[00:00:00] Intro: Hey everybody, welcome to the EquipCast, a weekly podcast for the Archdiocese of Omaha. I'm your host, Jim Jansen. Now let's dive into some encouragement and inspiration to equip you to live your faith and to be fruitful in your mission. Let's go.

[00:00:23] Jim Jansen: Hey everybody, welcome to the EquipCast Coach's Corner, where we break down important topics to equip you and your team for mission. In your family, in your parish, and in your life. My name is Jim Jansen, and today I'm going to talk to you about how to bless others, the blessed method of evangelization, and the difference between evangelization and proselytism.

Okay, so, Pope Francis talks a lot about proselytism. He does it as a way to distinguish between proselytism and true evangelization. [00:01:00] See, proselytism, at kind of the face value, just means making converts. But in Pope Francis's mind, it's a type of false evangelization. And he wants to distinguish it between that and true evangelization.

A couple things to keep in mind here. First off, he is not trying to discourage us from evangelization and making converts. Remember, this is the same pope who gave us the term missionary disciples and who called us to everyday preaching. You see, the pope's critique is linked, well, to what he calls the prosperity gospel.

This notion that if you convert and you come to know our God, you'll find wealth and ease. Well, that couldn't be farther from what Jesus promises, right? We follow a God who says, come and follow me. Take up your cross and come and follow me. You see, at root, the issue is freedom. Proselytism is manipulating.

He uses things like financial gain, or extreme fear of the end of the [00:02:00] world, or something like that, to help manipulate people into becoming a convert, or becoming part of someone's religious club. See, proselytism always has some sort of self-gain, such as status, or influence, or membership for the person who's sharing.

That's very different from evangelization. Evangelization is a witness to a treasure that we found, and we do it simply for love of God and for love of the other person. Now, I have to be honest, if you're listening to this, you're probably fine. People that violate others freedom typically aren't listening to the EquipCast.

Uh, I know that because we asked them in a survey. No, I mean, right, but people that violate others freedom, They're not afraid of offending people. If you're concerned about being pushy, it's a sign that in some way you care about others freedom. Good job. What I want to do is I want to give you a simple method that [00:03:00] you can use, a simple acronym, some churches use it, to help us remember how to engage with others in a natural way that respects their freedom.

So here we go. The BLESS method.

We should always be talking to God about others more than we're talking to others about God. Whoever it is in our life friends, neighbors, coworkers we want to bring those people to the Lord. And we want to ask Him, Lord, what are you doing in their life? We want to be in relationship, we want to, we want to listen to what the Lord is doing, and we want to hear where he's inviting us to help.

Sometimes we rush in, and we start talking to other people about God, totally unaware of how he's already at work in their life. So, the first step is to begin with prayer. Next is to listen, right? L. Listen to people. I have to confess, sometimes when I ask people, like, Hey, how's it going? I do so [00:04:00] mid stride.

You ever do this where you're like, Hey, what's up? And you're like, you're like 10 steps past them before they're like, Well, I'm fine, I guess. Just got diagnosed with a serious illness, but never mind. You know, I mean, like, slow down. Listen to people. Ask people, what's your story? How are things going? I mean, how are they really going?

How do you feel about that? Just take time to listen to people. Eat. Eating slows us down. Meals force us to, I mean, at least for a little bit, to, to like, chew. And be present to other people. When we share life together, and there's no better way to do this than to share a meal, it helps keep us from the pace of life that is isolating us.

See, holidays are a perfect time for this. Perfect time for doing it with family, especially. One of the hardest groups that we often find to share our faith with. Follow it away, friends and family. Begin by eating [00:05:00] together. Uh, well, begin with prayer. Listen. And then eat together. It gives you a chance to slow down and to be present.

And when you do that, you don't have to be present to people too long before you'll start to notice needs. And that's where the next letter comes in. S. Serve. Just, like, do the dishes, shovel the snow. Just notice the things in people's life where you have an opportunity to serve. When you're present to people, and you're watching and listening, Those needs will show up and step in as the Lord gives you opportunity, and that will create space for your final ask, share.

When you've been in someone's life, what you share, right, when you've been like taking time in prayer, when you've been asking the Lord what he's doing and trying to notice that, when you've been asking him to bless people in your prayer, when you've been listening to them, when you've been sharing life [00:06:00] with them, when you've been serving, that sets you up.

So that what you do share is far more likely to fit and be relevant and actually be a blessing in their life. You can share things like, you know, I've been reading this great book. Or I joined this awesome small group, or I started to be really honest in my prayer, or I'm doing this late-night holy hour, and I'm really tired the next day, but it's so worth it.

Whatever you're sharing is far more likely to fit if you've taken the time to begin with prayer, to listen, to eat and be present in their life, and to serve them. Now, I want to put some of you at ease. None of this is about success. Our Heavenly Father loves you. Just for trying, just for joining your heart to his who, who longs and aches for the return of the lost sheep.

Jesus tells us that there's more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than 99 who have no need of righteousness. And [00:07:00] no need of repentance. I mean, we all need righteousness. Anyway, right, like when we, when we take the time to pray, to be present to people's lives, the Lord conforms our heart to his. So let me pray for you now.

Oh, Father, I ask that you would grant us a share of your love for those in our life who do not know you. Maybe those who know you. Only in a distant or superficial way. Father, please help us to recognize the opportunities that you've given us. Grant us the courage and the patience we need to be present to those in our life, and to share when confidence when the time is right.

Amen. All right, what are your thoughts? I'd love to hear, uh, what you've got in mind. fears and anxieties, your desire to be an evangelist and to avoid proselytism. You can respond back in the chat at equip. ArchOmaha. org. Again, that's [00:08:00] Equip.ArchOmaha.org. Got a couple links there as well, talking about Pope Francis on proselytism if you want to dive in a little bit deeper on that.

And a little bit more on the BLESS methodology. Thanks everybody. Thanks for listening to the EquipCast. We hope this episode has inspired you to live your faith and equip you to be fruitful in your mission. Stay connected with us by going to Equip.ArchOmaha.org. God bless and see you next time.