Christmas Parade Outreach
December 8, 2024
The Douglasville Christmas parade is the biggest public event of the year in our community. We had enough experienced volunteers come to set up tables at two different locations (the parade route is about a mile long): one near the clock tower, and one near the amphitheater, where the parade ends. Pat, Christine, and Ekpen braved the cold with me - and the crazy parking situation - to sow seeds of the Gospel.
"We gave out every Rosary we had. Our toes and fingers were numb but not our mouths! Praise Jesus and thanks to the Virgin Mary." - Pat
Typically we have given out around 20 Rosaries each time we do a downtown event. This time it was well over a hundred! Christmas has a way of focusing people's hearts on religious matters. Plus, there were a lot more children, who are more attracted to colorful objects that look like jewelry. It was common for children to swam the table and drag their parents with them!
"It was a wonderful, blessed evening of sharing God's love and celebrating with Douglasville! Very cold, but so much fun, as the Spirit moved people to claim every one of our Rosaries!" - Christine
I had two extended conversations that were especially meaningful: one with a man a few years older than me; another with a man young enough to be my son, both Protestant Christians, though the older man was not active in a church. The focus of both conversations was on division between Christians as a result of doctrinal disagreements. That they were deeply disturbed by this fact, and struggled to make sense of it, made them open to the solution found in the true Church. As the older man was criticizing others for taking verses from the Bible out of context to make it mean whatever they wanted to, I told him, "You are making a better argument for Catholicism than I could make!" The young man had a best friend who was Catholic, which gave him a positive impression, but they had never really discussed the differences. He seemed drawn to the fact that we are the oldest and only global Church, and open to the argument that the papacy/Magisterium is necessary to resolve conflicts and keep Christians united in doctrine. He thanked me and gave me a big hug at the end!
This was our last outreach of our inaugural year. I am grateful for how God has raised up co-laborers from St. Theresa's to help realize my vision of having a regular evangelistic presence at public events in our community.
Stranger Things Redux
November 3, 2024
Ekpen joined me last night for an outreach at Douglasville's Stranger Things Block Party. A number of scenes in the hit Netflix show were filmed here, most famously the Hawkins Police Station. The event attracts fans from around the country. This year it was bigger than ever as they used the new amphitheater space.
This outreach was especially meaningful to me since one year ago I was planning to launch our local SPSE team by doing our first outreach at this event. But I had to cancel it when I had to go to the emergency room due to excruciating pain in my gut. A bacterial infection perforated my small intestine and I had to spend 12 days in the hospital! A year later, I am grateful for the healing and for the opportunity to proclaim the Gospel with this ministry.
We setup along the sidewalk both our rosary table and the Perspectives banners, borrrowed from Cru (please help me remember to take pictures whenever you come - I'm prone to forget). While people were not as interested in engaging with the banners as I had hoped, I had a couple of fruitful conversations while Ekpen gave out rosaries. I was very pleased to see her engaging passerby's entirely on her own, using the Rosary to share the gospel. At one point she was surrounded by a group of five adolescent children, whose parents waited patiently as she explained the Rosary to them. It was a beautiful site!
What I hope will be the most fruitful encounter for me was meeting a devoted Baptist named Vinny from Kansas City. My youngest brother, Jake, who is not a Christian, just moved to Kansas City to work for the IRS. Vinny is around Jake's age and is also unmarried. I have been praying for Jake to meet Christians his age who can draw him into a church community. Vinny enthusiastically agreed to reach out to him. I pray that Jake will respond and they will form a friendship that may result in Jake becoming a Christian.
Our next outreach is the Christmas parade on December 7th. I'd like to have enough volunteers to set-up a couple of tables along Church St. (one near the courtyard; one near the amphitheater). Please let me know ASAP if you can come!
Closing out the Summer Outreach Season
August 11, 2024
Christine and I set up a table at the last Food Truck Mondays event of the summer. While the Food Trucks draw much fewer people than the Concerts, the conversations have always been richer because people are more willing to linger, since they aren't focused on finding a seat at the concert. This week was no exception.
God routinely sends us one or more people who convey to me: "This is why you were here tonight. This is who I sent you here for." The first was a young 20 something man of Hispanic origins named Arizona. He was baptized Catholic, but his family left the Church when he was young, so he had never been confirmed. He hadn't gone to any kind of church consistently since. We shared the Gospel with him through the rosary. Telling him that the Church still regarded him as a Catholic by virtue of His baptism and that this sacrament left an indelible mark on his soul resonated with him. I added, though, a serious warning: that by walking away from the Church and not seeking to return to receive sacramental graces to have his sins forgiven, he was putting his soul at risk of damnation. In saying something that may be perceived as "harsh" in our culture, I had to trust the Spirit for the grace to enable me to "speak the truth in love." He left saying that he was very happy that we had this encounter and that the conversation was meaningful to him. In our strategy of "listening and befriending," this is the response we hope for, even though we may speak hard truths.
