Sometimes this gets me in trouble with the hardcore catechetics types…
In evangelization, you have to do more than just present the facts of the Faith to get a good start with people.
Most of the time, if you don’t sell them a bit, it won’t grab their hearts.
Let’s take an example from my own life.
I was recruited into being a Navy pilot by the 1986 movie “Top Gun.”
“Top Gun” is the Navy’s elite fighter pilot tactics school. In the movie, Tom Cruise played a pilot who got a chance to go there and fly with the “best of the best.”
In a sense, Top Gun evangelized me. I’m not ashamed to admit it. Well, maybe I’m a little ashamed. But I couldn’t help it!
It made being a Navy pilot look so cool and glamorous–it totally drew me in. And, I wasn’t the only one. Recruitment skyrocketed. In fact, it sold the Navy lifestyle so well, recruiting officers set up inside the movie theaters to cash in.
Top Gun, glamour, and water washes
Top Gun was glamorous, but as I found out later, the life of a Navy pilot wasn’t all volleyball, hot chicks, and sunglasses (although, there were a lot of sunglasses).
We had a saying in the fleet, “They didn’t do water washes in Top Gun.”
A water wash is how you clean a jet engine. It consists of spinning the engine turbines (without igniting them) while shooting water through the engine with a special hose.
It’s kind of like being in your car while going through a carwash and turning over the ignition for 30 minutes without ever starting the car.
Imagine being on the back of a ship in the Persian Gulf at 3:00 in the morning. It’s 90 degrees, and you’ve been flying for 8 hours. You’re exhausted, tired, and sweaty.
Can you go to sleep? No, you have to sit in the aircraft and do the water wash.
Top Gun and evangelization
Glamorous? Not always. It wasn’t all roses, but I didn’t really care.
It was too late anyway. I was in it and living the life!
Yes, there were some rough spots, but there were a lot of benefits as well. Did I mention the sunglasses?
And of course, there was that whole flying multi-million dollar aircraft very fast.
The point is, it wasn’t the mundane aspects of Navy life that drew me in, and that certainly didn’t keep me there. It was the adventure, the challenge, and being a part of something larger than life.
The Top Gun Effect
Catholicism has a lot to offer.
It’s the most amazingly complete and comprehensive system of belief in history. It has everything you need to live fulfilled and happy. It’s like a roadmap for life.
Not only that, union with God brings a love, peace, and fullness you can’t imagine…unless you experience it yourself.
Effective evangelization requires you to project a little bit of the “Top Gun Effect.” You have to show people the cool and glamour of living Catholic. You have to give them the adventure.
I’m not saying you should lie or sugar coat the truth. People need to know the demands of being Catholic. But they also need to know the great joy!
Evangelization takeaway
If you’re going to evangelize, you have to be in touch with what you love about life as a Catholic.
What drives you? What keeps you going in it? What motivates you to sacrifice for it?
No one will be drawn to the Church if you’re Catholic just because you’ve got nothing else. They most certainly won’t be drawn to it if you don’t believe Church teaching and want to change the core beliefs of the Faith.
Why would someone want to join when you say it sucks and you want to completely change it?
And catechists/religion teachers–why should your students care to learn about something you don’t enthusiastically live? If Catholicism is just dry and boring doctrines from a textbook, no one will be motivated to care about it and change their lives for it.
What drives you to be Catholic?
Are you in touch with what you love about the Catholic Faith?
From your own experience, what could you tell someone to convince them to be Catholic?
I’m delighted to read this because lately I have been comparing my blog with other more hard-core Catholic blogs and wondering whether my approach is ‘religious’ enough. Now I know I’m on the right track! Everybody reading my blog (hopefully) will be quickly aware I’m a happy Catholic but I want to make it attractive to my readers who are non-practising, non believers and non-Catholics by presenting Catholic (or authentic human) living in a completely natural and unashamed way with only mentioning ‘religion’ so to speak, from time to time. So Top Gun is the way to go!! And those sunglasses ROCK!! (to be perfectly honest I actually unfollowed some Catholic bloggers as they seemed to spend most of the time boasting about their perfect approach to life..Be Like ME1!!)
Hi Jennifer, thanks for the confirmation. I loved Brandon Vogt’s post last week on joy being the best way to evangelize. I think he’s right on the money there. If Catholicism doesn’t look attractive, no one will give it the time of day to begin with. We have to preach the gospel with words as well, but in the beginning, what we say about how it affects us and how we love it often goes a lot further. Of course, when we tell people the truth of what we love and why…that is preaching the gospel, isn’t it?
