“This group is committed to growing disciples through
active evangelization.  We are catalysts for passionate and intentional discipleship in Our Lady of Angels Parish and beyond.”
 
Although this is the Evangelization Group’s stated mission, we have come to realize that this is no different than the mission of the church.

Matt 28:19-20  “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always,
until the end of the age.”
 
 If making disciples is the central mission of the church, the responsibility of evangelizing does not fall on one person, namely the parish priest, or even on a small group of parishioners. Pope Francis writes in “Joy of the Gospel” that by virtue of our baptism, we are all called to be “missionary disciples”.


“120. In virtue of their baptism, all the members of the People of God have become missionary disciples (cf. Mt 28:19). All the baptized, whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelization, and it would be insufficient to envisage a plan of evangelization to be carried out by professionals while the rest of the faithful would simply be passive recipients. The new evangelization calls for personal involvement on the part of each of the baptized. Every Christian is challenged, here and now, to be actively engaged in evangelization; indeed, anyone who has truly experienced God’s saving love does not need much time or lengthy training to go out and proclaim that love. Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus: we no longer say that we are “disciples” and “missionaries”, but rather that we are always “missionary disciples”. If we are not convinced, let us look at those first disciples, who, immediately after encountering the gaze of Jesus, went forth to proclaim him joyfully: “We have found the Messiah!” (Jn 1:41). The Samaritan woman became a missionary immediately after speaking with Jesus and many Samaritans come to believe in him “because of the woman’s testimony” (Jn 4:39). So too, Saint Paul, after his encounter with Jesus Christ, “immediately proclaimed Jesus” (Acts 9:20; cf. 22:6-21). So what are we waiting for?”
All the baptized are called to be agents of evangelization and all who have experienced Christ’s love in some form or fashion have been given the necessary tools to proclaim that love.  If we are called to evangelize and are equipped to do so, the last question of the preceding paragraph is a profound one…, “what are we waiting for?”

Every individual is on a unique journey and every individual longs to have an encounter with Christ (whether they realize it or not).  Our strategies need to reflect this as we evangelize.  Some of the people in our community are actively involved in living Christ’s mission.  We call these people “Intentional Disciples”.  Some attend mass every Sunday but do not actively live their Catholic faith the rest of the week.  Some attend mass on Christmas and Easter only.  Some do not attend mass at all, ever.  Our goal is to move everyone into the “Intentional Disciple” category by facilitating an encounter with Christ.  The question is ‘how’? 

Imagine a railway that moves people from one category to the next.  We call this the ‘Sanctification Railway’.  God’s grace is the only thing that can move someone from one category to the next therefore His grace is the engine that drives this train.  Our job as Christians is to invite people on board regardless of where they are at in their journey.
Since God is the only one who can change a person’s heart, all the evangelization strategies we can think to utilize start, depend, and rest on God’s unending grace.  This is why we believe the first step is prayer.  We as a parish must pray that God will ignite our hearts.  We must ask God to send His Holy Spirit down upon our congregation and fill us with the desire to grow in holiness and to become more perfectly united with Him.  God is the key to success. Praying for God’s guidance needs to not only be our first initiative but rather a continual pleading throughout the life of our parish.

Evangelization is essentially inviting people into a relationship with God; to get on board the “Sanctification Railway”.  There are no wrong ways to extend this invitation when we take into account that God’s grace oversees the entire process.  However, we do believe we can be intentional about our invitations and have devised a process to help our parish be more focused on these efforts.  The process involves steps of conversion that help people move from not having a relationship with God to actively inviting others into a deep relationship with our Creator.  These steps are:
Welcoming => Conversion => Discernment => Formation & Service => Apostleship

The members of our parish are currently spread between all these stages.  Some feel welcome but not quite like they belong.  Some feel they belong but not quite like they have a personal relationship with God.  Some are actively involved in ministries but haven’t yet discerned what their charisms are (these are the ones in danger of burn-out).  Some are actively learning as much as they can about God’s plan of salvation. 
Changing the culture of our parish can seem a bit overwhelming.  In truth, if it weren’t for God’s grace it would be.  In Matthew Kelly’s book, “4 Signs of a Dynamic Catholic”, he estimates that only 7% of Catholics are actively engaged in their faith.  The good news is that we accomplish so much with such little participation.  If the active members of our parish committed to making one disciple this year, what would our parish look like next year?  If this process continued, what would our parish look like in 5 years?  It just takes one believer living his or her mission to make a great impact in our community.
All the baptized are ready to evangelize and help people move from one stage to the next.  The question looms… “what are we waiting for?”