Another visit that encouraged me was from a person I recognized at a former student of mine in the IB program at Douglas Co. High School, named Sydney (graduated 8 years ago). After catching me up on her life, she shared that while baptized as a child, she was atheist/agnostic in high school. Since graduating though, she had refound God, was rebaptized, and joined a local evangelical church. I was delighted to hear about her restoration to the faith! It sounded, though, that the kind of discontent that often leads evangelicals to consider Catholicism had been brewing in her soul. She asked me "What's the deal with the hierarchy and the pope? Why do we need all of that?"
I started with the tenet the New Testament makes clear that the Church is God's main provision for the transmission of the content of the Faith throughout the generations and that Peter is the leader of the leaders of the Church. She agreed with this. Then I explained how as a practical matter, there has to be a continuous authority structure to preserve this knowledge in an institution, and that for an institution to be truly global, it needed a visible head. I was able to use concepts I taught her in the IB Theory of Knolwedge course to make this understandable. And it resonance with an experience she just had with joining some kind of house church movement and then leaving it when it became chaotic due to a weak leadership structure. She thanked me that "no one had ever explained that to her so clearly before" and asked about Mass times!
In highlighting these conversations, it is not that the other encounters with people who receive a rosary are not significant. We are confident that the seeds planted in even a brief exchange with someone who receives this gift, but who doesn't want to talk more, may bear fruit later. And there are always many of those!
And there is value by being a consistent presence in the community in promoting a positive image of our local parish church. We got a glimpse of this when one older woman declined a rosary politely because she had already gotten one on the way to a concert a few weeks before!
Please pray for these seeds to grow and specifically for Arizona and Sydney.
There are no pictures in this post, because I often forget to take them because I am too preoccupied. So when you out with me, please try to remember to take some pictures yourself that we can use to promote our ministry.
Proclaiming True Freedom on Independence Day
July 7, 2024
Our city hosts an annual 4th of July parade, followed by a festival. July 4th is a fitting occasion to proclaim the true freedom Christ brings from sin and the fear of death! This was the first year the festival was held in the new Town Green. Our team set up a table across the street from the Town Green, at the end of the parade route, to greet people as they made their way to the festival. Two parishioners joined for the first time - Kevin and John, a newly confirmed Protestant convert - along with our parish priest, Fr. Leandro.
Prior to attending the street evangelization event, I was a little apprehensive. But Jeremy provided a short training video with a method to speak with people. It was lovely. I mentioned to Jeremy during the event, that mingling with other people is such a needed thing for all of us to do. In a short time, I saw people I know that I wouldn’t have seen or been able to speak to if I had not attended. For me, the most beautiful thing was to ask families who were walking by if anyone would like a rosary to help them pray. Some walked by politely declining. But others stopped and said yes. When I gave a child a rosary and told them they could wrap it in their hand or hold it in their pocket to remind to pray. And said, they could pray to ask God to keep them safe, to help them be good and to stay away from bad thing and bad people, and God would do it, I heard more than one parent exclaim from the back of their throats, yes! Serving our parish in this way was a blessing for me. - John Ash
Though we did not initiate conversations until after the parade, we had the table setup and a couple of people came up on their own initiative. One younger man came with his son and teenage brother to tell us that he had recently been baptized in a local non-denominational church. I was sincerely glad to hear this and explained to him why the Catholic understanding of the graces conferred by baptism makes me all the more glad to hear of people's baptisms.
Soon after the parade, a different evangelism group set up a speaker across the street from us and started preaching and handing out tracts. While I was engaged in an in-depth conversation with a young man named Ernie, who was asking me all kinds of challenging theological questions (I discovered later that he was part of the group, and was pretending to be interested), someone from this group approached our table and got into a hostile conversation with my team members, including our parish priest. I heard him scoff, "You are teaching the traditions of men," as he walked away.
I walked across the street to introduce myself and find out where they were from. They were from a local Baptist church that I was familiar with. My intention was to build a bridge with them and encourage them in what they were doing, so I praised the church's sports ministry and pastor. They were friendly, but when I explained my background as a Protestant evangelist and how my Gospel presentation as a Catholic is essentially the same, they started hounding me with objections and questions (I was not looking for a debate with them!). Knowing that this was going nowhere, I asked the young scoffer, "Are you open to the possibility that you misunderstand what Catholics believe and do?" He said, "No, because I have the Holy Spirit and I can clearly see that your practices are offensive to Jesus." I rebuked him for the arrogance of this position, and walked back to our table.
