1. The church shouldn’t be thought of as “what can she do for me?”
2. We need better evangelization
3. How can the parish staff/priest do a better job of putting up a better “store front” to initially bring people in?
I’m part of a lay apostolate of encouraging the laity to form good friendship and utilize that to bring people closer to God. Upgrade their faith life. Either non believers or nominally Catholics to be more engaged. I think that it’s the laity doing this that’s going to be more effective.
So if you sit next to someone on a plane and start talking then don’t invite them to some church event. Instead invite them to a beer to keep talking! If you don’t feel equipped to talk good enough (knowing that we should trust the Holy Spirit to provide what we need) then we could invite another church goer to join us
Absolutely! Here’s a thought experiment: how would you go about drawing people to Christ if the Church were illegal, and the clergy were put to death when found? That describes the first three centuries of the Church’s life, when the laity drew their friends in by their joy and peace, in an apostolate of “friendship and confidence,” as we say in Opus Dei. Go and do likewise! 😉
Comment. I feel your talk was circular.
1. The church shouldn’t be thought of as “what can she do for me?”
2. We need better evangelization
3. How can the parish staff/priest do a better job of putting up a better “store front” to initially bring people in?
I’m part of a lay apostolate of encouraging the laity to form good friendship and utilize that to bring people closer to God. Upgrade their faith life. Either non believers or nominally Catholics to be more engaged. I think that it’s the laity doing this that’s going to be more effective.
So if you sit next to someone on a plane and start talking then don’t invite them to some church event. Instead invite them to a beer to keep talking! If you don’t feel equipped to talk good enough (knowing that we should trust the Holy Spirit to provide what we need) then we could invite another church goer to join us
Absolutely! Here’s a thought experiment: how would you go about drawing people to Christ if the Church were illegal, and the clergy were put to death when found? That describes the first three centuries of the Church’s life, when the laity drew their friends in by their joy and peace, in an apostolate of “friendship and confidence,” as we say in Opus Dei. Go and do likewise! 😉