“To be evangelical is not necessarily to be Protestant. And, to be Catholic is not necessarily to be *not* evangelical.” Scott Hahn
How do we make the New Evangelization new?
That’s a question on my mind a lot.
We can’t do business the same old way and expect anything to be different. What’s going to change?
I think we need to shift how we think about and live the Faith. And, I think Evangelicals can help.
Evangelical and Catholic?
In this video, Scott Hahn talks about the New Evangelization, and how a Catholic/Evangelical dialogue could help.
He says, “I think the new evangelization is going to take place in conversation with Evangelicals.”
There’s definitely some things we can learn from Evangelicals in regards to the New Evangelization. After all, they’re the ones that evangelize!
Evangelicalism, as a movement, has a certain set of characteristics that define it. These could be just the missionary spark to ignite a new evangelization.
What is evangelicalism?
Traditionally, evangelical movements have these things in common:
- Strong emphasis on the need for personal conversion
- High regard and devotion to Sacred Scripture
- Recognition of the central importance of Christ
- Emphasis on the saving death and resurrection of Christ
- Dedication to actively expressing and sharing the evangel or gospel
None of these things is in opposition to Church teaching. In fact, they seem to me like the apostolic faith and practice. Is it perhaps time we return to the evangelizing fervor of the early Church?
Is an evangelical renewal already happening?
I would say this is already happening to some extent. Converts like Scott Hahn, Jeff Cavins, Tim Staples, and Steve Ray have already brought their evangelical influence into the Church.
Their emphasis on evangelical ideals are influencing and converting Catholics all over the world. I’m one of them!
Their emphasis on biblical theology, devotion to Scripture, conversion, Christ-centeredness, and the life-giving power of the Cross have created a pocket of evangelical renewal in the Church over the last 10 to 15 years.
Catechetical takeaway
“John Paul II helped us to see that the evangel, the gospel, is why we’re all to be part of the new evangelization. And, therefore, we’re all to be evangelical Catholics.” Scott Hahn
Pope John Paul II called for the New Evangelization to be “new in its ardor, new in its methods, and new in its means of expression.”
There’s already been fruit produced through the infusion of evangelical ideas from former Protestant pastors. What more can be done if these principles were more widely accepted?
If the new evangelization is going to truly be new, something has to change.
The way we express our faith, the way we teach our kids, the way we live Catholicism and bring it to others has to change in order to bring about this renewal.
I think an authentically Catholic “evangelicalism” is one key to this renewal.
Great post! As a former evangelical, I can say that you hit the nail right on the head.
Awesome! Thanks Brandon. Good to know I’m on the right track from a former evangelical.
You know, I think you’re doing your part for this evangelical awakening in the Catholic Church as well. I love your work!
Excellent post!
I think the best thing we can do is adhere to our call to holiness in our individual vocations which include our likes and talents. This growth in holiness should (should) propel us to live our lives in which God’s Word interweaves itself into our words, in which we become Christ’s Body that we consume at Mass. When our lives are God (and don’t forget neighbor!!!) focused, then evangelization becomes 2nd nature! Whatever we do, say, or write, becomes focused and geared toward building the kingdom. Lawyers, doctors, web designers, artists, moms, dads, sisters, brothers, CEO’s…. they’re all called to holiness in what they do! That’s why we have saints that were kings and queens, and saints that were poor and beggers. The call to holiness transcends and should invigorate our lives to the core!
Then when we’re able to talk about what gives us joy, what gives us patience, what gives us the strength to go on in the most bleakest of moments… we can tell people… It’s the love of God that I’ve found in Christ whom I recieve in the Eucharist at every Mass!
I like how you listed the common evangelical characteristics. To me, they all point to our Holy Father, Pope Benedict. I truly think that he will become a doctor of the Church and his title will be Benedict the Evangelizer. What a blessed time we live in under his reign.
God bless, Marc! And I love it when blogs that I know pop up in my inbox under the google alert “new evangelization”.
Peace
I like how you expressed this the other day in a conversation on G+. We were talking about Brandon Vogt smiling on his interview. You said people ask you why you’re so happy all the time and you tell them it’s because you’re Catholic! Or, it was something like that. But that is awesome! That is great evangelization!
You’re so right that God infused into the core of our being expresses our Catholic identity in what we say and do. All the saints express holiness in different ways because they’re all different people. We all should radiate God’s presence in our lives differently, depending on our gifts, talents and abilities. When we can talk about how God animates our lives it’s only a natural witness. Not something forced or contrived. And, that’s powerful.
You know, you’re totally right about Pope Benedict. In fact, I would say he has the perfect synthesis of biblical and doctrinal understanding in his work. The two are seamless in him and that’s how we need to integrate it as Catholics.
Thanks for the comments!
Great great post! That question comes up in my mind a lot. As I get involved with various things at my own parish and online, the issues or complaints are there but our approach as a Church is often same stuff over and over. We talk about problems with declining attendance and “losing people”, yet our “connection” and communications is the same as it’s been for about 30 years. We talk about problems with money, yet we continue to operate our parishes not much different than the last decades while using the same exact revenue approach.
There has always been a fear of change and we have never been really good at recognizing what we’re missing. For example, back in the 70’s the idea of making the music more “hip” would keep the young people there. Sound familiar today? That bulletin has existed for several decades and has not changed much at all.
Where we need to “change” is in our approach to connecting the faith teaching to living it in every aspect and every day of our lives. The parables all use examples of things of those times that people could relate to. Yet we do not do that today. What life thing today is not addressed in the Bible? There really is none.
I totally agree with you here Brad. I get very frustrated because people talk over and over again about the things that are wrong but no one wants to change how they do things. They like to just complain about how people don’t care or don’t know what’s right or good for them. You can’t expect anything to change if you keep doing things the same way. Obviously, if you’re not getting the result you want, something is wrong. If it’s the people, let’s figure out how to motivate them. If no one cares about what we offer, let’s offer something they care about. There’s this mentality that we have to force people to bend to our will in Church ministry. In a certain sense that’s true. We need to convince people to love objective truths of the Faith that will not change. But if the way we’re doing it ins’t working, why not try something else.
I’m really getting into the concept of teaching the art of living. You’re really onto something there.
Thanks for the comments.