Later, as the crowd had thinned, one of them walked over to engage us. He was friendly enough. I gave him our Gospel tract and asked him to look over it and tell me if he found anything in it that made it a "different Gospel" as they claimed the Catholic Church teaches. He could not, of course, but then went on to accuse us of being idolaters and urged us to "trust in Christ alone for our salvation." I challenged him that he was imposing his own misinformed perspective on to Catholics to judge what we do and that he should seek to understand from our own perspective. Lacking any sort of self-awareness that he even has a perspective, he said "I'm just telling you WHAT IS."
When I shared that the hostility does not go both ways, but that I would be sincerely glad if an unbeliever believed in Christ because of them and was baptized in their church, he argued that I shouldn't be because the Council of Trent anathematized those who teach "justification by faith alone." I said he misunderstood what that meant. In other words, he wanted to insist that I should believe he was condemned and that I was going against the teachings of my Church!
From their perspective, our Gospel is 'different' because we don't believe in JFA. I challenged him to show me in the Bible a verse that defines Gospel as JFA. He read verses about grace, faith, and salvation, but I pointed out that none of these used these words (the only time "faith alone" is used says we are NOT justified by faith alone!), and he was reading JFA into it: "I'm not trying to convince you to believe what we do about justification, but you can't make your view of it the essence of the Gospel."
As we packed up and left, he asked me if it was worth the risk of being wrong (meaning that we actually were idolaters and God would judge me for that). I said "I'll rather trust a 2,000 year old Church's interpretation of the Bible than my own interpretation and that of your less than 300 year old tradition."
This encounter prompted me to reflect on our relationship with anti-Catholic Evangelicals, especially in the context of the work of evangelization.
1) Our evangelistic methods need to be culturally relevant.
Kevin, a cradle Catholic, was baffled by their street preaching and asked me what they thought they were accomplishing with it. They see examples of Jesus and the Apostles preaching in public spaces to crowds, and imagine themselves being faithful to this model. Herein lies a problem with Sola Scriptura Christianity - it is constricting where it doesn't need to be. Methods need to take into consideration the context, and we do not live in a culture where a street preacher is going to be respected and attract an attentive crowd. No one was stopping to listen to them. A friendlier, more conversational approach like ours is more appropriate to our cultural moment. Thus, St. Paul writes that he seeks "to become all things to all men that I might save some." (1 Cor. 9:22)
2) When we encounter Protestant evangelists, we should recognize ourselves in them and rejoice that the Gospel is being preached.
St. Paul writes about rival evangelists who were causing trouble for him:
Of course, some preach Christ from envy and rivalry, others from good will. The latter act out of love, aware that I am here for the defense of the gospel; the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not from pure motives, thinking that they will cause me trouble in my imprisonment. What difference does it make, as long as in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is being proclaimed? And in that I rejoice. - Philippians 1:15-18
Since we found their methods off-putting - and ineffective - we worried that others would associate us with them. They even tried to interfere with us to an extent, at one point criticizing "using beads to pray" on their loudspeaker. But it is not our place to judge their motives. What they were proclaiming was generally true, and the same Holy Spirit can and does use these words to bring saving grace to souls.
3) Some Protestants cannot accept that Catholics preach essentially the same Gospel.
This group jettisoned my attempt to build common ground and acknowledge a common mission. This is a result of a deep, settled bias against Catholicism that is tied to their own sense of religious legitimacy. For only the charge that the Catholic Church preaches a "false Gospel" can justify the Protestant split from the Church and their ongoing revolt against the Church's authority. For them to accept that we are preaching the true Gospel raises all sorts of uncomfortable questions about why it is then acceptable for the Church of Christ to be fractured.
4) When evangelizing, our debating with Protestant brothers, we need to be careful not to impose our perspective of them on to them, for we would not have them do the same to us.
Perhaps the most disturbing part of this encounter was their insistence in judging Catholics according to their own misunderstanding of what we believe. They imposed on us their own understanding of words Gospel, idolatry, anathema, etc. - and would not accept that we meant something different by these words. We feel disrespected, and know it is uncharitable, when others want to define what we believe on their own terms, rather than seeking to understand us from our own perspective first.
But we are all prone to the same tendency, whether talking with a Protestant Christian or an unbeliever. This is why good listening is an important practice in evangelism. We need to make people feel that we understand them on their own terms, even when we disagree and wish to change their beliefs.
