hard-won personal experience. What other suggestions might you have for helping someone reignite after burnout?

ABOUT KEITH STROHM

I'm the Director of Evangelization for Queen of the Rosary Parish in Chicago, a teacher with the Catherine of Siena Institute, an evangelist, speaker, presenter, and retreat director. If you would like me to speak at your event, head over to this page. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter.  

I've been a priest for 35 years.

"Wait a minute," you might be saying to yourself. "I thought this blog was about life as a layperson."

You're right.

It is.

Thirty five years' ago, through my parents' assent and the sacramental power of the Church, by water and the Holy Spirit, I received my baptism. In that moment, I became a new creature--united forever with Christ and with the Church as a member of His Body. Incorporated. Adopted. Grafted to the very Being of the Word Made Flesh. God's scandalous Love for me reached into the darkness of my fallen humanity so that I might share in the very Life of Christ.

And, if I share in the fullness that is Christ's Life, then I must also share in the priestly, prophetic, and royal dimensions of that life. Not metaphorically. Not analogously. But ontologically--at the deepest level of being. I have, because of Christ, been made priest, prophet, and royal child for the sake of the world. So says the Apostle Paul, the scriptures, and the unbroken teachings and traditions of the Church:

Christ, high priest and unique mediator, has made of the Church "a kingdom, priests for his God and Father." The whole community of believers is, as such, priestly. The faithful exercise their baptismal priesthood through their participation, each according to his own vocation, in Christ's mission as priest, prophet, and king. Through the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation the faithful are "consecrated to be . . . a holy priesthood (CCC 1546)

I am a member of the universal priesthood of Christ.

And, if you are reading this blog, there's a good chance that you are, as well.

We are priests--sacramentally configured by our baptism for service to the world. Again, the Church isn't speaking poetically here, creating some uplifting language to make us feel good about ourselves. Rather, she is pointing to our ultimate identity in Christ, reminding us of exactly who we are.  Not over and against the ministerial (ordained priesthood)--who are sacramentally configured for service to the People of God (the universal priesthood)--but in conjunction and collaboration with them in Christ's mission to the world.

This is radical, life-altering reality. The fact that bringing it up tends to annoy both 'liberal' catholics (who see too much of an emphasis on 'old language' and the possibility that highlighting the nature of the common priesthood would interfere with their bid to take on the responsibilities of the ministerial priesthood ) and 'conservative' catholics (who sometimes overemphasize the dignity of the ministerial priesthood above that of laypeople and who sometimes see any discussion of the priesthood of believers as a threat to the ordained priesthood instituted by Christ) reinforces to me that this really is the way God intended it to be.

And so, we are priests in every facet of our lives. Around the water cooler at work, in line at the grocery store, in school, driving on the road, in relationship with our families--there is always a priestly dimension to our lives.

Well great . . .what the heck does that really mean?

Who Are We?

In the Judeo-Christian tradition, a priest is one who offers sacrifices, who intercedes for others. As sharers in Christ's own priesthood, which fulfills and completes the Old Covenant priesthood, laypeople are to offer our lives--our giftedness, our talents, and our resources--for the sake of the world. We are to work, and pray, and labor for the restoration of creation "to its original dignity." (Christifideles Laici)

What would the Church look like if every lay person were to receive adequate catechesis and formation around the reality of their priesthood--a formation that would acknowledge the dignity, jurisdiction, power, and authority that we have been given by virtue of our life in Christ. What would our world look like?

Our priesthood finds its fullest expression in the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is the foundation of the great work to which we have been called. It is also the greatest gift of our priesthood--that we are given to participate, not watch, in the deepest expression of Love in the Universe.

Too often, Catholics, especially those active in an organized ministry, see the Mass as mainly a moment of refreshment and refueling so that we can be nourished for our real work in the world or at the parish. And while it's true that we receive strength and grace by receiving the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ, viewing the Sacrifice of the Mass primarily through that lense denies the full reality of what is occurring. For the Mass is not simply a moment of sanctuary for the faithful; it is, fundamentally, an action of the whole priestly community and the deepest activity of the universal priesthood.

As Christ is made present at each mass through the sacramental power of the ministerial priesthood, the world is made present at each mass through the action of the universal priesthood. We, as priests, are called to bring the world--its needs, its struggles, and its hopes--to the Eucharist. Not simply in a general way, but in a way specific to the interactions we have in our own lives. Each of us as individuals knows people who are suffering and struggling, people who need prayer and real physical, emotional, and spiritual help. It is these individuals whom we each bring to the Eucharist--so that as a community of priests we may intercede for the world.

And then, impelled by the Love of Christ, we bring the Eucharist back out into the world. This is what it means to be fully, actively, and consciously engaged in the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Not simply to pay attention to the readings, or to bring just our own lives to the altar, but to fully live out our priesthood by bearing the world to the altar, and then bearing Christ to the world.

We don't hear about this reality much. And it's a shame.

Why not?

How can we best exercise our priesthood? How do we form laypeople for their priestly role? How can we collaborate with the ministerial priesthood for the fulfillment of Christ's mission in a way that honors and nurtures our particular areas of authority and jurisdiction. Hopefully, those of you who are reading this and reflecting these questions will share your thoughts.

My final question is this: How long have you been a priest?

ABOUT KEITH STROHM

I'm the Director of Evangelization for Queen of the Rosary Parish in Chicago, a teacher with the Catherine of Siena Institute, an evangelist, speaker, presenter, and retreat director. If you would like me to speak at your event, head over to this page. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter.  

"Truth? What is truth? These words of Pontius Pilate, spoken to Christ in the gospels, echo down through the centuries to accuse us today. The question is asked, not by a a single governmental authority, but by our entire culture: What is truth? This interrogation occurs at the most basic levels of our interactions within the culture, so much so that we often don't see the fundamental challenge, or worse, we have allowed this cultural pressure to co-opt our way of thinking and acting--denuding our effective witness to Christ.

What do I mean?

We live in a postmodern and, some would say, post-Christian, era where the concept of absolute truth has been rejected. Postmodern cultural and literary criticism have deconstructed the notion of the Platonic Ideal, "liberating" the multiplicity of meanings in every human thought and act. We are no longer beings with a central and undivided Self, given to us by our Creator. Rather, our 'self' is really a constantly shifting, culturally constructed 'negotiation' between multiple and multi-level meanings. Thus, what's true for you can differ radically (even diametrically) from what I believe, and yet we can both be assured of the 'rightness' of our positions. Both hold equal weight in the Cultural Sanhedrin.

In such a postmodern environment, claims to Truth are not only seen as boorish and arrogant, they take on a connotation of violence. They are acts of destruction and invasion against the 'self' of another. This is the challenge that we face as apostles of the Risen Christ, of the very Truth Himself, living in our culture today. In order for many of the men and women that we meet in our daily lives to accept the claims of Jesus Christ, they must undergo a paradigmatic shift, a conversion not just of the emotions and will, but of the worldview as well. The Person of Christ demands that the postmodern world "see with new eyes." So, how can we be effective witnesses of Christ to a world that has rejected this notion of absolute Realities?

I think that if we are to take the Great Commission seriously, to honor Christ's call of evangelization, we must first begin in humility. The fundamental reality that we need to confront is that the Church (and ourselves as members of it), does not possess the Truth. We are, in fact, possessed by the One who is Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.

As Paul writes, "For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body" (1Cor 6:20). Throughout his letters, Paul uses this metaphor of slavery to underscore the relationship between Christ and His People. We have been called out of darkness, bought and paid for by the blood of Christ, and intimately brought into communion with each other and with God. A slave is no longer his own, but his master's. So, too, we are no longer our own, but Christ's. In Christ, however, the Master has raised us in status, has adopted us, making us a member of his own family. We are "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation" because of the love of Christ (1Peter 2:9).

Fundamentally, then, our attitude should be like those who have received an inestimable treasure, not through their own action or worth, but as a free gift. We should approach our apostolate with gratitude and graciousness, with a desire to share this great gift. I think that we as Christians often come across as if we are being magnanimous, sharing with the poor from the riches of our own bounty, when we witness to others about Christ. We must never forget that we, too, are poor in ourselves, but rich only in Christ.

Humility.

