Presence Evangelism is the New/ Old Evangelism

By Melanie Jean Juneau

 

Painting by Wilhelm Amberg (Wikimedia Commons).

This move of the Spirit is quiet, subtle and entirely grassroots. 

The stars have fallen. The big names have grown old.

Society is weary of huge, dazzling Christian shows. People crave reality.

Evangelism has gone through many stages to reach the place we are today.Up until the late 60′s, evangelists were mainly preachers of the Word. In the Protestant camp, Billy Graham shone the brightest while for Catholics,the first name that pops into my head as an example is Bishop Fulton Sheen and his radio program.These men focused on an evangelism of the word, a preached sermon or talk with the purpose of convincing people to repent, change and commit their lives to God.

The primary way the Holy Spirit touched people in large crowds in the 70′s, 80′ and 90′s was through power evangelism. Rather than preaching long sermons, the evangelists who drew the largest crowds were prophets and healers. The Spirit fell in a tangible way.This was not restricted to the Protestants. The Catholics experienced their own Charismatic Renewal with crowds of 30,000 gathering in Rome in the mid 70′s. I remember one Catholic Charismatic Conference in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where 10,000 people sang gently, harmoniously in tongues like angels and I am sure with angels. Organizers allowed the Holy Spirit to move gently among the crowd, healing physically and emotionally.


Continue reading at Melanie's blog joy of nine9.

The Gospel through social media

By Robert Batch

St. Jerome in his Study by Fabriano
(Wikimedia Commons).

It is not a typical thing to hear Facebook and Twitter accompanied with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The question is, why is this the case?  We live in a society where we have become very dependent on the functions and convenience of social communication.  Whether it is the instant communication through Facebook messaging or texting, or the number of followers that you have through your Twitter Account.

Over the past 20 years we have seen a rapid development in technology, not only has it increased in speed, but at the same time it has decreased in size, giving us the ability to bring it where we like, when we like.  So why I am I writing about this topic, you might ask.

As consumers of media, or even frequent media users that are part of the Catholic Faith we must ask ourselves, are we living the Catholic life through our computer, ipad, iphone, and laptop screens?  Are we, through our use of media portraying the truths of the Gospel, and the love of Christ.  In my weekly podcast recordings, I have been focusing on the spirituality of St. Jose Maria Escriva, who was a fan of obtaining holiness through the small, and normal routines of everyday life.  Well I think it would be safe to say that technology has fallen under this category, of “normal” and “routine”


Continue reading Robert's reflection at Love is Calling.