Advent Mission 2023: Your Story Matters
“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." - 1 Peter 3:15
Josh Dart from the Evangelical Catholic traveled to St. Ann’s Parish in Coppell, TX to share the powerful truth about storytelling within evangelization. As a devoted husband, father of six, and lead ministry consultant, Josh spends his time training parishes, campus ministries, and the average Joe to “be the best at reaching the lost with the love of Jesus” (Evangelical Catholic).
We must not permit our averageness to hinder our mission to share the Father’s love. Was it not the Divine Father Himself who chose to enter into the averageness of humanity? The mystery and irony of Christmas is that the Perfect Independent Creator became a helpless baby dependent upon His mother. And it was precisely through that baby growing into maturity with obedience to the Father and the promptings of the Holy Spirit that the world was changed.
The next step is to learn the skill of sharing your story.
This step is critical since one cannot argue against someone’s personal experience. Josh Dart argues that it is a way of sharing an objective truth in a subjective manner. It's quite simple, contrary to our own thoughts about feeling unequipped or fearful. When we are in conversation with another, it is not only easy, but exciting to talk about someone that we love, for example, our spouse or best friend. Essentially, evangelization is introducing the Groom, your #1 best friend, the One you love to another. Luke 6:45 says that “out of the fullness of the heart, his mouth speaks.” Perhaps the most important skill needed to share your faith is to have a love for Jesus to the point where we are eager to talk about Him. If that eagerness is lacking, we are encouraged to take that into prayer, for that is the perfect place to allow Jesus to enter into.
In prayer, we can therefore reflect on a moment or a season where we encountered the love of God in a personal way, even if we have multiple of those moments or seasons. It can take time, nonetheless, to think about our own personal story or one of our stories and then learn how to articulate it. Spend time in prayer invoking the Holy Spirit, asking Him to reveal those moments or seasons, since He “comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because it intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will” (Romans 8:26-29).
Having our own parishioners understand why our story matters will ignite a fire within us that enables us to bring others closer to Jesus, form them as disciples, and send them out to transform the world. That is our mission. St. Ann’s invites you to unravel this powerful message in prayer and ready yourselves for our upcoming Lenten Mission in March.
Most of us feel that we are not ready to be bold and share the faith with the random person at the gas station or grocery store because we’re not equipped or because we’re inadequate. Yet, Jesus says, “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). Our helplessness and weakness is actually the advantage we can take to going out and making disciples to change the world. The truth is that it is not by our own doing that we become strong and courageous. It is not by our performance or by comprehending complex theology. Better yet, it is by our own nothingness; because when we are emptied of our own self, just like the empty, mediocre stable, then the Perfect Creator can come into our hearts and completely fill us up allowing us to become partakers in His divine nature. Our job is to empty ourselves of our own pride, fears, and indifference and learn how to discern and act with the Lord. Our job is not to take up the daunting task of converting a stranger to the faith but to participate in the work that God is already doing in their heart.
Josh Dart tells us that the first step
in doing this is by listening and asking good questions, just like Jesus was found doing in the temple (Luke 2:45). He said that we must know our audience because “if we do not know what kind of soil it is, how are we going to know how to plant the seed?” In the Gospels, Jesus was asked 183 questions and he only answered 3 of them directly. In fact, He asked over 300 questions in the Gospels. In asking questions, Jesus gained the opportunity to be heard and received insight into the disposition of their hearts to the Gospel. Think also about Mary. Her first recorded words were a question, “how can this be?” Indeed, we will continue to question how the Lord can use an average person like us, but all we have to do is say yes and God will take care of the rest. Their participation with the Father created the space for His will to be done.