Secondly, we need to remember that we are not, ultimately, responsible for the results of our witnessing for Christ. That responsibility rests with God alone. As St. John Paul II said, "we are called to propose the faith, not impose the faith." There is a fundamental difference between the two approaches. God is a respecter of human freedom; He desires that we come to Him freely of our own will. He calls us to desire the same for others. Our goal, then, shouldn't be to convert a non-Christian friend or acquaintance. Rather, our goal should be to listen to the way Christ is calling us to share His love with that other person and help them encounter the Risen Christ. God will take care of the rest. It is not our ability that God wants, but our availability to be used by Him for the work of the Kingdom.

In such a way, through humility and openness to how God calls us to share Jesus, others will be brought into an experience of the love, mercy, healing, and redemption of God. That is where authentic conversion begins.

And that's the Truth. 

ABOUT KEITH STROHM

I'm the Director of Evangelization for Queen of the Rosary Parish in Chicago, a teacher with the Catherine of Siena Institute, an evangelist, speaker, presenter, and retreat director. If you would like me to speak at your event, head over to this page. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter.  

Spirit-led, authentic discernment is perhaps the single greatest enterprise needed in the Body of Christ today. We are, as lay members of Christ's faithful people, somewhat adrift--scattered. Our gifts lay dormant, our giftedness largely unrecognized and unformed--by parishes that too often focus their gaze inward, and by our own individual capacity for false humility, fear, and capitulation to the inertia that so often prevents spiritual and personal development.

Within the Church, we have ministry fairs, where anyone with a passing interest in a particular area of service can sign up and find himself engaged almost immediately in a given ministry. And so, we have thousands of music ministers and worship groups whose members joined because they could strum a guitar and who, often it seems, end up presenting a distraction to the congregation rather than leading the musical prayer of the community in a way that deepens our engagement and participation in the Sacrifice of the Mass. And then we wonder about the state of worship and liturgical reverence within the Church.

Outside the Church, we have career counseling programs, job training and degree programs, and a host of other secular tools that focus too often on success and building wealth, without ever really trying to connect the identity, talents, and giftedness of the individual  with a particular area of 'vocation.'  And then we wonder why it seems that our culture 'churns and burns' millions of individuals beneath its fast-paced grind without ever seeming to grow any healthier.

Don't get me wrong, ministry fairs and career preparation or counseling programs aren't necessarily bad things. Too often as Christians, however, we start to see only our methods and forget the spiritual reality that these methodologies were created to help us experience. We come armed with our strategies and vision statements, our councils and our commissions, and we forget that we are more than simply a civic organization applying purely human resources for a humanitarian end.

Discernment is, ultimately, a spiritual experience.

A profound one.

It is, in a very real sense, a dying to self--for the word comes from the Latin, discernere, which means 'to cut away.' When we enter into a process of discernment, we are dying to the false elements of our self, to the way our culture, our family, and our own fallen personality tell us we should be.  We cut away the clutter and cast off the baggage so that we may follow more perfectly the One who called us out of darkness and in to the Light of Truth. We can't take our place, until we know where and what that place is.

Authentic discernment is difficult and, often, painful. No wonder we avoid it wherever and whenever we can. But Paul, like Christ, asks us to consider our calling, to make discernment a regular part of our lives. The question we should ask is: Why is discernment so difficult for us?

The issue, I think, lies in our fundamental approach to the 'problem.' As modern-day Christians--especially in the U.S.--we tackle the discernment question with rugged individualism and a naked desire to succeed. We gauge where God is calling us utilizing only the lens of our own thoughts, feelings, and experience. Most often, when someone says they are discerning around an issue, it generally means that they are weighing the options and plumbing their own internal depths to see how it resonates there. This is a necessary step--for grace builds on nature, and God often calls us through our joys and passions. However, it is not the only step!

Since we have been called together as a People, and been united in the Body of Christ, there is a communal dimension to our lives from which we can never be separated. For baptized Christians, our lives simply do not make sense in isolation. This is exactly what Paul referred to when he said "And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?" (1Cor 12:16) In the depths of our being, we are relational. Our meaning is fulfilled in the context of the life of the whole Body.

Therefore, we are each responsible for one another and are called to be Stewards of the vocation of each member of our community. True discernment, then, can never happen outside of the context of the Body of Christ. 

Application: Building Cultures of Discernment

Bringing that down to a more practical level, we as parishes (the Church inserted into the local neighborhood) need to become schools of vocational discernment, communities where the giftedness of each member is discovered and fostered, and where opportunities for utilizing those gifts in the world are presented. But how can we do that? Here are some quick thoughts:

• As we teach in the Called & Gifted Workshop, charisms are signposts of our vocation. Discerning the Spiritual Gifts one has is a powerful way to clarify and start to discern one's vocation. The easiest way to do that is to talk with the Catherine of Siena Institute and bring a C&G Workshop to your parish and start the ball rolling.
   
• Break the Culture of Silence and start naming the giftedness of others. When we see God acting through our brothers and sisters, we should risk sounding foolish or being looked at as "too forward" and affirm what we have seen to that person.
   
• Start a process of discernment for the ministries and activities of our parish. Currently, the typical discernment process to join a group in our parishes looks like this: We hold a mirror underneath someone's nose--if it fogs up, we accept them. In other words, we are often so desperate to maintain the structures and processes of our community that we are just looking for bodies. If we are honest, we'll admit that we'll literally take anybody--it doesn't really matter who they are. Beginning a process of prayer and reflection that starts to take people's giftedness into account as well as their lived relationship with God is a radical step--but one that will, ultimately, help with our fruitfulness and effectiveness.
   
• Provide gentle and loving feedback when others are engaged in areas of service for which they have not been gifted or called. In our desire for bodies, often people find themselves involved with something for which they have neither talent nor gift. Not only will their effectiveness be blunted, and the community's experience often difficult, but by leaving someone in that situation, we are denying them the opportunity to move in an area of real giftedness and discover a signpost of their own vocation--which is God's path for them to experience joy and fulfillment.
   
• Begin training disciples in the principles and practice of Ignatian Discernment. The methodologies behind this classic Catholic spiritual discernment practice are different from what we use in the Charism Discernment process, but the experience of entering into Ignatian discernment will not only be invaluable spiritually, it will complement gifts discernment and help individuals understand the larger concept of discernment in the Christian life. A good place to start is Fr. Timothy Gallagher's books--especially The Discernment of Spirits.  

Discernment is challenging. Yet, the grace of God provides us with a multiplicity of opportunities to reflect and receive help from our brothers and sisters in this holy endeavor. Make no mistake about it, unless we enter into this discipline fully, another generation of Catholic apostles will grow up ignorant of the true power, authority, and jurisdiction of their role in the mission of Christ to the world.

Discernment is a team sport--and God is our captain! Who wants to play? 

ABOUT KEITH STROHM

I'm the Director of Evangelization for Queen of the Rosary Parish in Chicago, a teacher with the Catherine of Siena Institute, an evangelist, speaker, presenter, and retreat director. If you would like me to speak at your event, head over to this page. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter.  

Between pastoral plans, event logistics, volunteer coordination, creative budgeting, fundraising, acquiring and maintaining certification, etc., one can easily forget the fact that we are doing this all for Jesus, rooted in Jesus, and through the power of His Spirit. The purpose of evangelizing activity within (and outside) the parish is nothing less than fostering an encounter with Jesus that leads to a decision to entrust oneself to Him. The purpose of catechetical ministry is to sustain and deepen that encounter with Christ as one grows in holiness.

But we can't (or, rather, we shouldn't--since the quantitative data is adding up that we do as a general principle) forget about that encounter--it's the fundamental element and, for too many parishes, it's the missing link. Evangelizing efforts that do not provide a context for an encounter with Jesus are simply motivational speaking events.

When Jesus engaged in His ministry here on earth, He always followed the same basic rhythm: He announced the coming of The Kingdom (preached and taught), and made that Kingdom present (through healing the sick, casting out demons, cleansing lepers, raising the dead). When we engage in ministry in His name, we should strive for that same rhythm.

I think it is far easier for us to work on the first part--announcing the Kingdom--than it is for us to try and provide the setting for the manifestation of His Kingdom. Even if it goes against the Culture of Silence and makes us uneasy, proclamation of the kerygma is at least related to activities that we are used to, like homilies, parish missions, CCD/RE classes, etc. It's the manifesting of His Kingdom that can make us truly feel uncomfortable. But as I mentioned in a previous post, it's not a question of whether or not Christianity has real, supernatural power, it's a question of whether or not we will embrace that power or hide it from the world (lamp, meet bushel).

