Session 8; The Third Threshold: Openness
Question: In your own faith:
To believe in a personal God is to believe that God truly will meet us in prayer. It can be difficult to evangelize when we ourselves are going through a “dry spell”, or struggling with some spiritual question. Do you have difficulty trusting that God will show himself to those who do not yet possess the faith?
Not at all. I think God shows himself constantly to all of us but we miss it. This is true for those who do not yet possess faith as well as those who do. During a dry spell evangelzing to others can be a way to get through our own dryness. I know that has happened to me. Here I am talking about the Trinity for example, and the unfailing love of the Father and the Son and how community is present right from the beginning with God and realize, "you need to have some community time!" It happens frequently that the words I choose to help others are the very words I need for myself.
Question: In your parish: Over the next six months, what changes can you personally make, to help your parish disciple those who are at the threshold of openness?
I'll answer this for the parish where I work. We are in the process of finalizing plans for 2013-14. We have come up with some new ideas and expansions on some old ideas. The next part of the process is to get the news out to the parish and community as to what we are offering. Getting the word out and then getting people to engage is so difficult, but necessary if we want to be a vibrant faith community. If there are people open to more, we will be ready!
Want more conversation on this topic: Catholic Mom , Lawn Chair Catechism!
2 comments:
I am wondering what strategies you will use to get the word out. It doesn't seem like too many people read the bulletin or listen to any announcements at the end of Mass. My parish has ZERO social-media presence. So what's left?
Well, I think parishes should have a social media presence. Other things, still in planning though, newsletter delivered via mail and electronically, postcards (which come form non-denominational churches all the time to my house, so why not Catholic too?) Commercials after Mass given by youth, a picture loop played in the foyer before Mass and during donuts to show people what we've done/new plans.
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