Jesus: The Master Evangelist

I am taking an online course titled:  Jesus the Master Evangelist.  So far it is quite good.  We are looking through the Synoptic Gospels this week to see how Jesus evangelized and what we can learn from this in our own efforts at evangelizing.

One of the first points the professor made was from Pope Pius VI (Evangelii Nuntiandi): "She (the Church) exists in order to evangelize." (emphasis mine) 

What is Catholic Evangelization?  How would you define it?  How about bringing the Good News to humanity, and through it transforming humanity from within and making it new...but, we cannot do this if we ourselves are not first transformed, if we are not first of all new persons ourselves renewed by Baptism and living our lives by the Gospel - the purpose of evangelization is this interior change.

• not imposing, but proposing
• change self first - must begin with me
• who we are in Christ is infinitely more important than what we know about Him.
• through prayer, Scripture, acts of mercy/kindness.... develop the "mind of Christ"

St Paul, Rom. 10:14:  "How are they to believe if they have not heard? How are they to hear without a preacher?"

Our supreme duty as believers in Christ is to proclaim Christ to all peoples!!

We must remember that the Gospel is not simply about Jesus Christ, it IS Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the Model, Leader, and Catalyst for Evangelization.  Before we 'go out to others' we need to be modeling discipleship together as a Church:

• study and learn from Jesus
• examine Bible stories where he interacts with people
• know the Gospel and how to communicate it
• know our own story of God working in our life, articulate it in a non-threatening, enthusiastic, joyful way.

Evangelization is (should be) the thread that is woven through all the various ministries in the parish.

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Professor Allan Wright has written a book on this topic. I will very likely purchase it once this course is complete.