So, as we strive to set the stage for others to encounter Christ, we should keep the following in mind:

• The Sacraments are, obviously, the most powerful way that God's Kingdom manifests in the world today, and while they may not be appropriate to offer when you have a large number of unbaptized or non-Catholic participants in your event/process, they can be used very powerfully to help baptized Catholics experience conversion (provided you help them foster proper disposition).
   
• Clear proclamation of the kerygma--the essential components of the Gospel message rooted in the Person of Jesus--is, in itself, a supernatural act. There is supernatural and effective power contained within the Great Story of Salvation. So, don't be afraid to proclaim it, and expect that when you do, the Lord is going to move in the hearts and minds of those who hear it. That's why it's important to know what parts of the kerygma might be most fruitfully received at each one of the Pre-discipleship Thresholds of Conversion--something that the Catherine of Siena Institute covers in our Making Disciples seminar. 
   
• Simple, ordinary acts of love can manifest the Kingdom powerfully--especially the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. Don't understimate the fruitfulness of this approach.
   
• Our charisms--which are spiritual gifts received at Baptism that allow us to be supernaturally empowered channels of God's love, mercy, healing, providence, and deliverance to those in need--are the primary way that God intends His love will be revealed to those who do not know Him. If we linked people with particular charisms to particular roles within evangelistic ministries and apostolates, we would see an outpouring of God's grace, a supernatural fruitfulness in our evangelization efforts that would look more like Acts of the Apostles rather than a Tony Robbins' infomercial.
   
• Inviting the Holy Spirit into the session/event through specific kinds of prayer can be a powerful way for individuals to experience the Presence of the Kingdom of God in an undeniable way.

These are just some of the reasons why any teen retreat that I work on has as its focal point Eucharistic adoration (on Saturday evening) and the celebration of the Mass on Sunday. Basically, all of Friday and Saturday--all of the talks, small group process, activities, games, etc. are intended to help teens open their hearts and minds so that when they come before the King in Adoration, the Power of the Kingdom can overwhelm and transform them. Why? Because Jesus is a far better Youth Minister than I am.

Parish Application

Using some of these insights we have developed a 4-week evangelization process at our parish which we call, unsurprisingly, Encounter. The first three sessions of Encounter all follow the same rhythm. We start with Praise & Worship (led by someone who has a charism of music), then we move into kerygmatic preaching, followed by personal witness (a disciple in the community steps up and shares for about 10-15 minutes on how knowing Jesus has changed their lives). Then, we break the participants up into small groups and they go through a reflection and discussion, really wrestling with stuff the evening has brought up. I regather them after that section is complete and give them "homework--" a number of practical suggestions for things that they can do during the week until our next session to foster their relationship with God. Finally, we end with a song and closing prayer.

The final session of Encounter changes things up. We begin with extended Praise & Worship and then move into personal witness. I share my own experience of being healed and transformed by Christ, and that ends with a pretty strong exhortation to make a decision for Christ that very night. For Catholics, we offer the Sacrament of Reconciliation & Penance, and then as a sign of their openness to God and their decision to commit (or re-commit) themselves to Christ, we ask them to come forward to be prayed with. We usually have 3-4 prayer teams that wait for folks to come forward and receive prayer. These prayer teams are, essentially, praying for a release of baptismal grace (for the baptized) or an experience of God's love (for the unbaptized). During this time of prayer and reconciliation, our musician continues to prayerfully sing praise & worship songs.

Despite the fact that I don't tell the participants to expect certain manifestations of the Spirit (like tongues or resting in the Spirit--when an individual falls to the ground overwhelmed with God's presence), a number of people have powerful experiences of those things. Over the last three years of Encounter (and we've done it several times as an evangelizing weekend retreat and a parish mission at other parishes), people have received physical, emotional, and spiritual healings, deliverance from demonic harassment or influence, prophetic direction for theiir life, an undeniable experience of God's love, inspiration to handle a time of trauma, and the list goes on. We find that through Encounter, God moves people through the Thresholds nicely, and some even drop their nets during the final night to become followers of Christ.

All that, and I should mention that neither myself nor my parish are charismatic--and by that I mean we do not have a prayer group from the Catholic Charismatic Renewal at our parish, nor are most of our parishioners part of the Renewal. What Encounter tries to do is present the charismatic dimension of the Christian life as central and non-negotiable. It's not about praying ina certain style with a prayer group, or praying a lot in tongues, it's about trusting that once we give ourselves over to Christ, He will not leave us orphans. It's about listening for, obeying, and being a channel of the Holy Spirit's power and love in the midst of our everyday life.

In honoring the rhythm of Jesus' ministry and fostering the possibility of Encounter with God, we have begun to experience real renewal in our parish, and a growth in both intentional disciples and seekers in our parish.

What are some of the ways that you could incorporate these principles into your parish's evangelization efforts? 

ABOUT KEITH STROHM

I'm the Director of Evangelization for Queen of the Rosary Parish in Chicago, a teacher with the Catherine of Siena Institute, an evangelist, speaker, presenter, and retreat director. If you would like me to speak at your event, head over to this page. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter.  

Now, I have absolutely nothing against any of these ideas, per se. We have had Matthew Kelly speak at our parish, we did show The Catholicism Series, and we regularly use Ascension Press Bible Study materials in our faith formation events. However, what struck me about their suggestions was how catechetically focused they were. Catechesis is critical, but in the Church's understanding, catechesis is for believers who have already experienced conversion. According to St. John Paul II's Catechesis in Our Time, catechetical teaching is intended to "lead people into intimacy with Jesus Christ" (5). But you can not fruitfully be intimate with someone whom you do not know. That's one of the great lies of the Culture of Death. By focusing all of our attention on Catechesis we are, unintentionally fostering a kind of spiritual "hookup" with Jesus rather than a sustained, life-giving encounter within the context of a covenantal relationship.

Rather, the Church intends that men and women would experience First Proclamation, an introduction to the Person of Christ that would allow them the real spiritual choice to follow Jesus as a disciple--or not. Often, though, this First Proclamation must itself be preceded by pre-evangelization, preparing the soil of the heart to receive the seed of the Gospel.

Catholics often put on the mind of Dr. Evil and think too small!

Another dimension to the staff's suggestions that struck me was how internally focused they were. They were aimed at people who are already within the parish community. In general, many parishes do "ok" in dealing with people who find themselves at the door of the parish, but where we are almost completely unresponsive is in going out to the larger civic community and helping introduce people to Jesus. Even when we do outreach to the poor or shut in, we rarely connect that activity with an invitation to the people we are helping to consider Christ or to follow Him in the Catholic Church. We often don't, at the parish level, think big.

When it came time for me to share my ideas, I presented two things which, to me, really represented "low-hanging fruit:"

• Our parish sat next to a water park and, because of space issues, this water park used part of our parking lot to handle the overflow of cars. My thought was to put out a little tent/booth at the edge of our parking lot, and as people parked and walked toward the water park, we would hand out "care packages" that would contain a botttle of water, a small bottle of sunscreen, and a small card with an inspiring quote on one side, and an invitation to mass (with mass times) on the other. Our parking lot "missionaries" would hand out these packages, strike up a brief conversation, and just let the people know they were praying for them. If enough trust was built up during the brief encounter, the missionaries might ask if their was something specific and individual needed prayer for. 
   
• Our parking lot was large enough to accommodate a large crowd. I thought it would help build trust if we rented an inflatable screen and once a month invited people in our town to come and watch a family movie. At the very least, it would help remind our town that we were here, build trust with those who attended, and provide safe, family fun in the summer. we could even have a little prayer tent where people could come and receive prayer.

When I finished presenting my ideas, I could see many of my colleagues looking at me like I had three nostrils. It wasn't that the staff members were slow, or deficient, or not disciples themselves. The Culture of Silence provides a lens that colors everything we process and everything we think about when it comes to how we act in the world as individuals and communities of faith. And that lens also makes it difficult to break out of the prism of maintenance culture.

Brainstorming Principles

Developing ideas for evangelizing outreach does not necessarily take great intelligence, creativity, or rare charisms. At its heart, it takes a disciplined approach that always asks clarifying questions, like:

• Who is this event for? 
   
• What would a "non-Churchy" (that's a technical term to indicate someone who doesn't live inside the ecclesial bubble and doesn't read a blog like this) person find interesting or appealing?
   
• How does this event or activity help someone in an early pre-discipleship threshold move through their journey?
   
• Are there any elements of this event or activity that would make someone feel uncomfortable or move them backwards into an earlier threshold? 

