Cathy Duffy - Everyday Evangelism for Catholics: A Practical Guide to Spreading the Faith in a Contemporary World

E vangelism is a hot topic in the Catholic world today thanks to Pope Francis and his predecessors. But for at least a few centuries, most Catholics thought that evangelism was something Protestants do, not Catholics! Since the idea is so foreign to most Catholics, they have no idea where to start. I find that many Catholics would like to be involved in evangelism, but they need concrete ways of going about it.

I wrote Everyday Evangelism for Catholics to discuss how we can practice personal evangelism on a practical, everyday levelthe sort of evangelism that most of us should be doing. Everyday evangelism includes the conversation with your relative who has left the Church, your friend who just doesnt get why you bother going to Mass every Sunday, your acquaintance who is grieving over the death of his mother, or your coworker who is making all of the wrong life choices and cant figure out why shes not happy. Conversations that arise from everyday issues often open doors for evangelism. But that does not mean you grasp every opportunity to tell people they need to start going to church. True evangelism is usually more subtle and time consuming, as you will soon see.

My Background

My enthusiasm for evangelism has a long history. I was a cradle Catholic who, like so many others, left the Church as a young adult. After a few years of trying to ignore God, I ended up reconnecting with the Catholic Church briefly. However, while my relationship with God was on much stronger ground at that point, my theological formation was not.

I readily joined my husband when he decided that Calvary Chapel sounded appealing. I developed an evangelistic outlook during the twenty plus years I detoured from Catholicism into the Protestant world. Protestants talk a great deal about evangelism and many of them expect all Christians to be evangelists. As I became more and more attuned to evangelism, I found opportunities galore to practice it. At first, my conversations occurred more frequently with those close to Christianity in some way. As you can read in , my circles gradually broadened, and within those wider circles came many evangelizing opportunities.

When I returned to the Catholic Church, I brought with me my evangelistic outlook. I soon began volunteering to work with the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) process in our parish. Within a few years, I was on staff running RCIA. One of the things I love most about the RCIA process is working with individuals. I enjoy hearing their stories, discussing their burning questions, and helping them fall in love with Jesus and his Church. (Along the way, I also picked up responsibility for adult faith formation, an opportunity to practice the new evangelization parish wide.)

Outside the Church, I found myself frequently involved in conversations about deep spiritual issues with people, both those I knew well and those Id just met. Some of my most memorable conversations about spiritual issues have been with seatmates on long airplane flights! Working within the RCIA process helped me learn how to listen and ask good questionsboth of which are key for having a worthwhile conversation.

As much as I enjoyed directing RCIA, I reached a point with my job where I was spending far more time on administration than in one-on-one conversations. I ended up resigning, but I continue to serve as a volunteer in my parish doing things that better fit my talents and bring me great delight.

One of these things is serving on our evangelism team, helping to plan parish efforts centered particularly on the Alpha program and our follow-up Discipleship Groups. (Alpha is an introductory evangelism course that is non-denominational but approved by the Catholic Church. See alphausa.org/catholic/ for more information.) In addition, I host a Got Faith Questions table in the church courtyard most Sunday mornings through the four morning Masses. Think of Lucys psychiatry booth from the Peanuts cartoon strip. The table functions in a number of ways. I have a small sign that reads Free books and a few books from the Dynamic Catholic ministry sitting out. I keep a selection suitable for different needsbooks such as Rediscovering Catholicism, Rediscover Jesus, The Real Story (short version of salvation history in Scripture), and Catholic and Christian, plus the Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth pamphlets.

Some people approach the table looking for a free book. Its an excuse for me to say something like, Weve got books for people who are at different places on their faith journey. Lets see what would be most helpful to you. That allows at least a brief discussion about which book or pamphlet might be helpful. Sometimes it turns into a lengthy conversation about their spiritual journey. People approach the table with all sorts of questions from Wheres the restroom? to I havent been to church in thirty years. What do I need to do?

We occasionally have non-Catholic visitors as well. Some of them have been interested enough to engage in deep conversation about Catholicism, and at least a few are on their way into the Church. Ive even been able to pray with some right there at the table. The Got Faith Questions table has turned out to be a fabulous evangelism tool.

I share all of this so that you can understand the diversity of experience I have had with evangelism. Our parish is on a Divine Renovation track. (Fr. James Mallons book Divine Renovation has influenced many Catholic parishes which have prioritized mission over maintenance.) We are working to become a parish of intentional Catholics who understand that our primary mission is making disciples. It seems clear that at our parish there is definitely more interest in evangelism than ever before.

However, strategies for evangelism are unfamiliar to most Catholics. Many Catholics worry that they need to be firmly grounded in apologetics before they can evangelize. They fear they dont know enough and dont want to be pushy. They have no idea how to even begin the conversation. My hope is that this book will bridge the gap so that they will learn how to have evangelistic conversations in everyday situations and that it will become easy and comfortable for them to do so.

Givens That Im Assuming

Many other books have been written about other aspects of evangelism, so Im going to skim over some basic principles of evangelism that I expect most of my readers will have already encountered.