Equip and Deploy the Sleeping Giant

St. Paul teaches that “truth is in Jesus.” What then is the lived consequence for people who meet Jesus and choose to give their lives to him? Paul goes on to explain that those people should “put away the old self” of their lives before they knew Jesus, and “be renewed” in their minds, “putting on the new self” (see Ephesians 4:20–24).

Once we truly follow Paul’s counsel, allowing ourselves to be given away to Christ and permitting him to transform our minds and hearts, we will be filled with the desire to become evangelizers for Christ in every way: with the witness of our lives, with our words, and with our unstoppable longing to share what Jesus has done for us. Proclaiming the Gospel, in the way most suited to each of our situations, will be a natural urge for us, regardless of how others embrace or reject our message.

Many Catholics, even with their access to the grace of the sacraments, have not given Jesus permission to allow this transformation, this new person, to come to fruition in themselves. This reality is a primary reason why the Church sees limited growth and even sees decline in some parts of the world. The sleeping giant that is the Catholic laity has not been awakened to Jesus and through Jesus. And they have not been equipped to share the best news ever.

In this article, I argue for a way to prepare Catholic lay people for their own unique mission of evangelization, giving them foundational formation that will enable them to become the evangelizers God and the Church are calling them to be.

The Need for Evangelization Is Urgent but We Must First Build the Foundation

Evangelize! Evangelize! Evangelize! This directive is the consistent rallying cry coming from many Catholic leaders, from Pope Francis to bishops to practical theologians and those working in parishes. Catholic media is full of resources for evangelization. In recent years, it seems that we are all about that “E” word, which makes sense since we often have ignored the need for laity to evangelize. It’s as though we are trying to make up for many lost years (or centuries). Heady, theologically grounded articles remind Catholics that we are all called by Jesus and by the apostles’ successors to proclaim the gospel, to live out the unique vocation of the laity to sanctify the temporal world. On the implementation side, multiple programs provide the “how-tos” of evangelization.

In fact, we have a 2000-year-plus trajectory of evangelization. The Catholic Church’s evangelization ministry formally began in the Acts of the Apostles and continues through the ministries of lay apostles, religious orders, saints, popes, and theologians. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains the call for every baptized person to evangelize as follows: “The Christian faithful are those who, inasmuch as they have been incorporated in Christ through Baptism, have been constituted as the people of God; for this reason, since they have become sharers in Christ’s priestly, prophetic, and royal office in their own manner, they are called to exercise the mission which God has entrusted to the Church to fulfill in the world, in accord with the condition proper to each one” (CCC 871). The teaching is clear: each baptized Catholic is called to evangelize according to his or her place in the world.

Thanks be to God that some Catholics are embracing the call to evangelize. One challenge, though, with this re-discovered emphasis on the duty to evangelize is that most practicing Catholics are not prepared to evangelize.

In the parish where I serve as a lay ecclesial minister, we have crafted a formation program for lay people. We call this effort “Lay Formation,” a lackluster name, but it does indeed describe what we hope to accomplish. We have been delivering and consistently improving this formation over the past six years, and we have come to some solid conclusions. In this article I am presenting one of those conclusions: It is indispensable for lay Catholics to receive some personal and spiritual formation in order for them to become effective evangelizers. Because this formation helps them to seek transformation, to put on the new self, they become prepared to learn to evangelize and then to do so.

Lay Formation is a two-year regimen that Deacon Robert Ervin, other leaders, and I have crafted. The first year focuses on personal and spiritual formation; the second year is about learning to evangelize and accompany those we seek to evangelize. In this article, I will briefly explain the reasons for and the content of the first year of formation, arguing that this year prepares Catholic lay people to function as mature, effective evangelizers in the world.

In a nutshell, this is our philosophy: We believe that it is essential to form would-be evangelists in the personal and spiritual dimensions of their lives before sending them out on mission. This formation prepares them to enter the arena of evangelization with the foundation they will need to withstand the ups and downs and continue to grow in their own relationship with God. The formation may also increase the probability that these formed evangelizers (cooperating with the Holy Spirit) will be able to bring others to Jesus and his Church.

Two Fundamental Problems

Our experience in implementing this formation has made us aware of some underlying problems and misunderstandings that require correction. Since the Catholic laity has, by and large, been left for hundreds of years with little or no emphasis on evangelization, these corrections must take place in order for us to enter fruitfully into the ministry of evangelization.

