Hello friends. I’m Patrick Brennan with the St. Paul Evangelization Institute. And you’re watching lesson four of module one of the online basic evangelization training. In this lesson, we’ll be discovering some basic evangelization strategies that you can use right away in everyday situations. But before we talk about those strategies, we need to talk about overcoming fear.
One of our first street evangelization team leaders worked for a rural Catholic parish in Michigan. When he found out about St. Paul Street Evangelization, he decided to start a team at his parish. While he was excited about evangelization, he was also afraid of what might happen. He wondered, “Will people think I’m crazy? Will I get into debates? Will people yell at me?” When our evangelist took his team out, he pulled up to the street corner and parked his car, with his fingers tightly gripping the armrests of his seat. “You can’t make me go out there!”, he said, “I won’t do it!” His team members protested, “You invited us out here! What do you mean you won’t do it?!” And at that point, they prayed together, calling upon the Holy Spirit to calm their nerves and help them evangelize. And this team continues to be active today, inviting thousands of people to faith, and serving as a bridge from the street to the parish and seeing good fruit despite those initial fears.
In the face of new experiences, some degree of fear is natural and normal. Most of our street evangelists will admit that they experience at least some fear when they go out and evangelize. But they keep evangelizing anyway. In facing their fears and walking outside of their comfort zones, they grow in one of the most important virtues for an evangelist. Courage. So how do we overcome the fear of evangelization?
The first step is to name what’s happening in your heart. Recognize the fear you are experiencing so that you can pray through it with Jesus. The second step is to pray. There is no one formula for praying against fear, but here are some examples that have worked for me. Just tell Jesus exactly what you’re feeling or thinking, and ask for His help. “Jesus, I’m afraid of what to say here. Please give me the words.” Or make an act of faith or trust in Him. “Jesus, I trust in you. You are greater than my fears.” Renounce the lie and declare the truth. “In the name of Jesus, I renounce the lie that I can’t evangelize, and I declare the truth that I can be a great evangelist with God’s help.”
So once we’ve named the fear and prayed against it, the third step is to act. And this is where it helps a lot to have friends who are evangelizing with us. Jesus sent the disciples out two by two because He knew we needed each other’s encouragement. But even if you’re by yourself, you can still step out and start a conversation that leads to Christ. So let us not be afraid then. For if God calls us to evangelize, He will bless our efforts to actually do it. And while we will be learning a number of basic evangelization strategies in this lesson, the most essential evangelization strategy is to back every evangelization effort up with prayer, calling upon the Holy Spirit for His powerful help.
Now as we make our way through these lessons, let’s remember that methods, techniques, and strategies are not enough by themselves. The Spirit of God is the true evangelizer. Pope St. Paul VI once wrote, “Techniques of evangelization are good. But even the most advanced ones could not replace the gentle action of the Holy Spirit. The most perfect preparation of the evangelizer has no effect without the Holy Spirit.” So let’s invoke the Holy Spirit’s help right now.
Holy Spirit, we acknowledge You as the one who makes evangelization possible. We pray for Your presence to fill our lives, to fill our thoughts and conversations, so that we might become fruitful Catholic evangelists, and that many souls might be saved. Amen.