“Every person has the right to hear the gospel.” —St. Paul Ronald D. Witherup makes two points about St. Paul’s bold statement to the Christians in Corinth: We’re all sinners Witherup goes on to explain why St. Paul is adamant about this right to hear the gospel. First, he says that Paul believes we are
In this post, I’m going to describe a simple, easy-peasy way to dramatically increase the number of people you have in your RCIA process. But first, we have to do a little math. You probably know that the fastest growing religious group in the United States is the “nones.” The Pew research group regularly asks
Evangelizing the “nones”—an easy RCIA challenge
If you want to effectively prepare inquirers for the Rite of Acceptance, you might need to rethink your precatechumenate process. In a previous post, we talked about why it is important to prepare the inquirers for the Rite of Acceptance. We can think of preparation in two ways. One way to prepare them is through
“Destruct” your precatechumenate to prepare RCIA inquirers
I gave my last Forum institute this past weekend. Well, sort of a Forum institute. Forum, as our readers will know, closed down on June 30. But this institute had been scheduled many months ago. When Jim Schellman asked the diocese of Shreveport — and me — if we still wanted to go ahead with
RCIA ministry is flourishing in Shreveport
I was headed to a movie at a cinema downtown the other night, and I walked by a street preacher who was shouting Bible verses and sketchy theology at passersby. I went to high school and college in southern Missouri, so I’m familiar with street preaching. However, if you have never seen a real, live
What I learned about Catholic evangelization from Bible-quoting Pentecostals
The Washington Post has published a feature article on a local campaign for “the new evangelization” in Washington DC. Targeting strategies for face-to-face witness and invitation, the Archdiocese is seeking especially to mobilize young Catholics to share their faith. The campaign seeks to overhaul the concept of evangelization to something built for 2013, more subtle
Sometimes, when we are pressured to provide a religion of absolutes straight out of the Catechism; sometimes, when candor, actual experience, and the importance of involving ordinary people in the RCIA is pooh-poohed; sometimes, when the community is not taken seriously as the most basic agent of evangelization; sometimes, when the catechumenate is seen as
It’s the community that initiates
The RCIA is a training process. If we look at other training processes, we begin to see how the RCIA is perfectly designed to train seekers in the Christian life (see RCIA 75 and Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity, 14). Three levels of training Let’s take running for example. If you are a running
RCIA training level one: evangelization
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York said in an interview recently that there are three key things that attract new folks to the Catholic Church: the sacrament of penance, the role of the pope, and our devotion to Mary. I’d love to hear your thoughts on Cardinal Dolan’s statement. When I read that, I thought
Here is a pop quiz. In the next month, if ten visitors come to your Sunday liturgy, how many would you guess will return for a second visit? According to Chris Walker, founder of EvangelismCoach.org, the answer is one or two. And can you guess the number-one reason the other eight to nine did not
The key to evangelization: start talking and start inviting