The First Problem: Understanding “Evangelization”

Since the word “evangelization” was not a commonly used word until relatively recently, many Catholics don’t understand its meaning. Some of their questions might be: “What does that word mean? And anyway, it’s no big deal, right? Can’t I just evangelize by living a good, solid Catholic life? Do I actually need to talk — out loud — about Jesus and the Gospel and the Catholic Church?” Another misunderstanding is about where to evangelize. They ask questions such as, “Does this evangelization thing mean that I need to get out on the streets or into the mall food court to talk to people about my faith?”

We need to increase Catholics’ understanding about evangelization as being about both my words and my deeds, strengthening their knowledge that both are of equal importance. Today, there is a special need to preach and teach against the idea that only deeds, or only my lived example, is enough to evangelize. While of course a Christian life is an indispensable witness for effective evangelization, words are also necessary. As the 1997 General Directory for Catechesis states: “This economy of Revelation is realized by deeds and words, which are intrinsically bound up with each other” (GDC 38). Just as God revealed his plan to us through both words and deeds, “Evangelization . . . which transmits Revelation to the world, is also brought about in words and deeds. It is at once testimony and proclamation, word and sacrament, teaching and task” (GDC 39). Salvation history clearly models for us the necessity of the works or deeds of God as well as the words of God.

Also, many Catholics don’t grasp the concept of relational evangelization, meaning that most often God is calling me not to the streets but to those in my immediate sphere of influence. In their minds, there is a link between evangelization and busy street corners or countries in Africa. While great evangelization in those spots is essential, for most Christians evangelization takes place close to home.

Another troubling issue among some Catholics is the tendency to equate evangelization and apologetics. They believe that, if they can only give a skillful explanation of why Catholics believe what we believe, their listeners will automatically fall in love with Jesus and his Church. Even though some Catholics recognize and can artfully explain that the deposit of faith is a beautifully coherent set of beliefs that incorporates the total compatibility of faith and reason, that type of presentation often does not grab the hearts of listeners. Conversion through apologetics usually requires that a person first have a relationship with Jesus and seek to live in the power of the Holy Spirit, and maybe then the apologetics approach can lead to deepening conversion. Typically, it is hearing and accepting the kerygma that evangelizes.

Another common misconception continues to be the belief that the “average” Catholic is not expected to evangelize. Most Catholics still see evangelization as the role of the clergy and the religious professionals. It’s our own fault that people feel this way; in many cases, we have neglected to communicate the mandate of Jesus and the teaching of the Church about the responsibility of every Catholic to evangelize. This attitude is beginning to change, but slowly.

A summary of the first problem is as follows. The Catholic populace is generally misguided regarding evangelization — its definition, its practice, and their obligation to do it. And yet we continue insisting (albeit rightly so), within this morass of misunderstanding, that every baptized Catholic is responsible for evangelization. And although we sometimes provide practical points on how to evangelize, are we bypassing essential foundations that Catholics need before they unleash the evangelization efforts? Do we prepare our people with the personal and spiritual foundations they need to step into an evangelization ministry that will glorify God and bring others to faith in Jesus and his Church?

The Second Problem: Lost or Unclaimed Identity as Sons and Daughters of God

Another underlying problem that requires correction during formation is malformed identity. Many Catholics do not understand, let alone embrace, their identity as baptized sons and daughters.

Our current culture espouses many non-Christian answers to the question: who is the human person? Catholics are just as vulnerable as others to these messed-up notions about who they really are, since many of them have little or no understanding of their identity in Jesus Christ.

Oftentimes our ongoing exhortation about the call to evangelize ignores the need for an essential formation phase that Catholics need before they can enter fruitfully into evangelization. The underlying question here is: Are most Catholics personally and spiritually “fit” to enter into this mission? Do they truly grasp, accept, and live out of their identity in Christ?

