www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization What are essential elements in Evangelization?

Let's make a list and eventually we can prioritize it. For now in no particular order.

1. A vibrant faith in our members.
2. A devout and serious priest.
3. Most people singing the liturgy.
4. Take care to have a temple that is authentically Orthodox.
5. A greeters that know what they are doing.
6. Reserve pews for those who cannot physically stand.
7. Have events to which you invite neighbors.
8. Practice tithing.
9. Life long Catechesis.

There are many many more but this should get us started.

10. Live the Liturgy outside of the Liturgy.

use the internet, email, texting, facebook, twitter?

use the internet, email, texting, facebook, twitter?


Go up to people at coffee / food after liturgy and say "Hi I'm John what is your name? Start a pleasant conversation - ask them to return.

Be sure to say your name is John - it works really well for me.

by the way our Webpage listing for saint gabriels draws a lot of people mostly latin rite to our church almost every week.

it is not all that great a website (yet) but they find us and attend.

All the Casinos on the south strip probably ... also very close to the airport.

they are visitors but our priest makes them feel very special at the end of liturgy.

11. Proclaim the Good News of Christ but use words only when necessary.

Bear in mind that much of what the Apostolic Churches propose as "good news" is perceived by many people - both inside and outside of our Churches - as very bad, "downer" and negative news indeed. A major drag, man. A total wet blanket.

I don't believe that St. Francis ever said that.

I think evangelization must include, too, a presentation of who Jesus is and what He did on the cross, man's plight due to his sin and how he must believe on Christ. But this is what I love about the Byzantine worship services: the drama of God's provision of His Son for man's need is played out again and again in a sublime and elegant worship service. It is indeed Good News!

Let's admit that evangelization also requires the reception of the people we are trying to help.

Most don't want the help. It's a secular society that has trouble with Jesus Christ - 99.9% of sll people find it foreign to devote their lives to Jesus Christ (including me - but i keep trying)

John

Seems to me people want religion to make them feel better about themselves. Eastern Christianity is not really known for doing that.

Complicated theologies, top-heavy with intrusive, non-obvious rules and regulations are unappealing.

Disagree. These are the after evangelization programs that are very important. The FIRST THING that the Byzantine Catholic Church needs to do is to do what the Apostles did and what the cults do today -- go door to door and meet the people where they live, inviting them to "taste and see that the Lord is good" at the local parish.

People are not going to just come to the parish. We have to go out in the highways and biways and GET THEM. If the Apostles had the attitude that most Catholics have today regarding evangelism, Christianity would have never gotten out of Jerusalem.

Actually, just have a food festival, and they will come. Tack on a church tour, maybe throw in a concert by the choir, and invite people to come back for Liturgy. Your net will catch many fish that way.

Irish,

Part of a vibrant faith among the members is to go door to door. We have teams that go out once or twice a month. Without a vibrant faith people will not go out and if they do anyway they will scare people away.

BTW I have visited BC parishes I would not invite people to attend if I were a member. Then again, I would not become a member of such a parish.

I would actually give a big thumbs up to StuartK's remarks. Cultural heritage festivals expose Americans to the Churches of the East which, for reasons I cannot quite put my finger on, tend to be largely hidden and parenthetical in America.

Each summer in this area, ethnic festivals are held...a Greek Festival, a Mediterrenean Festival, a Serbian Festival, and a Macedonian Festival, all sponsored by and held on the grounds of Orthodox parishes. These cultural heritage festivals are all quite popular and draw people of all faiths and none, reminding the larger community of the presence of the Orthodox Church.

Sheer curiosity guides festival attendees into the church buildings, which are, themselves, an effective tool for evangelization. There is something about an iconastasis that is jarring to the Western mind (in a very good way) and forces it to reconsider the sacred as a reality.

If, during these festivals, the choir is performing liturgical music, the witness is more powerful still. The external elements of Byzantine worship are spellbinding; the Divine Liturgy, it seems to me, is the best tool for evangelization that the Eastern Church has at her disposal. That being the case, it is important that the liturgy be presented well so that it can be a draw to those who are seeking the sacred, but who are striking out in their search amidst modern day liturgical banality elsewhere.