Applying these thoughts to your own particular parish community, what is one event that your parish could do within the next year that would focus on reaching out to the unchurched and/or non-practicing Catholics with the Gospel?

ABOUT KEITH STROHM

I'm the Director of Evangelization for Queen of the Rosary Parish in Chicago, a teacher with the Catherine of Siena Institute, an evangelist, speaker, presenter, and retreat director. If you would like me to speak at your event, head over to this page. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter.  

• Preparation
• Have Your Intro Ready
• Clarify, Reassure,
• Capture Interest
• Validate
• Resolve the Issue
• Pitch
• Repeat

Do go check it out and dive into the details. I think he is on to something here, and I believe this will be a particularly useful tool set when you are encountering someone in a later part of the Curiosity threshold through Openness, and at the border between Seeking and Intentional Discipleship.

And if someone tries to escalate the conversation to a supervisor while you are trying this technique out--tell them that the Holy Spirit is already listening!

ABOUT KEITH STROHM

I'm the Director of Evangelization for Queen of the Rosary Parish in Chicago, a teacher with the Catherine of Siena Institute, an evangelist, speaker, presenter, and retreat director. If you would like me to speak at your event, head over to this page. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter.  

That's the beginning of one of the most well known phrases from one of the most well known European fairy tales. The Wicked Queen who utters this commanding question ("Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?") jealously guards her beauty and renown--and goes to great lengths to protect herself from ever being seen as second best. One gets the sense from this kind of reaction that something beyond a sense of her own beauty drives the queen's actions--its as if insecurity tears at her heart with dark claws. She sees herself in a particular way, and needs the magic mirror to somehow prove that self-understanding wrong.

Why am I even bringing this up?

Because our parishes are filled with Wicked Queens and Wicked Kings whose self understanding and self image is wounded and broken. Some of them have their own magic mirrors, talismans that help them keep their hyper-critical demons (psychological and otherwise) at bay: gossip, alcoholism and drug addiction, an unbalanced quest for personal wealth and business success, sexual conquest and addictions (including pornography and extra-marital affairs), cutting, eating disorders--to name only a few.

Most of these folks suffer in silence, deafened by the voice of the Accuser who speaks lies over their lives and convinces them that a holy and loving God could never love them. These men and women have moved beyond simply a sense of feeling guilty and come under the bondage of shame. Guilt says "I made a mistake," but Shame says "I am a mistake." There are a great number of our brothers and sisters who are convinced that there is something essential about themselves that makes them unlovable and beyond the reach of God's salvation.

I would say that a redeemed self-image is the number one thing that people who come seeking prayer for healing need. And as men and women concerned with spreading the Gospel of Jesus, we must recognize that a profoundly wounded self image functions as "rocky soil," it is a barrier that prevents the seed of the Gospel from taking root in people's hearts. It is difficult to receive the mercy and love of your Eternal Father when you are absolutely convinced that there i something entwined into your very being that makes you unlovable.

I should know. I was a Wicked King once--but that is a fairy tale retelling for another time.

Where is Our Prince Charming?

The heart of the Gospel message directly contradicts the lies which bind the wounded self image. God created us out of an abundance of love--not out of a deficiency (of company or interesting things to do, for example). Human beings were the only part of God's creation that He brought into being for their own sake. Everything else was created to serve this new creature called Man. Or, as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI put it so powerfully:

All is created from the Word and all is called to serve the Word. This means that all of Creation, in the end, is conceived of to create the place of encounter between God and His creature—a place where the history of love between God and His creature can develop

The history of salvation is not a small event on a poor planet, in the immensity of the universe. It is not a minimal thing which happens on a lost planet. It is the motive for everything, the motive of creation. Everything is created so that this story can exist—the encounter between God and His creature.

Reflect on that for a moment--and be amazed.

God created us as embodied spirits, and, therefore, every other facet of Creation, down to the last fermion, hadron, and bosun He brought into being so that you and I (and every human person) can experience His love and offer Him our own.

Each of us matters.

Scripture delivers even more insight. In Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 5, the Lord says, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. The hebrew word for such knowledge does not refer to simply knowing about someone. Rather, it signifies a deep, understanding that penetrates to the depths of a person. That's why the word know in scripture was often used to refer to sexual union. In the Gospel of Luke, after the angel Gabriel delivers the Lord's message that Mary would give birth to the messiah, she responds: “How can this be, since I do not know a man?" (Luke 1:34).

Therefore, when the Lord says that He knew us before we were formed in our mother's wombs,  we must see the absolute radical nature of this proclamation. God's desire to be in relationship with us, His dynamic and boundless love, was so powerful, that He would not wait until we were conceived. The Father held each of us in His heart and contemplated us from Eternity. How great God's joy must have been when at last we were conceived and could begin now to experience and reciprocate this love. How the Father must have danced and rejoiced at the first division of our cell, the first fluttering beat of our heart, the first spark of dendrite and neuron.

The Father's love for us is so great, that when our First Parents' disobedience ruptured their relationship with God and destroyed the divine life within humanity, He refused to let His children perish. Rather, he sent His Son, who left the glory of Heaven and subjected Himself to the power of death so that He, through obedience and humility, could destroy death forever. And now, he sends His Body, the Church, into the world searching for the lost so that the joy of His kingdom and the power of the Father's Love would be experienced by all.

Each of us is so precious to the Lord that He endured suffering and death for us. The Cross, therefore, is both instrument of salvation and sign of our value to the Father.

Where Can I Find That Kind of Love?

It is, of course, important for everyone to both hear the gospel and come to know the Person of Jesus. However, for those whose self-image is wounded, both proclamation of the kerygma and personally encountering this love of God are essential.  Often, before they can truly hear and respond to the Gospel message, this love must be incarnated for them. Such personal experience of the love of God through other Christians will act as a bridge of trust and we should intentionally build upon that to help these men and women respond to God's grace and move through the thresholds. For them, this personal encounter will gradually confront the woundedness of their self-image and help them see to the reality of who they are and how precious they are to God

For most parishioners, whose main contact with the Church is the parish, this will often take place within some element of parish life--and so we must be deliberate in our attempts to foster this kind of incarnation. The actions that I will list below are foundational, meaning that you can use them no matter what event or process you are undertaking (i.e., Alpha, Discovering Christ, Bible Studies, Parish Missions, Evangelizing Retreats, etc.):

• Develop a welcoming team with members who have charisms of hospitality, pastoring, service, encouragement, and even evangelism, If the event does not take place in a church, make this group responsible for setting up and preparing the room for the eventa. Also, insure that they are the "front line" for greeting attendees and "send them forth" to mingle if there is time for fellowship. This doesn't excuse the rest of us from extending the hospitality of Christ, but it does make sure that God's welcoming presence is communicated supernaturally. People who feel isolated because of shame or a sense of being unworthy experience real healing when they are wekcomed as Christ would welcome them.
   
• Invite these folks to a Called & Gifted Workshop and set them on the discernment path. As they begin to discern specific charisms, surround them with Encouragers. Remember that their wounded self-image may make it more challenging for them to hear and receive positive feeback. Helping them encounter their giftedness is a positive step on the journey of healing their self-image.
   
• Encourage them to acts of service for the poor and suffering, and then lead take some time afterwards to reflect on the experience. Highlight or them areas where you saw them acting as the hands and feet of Christ. You may need to help them recall the fruit of their specific actions.
   
• If they are participating in events with small groups, make sure that you place them in a small group with someone who a leader/facilitator who is aware of their general struggle and who may have a charism of pastoring, encouragement, or hospitality.
   
• As trust and friendship begin to develop, invite them to receive prayer and then connect them with prayer teams whose individuals possess intercessory prayer, encouragement, healing, prophecy, or discernment of spirits. If their wounded self-image comes from dysfunctional family relationships, traumatic events in childhood or adulthood, or tragedy, invite Jesus Christ into those places and see what He wants to do.

There are many ways to surround someone who has a wounded self-image with love and encouragement. The reality is that their healing and openness to the Gospel is likely to be part of a journey that takes time. If we are really serious about our desire to share the Good News, then we, as individuals and communities, have to committ to walking with these men and women for the length of their journey. As we do, however, we may just find some hidden mirrors of our own and, through the grace of God, release them in His mercy.

Inside every Wicked Queen is a holy Princess whose identity is rooted in the Eternal King. Inside every Wicked King is a Prince Charming made in the image and likeness of His Loving Father. We must become Holy Mirrors of God's redemptive Presence.

And help them truly see.

