That All Might be Saved
These twelve Jesus sent out, charging them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And preach as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand’ (Mt. 10:5).
As modeled by Christ, the Gospel was intended to go out first to those closest to Him (as in the verse quoted above) and then move outwards to those farthest from Him (at least according to religious affiliation).
In Jesus’ day, that sequence began with the “House of Israel,” (cf. Mt. 10) then progressed towards the Samaritans (cf. Jn. 4), and lastly to all of the Gentiles (cf. Mt. 28:19-20).
Today, our Catholic parishes have a similar three-fold mission and sequence which is the following:
1) Those who are “Here” (Current Catholics)
2) Those who are “Not-Here” (Was-Catholics)
3) Those who are “Out-There” (Non-Catholics)
Let’s take a look at each one of these groups, and see what our parishes can do to reach them.
“Those Here” (Catholics)
The first group our parishes must attend to in the work of evangelization are those currently within the Church—at least physically.
Even Mass-attending parishioners may not necessarily understand the Gospel (the fundamentals of the faith), believe in the Eucharist (only 31% of Catholics)1, or even be Catholic themselves.
Unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult to determine exactly who these people are, since parishes don’t sign-in people at the door to attend Mass (which is a good thing).
Moreover, many of these regular Mass-attendees may not even be recorded in the parish register.
One way to find out exactly who these people are might be as easy as doing a round of “thank you calls.” For instance, the pastor might pick three consecutive weekends of the year, and ask Church attendees to fill out a pew card with their contact info on it.
The info on that card, the pastor would explain, would be used by the parish staff to personally call each of the parishioners who filled it out and thank them for choosing to be a member of the parish.
These would be hospitality calls, allowing the parish to ask its Mass-attendees how they are doing.
It would also be an opportunity for the parish staff to ask parishioners how they think the parish is doing, as well as pray together, and discuss the Gospel (if the opportunity presents itself).
After making these hospitality calls, the parish can then take the names of those people who filled out the pew cards and, subtracting them from its current parish registration (along with any other relevant lists), arrive at a list of our second group of people: “Who’s Not Here.”
“Who’s Not Here” (Was-Catholics)
It goes without saying, that determining who is included in this group is not going to be an exact science because it’s possible that someone who attends Mass every Sunday might simply have been away on vacation over the three weeks that parishioners filled out the pew cards.
Exceptions aside, after subtracting the Mass attendees from all the other lists in the parish, the parish will then have a rough idea of those Catholics who, for one reason or another, have gone missing.
If the parish wants to meet this group, those who have presumably ceased coming to Church, then the Church must go out to them. Instead of “thank you calls,” these registered parishioners could benefit from a home visit.
These visits, carried out by volunteer parishioners, may include a “thank you” gift or packet from the parish. These visits are not so-much for preaching but for being present—they are for demonstrating to fallen-away Catholics that the Church has not forgotten them.
Ideally, these visits would also provide an opportunity, for those at the door, to return to the parish for a easy, low-committal, non-liturgical gathering: such as a weekday faith formation event, or a worship & reconciliation night.
After this second-phase of the evangelical sequence, the parish can then move to its third and final phase: reaching everyone else.
“Who’s Out There” (Non-Catholics)
Moreover, the care of souls should always be infused with a missionary spirit so that it reaches out as it should to everyone living within the parish boundaries. If the pastor cannot contact certain groups of people, he should seek the assistance of others, even laymen who can assist him in the apostolate (Vatican II, Christus Dominus, 30.1, emphasis added).
Having reached out to the Catholics and the presumably fallen-away Catholics, then the last group for the parish to reach out to are the non-Catholics.
The simplest way to do that is neighborhood evangelization.
Luckily, for those who implemented the evangelical sequence up to this point, there should already exist a ready-made team of neighborhood evangelists, the people who volunteered for the hospitality visits.
Neighborhood evangelization may not always be the most pleasant, or the most visibly fruitful, but it may be the simplest step in this evangelical sequence, especially if parishes use the Sent Evangelization method at the door.
Where to begin…
This “evangelical sequence” is very simple to begin, and builds upon itself from one step to the next.
So, where should a parish begin? Simply, at the beginning. Then, work its way through the sequence.
For specific questions or help on implementing the evangelical sequence, feel free to email Think Catholic.
1. “Just one-third of U.S. Catholics agree with their church that Eucharist is body, blood of Christ,” Pew Research, August, 5th, 2019.
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