John and Therese Boucher are now offering evangelization
resources based on their combined experience as presenters
and designers of workshops, and as authors of books and articles.
resources -- www.christkey.com
Future publication: Evangelization Workout --collected exercises for groups interested in evangelizing
John Boucher: John is the Director of the Office of Parish Life, Evangelization Ministry in the Diocese of Trenton. He offers a yearly course entitled, Share Your Faith Without Losing Your Head! Intensive Training for Parish Evangelization. This training includes nine day-long (6 hour) sessions offered over eleven months. John began to develop this course in 1996 and has offered it to over 450 participants since then. Most recently, Mr. Boucher offered a WEBEX presentation on underlying principles for parish evangelization at the Paulist National Catholic Evangelization (PNCEA) website, www.pncea.org. He is also the author of more than a dozen group exercises that can be used to move forward in evangelization. These are available in back issues of the PNCEA monthly newsletter, Evangelization Exchange.
Therese Boucher: has taught components of the intensive training material and many free-standing workshops on family evangelization. She also specializes in helping catechists redefine their ministry and reach out to religious education families who are not regular churchgoers. She is the author of several book, including Evangelizing Unchurched Children: A Pocketbook for Catechists (Resource Publications, Inc, 2000) which has just been reprinted and A Prayer Journal for Baptism in the Spirit which offers a 50 day mini-retreat for Pentecost or Confirmation. And finally, Therese also works as a member of the Association of Personal Historians, helping families share their stories with future generations.
The Marathon of Faith and Evangelization
On November 4, 2007 there were 38,000 runners in the New York City marathon. Two important winners were the first place winner, Britain's Paula Radcliffe, a new mom as of last January; and the last place winner, Zoe Koplowitz, who crossed the finish line of her 20th New York City Marathon 29 hours after she had started. Zoe wore braces on her back and knee, and purple crutches to help her run despite multiple sclerosis and diabetes.
These winners remind us of St. Paul's letter to the Philipians 3:13-14. "I forget what is behind me, and do my best to reach what is ahead. So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize… God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above." In particular, they inspire us to keep going in another long distance race, the journey towards God.
Who's at the Sunday starting line?
Every Sunday thousands, millions and hundreds of millions start the next leg of the race by lining up at Sunday Masses. But there are less runners than there used to be. For example: out of 1,400,000 Catholics, (about half of the population) in the Rockville Centre Diocese, only about 250,000 show up at the starting line on a regular basis. That's about 17-21%.
• In other words, out of every 100 Catholics in RVC Diocese, 80 are missing and we are not reaching them
• In other words, about half the people in your neighborhood, at work, or enjoying recreation with you in a week are Catholic and only about 1 in five of them is an active churchgoer
• We take this very personally because these statistics are true in our family, and in the families of the hundreds of people we teach
What does this mean?
A recent survey in another galaxy far-far away was given to 25,000 practicing “Sunday in the pew” Catholics to measure 47 possible priorities for the future of the church. The GOOD NEWS—There was a First Place tie between –meaningful worship, good physical plant, community, social justice. The BAD NEWS—Last Place out of 47 items was outreach to non-practicing Catholics
•Perhaps we are just not aware of this catastrophic loss?
•Perhaps we have tried to reach them, failed, and given up?
•Perhaps we are afraid to try for fear of failure?
•I don’t want to believe—I CAN’T BELIEVE- that we just don’t care what happens to our inactive Catholic family members, friends, and acquaintances? I don’t know about you, but I’m not giving up on them!
Let's invite more runners!
Let's run toward God! Let's run the marathon of Catholic evangelization! Let's tell people about the starting line! Let's find more people who need the strength of God's Spirit! Let's run the marathon of faith that the Holy Spirit has begun in our hearts?
We believe that there is more to the spiritual life than telling each other, "Keep the Faith." We are called to give it away to others. Do not say, ‘I am too old. God will give you life beyond your years.’ Do not say, ‘I am too young. God will give you wisdom beyond your years.’ Do not say, ‘I do not know how—LEARN HOW!!!’”