If these searching souls find in an Eastern Rite church that sublime thing that they have been looking for, that will be the first step in their journey. It may also be the encounter that prevents them from giving up in exasperation and turning to the non-Christian East (or worse) for the mystical experiences they weren't able to find in Christianity.

I have noticed, however, that amongst the Eastern Rite Catholic churches in my area, the liturgy is not what it might be, on account of the fact that they have small talent pools from which to draw. To use the Ukrainian Catholic Church as an example, there are five or six parishes in the area. Each parish has a fairly small church, and each church has a congregation that fills only about one third of the seats.

Because in each case the congregations are so small, there isn't enough talent in each parish to support anything approaching an adequate choir. I'll be blunt, it's usually a matter of a few older worshippers in the back of the church (everyone sits in the back of the church, by the way) moaning off-key in thick slavic accents whilst most everyone else is silent. Not exactly the sort of thing that will cause your average visitor to say, "yes...this is what has been missing from my life."

I wonder how different matters would be if these five or six small parishes all consolidated into one community and bought or built one single church, beautifully and impressively decorated and appointed.

For one thing, they would have five or six clergy on staff to share the pastoral tasks and liturgical duties of the community, instead of one, solitary, frazzled married father, struggling to put food on the table, provide for his childrens' educations, and meet his church's expenses out of the meager weekly collection taken up from his 22 parishioners who contribute a few bucks once a week.

The consolidated community would not only benefit from more treasure, of course, but from more talent. The Orthodox churches in the area that I have visited all have at least adequate choirs, and some are rather better than adequate. And they do because they aren't spread out all over the place. There aren't, for example, five small Antiochian Orthodox churches in the area; there is one church with a full congregation, several clergymen on staff, and a nice choir. There aren't five tiny Greek Orthodox congregations around here, there's one big congregation that worships in one big beautiful church that has two priests on staff, deacons, a team of trained acolytes, a trained choir, and a gift shop that's open daily.

The services at these Orthodox churches are impressive and whenever I have attended services at any of them, I have each time been left lamenting the situation of the local Eastern Catholic churches which is so deficient by comparison. And so unnecessarily deficient. Were they to consolidate, their opportunities for growth and evangelization would greatly improve, I believe.

Then, too, these churches would do well to have more events scheduled and a greater outreach...which they could do if they consolidated, had a fuller staff, and weren't completely reliant upon one solitary father and husband struggling to make ends meet. If it were a matter of four or five priests, their wives, and paid parish office staff along with eager volunteers, they could organize activities and events beyond the one 10:00am Sunday liturgy and that Wednesday evening Vespers service that is billed on the lawn sign but which doesn't actually ever happen. There's nothing that's more of a turn off than a church that always seems to be closed.

Roman Catholic churches are usually buzzing with activites: novenas to this saint, processions in honor of that saint, rosary marches for life, parish missions, Benediction, adoration, &c, &c, &c. They have a rectory office that maintains office hours. Not one of the Ukrainian Catholic churches in my area has a staffed office with regular office hours. The Eastern Catholic churches might do well to emphasize their own traditions in a regularly scheduled public way. Again, not easy to do if it's a matter of a congregation of two dozen people and one man having to do everything.

I suppose as an outsider looking in, then, my advice would be to consolidate in areas where it makes more sense to have one big thriving parish than a number of small, barely active communities. Then, once you've done that, don't be so timid and introverted. Have a festival, schedule lots of opportunities for public worship, fine tune your Sunday liturgies, and give people reasons and opportunities to come and see.

What works in modern times is attraction (and TV)

I've had a billion Jehovah's witnesses come to my house - steeling my resolve to kick them in the XXX the next time they ring my doorbell. They have turned me off to any message they have.

I believe most people are like that -

Most change when they want to change - very little conversion takes place - unless the person wants to change (usually when they are in emotional psychological pain)

Look at the Crystal Cathedral - it was jam packed years ago - but the FAITH was lacking - entertaining at first I'm sure but they could not keep up the attendance because you can only be entertained for so long before you leave to find THE TRUE FAITH

Just my humble opinion as a self starting salesperson who has bootstrapped 2 or 3 companies and is not afraid to knock on doors.

In the end you need to show them THE TRUE FAITH - it has to be THE TRUTH - and hopefully you impact people with your life and live THE TRUE FAITH

and of course invite them over for food and song!

my humble (but often correct) opinion