The evangelisation opportunity of Zara

Those of us that travelled to Madrid for WYD had a great time.  Whilst we were there for the World Youth Day experience, no one can deny the amazing shopping available in Madrid.  Perhaps you came home with one or two items, perhaps you came home with one of two extra kilos. Now before you go hiding those clothes away because you were meant to be there for WYD, did you ever think about the evangelisation opportunity that these new clothes or shoes will provide you?

Recently I was wearing a jacket that I had bought at Zara in Madrid when someone commented about how nice the jacket was.  When I told them that I picked it up in Madrid they then asked me about what I was doing in Madrid.  At this point I was able to begin a conversation with someone about WYD and my experience of God that I would never have been able to raise if it wasn't for the jacket.  

So when you wear the clothes or shoes that you picked up in Madrid wear them with pride because they may provide you with an opportunity to evangelise.  The trick is not to become an evangelist of Zara but to use the clothes to talk about WYD.

The greatest tension in Youth Ministry?

Is faith caught or is faith taught?  Pick up any book on Youth Ministry and you will find that it has a particular bias to this question.  Many of the popular models of Youth Ministry have some good ideas but maybe they don’t solve the issues you face in your ministry.  So as a youth ministry leader which model or theory should you choose?  This is perhaps the greatest tension in Youth Ministry today.

Dig a little deeper and you will find there two camps of Youth Ministry:

Camp One - Catechesis focused

Key Goal – Giving young people the foundations of the faith for their future

One Extreme form – the Baltimore Catechism

If you look at the development of Catholic Youth Ministry it came out of the Religious Education movement and the Social Movements.  The basis of this style of youth ministry is that youth ministry prepares young people to be adult members of the Church.  With this goal in mind youth ministry leaders are encouraged to provide opportunities for young people to learn their faith, perhaps the motto is “Faith is taught not caught”.

One extreme version of this mindset is the old style Catechism.  The Baltimore catechism was meant to be learnt by heart, even if the young person didn’t understand the answer.  The thinking was that young people would learn the faith as a child and learn to understand it as they grew up.

Camp One - Evangelisation focused

Key Goal – getting young people to begin a relationship with Christ

One Extreme form – The Altar Call

If you look at the development of Evangelical Youth Ministry there is a lot of emphasis on young people making a personal decision to follow Christ.  The basis of this style of youth ministry is that youth ministry leaders have to take the Gospel to young people or else they are not “saved”.  With this goal in mind Youth Ministry leaders are encouraged to provide opportunities for young people to have a personal experience of God, perhaps the motto is “Faith is caught, not taught”.

One extreme version of this mindset is the pressure of the Altar Call.  Young people are told that responding to one altar call and repeating a prayer said by the Leaders will guarantee their salvation.

Faith is caught AND taught

Perhaps this tension is good because it encourages all of us in Youth Ministry to see that the focus should be Evangelisation and Catechesis.  The goal for youth ministry could be:

“Helping young people to begin a relationship with God that will grow and develop through life long Catechesis.”

Both camps have got some elements right and have grown Youth Ministry yet both sides are also missing some important elements of Youth Ministry

Please comment on how you see the greatest tension in Youth Ministry.  Join us next week for further thought on this tension.

Content matters – Part II

In a previous post I wrote how “content matters” in your ministry.  This week I would like to expand our thinking to how evangelism matters.  Evangelisation is something that all Christians are called to do, yet how often do we associate evangelism with the “Evangelical Churches”?

Evangelisation is a role for every Christian, not a select group.  Sometimes we have an image in our head that evangelisation is for a select group in our ministry, a bit like a Special Forces Unit.  Just like the Special Forces we allocate evangelisation to this group within our ministry and hope they do a good job, but we don’t want to get involved in the dirty work ourselves.

So how can you help everyone in your ministry to see that “evangelisation matters”?  Here are three tips for developing evangelisation in your ministry

1. Evangelisation is about Jesus – “There is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not proclaimed.” (yes it’s Catholic, its from Evangelii Nuntiandi 22)

Evangelisation is not a form of recruiting or marketing.  When we want to grow the size of our ministry we have to ask people to join us, this is recruiting.  Evangelisation is about sharing Jesus with others so that they can enter into a deeper relationship with God.  We need to equip the people in our ministry to recruit new members but also teach them that evangelisation matters even if people never join the ministry.

2. Evangelisation is a witness – “The fruits of evangelization are changed lives and a changed world—holiness and justice, spirituality and peace. The validity of our having accepted the Gospel does not only come from what we feel or what we know; it comes also from the way we serve others.” (Go and Make Disciples, n18) Young people are very good a spotting the difference between what you say and what you do.  When we evangelise we share God’s love with people and others need to see that our love is genuine.  Many people these days are looking for a belief system that works, something that real people are actually living.  We are to share the Good News of Jesus by the way we live our lives more than by the words we speak.

3. Evangelisation is not optional – “An evangelization that stays inside ourselves is not an evangelisation into the Good News of Jesus Christ.” (Go and Make Disciples, n18) Evangelisation is core to who we are as Christians, if we don’t evangelise we are not being disciples.  Evangelisation is not a phase or a program; you can never predict when someone will ask you about God or why you go to church.  When people ask you about your involvement the church, rather than trying to recruit them, how about sharing a thought about Jesus with them.

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,” 1 Peter 3:15

As a practical step after reading this blog, could you prepare your testimony to help you when you evangelise?  It is helpful to know why you believe in God and why you are involved in church so that when people ask you can tell them.  Reflect on these simple questions:

1. How did you come to know God in a deeper way?
2. What was you life like before you got involved in ministry?
3. How is your life better because you know God?
4. Share something that will encourage the person you are talking to.

Next week we will look at why Catechesis matters.