ABOUT KEITH STROHM

I'm the Director of Evangelization for Queen of the Rosary Parish in Chicago, a teacher with the Catherine of Siena Institute, an evangelist, speaker, presenter, and retreat director. If you would like me to speak at your event, head over to this page. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter.  

Today is the Feast of St. Boniface, bishop and martyr. As often happens, the various prayers in the Divine Office moved me to reflection--this time on martyrdom, From the very earliest times in the Church's life, She has suffered persecution--at the hands of the Jews, Romans, and Persians. Throughout history, countless Christians have been imprisoned and beaten, and some have been forced to give up their lives for Christ's sake. This pattern plays out even today, as Christian persecution continues around the world (I encourage you to check out the website Voice of the Martyrs for a better understanding of what we are facing).

On the one hand, persecution leading to violent loss of life at the hands of another is a tragic event. It debases the perpetrator and deprives the victim of God's gift of life. It is an offense against the dignity of the human person at all levels. And yet, for Christians, their is something beautiful and compelling about someone who lays down his life for Christ. Over at Catholic Culture, their is an interesting article on Martyrdom that explains it this way:

The Church honours the martyrs because they sacrificed their lives rather than give up greater and higher goods: the Faith, and union with God. The good of human life is ordained unto eternal life. The goods of bodily life are less in value than the good of spiritual life. Christ and the Church do not urge us to be ready to give up great things for lesser things: that would be an absurdity! It is our love for a higher good that justifies the sacrifice of lesser goods. At the same time, the high value of life tells us the value of martyrdom.

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, martyrdom is the highest form of witness to the faith.

In a seeming paradox, the experience of persecution and the presence of martyrs seems to energize and enliven the Church. So much so that Tertullian famously proclaimed that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." On the surface, this is a ridiculous statement, but examining the nature of the Christian life, it becomes understandable: The Church is never closer to Her suffering Lord than when She Herself is suffering.

I Don't Like That, Either!

Several years ago, I was speaking with a parishioner who was growing increasingly more uncomfortable with our parish's emphasis on evangelization. "I could never do that," she exclaimed. "I'm even uncomfortable with the name. I'm not an evangelist, and I don't like to evangelize."

"What should we call you," I asked, very curious as to how she would respond.

"Witness," she said. "We should be witnessing our faith and be called Witnesses."

"The Church already has a name for witnesses," I replied innocently.

"What is it," she asked.

"Martyrs!"

"Well," she said after a short pause, "I don't like that, either."

And then she walked away.

Can I Get A Witness?

I remembered that conversation this morning, and it got me thinking. What if we raised up a generation of witnesses, of "martyrs," who were well-formed to give testimony to the love, power, and mercy of God. We know the power of the Culture of Silence, we know how it disciplines and punishes those who would dare speak openly about Jesus. These witnesses, then, would be men and women who were ready to give up their reputations and respectability in their communities. Their martyrdom--while analogous and closer to the white (or bloodless) marytrdom embraced by the hermits, cenobites, and early monastics in the deserts of the 4th century--would still involve sacrifice and the possibility of suffering for Christ.

But the fruit from such a generation of witnesses would be mighty indeed. "Faith, Paul writes in Romans 10:17, "comes through hearing." When we give testimony to what the Lord has done in our lives, we aren't just retelling something that happened in the past, we are inviting the power, presence, and Persons of the Triune God into our current moment so that others may experience Him. In fact, the primitive hebrew root of the word "testimony" is Ayin-Vav-Daleth, which means "to repeat," or "to do again." Such incarnated proclamation (the kerygma with skin on it) is by its very nature a supernatural act that will be colored and empowered by the charisms that we have received from God at baptism.

Testimony is so essential to the life of a disiple, that in a certain sense, our witness will not be complete without sharing what Peter calls "the reason for our hope" in Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:15). The documents of Vatican II put it this way:

"There are innumerable opportunities open to the laity for the exercise of their apostolate of evangelization and sanctification. The very testimony of their Christian life and good works done in a supernatural spirit have the power to draw men to belief and to God; for the Lord says, "Even so let your light shine before men in order that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16).

However, an apostolate of this kind does not consist only in the witness of one's way of life; A TRUE APOSTLE LOOKS FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO ANNOUNCE CHRIST BY WORDS addressed either to non-believers with a view to leading them to faith, or to the faithful with a view to instructing, strengthening, and encouraging them to a more fervent life. "For the charity of Christ impels us" (2 Cor. 5:14). The words of the Apostle should echo in all hearts, "Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel" (1 Cor. 9:16). Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, 6

The Book of Revelation also testifies to the power of witness, for it declares that the baptized will triumph over the devil through two essential ways: "And they overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony" (Revelation 12:11). Jesus' sacrifice, though fully efficacious, brings about objective redemption. However, the power of the Gospel must be made manifest in the world by the testimony of the baptized so that others may see and hear, and therefore accept this great gift (opening the way for subjective redemption).

Coaching the Witness

There are many ways to help other people prepare to give their testimony. Here are just a few suggestions:

• Choose Disciples. If you want to raise up a "generation of martyrs" in your parish, it is essential that those whom you gather together be intentional disciples, men and women who have made an intentional decision to follow Christ in the midst of His Church.
   
• Review the Kerygma. It is unfortunately true that most Catholics--even disciples--have never heard the kerygma exolicitly proclaimed in its fullness. Doing so with prospective witnesses allows them to open their hearts more to God's gift of mercy and place more of their lives under the Lordship of Christ. As they start to put together their testimony, the kerygma will be an essential reference point, so that they can understand what parts of their story explicitly contain parts of the kerygma and where they may need to intentionally incorporate other parts of the kerygma that are not explicitly found in their testimony.
   
• To begin with, have them write out their story, possibly setting up a "what if" situation involving a friend who asks them why they believe in Christ, or what difference knowing Jesus has made in their life. Then have them share what they wrote with at least one other person. It's okay if they just read off the paper right now. This may give some of them a sense of comfort if they are not ready to give a "spontaneous" testimony yet.
   
• Have them examine the kerygma and try to help them bring in any parts of it that aren't explicit in their story. Don't stress about this part--and don't let them make this an intellectual exercise. It is far better that their testimony remain natural and focused on proclamation rather than forced and exprienced by others as a lecture or teaching moment.
   
• Once they have a handle on the kerygma and their own story, give them a week to prepare their testimony as a half-hour talk. Chances are, most people won't be giving their testimony in a group setting, but preparing for that situation will, ultimately, make it easier for them when they do share their testimony. Break the participants up into dyads and have each person share with their group member and then spend 10 minutes allowing them to debrief each other. Switch up dyads, and have participants do it again.
   
• The following week, break participants up into 4 and have them do the same, leaving time to debrief. This will help them gradually grow more comfortable sharing their testimony in front of larger groups.
   
• If you think it worthwhile, end your formation with a day of prayer, sharing and commissioning--giving each participant the opportunity to share their half hour witness. Leave time for debrief. At the end of that day, bring in a deacon or priest and have them lead the group in a renewal of baptismal promises and end with a blessing.

As I've mentioned previously, witnessing to God's presence and mercy in our lives is not only for those with Paul-like conversions involving choirs of angels and the heavens splitting open. Nor is it a job only for extroverts. We are all called to speak of Christ, and there are men and women who will not respond to Road to Damascus stories, but whose hearts will be pierced by witness of the small, simple actions of grace in our lives.

Don't Forget the Four C's of Testimony

Effective testimonies are those where the mechanics of giving the testimony don't hinder the action of God or the receprivity of the listener. In other words, we get out of His way! You can maximize the possibility of fruitfulness when sharing your testimony by insuring that your witness is:

Clear

Many first-time witnesses want to throw everything and the kitchen sink into their testimony. But effective testimonies are focused. They don't ramble around the major points, but move between them with clarity and precision. Some of this will come with experience, but it is useful for those of us who might be responsible for forming witnesses to charitably, but purposefully, help people remain on point in their story.

Christ-centered

Effective testimonies are about encounters with Jesus. They might involve community, or music, or the instrumentality of the Church, but these things should never be the final focus. The focus of testimony should not be catholicism but Christ. If the sacraments have played a big part in your conversion, be sure to talk about how they have deepened your relationship with Jesus. Their is power in the name of Jesus (Philippians 2), rely upon it.

Charitable

Our testimony shouldn't be an opportunity to highlight our virtue or suggest that other people are not as enlightened. If our story involves repenting of a pattern of sin or a lifestyle, the focus of the story should be on the mercy and forgiveness of Christ not on the state of people who are still in bondage to that sin.