The answer to this question poses the second problem. We would say “no,” that many Catholics do not live out of their identity in Christ and therefore are not fit to enter into fruitful evangelization.¹ Just like a large portion of the general public, many Catholics suffer from the disorders that have become worse in recent years: extreme individualism, anxiety, fear, relativistic views, loneliness and isolation, poor and misguided self-image, lack of understanding of the destructive effects of sin, the need for constant affirmation from the secular culture, etc. Those problems are on the personal level. On the spiritual level, many Catholics suffer from the lack of a proper understanding and acceptance of God’s infinite love and mercy, inability to acknowledge sin, insufficient understanding of the power of the sacraments and grace, unawareness of the spiritual attacks to which we are often subject, and lack of enduring discipline in prayer life.

All of these ills, both personal and spiritual, combine to make for a bad case of lost or misunderstood identity. In some cases, sadly, the identity was not lost because it had never been claimed in the first place. Many Catholics have not based their identity on the truth from Jesus’ prayer in John 17, that “you loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:23). The knowledge that God the Father loves us “even as” he loves Jesus would change the world if even half of all Christians internalized this statement. But unfortunately we encounter many people who do not grasp the true identity that our heavenly Father desires for each of us: security in the knowledge that we are his children; everything he has for us comes out of his love for us; we are destined to live eternally in divine happiness with him; we make choices for or against the Lord each day and those choices have the most serious of consequences; we are sinners but there is forgiveness of sins when we repent and return to the Lord. Without a strong sense of my true identity in the Lord, fruitful evangelization will not be able to operate at maximum capacity. Even some Catholics who can state the kerygma have not necessarily internalized what those very facts mean for them personally.

Before we can send them out as evangelizers, we need to help many baptized Catholics recover their true identity. In order to evangelize in a way that is as worthy as possible for the ministry of spreading the Gospel, a person must have some solid level of personal and spiritual health. Attending to these personal and spiritual factors is essential to the equation in equipping and deploying well-formed evangelists.

Our experience in forming lay people for discipleship and evangelization has convinced us of the need to correct these problems through personal and spiritual formation. In order for anyone to evangelize effectively, the person must first have a strong personal and spiritual foundation, meaning a foundation built on rock, not sand.

What is Personal and Spiritual Maturity?

Pastores Dabo Vobis, the 1992 post-synodal apostolic exhortation from Pope St. John Paul II, focuses on the formation of diocesan and religious priests. That formation was built around four “pillars” of formation.² These pillars are the human, the spiritual, the intellectual, and the pastoral. (Sometimes the word “personal” is used for human formation; “human” and “personal” are interchangeable in this sense. I am using “personal” instead of “human.”) The exhortation taught that a priestly formation program must incorporate all four pillars.

In 2016, the Congregation for the Clergy published the document “The Gift of the Priestly Formation.” This directive keeps the concept of the four pillars but now refers to them as the “dimensions” of formation. Using this language, the document states: “Formation . . . must be seen through a unifying lens, which takes account of the four dimensions of formation, proposed by Pastores Dabo Vobis. Together, these dimensions give shape and structure to the identity of the seminarian and the priest . . .”³ The 2016 document encourages greater integration among the four pillars, which indeed makes sense, given that no human being can be neatly divided into four segments and live at a particular given moment out of only one segment of himself.

In relation to lay professionals in the Catholic Church, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops promulgated the document “Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord: A Resource for Guiding the Development of Lay Ecclesial Ministry.” The bishops approved this document, which was developed by the USCCB Committee on the Laity, at their November 2005 General Meeting.

The focus of “Co-Workers” is lay ecclesial ministers, those who serve in professional capacities within the Church, working for dioceses, parishes, social service agencies, hospitals and other institutions. These are usually paid positions and encompass different responsibilities, ranging from “Business Managers” who focus on buildings and budgets, to “Family Life Directors” who serve and pastor families, to hospital chaplains. These forms of lay ministry have been beneficial in terms of moving the work of the Church forward, given both the decline in the number of priests and the fact that lay people can bring their unique expertise to some ministries.

“Co-Workers” includes the same four pillars, now for the formation of lay ecclesial ministers. The bishops teach that lay ecclesial ministers should have:

• Human qualities critical to form wholesome relationships and necessary to be apt instruments of God’s love and compassion.
• A spirituality and practice of prayer that root them in God’s Trinitarian life, grounding and animating all they do in ministry.
• Adequate knowledge in theological and pastoral studies, along with the intellectual skill to use it among the people and cultures of our country.
• The practical pastoral abilities called for in their particular ministry.⁴

While the contributions of lay ecclesial ministers have been a key element in many successful ministries, on the negative side this reliance on the lay professionals has sometimes served to get Catholics in the pews “off the hook,” once again, for their duty to evangelize. For several centuries the laity saw evangelization as the clergy’s responsibility. Then, with the advent of lay ecclesial ministers, evangelization came to be seen as the responsibility of the clergy as well as the trained professionals. Once again, the sleeping giant of Catholic laity was anesthetized into passivity for another several decades. If I were an alien visiting from another planet, my no-context observation might lead me to think that the Catholic Church was taking steps specifically not to empower the laity for mission!

In summary, the Catholic Church understands that formation must be deliberate and comprehensive. Whether we are talking about the four pillars, or the four dimensions, whether we are talking about clergy or lay ecclesial ministers, we know that there are four major areas to which we must attend in forming a healthy, well-equipped Catholic. The missing piece has been the belief, maybe not stated but implicit in our actions, that this systematic formation is essential for the clergy and the lay professionals but not really necessary for other Catholics. Although Catholics in the pews may receive some elements of this type of formation sporadically, outside of a comprehensive plan, they usually do not receive it in the integrated, systematic way in which we give this formation to the clergy and the laity who complete ministry degrees.

Those Who Receive Personal and Spiritual Formation Want to Evangelize

Imagine a Catholic man, Pete, who has submitted himself to an intentional regimen of personal and spiritual formation that conforms his life closely to intentional discipleship. Pete has a firmly planted identity in his faith; his faith in Jesus Christ and his belief in the Catholic Church is his grounding in all areas of life. He knows who he is: a creature of Almighty God who is dependent on God for his next breath and powerfully loved by his heavenly Father. Pete knows that God always wants the best for him; even during the hard times he trusts in this belief. Usually, he is quick to recognize his own sinful behavior and seek forgiveness, making sincere efforts to amend his life when necessary. He wants to go to heaven, and he wants to take as many people as possible with him.⁵ To that end, Pete deeply desires to share Jesus and the Gospel with others. He patiently watches for the Spirit’s movements and tries to follow them. He keenly notices two people: his brother and one of his coworkers in the medical office where he works. They are not yet disciples. Pete considers it his responsibility to “walk” with these two people, spending time with them and when the time is right guiding them, in the most loving way, towards Jesus.

Contrast Pete with Ted, a Catholic man who is a lifelong Sunday Mass-goer. Ted is a respected husband and father. Because he is an accountant, he helps out with the parish Finance Council, attending monthly meetings to monitor spending and assist with planning next year’s budget. He does not clearly see the relationship between the use of financial resources and the parish’s mission of making disciples, although he respects that somehow there must be a connection. When Father attends the meetings to talk about using resources in to advance the mission of the parish, Ted supports Father, although he doesn’t really “get” what Father means. He rarely talks to others about his faith; he may do so only if another person asks him some direct, unavoidable question. Ted is usually unaware of how the Spirit can work in budgets and committees and conversations.

Which person is better prepared to evangelize?

The examples I give here are caricature-ish portrayals of two Catholics. But these descriptions help make my point. Of course, the differences are rarely so cut and dried. Yes, Pete struggles with spiritual battles and sometimes loses his prayer routine for days at a time. Yes, Ted occasionally has glimpses, maybe during Mass, of the working of the Holy Spirit. Of course, Pete knows that he still has a way to go in surrendering his life completely to the Lord. Of course, Ted is caring and wants to serve others.

But why these two different outcomes, one for Pete another for Ted? Pete has given himself, in docility, to a regimen of personal and spiritual formation. He has stuck with that formation and done his best to internalize and consistently live out all he has learned. Ted has not yet entered into a deliberate disciple-making process. Maybe someday, by God’s grace, he will go down that road. However, by their current fruits you will know them, and a defining difference between these two people is their openness and willingness to commit to formation, to take the next steps in following Jesus as Lord of their lives.

What about evangelization? Pete understands, because of his formation and through prayer, that he must evangelize in his words and deeds. He dedicates himself to training that will help him become a better evangelizer. He will seek the right words at the right time; he will want to speak, and want to be silent; he will be a gifted listener. He will empathize. He will know when he has enough trust “in the bank” to talk about Jesus and what Jesus has done in his life. His brother and co-worker will begin to make the connection between Pete’s attractive, vibrant life (the life of an intentional disciple) and his faith. Soon Pete will begin to present kerygmatic truth to them.

