If there ever was a time that we could sit back and assume that everyone with children of catechetical age will find a local Catholic parish and get their children into the religious education program, that time is long past. Today, we have to be intentional, strategic and, yes, aggressive in our outreach to Catholic families and, indeed, all in our community.

Why are there so few evangelization teams?  

Well, one reason is that Catholics still do not like the word “evangelization” (“new evangelization” is even worse) and it’s difficult for evangelizers to rehabilitate it. But that’s another blog posting.

Missing the teens in your parish?  Consider this outreach and evangelization opportunity:

What if church leaders started to look for opportunities to invite people to trust the parish and to develop a relationship with the community?

Last fall, some of our local parish directors/coordinators of religious education read and discussed Sherry Weddell’s Forming Intentional Disciples. 

When it comes to evangelizing it isn’t always easy thing try to discern answers to questions like: Where should our parish focus our efforts? What is going to actually work here?