Contains Closure

By closure, I mean that there is a specific call to action--an intentional invitation for the listener to consider following Christ or to "drop his or her net" (depending on where they are in the Thresholds). Too often, we bring people to the decision point, but never explicitly ask the question--denying them the opportunity to make that choice for Christ. These invitations don't need to be sweeping rhetorical flourishes. Simply asking "would you like to experience more of this Jesus" or "would you like to come to know Him?" are direct and powerful ways to offer someone the gift of Christ.

Our parishes are hungering for the touch of God, for someone to help them experience the power, love, and mercy of Christ which is poured out for them on the Cross and made available to them in the sacraments. It will take a generation of martyrs to plant the seed of the Gospel. If they do, God's fruit will emerge in unimaginable ways.

And by the way, that parishioner who didn't want to evangelize and was not excited about being a martyr--she helped three people encounter Christ within the next year and helped lead them into His Church.

I'd say she's a Witness!

ABOUT KEITH STROHM

I'm the Director of Evangelization for Queen of the Rosary Parish in Chicago, a teacher with the Catherine of Siena Institute, an evangelist, speaker, presenter, and retreat director. If you would like me to speak at your event, head over to this page. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter.  

Maybe I'm about to sound like a broken record (or in the parlance of the younger set--a corrupted mp3), but as I have been meeting and praying with those who are seeking the healing touch of God, or talking with other professional pastoral 'ministers' and parish leaders, this reality has hit me in the depths of my heart.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is serious.

It's seriously unfair--and that can scandalize people. It often scandalizes me, and I ask the Lord constantly for an opportunity to share it with others.

The dictionary defines scandalous as "causing general public outrage by a perceived offense against morality or law." I think that's an accurate identification of what happens when people hear the Gospel message for the first time. It is outrageous!

Several years ago, I was having a conversation with a catholic woman. Though she was a "cradle" catholic, she had attended our RCIA process (I can hear the liturgists shrieking now) and found herself wrestling with what she had encountered there. Thinking of a situation that would prove her point, she asked in a somewhat confrontational tone, "You mean to tell me that I can go through my life trying to do good, and some child molester can tell the Lord he's sorry right on his death bed, and he would have just as much of a chance of getting to heaven as I do?"

I thanked God for this conversation before answering, "Yes, and he might even have a better "shot" than you or I."

This clearly was not the answer she was expecting. "But why should God forgive that man just because he said he was sorry after a lifetime of evil acts," the woman asked.

"Why should God forgive you," I shot back.

"Well, I'm not like him," she replied, referring to her example.

"Ahh, but this is the Good News of Jesus," I tried to be as comforting as I could. "Without Jesus, there is absolutely no difference between a child molester and you or I. We are, each of us, born into this world spiritually dead and separated from our Father. Without Jesus, no matter how good we try to live, we will all share the same destiny--emptiness and eternal isolation from the Father. also called Hell. It is through Jesus' incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension--for our sake--that we have the possibility of eternal life and relationship with God. He gives us that life as pure gift. There is not a single thing we have done, or could ever do, to earn that!"

That woman walked away scandalized.

And she should have.

Any rational person would. Scripture itself says this plainly: "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing" (1 Cor 1:18).

The Gospel is offensive to our conception of mercy and justice. It is radically oriented in a different direction then the natural trajectory of our lives--and yet we hunger for its power and possibility. It says that what we do is far less important than who we are (or, to be more correct, it is less important than whose we are). It says that our failures, our family dysfunction (or success), our weakness, our addictions, shame, and bondage--our talents, good looks, charm, knowledge, and good intentions are far less powerful than the One whose blood stained the wood of the Cross for our sake. 

It says that the wealthy, accomplished, and powerful in this world don't amount to much, but that the poor and suffering, the least of humanity, hold a special place in the Father's Heart. It says that salvation has nothing to do with us, and everything to do with Him. What we bring to the equation is our acceptance of that gift--and even that has its roots in a movement of God's grace beforehand.

If the Gospel doesn't seem offensive to you--then you haven't really heard it! The ironic thing is that once you choose Christ and try to live your life under the Gospel's power it seems less scandalous and more like something too good to be true. It may be foolishness to those who are perishing, "but to us who are being saved, it is the Power of God" (1 Cor 1:18).

Praise God that it is offensive. Praise God that someone like myself, who--even with the help of the Universe's Creator--still stumbles in the spiritual life like a drunken Freshman during Greek Pledge week, can know the forgiveness, love, and mercy of God in the Person of Jesus Christ.

The Hidden Name of Jesus

And that's the crux of it--all of it, the entirety of the Gospel, is contained in Jesus. The One whom the Culture of Silence commands should remain unnamed in our midst. The One whom we regularly leave out of our mission statements and don't talk about for fear that other catholics will think we are unhinged--even as we receive Him in the Eucharist.

Often as catholics, we substitute the institutional mechanisms of the Church for Jesus--as if they were completely interchangeable. Rather, Jesus is the Bridegroom who gives His life for His bride. It is through Jesus that the Church receives Her holiness...it is through Jesus that the Church is a channel of God's life and love to the world. We are his Body, but the Body without a Head is simply a corpse.

And too often our parishes shuffle around like zombies! 

Breaking the Silence about Jesus and His Gospel is not simply a good strategy to help us deal with a demographic crisis. Nor is its goal growing the engagement of parishioners. Rather, focusing on Christ and proclaiming the Gospel is about rediscovering our identity. Its about becoming who we were made and called to be.

It's about salvation--ours and the rest of the world's.

Until we attend to this task--until we help every young person meet Christ, even the best catechetical program in the world will bear limited fruit.

Viva La Revolution!

How can we begin the revolution in our communities and families?

I wrote in another post that it isn't simply about program or process. Perhaps the time has come to gather together the disciples in our parishes and start forming them in several areas:

• Having Threshold Conversations
• Integrating their story into the proclamation of the Kerygma
• Sharing their stories (provide training for multiple versions of their story based on the time that they have to speak to another person or group--i.e., the 30-second elevator speech, the 5-minute overview, the 15-minute version, and the full-on witness)

I'll write at some point in the future about sharing your story of Christ, but recognize that this isn't simply territory for extroverts and professional speakers. Some of the most effective and fruitful evangelizers I know are introverts who are also very shy. Regardless of our personality, the reality is that the Kingdom spreads in deeds and words--and that's how Jesus ordained it.

If we do want a revolution in our parishes, however, we have to come face to face with one reality: Revolutions can not simply be thought in to being. They must be lived! You and I have been put here in this time and in this place to live radically as Kingdom people. The good news about the Good News is simply this: We already have the Primordial Model for our revolution--Jesus Christ. And we have proof of concept--Mary and the saints.

The only thing in question is our response.

Are you ready to live scandalously? 

UPDATE: A concerned reader of this blog and Colleen Reiss Vermeulen's blog raised a question about my observation regarding substituting the Church for Jesus. Colleen wrote a wonderful post this morning unpacking and explaining even more clearly my intent. You can read that post by clicking here.   

ABOUT KEITH STROHM

I'm the Director of Evangelization for Queen of the Rosary Parish in Chicago, a teacher with the Catherine of Siena Institute, an evangelist, speaker, presenter, and retreat director. If you would like me to speak at your event, head over to this page. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter.  

Colleen Reiss VerMeulen is an officer in the army reserve, an andjunct professor, and a brilliant blogger. In fact, her blog, Practical Catholic Evangelization is one of the reasons that I started blogging in the first place. She has a real gift for absorbing knowledge, seeing the practical applications, and sharing it in an inspiring way. If you want to real-life practical tools and assistance in evangelizing, building culrures of discipleship, and renewing parish life, then start reading!

Marc Cardaronella is a disciple of Jesus Christ who is passionate about helping others encounter and come to know Jesus. He is the Director of Religious Education at a parish in Illinois and an amazing blogger. He writes at Evangelizing Catechesis and his blog is filled with powerful thoughts and conversation starters on evangelization--especially in a parish context. Run, do not walk, to his blog!

If for some reason you have found your way to my blog and you don't know of Marcel LeJeune, then stop reading this immediately and check out his blog, Aggie Catholics! Marcel is a gifted evangelist, speaker, and pastoral leader. Marcel is blessed to be the Assistant Director of Campus Ministry at St. Mary's Catholic Center at Texas A&M University since 2006, the largest campus ministry in the country. He oversees the ministry team and all of the daily operation of the ministries and programs

In a short period of time, I feel like he has become a blood brother to me! If you want to contact Marcel about parish missions, retreats, days of reflection, head over to his personal website. 