5) It's usually best to avoid getting entangled with Protestant evangelists we are doing an outreach, especially if they are hostile.
Our main mission is not to reach staunchly anti-Catholic Protestants. This doesn't mean we should never talk with them, but we are there mainly to bring the unchurched to Christ and into His one holy, catholic, and apostolic church. Furthermore, I would rather their attention be turned to the non-Christians they are their to reach (even though they think they need to save our souls too!). In the future, if they try to distract us with theological debates, I will say that this is not why I am here and invite them to call me if they really want to have a conversation.
First Outreach at West Georgia Technical College
July 3, 2024
We did our first outreach at West Georgia Techincal College last week, hoping to reach students and families who were coming for a social event for new students. WGTC, one of seven campuses in a regional network, is the only instiution of higher education in Douglasville, and is located less than a mile from our church. Students earn technical certificates or associate degrees in fields such as dental hygiene, cosmotology, welding, and auto mechanics.
I have a special heart for college students from my five years of working full-time for Campus Crusade for Christ (now called Cru) as campus minister/missionary. Reaching students at WGTC is challenging because they do not spend much time on campus: the arrive minutes before class and then leave when class is over. Fortunately, the campus police officer, a Catholic herself, helps out by informing us about the class schedule and times when the most students are on campus.
We tried a different approach to engagement on this outreach, using these "Perspectives" banners to spark spiritual conversations. While the offer of a Rosary is an effective 'hook,' it seems to not attract people who are not already open to religion or who are but are anti-Catholic have an aversion to the rosary (we also had rosaries at the table to offer, but these were used at the end of the encounter). So I borrowed these banners from a close friend who still works for Cru. They invite passers-by to share their perspective by identifying the pictures and descriptions that best represent their beliefs about 5 BIG questions: the nature of God, the nature of man, the identity of Jesus, the meaning/purpose of life, and the sources of spiritual truth.
Not only is this an effective way to quickly reveal a person's religious orientation; it also lends itself to a smooth transition to sharing the Gospel, since all you have to do is ask if you can share your answers when they are done. Most people who walked by stopped to participate. I felt a special burden for the first student we met, Jamaya. Her answers revealed a generic, uninformed spirituality typical of our times. While she was spiritual open and interested, she had never been baptized and did not attend church growing up. Thus, she knew little about Jesus. What a joy it was to share the Gospel with her!
We also met a couple of Catholic students who attend neighboring parishes. This got me praying for God to lead us to students there who we could equip to help reach their classmates.
This summer we will go a couple of more times, but at night as more students are there for night school than during the day. Reaching the night school students may be the best strategy for the Fall since I am more limited in the daytime.
Summer Concert Outreach Discovery
June 9, 2024
A team went out last Wednesday to reach out to people going to the first weekly summer concert at the Douglasville amphitheater. Christine and Pat joined me before the concert; Gertrude, who is new to St. Theresa's, joined me afterwards. We set up a table on the Church St. sidewalk across the street from the Douglas County Museum. Unlike Monday night at the food truck, most people did not accept the offer of a Rosary as they passed by, because their focus was on getting to the amphitheater to find a good seat.
It was a wonderful, Holy Spirit led experience, as we handed out rosaries and went among those who really needed to hear God's Word. It was a beautiful and deeply moving afternoon! - Christine
I noticed across the street a group of people exit an office and another group standing around waiting to get in. I wandered over there to inquire about this place. Turns out it is a social services office that includes a DUI court. People were also there for family counseling and addiction programs. Seeing an opportunity, Pat and I grabbed a handful of rosaries to distribute. Here was a group that felt deeply their need for divine assistance! And they had time to talk. One young woman had just finished a family counseling appointment with her mom. She had the name Jeremiah tatooed on her arm - the name of her son. I asked her what she knew about the prophet Jeremiah and shared with her the promises of the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31. She said she didn't know what it meant to be "born again" but before I had a chance to answer, she was called back in to the office.
Next I met a guy named Ashton who exited the building on a electronic bicycle, which was his new mode of transportation since his license was suspended. He shared that he was finishing an alcohol addiction program. Though he had been baptized, he was not active in any church. I shared the Gospel with him, describing Sin as analogous to addiction, and why I had become Catholic. I offered him a ride to Mass and left my contact info.
People in desperate situations, whose lives have been wrecked by sin, gather here daily. What an opportunity for evangelism! I plan to call the court this week to discern the best way to reach out (and to make sure our efforts are not disruptive but helpful to what they are doing).
