with my first post.
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I have spent some time today looking around at some different posts from other Catholic blogs. It’s been a while since I have spent much time reading blogs and I am truly in awe at the quality and quantity of content that is produce by my fellow Catholics. It’s good to see that we are jumping on the “New Media” to spread the Good News.
I really enjoyed reading this post by Mark Cardaronella titled, “How to Make the New Evangelization New” which talks about the need for Catholics to have a paradigm shift in how we live and experience our faith.
He makes the case that Catholics could take some pointers from Evangelicals, noting that despite our doctrinal differences we have a lot in common. (There’s also a pretty good video interview with Dr. Scott Hahn, too)
Being a convert to the faith, I can identify with what he is talking about. My Methodist upbringing exposed me to a faith that was biblically based and Christ-centered. Although, it wasn’t until I became Catholic that I could honestly say that I had a personal conversion.
On the matter of evangelization
I have thought that the Church could do a better job of taking its message to the masses. Until recently, I have thought that we need to “flash” things up a bit, by taking cues from the Megachurches.To make the church more appealing.
This won’t do at all.
We have a 2,000 year history that needs to be honored and respected. We don’t need full scale multimedia spectacles. We don’t need a Starbucks on the church grounds. All we need is a commitment to live our lives as Jesus teaches us, to lead by His example.
Through the stories in the New Testament, we see how evangelization was done, by getting out and talking with others. I can’t even imagine how incredibly difficult this was for the Apostles to do after Jesus was gone. They were persecuted even while Jesus was alive, but they kept at it.
Today, we still need to persevere through an overwhelming secularization of our society. It seems that we are trying to strip every reference to God out of what we do because we are so afraid of offending somebody. Did the Apostles do this? I think not.
I recognize that I am a relative novice in my practice of my faith. I still have a tremendous amount to learn even though I have been Catholic for 13 years. I pray that through this blog and with your help I will come to learn more and experience the true joy that all of the Saints before me have experienced.
I’d like to hear from others what their experiences have been and how they evangelize.
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