I attended an evangelization workshop over the weekend in which the speaker was Arturo Lujan, a dynamic Catholic lay minister from Miami, Florida, who is coordinator for a Catholic lay community called Kerygma (Greek for "proclamation" according to Fr. Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary). "Kerygma" is the New Testament word for proclaiming the Gospel. Why keep secret what I learned? Here, in my own words, is the brief, simple proclamation in a nutshell to someone who has not made the conscious, knowing adult commitment to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their lives:
1. God loves you personally as an individual. My personal suggestion is to ask the person to read John 3:16 and substitute his or her own name in place of the word "world." (Bring a Bible along when you evangelize!)
2. Sin separates us from the love of God, a love that is always there, available, and seeking us.
3. Jesus Christ already died for our sins on the Cross to give us the free gift of salvation that we don't have to earn. We just have to accept the gift and commit to following Jesus and his commandments on a daily basis.
4. Do you want to accept Jesus Christ now as the Lord of your life and as your Savior?
5. If the person freely agrees, then you can pray this prayer or one similar, along with the person:
"Lord Jesus,
I know that you love me. I repent of all my sins that separate me from your love. I know that you died for me to cleanse me of my sins that keep me trapped in confusion and in self-destructive behavior. I accept you now as the Lord of my life and as my Savior. Help me to know you more and to learn and obey your life-giving commandments."
That's it in a nutshell, in my own words. For those who are familiar with Campus Crusade for Christ and other evangelical Protestant efforts, you can see the great similarity. They also preach the kerygma. The similarity is no surprise: they got the kerygma from the Catholic Church. As Catholics, we must stop looking at evangelization as a Protestant thing: the only reason the Protestants do it is because they got it, long ago, from the Catholic Church. We need to rediscover that we Catholics are the original evangelicals, the original evangelists, the original experts in evangelization, just as we have rediscovered that the Bible and Bible study are Catholic to the core.
One of the key distinctions that I got from the workshop (and an earlier related tape I had heard) was the distinction between evangelization (bringing people to a mature, conscious commitment to and personal relationship with Christ) and catechesis or instruction which, of necessity, follows evangelization. The problem for too many Catholics is that they are, as other have said, well-catechized (well, even that is questionable given the well-known distortions of Catholic teaching by those both on the theological left and on the theological right) but not evangelized. That's why one priest I heard spoke once of churches full of "baptized pagans."
The immediate, resistant, typical Catholic response is: I don't need to be evangelized, I go to Mass, I receive the sacraments. Yes, but only you can answer the very personal question: have you really accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior; have you given over your life to his lordship, not to your own lordship or that of others; do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It's not a matter of detracting from the sacraments which, of course, actually do give and communicate grace. It's a matter of appropriating the new birth of sacramental Baptism and the grace given in the other sacraments. It's a matter of taking the proferred gift consciously and knowingly. If you already have it, fine--then your obligation (it should be a spontaneously embraced and welcome obligation) is to share it with others. If you haven't made that conscious decision for Christ, then the steps are simple, easy, direct, and life-changing. You will get more out of what the sacraments already give you. Just ask the great Catholic saints.
3 comments:
The great error of the Protestant's use of the commitment of a new convert is that they tell them that this little prayer is all they have to do and from here on just maintain a prayer life with Jesus and study His Bible for the rest of their life. This false Catecheses away from the sacraments immediately following the joy of an honest commitment to Christ is a great travisty of the Protestant ignorance perpetuated.
This is why I would insist on an addition that a new convert be instructed that Baptism is the form that Jesus taught to be reborn to the spiritual life with water and the Holy Spirit, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and that Baptism is the means by which you become alive in Christ, join the Catholic Church, and become involved with a community of believers that will help you grow into the faith.
Response:
I agree. In the workshop, the Catholic evangelist is supposed to hand the new convert a Catholic church bulletin so that he or she can get to the local Catholic church as soon as possible. Catechesis then begins. If the person has never been baptized: the Sacrament of Baptism! If the person is a baptized Protestant: entering into full communion with the Catholic Church! If the person is a baptized and confirmed Catholic: catechesis and/or Bible study to become a better Catholic! You are right: this little, but powerful prayer, is only a beginning--but what a beginning from something so little, something like a mustard seed!
To add to your comments Oswald I thought I would share some research I've done on the kerygma and Catholic teaching (all quotes are from papal encyclicals and the National or General Directories for Catechesis) - the reason I write this is because I work for ChristLife a Catholic ministry for evangelization and we are currently developing a program of primary proclamation focused on the kerygma...
To begin with, the Church teaches that the first step in all evangelization is primary proclamation. The National Directory for Catechesis explains, “This form of the ministry of the word is directed toward non-believers…. In our age it may also be addressed to those who may have been baptized but have little or no awareness of their Baptism and who consequently live on the margins of Christian life.” The function of primary proclamation is to proclaim the Gospel and to call to conversion, which Pope John Paul II defines as “accepting by personal decision the saving sovereignty of Jesus Christ and becoming his disciple” (Mission of the Redeemer #46).
The second step in the evangelization process is initiatory catechesis. “Catechesis, distinct from the primary proclamation of the Gospel, promotes and matures initial conversion.”
A frequent tension exists between proclamation and catechesis, as “many who present themselves for catechesis truly require genuine conversion.” The Directory continues, “because of this the Church usually desires that the first stage in the catechetical process be dedicated to ensuring conversion.” However, all across the United States the reality is that our parishes, while even running the best catechetical programs in the world, miss the foundational proclamation of the Gospel and the call to conversion. Furthermore, even though many forms of catechesis do assume, at least partially, a missionary objective and call participants to conversion, this “does not dispense a particular Church from promoting an institutionalized program of primary proclamation to execute more directly Jesus’s missionary command.”
These programs will appropriately meet the needs of a large demographic of Catholics (baptized pagans) and serve the cause of the new evangelization through “kerygmatic catechesis.” The kerygma is the proclamation of the central and core Gospel message of salvation; namely, the “clear and unequivocal proclamation of the person of Jesus Christ.” This saving message is a radical call to conversion and the “acceptance of a personal relationship with Christ.”
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