How can we share our faith with others when the people around us just aren’t interested in “religious” things? You know–the situations where the mere mention of “Church” or “Jesus” would bring the conversation to a standstill. It’s called pre-evangelization.
Pre-evangelization is our Christian witness and dialogue (General Directory for Catechesis, §47-48). It’s the conversations we have where we don’t explicitly proclaim the Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ, but we do show how basic human needs include a desire for God, a longing for the transcendent–for something more. When followers of Jesus transform communities and the world and live in a new way–this is part of the dynamic of pre-evangelization.
The idea of pre-evangelization is important because it’s a reminder to each of us that before many people are ready, interested, able, or even willing to hear the Gospel message, they need to first recognize that desire for God, the desire for something more. When we find the touch points that allow us to make these meaningful connections with those around us, we’re doing pre-evangelization.
Our civic holiday today in the United States, Labor Day, offers a great opportunity for this kind of dialogue.
Work is part of our basic human existence. It’s something almost everyone can relate to, regardless of whether “work” means paid-employment, volunteering, care giving, parenting, or being a student. But most Americans struggle to make sense of work. Are we supposed to like it? What about when we don’t? How do we avoid a system where people are trapped in jobs that don’t pay enough to sustain one’s family? Does our choice of work set or shape our identity? Do I work too much or too little? Would my work be satisfying if I was paid more or less? What if my work isn’t not my real calling? How do I balance work and personal relationships?
Part of the richness of Church teaching is that it includes centuries of meditation on these oh-so-human questions. As Pope Francis asserted, “Work is a necessity, part of the meaning of life on this earth, a path to growth, human development and personal fulfillment” (Laudato Si, §128). Don’t be afraid to enter into conversations with friends and family members about basic human realities, like work. Ask others what they think. Listen. Explore how work does or does not connect to a person’s spiritual beliefs [remember, most Americans have spiritual beliefs even if they don’t identify as “religious”]. Share how your understanding of God illuminates the reality of work. How your challenge as a Christian, living a transformed life is to experience work “at its best” as “a deeply holy thing that ought to honor our dignity as we help God ‘maintain the fabric of the world'” (Laudato Si, §128). Share what troubles you about work in our world, how the God-inspired dignity and basic humanity of all persons is not affirmed and respected when work becomes a form of oppression and opportunity for sin and injustice.
When those we witness to are nudged toward considering the basic human desire for God, for a deeper purpose to work, for transcendence in the everyday world, we’re doing pre-evangelization. With the help of the Holy Spirit, the space we create and spark we inspire through our pre-evangelistic witness around the most basic human realities (even something as mundane as our work) cultivates the conditions for curiosity about the God who teaches us to think so differently about our world.
Yes, we want to be ready to give the initial proclamation of God’s plan of salvation in Jesus Christ at all times. But, if the person we’re encountering isn’t curious, isn’t yet sure that spiritual longing even exists, this is where pre-evangelization fills a gap and creates opportunities for on-going relationship and conversation. Be on the lookout then for ways to be not merely an evangelist, but a pre-evangelizer too!
Copyright 2015, Colleen Vermeulen
Colleen Vermeulen
Colleen Reiss Vermeulen, M.Div., M.N.A., blogs, ministers in parish life and lay/deacon formation, and serves as a U.S. Army Reserve officer. She and her husband, Luke, have been married since 2011 and live in Ypsilanti, MI with their two young sons.
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