These are just a few of the many amazing resources that exist. From time to time, I'll post more of them!

ABOUT KEITH STROHM

I'm the Director of Evangelization for Queen of the Rosary Parish in Chicago, a teacher with the Catherine of Siena Institute, an evangelist, speaker, presenter, and retreat director. If you would like me to speak at your event, head over to this page. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter.  

So, here's what would I do if I worked for a parish that had all of resources and people that it needed:

• I would create a discernment process for men and women interested in being a part of the RCIA team to help them prayerfully discover if this is, indeed, the place where the Lord is asking them to serve. This would include a sharing of what the RCIA process is, a period of individual prayer and reflection, and mandatory participation in the Called & Gifted Discernment Process. The goal is to help find people who are intentional disciples of Jesus, who have a clear understanding of their spiritual gifts and natural talents, and who have a sense of passion or call around helping others become disciples of Jesus and members of His Church. Among the charisms I would be looking for especially--teaching, evangelism, encouragement, wisdom, intercessory prayer, healing. And, because it's me: administration (and everyone who has ever worked with me is now nodding in agreement).
   
• I would require anyone who does become a part of the RCIA team to go through an annual formation process that culminates in a weekend Retreat. This formation would include opportunities to reflect on their own relationship with Christ as well as training in how to facilitate threshold conversations (as written about in Forming Intentional Disciples).
   
• I would develop a year-round RCIA program that allowed individuals to enter the catechumenate at multiple points so that when someone was ready to make a decision to follow Christ, their formation as new disciples would not be artificially delayed by a programming calendar ("Sorry, we'd love to help you grow in intimacy with Jesus, but you'll have to wait 9 more months before you can start!")
   
• I'd utilize those men and women with a charism for writing and craftsmanship to develop advertising that sent clear (and clearly different) messaging  that would appeal to individuals who are at a particular pre-discipleship threshold of conversion. I would also ask individuals who have journeyed through conversion as part of the RCIA process to share some of their testimony with the community regularly throughout the year.
   
•  I would "deploy" men and women with pastoral charisms of encouragement and wisdom and have them meet with prospective inquirers, get to know a little bit about them, and have preliminary threshold conversations with them. This will help the team target responses and messaging in a way that will be the most life-giving and fruitful for those individuals. Depending on the number of people at different thresholds, I might run a number of parallel inquiry sessions divided up by thresholds.
   
• I would gather a group of individuals with encouragement, pastoring, and hospitality and have them develop a "kickoff" event for each group of Inquirers that would help build bridges of trust, make people feel more at ease, and begin to build community.
   
• I would strive to make Inquiry a real experience of evangelization and encounter with the Risen Christ. In addition to answering explicit questions that they have, I would work with those with charisms of pastoring and develop a small group process that would be geared toward those in earlier stages. For example, Colleen Reiss VerMeulen talks about the use of Seeker Small Groups. In addition, I would include an evangelization process that would utilize men and women with charisms of evangelism, music, intercessory prayer, and healing. This process would focus on proclaiming the kerygma, calling each of the Inquirers to make a decision to follow Christ, and providing individual directed prayer that would help Inquirers encounter the power, love, mercy, provision, and healing of Christ.
   
• Once an individual had made that decision to follow Christ and felt ready to enter the Catechumenate, I would partner that person with a disciple of Christ who would journey with them through this part of the process. In a very real sense, these disciples would assist in the hands-on-effort of discipling the catechumen. They would function the way Ananais did when the Lord sent the recently blinded Paul to  him, so that Paul might learn how to follow the Lord. Almost all the charisms would be helpful for this Ananais sponsor. hat is non-negotiable is that this sponsor must be willing to enter in to the life of the catechumen and support, pray, and train him in the disciplines of a disciple.
   
• During the period of catechesis, I would place those individuals with charisms of teaching and evangelism, and encouragement as catechists to help the catechumens during formation sessions and in breaking open the Word during Sundays at mass.  
   
• During the period of purification and enlightenment, I would present catechumens with more opportunity to receive prayer from those with healing and intercessory prayer. Since this period is for those who have specifically asked for Baptism, I would also work with those individuals who are not quite free enough in their inner person to respond to God with their whole (or even major part of their) hearts and offer them counsel and prayer so that they can submit more of their lives to the Lordship of Christ. Here, too, the charism of Discernment of Spirits would definitely be useful.
   
• Once the catechumen has received the Sacraments of Initiation an becomes a neophyte, I would surround them with disciples who are ready to roll up their sleeves and help the neos build habits of discipleship (including scripture reading, prayer, living a sacramental life, fellowship and service. During this period of mystagogy, the Ananais sponsors' role becomes critically important.

That Sounds Great but it's Not Real! 

I know this sounds great, but who here has anything approaching the perfect community? I'd venture to say that no one does--including me! So, how can we help the real become more like the ideal? By trying to follow the principles that undergird the bullet points in this article. Namely:

• Gather the right people
• Utilize the charisms
• Meet people where they are at
• Lead people through conversion by explicitly proclaiming the Gospel
• Allow the Holy Spirit to move and manifest in the lives of Inquirers and Catechumens
• Surround them with community
• Teach them not just what the Church teaches but how to live as a disciple (don't underestimate the importance of this one and don't simply wait until mystagogy).

In this way, we can be sure that we have helped individuals come to a sense of their own discipleship and build lasting habits that grow into virtue.

Imagine if this were happening now in our parishes!

What if!!??

ABOUT KEITH STROHM

I'm the Director of Evangelization for Queen of the Rosary Parish in Chicago, a teacher with the Catherine of Siena Institute, an evangelist, speaker, presenter, and retreat director. If you would like me to speak at your event, head over to this page. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter.  

If possible, I would recommend gathering the staff for a retreat day (or better yet an overnight if tht can be arranged), where they will have an opportunity to pray together, reflect on the parish's mission, and on their own decision to follow Christ.

To facilitate this work in some of the parishes I've consulted with (and been a part of), I developed a few reflection questions for staff members. You can download them here.

For parish staff members, many of whom are genuine disciples who have been overworked and struggling for years against the realities presented by communities that are predominantly filled with men and women in earlier, essentially passive thresholds of pre-discipleship conversion, this journey can be a difficult one. It can also be challenging for staff members who may not be disciples of Christ. It takes a very patient, firm-but-nurturing pastoral approach to  help folks through this paradigm shift.

If you are not on staff, but are a part of a ministry, apostolate, or other parish group, you may find the Staff Reflection questions useful to use among your peers with only slight modifications. If you are interested in fostering discussion in your parish around discipleship, then I encourage you to download the questions and start the reflection.

ABOUT KEITH STROHM

I'm the Director of Evangelization for Queen of the Rosary Parish in Chicago, a teacher with the Catherine of Siena Institute, an evangelist, speaker, presenter, and retreat director. If you would like me to speak at your event, head over to this page. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter. 

I have been praying through Acts of the Apostles as we approach the Feast of Pentecost, and although that book constantly convicts my heart and inspires me, I recently came across section that cut me to the core and started me thinking a little bit more about my expectations of what the Lord will do in ministry. The short answer is: My expectations of God are too low.

But first, the scripture. The section in question comes from Acts chapter 4. Peter and John have just returned from being imprisoned, reprimanded, and warned by the Sanhedrin never to speak about Jesus of Nazareth. They are recounting what happened to their community, and their brothers and sisters are amazed at their boldness. Peter himself stood up and told the Jewish leaders flat out that they could never stop talking about Jesus--and the leaders released both apostles. Excited about what they have heard, the community gathers together and prays to the Lord for boldness. And that's when we read:

"As they prayed, the place where they were gathered shook, and they were all filled with the holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness." (31).

When was the last time that we experienced such an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that the place where were gathered to worship shook with His presence? When was the last time that we were so conscious of the Spirit of God and so docile to His promptings that we were filled with boldness to preach the Word of God and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

I'm not talking about emotionalism here, or manic fervor, or some psychological projection of our excitement on to the interpretive framework we use to make sense of the world around us. I mean a clear external manifestation of the Kingdom of God breaking in to our world and changing things!