Gertrude and I returned at 830 to reach concert goers on their way from the concert. This proved more effective, though some people seemed eager to get home and didn't stop. We had a few quality conversations. There was a group of 3 young women who walked by with a wagon full of refreshments. They were their to sell healthy snacks and drinks. Neither was active in Church, though they all had a Christian background. They listened receptively as I explained why Mary is so important and why we pray to her.
This was Gertrude's first time doing an outreach, so she mostly just listened, but when people come out for the first time I want to involve them in a conversation. When theses ladies left, she shared with me her ideas about using the wedding of Cana to explain Mary's role. Then a young couple - a Hispanic woman named Anna and an African-American man named Jay - walked by. We had run out of rosaries and so started offering Miraculous Medals. Anna was very interested in the Medals and she also wanted our last Rosary. As I explained the Rosary to her, I invited Gertrude to share more. She passionately and eloquently shared her thoughts about the wedding of Cana. I told Gertrud afterwards that perhaps she has a spiritual gift she didn't know about!
Neither Jay or Anna went to church, but said they were involved in some kind of home Bible study. Anna was so eager to learn that she took a copy of each of our brochures! Reaching 'Gen-Z' young people like this who are unchurched but spiritually open is the main reason why we do this. Moving forward, we are going to setup at 8p for the Wednesday concerts to reach folks as they leave, and establish a separate time to setup at the DUI court.
First Douglasville Team Outreach!
June 4, 2024
We did our first outreach Monday night at the Food Truck event in downtown Douglasville. Henry Leiva and Lucy Erozo joined me. Food trucks were lined up on Church Street. We found a prime spot on the sidewalk where we could catch people walking by to the trucks (and where it was quiet enough to have a good conversation).
The evening could not have gone better. After praying together and watching me a couple of times, Henry and Lucy jumped right in and had a great first experience:
I was amazed by how many people were receptive receiving the rosary, and the need to evangelize people that are away from God and not really attending or a member of a church. I was surprised how kids were engaged to ask questions about the rosary [when we offered one to their parents] and it can be a great start for a family to attended a Catholic church. I also met some Catholics that are not attending Mass and gave them an invitation to St. Theresa's. We pray we will see them at Mass. I am very exited, blessed and looking forward to the next event for St Paul Evangelism! - HENRY
This was a unique experience. I felt very emotional, honored by the lord our God because allow me to be one of his disciples and bring a litter of his love to those who need it. I also realized the need to carry the good news of Jesus love to others. - LUCY
He explained how this was not the same as a Christian cross, but was a symbol of ancient paganism like found in Egypt, and shared how he was into 'spirituality,' which sounded like a confused, eclectic mix of a lot of different beliefs, including reincarnation. When I asked him whether or not he believed Jesus actually rose from the dead, he started asking more questions about what we believed, and a deep, powerful conversation ensued. When I explained how Jesus died to satisfy the debt due to sin, he asked very sincerely: how did we get this debt? where did it come from? By the end he was seriously considering the claims of Christ. I left him with the exhortation that resurrection is a far superior hope than reincarnation. And then Lucy had the inspiration to suggest that he watch The Chosen and showed him how. We invited him to Mass and he took a Rosary after all! We all sensed strongly how the Spirit was at work in Denzel's life.Promoting the New Evangelism Ministry at St. Theresa's
May 26, 2024
Fr. Leandro permitted me to promote the Douglasville SPSE team at Mass this weekend. This was my first time speaking at Mass. While I felt confident in the Lord, I felt unsure about what kind of response to expect, since I have sensed a reflexive hesitancy among Catholics to do this kind of evangelism. In the end, I was very encouraged by the response! Enough people expressed sincere interest to move forward with outreaches next week and I see the nucleus of a team coming together.
We will start by going to Food Truck Mondays the evening of June 3rd and to the first Wednesday concert at the amphitheater on June 5th, with plans to return each Wednesday evening in June and July (see the calendar for more details). I would also like to plan a few visits to West Ga Technical College (down the road from the church) and do a July 4th outreach at the annual parade/festival.
Once I see who shows up and their level of experience, we will organize some kind of training to get better equipped along with some team building.
The picture here is from our missions trip to China in 2002 . My wife and I had just been married a year; we led a team of college students to ostensibly study Chinese at a university. There we met as many students as we could and invited them to a one-on-one investigative Bible study. To keep this secret, we would always meet them off campus, and we all had a copy of a Chinese Bible on our PalmPilots (remember those!). This was by far the best, most fruitful mission trip I ever did as the receptivity to the gospel was tremendous.