There’s a lot to learn from how the early Christians evangelized, according to Julie St. Croix.
“We started with small Christian communities and a small group of frightened disciples and within 200 or 300 years, they had evangelized the whole empire – the whole known world,” said St. Croix, director of the Office of Parish Renewal in the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Institute for Evangelization. “They did it primarily through relationships.”
As new parishes emerge from the recently unveiled Seek the City to Come plan for revitalizing the Catholic Church in the Baltimore metropolitan area, archdiocesan leaders are encouraging the newly forming faith communities to embrace an approach to evangelization that emulates the spirit of the apostolic age.
That means regularly going out into the neighborhoods right within the parish boundaries, befriending the people who live there and sharing how Christ can change lives.
“I think we have to shift our mindset and the culture of our parishes to call on the baptized to share the Good News, whether it’s on the soccer field, in the grocery store, at their place of work or with folks in retirement – whatever it might be,” St. Croix explained. “The goal is to help people better meet the Lord and come to know his church.”
Auxiliary Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski, C.Ss.R., vicar for Baltimore City and co-director of Seek the City, acknowledged the approach is different from how the Catholic Church has evangelized in recent decades.
In the past, Catholics tended to “evangelize through procreation” – bringing children into the faith, but focusing less on those on the outside. While it remains essential to pass down the faith in families, there’s also a need to rethink every ministry and outreach with an eye toward the evangelization of those not already in the family of faith, the bishop said.
That means when a parish operates a food pantry or a clothing drive, it shouldn’t just be about providing a sandwich or a pair of gloves. It should also be about befriending the people who make use of those services and sharing the love of Christ with them.
“A lot of parishes are doing a lot of really wonderful direct service to the poor,” Bishop Lewandowski said. “But we need to equip the parish leadership and staff to focus on evangelization – on Jesus and the church – so it’s not just the corporal works of mercy, but also the spiritual ones.”
Father James Proffitt, vicar for clergy, noted that the Catholic Church in Baltimore is no longer a church of Catholic neighborhoods. Today, most churches in the city are commuter parishes. City parishes have essentially become what he called a “mission field.”
The priest said he hopes parishes will become more proactive in being present at a wide variety of community activities in their territories, making sure everyone knows the church is open to all.
“I think the worst thing you can ever hear is when someone says, ‘I never knew there was a church there,’ ” Father Proffitt said.
In helping Archbishop William E. Lori discern the appointment of pastors for the new parishes, Father Proffitt said the Office of Clergy Personnel looks for leaders who are “proven in their abilities.”
In addition to archdiocesan priests, religious orders will also staff some of the newly formed parishes, as many already do today. The archdiocese has been in discussions with the leadership of 12 religious orders of men that serve in the city to keep them abreast of the goals of Seek the City, Father Proffitt said.
“We will need to do a lot of training in terms of what the parishes are focusing on,” he said. “It’s not that the priests are not competent. It’s that the church they were trained to pastor is not the church that we’re in now. The church in the City of Baltimore has changed radically.”
The archdiocese plans to provide ongoing parish support to help parish leaders embrace a more expansive view of evangelization, Bishop Lewandowski said. That will include a team of representatives from the Catholic Center – encompassing human resources, parish renewal, Black and Hispanic ministries, facilities, advancement and more – working with each new pastor and parish staff.
St. Croix noted that the Office for Parish Renewal already has Emmaus Teams active in parishes throughout the archdiocese to provide support in helping promote an active prayer life and showing parishioners how to share personal stories of faith. The Institute for Evangelization also is developing evangelization modules for parishes, offering practical guidance on how to evangelize.
Edward Herrera, executive director of the Institute for Evangelization, said it’s essential that pastors have support from parishioners in evangelization – especially since the number of priests available in parishes is limited.
“You really need every person in the pew to be on fire with the Holy Spirit,” Herrera said.
Bishop Lewandowski said he expects there will be a “team of missionary disciples” in place in every parish “so that someone is constantly thinking about growing the church.”
“We don’t get more members to keep our churches open,” he said. “We get more members to come to Christ. If we concern ourselves with filling up heaven, I think the church is eventually going to get filled up. It’s meeting people with the love of Jesus, with a message of forgiveness and mercy.”
Email George Matysek Jr. at gmatysek@CatholicReview.org
To view the Seek the City to Come final plan and a map showing new parish configurations, visit archbalt.org/seekthecity.
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