There is a clear model and connection between the Ministry of Jesus and the Ministry of the Early Church. Jesus announced the Kingdom of God and then made that Kingdom present (i.e., healed the sick, raised the dead, cleansed lepers, cast out demons, forgave sins). The apostles and the early Christians preached the Gospel of Jesus (the Kingdom) and through the work of the Holy Spirit made that Kingdom present.

Both Jesus and His disciples preached with effectiveness. In greek, the scriptures identify this as dunamis (a word from which we get our word for an explosive--dynamite), which means power. That's why Paul would write that "my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive (words of) wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power" (1Cor 2:4) People came to faith in Christ not only because of the lifestyle of love and self sacrifice that the Church manifested toward one another, but also because these non-Christians encountered the dunamis of the Risen Christ made present to them through Christians. They were freed from addictions and demonic torment, they were healed physically, they were raised from the dead. The early Church preached the Risen Christ and then testified to this Truth with demonstrations of the power of the Kingdom of God.

Dunamis, power--is an essential component of the Christian life and witness. Christianity without power is simply philosophy! And the world does not need another philosophy . . .it needs the Presence and Love of God made manifest.

The power that the scriptures speak of were not just intended for Jesus, or for the Twelve. Remember, Jesus sent out the 72 with the command to heal the sick, and they came back in awe of what they had accomplished in Jesus' name (Luke 10:1-23). Here's the kicker, and it's something I hadn't known until I was in my thirties. The Church teaches that Jesus did not accomplish the various miracles in his ministry because of His divine power as the Second Person of the trinity. Remember, we read in Philippians Chapter 2 that Jesus "emptied Himself and took the form of a slave" (7). He set aside His power and prerogative. Though He was still God, He took on our human nature and in that experience it was His relationship with the Holy Spirit through which His miracles occurred.

That's why Jesus would tell His disciples something curious in Chapter 14 of John's gospel. He says: "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father." Jesus is telling His disciples that they will follow the same pattern of Jesus' ministry--healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing lepers, casting out demons. And they will do even more than that!

Why?

In the next chapter He makes that clear. When Jesus ascends to the Father, He will send the Holy Spirit to empower His people. Bill Johnson, a Christian pastor, writer, and speaker tells it this way: "The same Spirit that empowered Jesus' ministry, that entered the tomb and raised Jesus from the dead, that same Spirit has been given to you and I."

The same Spirit that was poured out on the early Church at Pentecost,, you and I have received at Baptism. And therefore, as Christians, powerlessness is inexcusable. We are, literally, empowered to be the hands and feet of Christ in this world, calling people to Faith in Jesus through our lifestyle witness, our explicit testimony, and the undeniable manifestation of the Presence and Power of the Risen Christ in the world.

Speak Softer, Lord. You're too Loud!

I can already hear the objections. "You are talking about Road-to-Damascus-type encounters with the Lord, where people have a major conversion. But it doesn't always happen like that. Scripture talks about God being in the still, small voice and not the earthquake!"

I agree. Not everyone will have such a Pauline experience of conversion. And God does speak in the still, small voice. And praise Him because He does that. One only has to take a cursory look at at Scripture and Tradition, however, to see that He also speaks in the earthquake, and the physical healing, and the resurrection from the dead. God's language is silence and power, but for a variety of historical and cultural reasons, our contemporary experience of Catholicism has privileged the still, small voice. So much so, that we don't know what to do with people who have such powerful encounters that lead to conversion, and we certainly get uncomfortable when they start about it! We even counsel cradle Catholics and Catechumens alike not to expect anything dramatic from God!!! It's as if we would really prefer the Lord to speak softer, and when He shouts His presence, we shut down.

The model of Jesus and the early Church, however, tells us that we shouldn't expect too little of the God we believe in. Proclamation of the kerygma, the essential message of the should be accompanied by the supernatural activity of the Spirit. Paul himself so that as a critical component of preaching:

For I will not dare to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to lead the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit [of God], so that from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. (Romans 15:18-19)

The works that Christ accomplished through Paul were necessary for Paul to preach and demonstrate so that his proclamation would be complete--both in geographic breadth and kerygmatic depth.

What About the Sacraments?

Whenever I talk about a manifestation of God's presence among us, Catholics (rightly so) mention the Eucharistic Presence of Jesus. I am certainly not denying the Real Presence of Christ, nor am I minimizing the necessity of sanctifying grace, which we receive through the Sacraments. But in the Eucharist, Jesus comes to us under the appearance of Bread and Wine. His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity are veiled. That's why Thomas Aquinas' words that make up the Tantum Ergo say: "Faith for all defects supplying/Where the feeble senses fail."

It takes faith to see and experience Christ's Presence in the Eucharist. In other words, people must come to know and believe in Jesus before He can become known to them in the breaking of the Bread. People must be taught to see before they can apprehend. And that is the general rule for all of the Sacraments--they are intended for those who already have experienced conversion, repented, and received Baptism, the doorway to salvation. These incredible, irreplaceable encounters with Jesus, these mysterion (mysteries) are not intended for the uninitiated. They require faith and an openness to God (proper disposition).

 We see this in our daily experience of the faith. The reality is that at every mass, we receive the Lord of the Universe, who has poured Himself out humbly for us and offers us His life in His Body and Blood. And even though our communion lines are long, the normative experience for most Catholics is not transformation in Christ. Without a personal relationship with Christ and a proper disposition.

And how do we help our fellow Catholics and our non-Christian brothers and sisters come to know Jesus? Through a proclamation of the kerygma that is complete--which includes the dunamis of the Kingdom of God as well as a witness of lifestyle.

How Shall This Be Done?

The beautiful reality is that God does not send us out on Mission (Matthew Chapter 28) and then leave us on our own. Rather, in addition to the Divine Life He pours into us at baptism, He also gives us particular gifts, or charisms, that allow us to be supernaturally effective channels of His grace. Each and every baptized member of the Body of Christ has received these charisms for the sake of their mission. Does that sound far fetched? It did to me when I first encountered what the Church actually taught. In fact, these charisms are mentioned explicitly in scripture and in the documents of the Second Vatican Council (which I sometimes call the Secret Documents of Vatican II because we always talk about Vatican II but so few of us have read the documents, leading me to believe they are kept in a hidden vault patrolled by Swiss Guards).

In the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, the Council Fathers wrote:

For the exercise of this apostolate, the Holy Spirit Who sanctifies the people of God through ministry and the sacraments gives the faithful special gifts also (cf. 1 Cor. 12:7), "allotting them to everyone according as He wills" (1 Cor. 12:11) in order that individuals, administering grace to others just as they have received it, may also be "good stewards of the manifold grace of God" (1 Peter 4:10), to build up the whole body in charity (cf. Eph. 4:16). From the acceptance of these charisms, including those which are more elementary, there arise for each believer the right and duty to use them in the Church and in the world for the good of men and the building up of the Church, in the freedom of the Holy Spirit who "breathes where He wills" (John 3:8). 

As I've mentioned in other posts, the Catherine of Siena Institute has a great primer on the charisms and an amazing workshop to help us discern the gifts we have already received at baptism. God showers these gifts upon us so that we can use them for others. In fact, the use of charisms is the primary way in which God intends His Love and Grace to reach others. If we want to proclaim the Gospel message with power, we must be willing to open ourselves to the Lord's prompting and offer what we have received for the sake of others. We must release the dunamis of the Kingdom into our particular sphere of influence and circle of life.

Recalling the reading from Acts which opened up this post, the community in Acts experienced the power and presence of the Spirit in response to their prayer for boldness. We who have chosen to follow Christ must passionately pursue the manifestation of God in our own life so that this Presence and Power of God may also be released into the lives and the experience of others. In other words, as we grow in holiness we become freer to utilize the charisms we have received for the sake of the world.

When was the last time that you intentionally pursued the manifest breaking through of the Kingdom of God in your own life? When was the last you fell down before the Lord and asked for a Spirit of boldness, for a release of the grace that you received in baptism and saw strengthened at confirmation?

What if our parishes began corporate prayer and fasting for exactly these things. And what if we were to live out an authentic stewardship of our charisms, so that we actively tried, as parish communities, to connect people with the appropriate gifts to areas of service and work in the world for which that gift would be manifestly important? 

The world would take notice. They would hear it clearly:

Boom goes the dunamis of the Kingdom of God!

ABOUT KEITH STROHM

I'm the Director of Evangelization for Queen of the Rosary Parish in Chicago, a teacher with the Catherine of Siena Institute, an evangelist, speaker, presenter, and retreat director. If you would like me to speak at your event, head over to this page. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter.