Go and Make Disciples:
A Vision and a Plan

Introduction

Good news! You have just won a new car at the parish raffle! A spouse’s risky surgical procedure ends in great success! Your son is accepted into a renowned degree program with a full scholarship! A dear friend’s marriage proposal is answered with a yes!

Small chance that any one of these pieces of good news would leave you silent. When something good happens, every fiber of our being shouts it out. People see it in our walk, our eyes, and our language. But what about the Good News of new life in Jesus Christ? Do people see that Good News written out in us? Communicating this Good News is called evangelization. It is not a program, a method, nor a strategy. Evangelization is a way of life, born of a message planted in our hearts, and a love that permeates who we are and how we act.

We may cringe a little when we hear this unfamiliar word, but if we have ever taught someone to pray, if we have ever shared a spiritual thought or sent a religious card, then we have evangelized. A modern Catholic perspective on evangelization is presented in the document, On Evangelization in the Modern World (Evangelii nuntiandi), written by Pope Paul VI, in 1975. In it, he addresses major questions about the content, methods, beneficiaries of evangelization, about who is called to evangelize, and what the spirit of evangelization is. Evangelization is not an optional extra in the mission of the Catholic Church. It is at the core of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. “We wish to confirm once more that the task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church.” [1] If the Church exists to evangelize, then this mission of “sharing the Good News” must be made real in every parish and in the life of every Catholic.

The U.S. Catholic Bishops state that evangelization must totally affect our Catholic lives. When others observe Catholics and Catholic institutions, they must witness a spirit of evangelization. [2] The bishops remind us that we all need to be evangelized and to evangelize. For those with a strong faith, evangelization is a call for ongoing renewal and faith sharing. For those who have grown accustomed to a more nominal Christianity, it is a call to the new evangelization. For those who have no faith at all, it is an invitation to a fuller and richer relationship with God. Some parishes want to grow as evangelizing communities. But evangelizing parishes do not happen by chance; they develop as one Catholic shares the Good News with another, and another, until all are evangelizing Catholics!