Ted, on the other hand, is still “in the dark” about his own call, as a baptized Catholic, to evangelize. And should he somehow take a step in the direction of evangelization, he will likely wither on the vine pretty quickly, since he is not personally and spiritually formed to handle the rigors of evangelization.

What Are the Elements of Personal and Spiritual Formation?

If an intentional approach to personal and spiritual formation is a necessary foundation in preparing evangelizers, what are the elements of this formation? After six years of planning, implementing, and analyzing the results of our Lay Formation program, we have found that the following list represents the key elements needed for preparing lay people to become their “best version of themselves” evangelizers:

• Teaching about the true role of the laity in the world, according to the Scriptures and magisterial documents that explain this role. This part includes teaching on what Pope Benedict XVI called the “co-responsiblity” of lay people.⁶
• Developing habits of daily prayer and Scripture reading. Regular prayer leads to intimacy with Christ, which is foundational for any Christian looking to respond to the call to evangelize. This area also includes training in spiritual warfare, teaching awareness that we have an enemy who wants to steal every good thing God gives us and wants to tell us lies, non-stop, about ourselves.
• Reliance on the Holy Spirit. Learning to be consistently receptive and cooperative regarding how the Spirit works in us, around us, and through others, as well as understanding that “evangelization will never be possible without the action of the Holy Spirit” (Evangelii Nuntiandi §75).
• Instruction in how to make one’s relationships—with spouses, children, siblings, friends, coworkers—healthy Christian relationships.
• Opportunities to learn about and receive deliverance prayer, which helps us recognize and renounce our own obstacles to accepting the Father’s love and living as God wants us to live.
• Gift discernment, so that individuals may learn what gifts God has given each person in order to serve in building God’s Kingdom.

When we preach and teach evangelization to unformed Catholics, it can be like talking to a person who has never been on a plane about becoming a pilot. The personal and spiritual formation is needed to build the foundation which enables launching mature, passionate evangelizers. In conclusion, one must be a strong disciple in order to be at one’s best in evangelizing. When we separate the process of disciple formation from the work of evangelization, we don’t do justice to either the Catholic who needs formation or to the potential hearers of our message.

Back to Identity: Evangelizing with Joy

The best evangelists are those who understand who they are in Christ Jesus. They have received and know God’s love. This knowledge is not head knowledge alone; the heart knowledge of my identity is just as important, if not more so, than the head knowledge. It is with our hearts that we need to understand our identity as sons and daughters. Then we can live as his disciples and eventually acquire, in our own hearts, the Lord’s love for the lost sheep.

One of the best passages for insights into heart knowledge of our true identity is John 17:20–23 (mentioned above). Jesus prays on our behalf to his Father. He prays not only for us but also for the ones who will come to believe in Jesus through our actions:

I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

In this passage, Jesus tells us that we are invited into the very same communion which he experiences with the Father. We are part of that communion, being bonded into this relationship through our baptism and our faith. We learn here that God’s plan of salvation is for us to partake in this divine communion between the Father and the Son. Jesus is telling us the incredible news that the Father loves each of us just as he loves Jesus. It bears repeating: Most Christians do not realize that this incredible love is on offer. They do not know who they are and what they have in Jesus Christ.

Oftentimes our job, day in and day out, in serving Catholics, is to help people recognize and accept this offer from God. This ministry is a labor of love, and many of us who work in pastoral care, clergy and laity alike, spend much of our lives doing this job. In an age when so many people derive their identities from the world, not from their families or from people who love them and seek their good, this labor has become more difficult. Many are on a daily mission to seek affirmation of their identities from foreign forces, such as voices on social media. The options for understanding who I am seem endless. Our culture screams, “Do not let anyone tell you who you are; that is completely up to you!”

Those who go through the formation we provide are much more likely to understand their identity in Christ Jesus. This understanding naturally leads to joy. Joy is a quality of the best evangelizers. Out of hearts that know their membership in the divine communion flows an ability to evangelize for the sake of loving the other for the sake of the other. We need to commit to form the sleeping giant — Catholic lay people — in the personal and spiritual foundations that will enable them to become the best possible evangelizers for Jesus and his Church.