Evangelism

Fr. Harold and I have have been constantly preaching about the "problem" of Evangelism for weeks now. Little wonder, it's all that gets talked about at the Deanery and Diocesan levels, it seems. That means, in turn, that we have a lot to say on the subject. It's also true that we are, to some degree, responding to each other and spurring each other on to deeper analysis and thoughtful reflection.

On Saturday, at a lovely and elaborate Solemn Mass in honour of Our Lady (complete with a procession around the block with a Statue of our Lady held high) Fr Harold said two things in his sermon that particularly caught my attention. He said that the Church needs the people outside our community or in order to be complete. He also said that the Church has failed to proclaim the Gospel to the people in our society who are not part of the Church community. I've heard him say that before, but it particularly struck me yesterday.

So today when I preached I talked about how we need to do the work of Evangelism by learning to speak the language of the culture we inhabit. It is insufficient to expect people to learn to speak our faith langauge before they can hear the Good News. I invoked the missionaries of old, whose first task was always to learn the langagues and traditions of their people and THEN to express the Gospel in that context. That second part means that the Church is not only participating in culture as a consumer or repository, but as a producer as well.

I'm big into this notion that Church needs to produce culture. That means generating media. One of these days I'll write a white paper on my concept of the "Media Rich Church," but in the mean time I'll settle for getting some stuff onto You Tube.

Anyway, I was pleased with my sermon and received a lot of positive feedback about it. Now I'm looking forward to a nice rest and peace at the last!

-t