TRAINING IN THE NEW EVANGELIZATION
INDIVIDUAL TRAINING

What Is Evangelization?

The word comes to us from ancient history when a slave was chosen to bring back to the ruler the good news of victory in battle. The bearer of this good news was always granted his freedom and so he would come running, nearly dancing for joy, as he bore the good news of victory that would gain freedom for him. So, too, the Christian should proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ and his victory over sin and death, the victory that frees men and women to become joyful children of God.

In the strict sense, evangelization means the proclamation of the Good News, that in Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, salvation is offered to the whole world, as a gift of God's grace and mercy.

In a broader sense, evangelization means any activity rooted in Christ that promotes the transformation of humanity from within making it new.

Essentially, evangelization is bringing others to know the love of Jesus and to experience his healing, forgiving love.

How Does Jesus Prepare His People To Carry Out This Mission?

He gives to his people his very own Spirit who empowers them to carry out this mission of evangelization. It is the role of the Holy Spirit to unite believers to himself and to one another, forming them into the Community of the Church.

By baptism, every believer in Jesus Christ has the call to give authentic witness of a life lived in the world according to the Gospel, and to explicitly proclaim, with humility and the power of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:1-5), that salvation is in Jesus Christ.

"And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age'" (Mt. 28:18ff).

"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

Pope Paul VI, in his Apostolic Exhortation, On Evangelization in the Modern World (E.N.), states very clearly to the Catholic Church its primary mission, evangelization: to proclaim the Good News that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. Jesus Christ is the Answer to our deepest needs. He does make a difference in personal life.

The fundamental mission of the Church is to proclaim a Person, Jesus Christ, who is the Good News, who is the Gospel. Every believer has this duty and is to do this by lifestyle and by explicit words that result in persons brought to Jesus Christ.

The heart of why most Christians are afraid to carry out their fundamental mission to evangelize is that they have no idea of how to make a clear, succinct, yet easy to understand presentation of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Gospel.

ACTS II: Conversion, Proclamation, Community overcomes this fear by training our people in how to make a clear, succinct, yet easy to understand presentation of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Gospel.

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