What drives you to be Catholic?
That I am convinced that Jesus set up the Church Himself to be our guide to Him, to Truth, and to Grace.
Are you in touch with what you love about the Catholic Faith?
I love many things about the Catholic Church, but what persuaded me to choose to become Catholic is that I know that Jesus makes it so that I can trust the Church like I trust Him and like I trust the word. Church-members might let me down, but THE CHURCH is the Body of Christ, and is led by the Holy Spirit into all truth. God established a ROCK on which we can stand in the office of the successor of Peter. God doesn’t expect me to figure out everything on my own, after all He never promised me that I could do it, but He did promise that the gates of Hell would never prevail against His Church.
From your own experience, what could you tell someone to convince them to be Catholic?
I realized some years ago that to put my faith in Jesus Christ included putting my faith in the Catholic Church. The Church spread the gospel, penned and compiled the Scriptures, and established a way of life and developed methods for infallibly declaring God’s truth under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Without the work of the Church I could never have had the Scriptures or have even known of Jesus. I found that Jesus has so much more to offer us if we embrace everything the Church is and everything she offers us from Jesus.
Beautiful! I couldn’t have said it better myself Thomas. Those are some of the very things that caused me to fall in love with the Church as well. And I’ll tell you what, those are the very things that often really make the difference in RCIA when people are struggling with whether or not they want to join. Understanding how the Church was established by Jesus and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit to teach the truth is very powerful in drawing people to Catholicism. I love it! Thanks for commenting!
Marc, this is a great post!
Thanks William!
“If Catholicism is just dry and boring doctrines from a textbook, no one will be motivated to care about it and change their lives for it.”
I always wonder how people can approach the faith like this. Then I think of people who say Football or NASCAR, or ________(fill in the blank) are boring because they have only looked at these things superficially from the outside. We have to dive deep into our faith, learn the “why’s” behind the rules and doctrines, learn the players (Saints)… and then it begins to get exciting. I check Whispers’ for new bishops assignments with the same excitement I check my NFL teams site for new player trades and acquisitions.
I think I may be one of those “Hardcore Catechetics Types” (HTS’s?), and fully agree with your post. Hmmm… what do you think of football jerseys with “H.T.C.” on them where the team name goes? I digress…
http://www.theologygeek.blogspot.com
You’re not a hardcore catechetics type. You’re from Franciscan and everyone there understands this stuff and respects the stages of faith development. The people I’m talking about are too intellectual and think everyone should conform to their lecture style of teaching and just get it. If they don’t then they’re warped by the culture and have no attention span so they should get one to learn real theology. These folks try to teach theology to inquirers instead of catechizing them. There’s a difference. I suppose I shouldn’t have called them “catechetics” types because they’re not really into catechetics and that’s the problem.
Thanks for commenting. Great analogy.
Great article, Marc! Pinned it to Catholic Pinterest for it’s 2000+ readers.
Thanks Allison! That’s awesome! I’ll go check it out.
This was a great post! Thank you for such an important reminder. I ask our intern candidates these questions during an interview, but now I’ll have to keep asking myself these questions. 🙂
Thanks Angela! I’m constantly asking myself these questions as well.
This is a great post Marc! I have been wanting to read this since I saw it pop up. When I teach theology to my high school students, I try to be as enthusiastic as I can. I tell my freshman students when we read the Old Testament – if you think this is boring, you have a screw loose. Ha ha! This is so much better than any “reality” television show out there. You never know the impact that you are going to make on someone and with teachers we never really hear about affirmations or see the seeds blossom.
And Top Gun, so many great lines in that movie – I feel the need…the need for speed! There are other good ones but not really appropriate for this venue. Lol.
Thanks Tom! Yes, that is so true. You never really know what kind of impact you’ll make. Those high school kids sometimes look like they’re not even there but they take everything in. If you’re not real, they’ll see it and they won’t believe you unless you are.
Yeah, I know, there’s so many good lines in that movie. I sometimes think I’d like to show my kids that movie but then I remember how bad the language is…everywhere. Even during the flight scenes.
If it’s just a show of joy or hype, it’s fake. Real evangelism is motivated by the the main thing–a living relationship with Jesus Christ. If that’s not what’s going on, then it’s just more business as usual.