Evangelism at 30,000 Feet

By Todd Aglialoro

Catholic Answers

I have a plane trip coming up, and with it, my standard pre-flight anxiety.

It’s not fear of flying (I don’t love hurtling through low orbit, separated from death by a few inches of aluminum and plexiglass, but I tolerate it)—it’s fear that God may put someone in the next seat for me to evangelize.

Some people—extroverts, probably—relish the opportunity to witness, but not me. I’m just no good at it. Give me a theological point to argue, an enemy of the Faith to fight, and I’m your man. But I can’t seem to work up the gumption to lean over to a stranger and say, “Hello there. Can I tell you about Jesus?”

Nor am I particularly good at explaining the very basics of what I believe and why. I remember once in high school getting into a lunchroom argument with the school atheist. He wore Slayer t-shirts and mosh-pit bruises, and would later be elected senior class president—an embarrassment that the student council soon rectified by impeaching him on technical grounds. (They couldn’t do anything, though, when the same voting bloc picked Wish You Were Here as our prom song.)

“How do you know God exists?” he asked with an edge to his voice.

From my mouth squeaked out the feeblest of replies: “Because he does.” Honestly, that was the best I could do.

I won’t be too hard on my ignorant teenage self, though. Fact is, many of us are more effective apologists and evangelists when we have something to work with. Cold-calling souls or giving a basic witness can be a much harder task than, say, responding to a direct attack on the Eucharist. As Chesterton put it, “There is about all complete conviction a kind of huge hopelessness. The belief is so big that it takes a long time to get it into action.”

So I’ve been thinking about what I’d say if, while several miles above the earth, someone were to see me crossing myself before eating a bag of peanuts and ask, in all sincerity, Why do you believe it? Ground-up, blank-slate answer: Go.

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Dynamic Catholic Book Program

It all started with a very simple idea: 32% of the people at Christmas Mass only come to Church once a year. It’s our best opportunity to re-engage them. For years we have been letting them come and go with no real effort to win them back. What if it was as simple as just giving them a great Catholic book on the way out of church? It is. Books change our lives. Sometimes all it takes to bring people back to Church is the right book. Learn more about the Book Program.

What is the Dynamic Catholic Parish Book Program?
A simple and affordable way to re-engage disengaged Catholics and re-energize your parish.



How does it work?
1. You order a bunch of books.
2. At Christmas, Easter, or Ash Wednesday, friendly volunteers pass out the books to people as they leave Church.
3. You encourage people to read the book with regular and inspiring announcements.
4. You hear people talking about how the book is changing their lives for months, and months, and months…

How much does it cost?
We believe in keeping things as simple as possible. Order 500 copies or more for $2 per copy (including shipping). Orders 6 to 499 copies are $3 per copy (including shipping). See the titles in the Parish Book Program.

Interesting Facts
1. The Dynamic Catholic Parish Book Program (DCPBP) is the most successful New Evangelization initiative in the United States today.
2. Parishes that participate in the program three years in a row experience a 9.1% increase in attendance and a 10.4% increase in collections on average.
3. So far the DCPBP has served more than 4,000 of the 15,000 parishes in the United States.
4. 99.7% of parishes that participate say they will do it again.
5. More than 5,000,000 books and CDs have been distributed through the program.
6. Since its inception, the DCPBP has brought more people back to the Catholic Church than any other program in America.
7. The first book offered through this program was Rediscover Catholicism. First published in 2001, this book was on the Catholic Book Publishers Association bestseller list for more than seven years in a row (or 364 weeks) before the Dynamic Catholic Parish Book Program began. Today it is the bestselling Catholic book in America ever!
8. Parishioners who read Catholic books on a regular basis contribute four times more financially to their parish (and are three times more likely to volunteer at the their parish) than parishioners who do not.
9. In 2007, only one percent of American Catholics read a Catholic book. The DCBP has increased the number to 9.3% in 2012. That is a 900% increase in just five short years.
10. Spiritual reading has been central to our spiritual development since before the invention of the printing press. The great spiritual directors of every age have encouraged those they direct to read great texts that would lead to spiritual growth.
11. If only one person comes back to Church because you pass out books… and that person is forty years old, lives to eighty, and puts just $10 in the collection each week, he/she will contribute $20,800 to your parish during the remainder of his/her life. You would have to buy 10,401 books for it to be a bad financial investment. If just two people come back you would have to buy 20,801 books for it to be a bad financial investment. If ten people come back to Church you would have to buy 104,001 books to lose money.
12. 32% of Catholics only come to church once a year – at Christmas! After Christmas, Ash Wednesday and Easter are our best opportunities to re-engage Catholics.
13. Order less than 500 books for $3 a copy. Order more than 500 books for $2 a copy. Shipping and handling is included in these prices. 14. The books we offer for as little as $2 usually retail for $17.95 each. These are books, not booklets or pamphlets.
15. 43% of parishes call within two weeks of distributing the books to order more.
16. The largest single parish order ever was 10,000 books by Holy Spirit in Fremont, California.
17. St. Mary of the Annunciation in Mundelein, Illinois has participated in the program eight times, which is the record at this time.
18. In 2012, the Archdiocese of Minneapolis ordered 200,000 copies of Rediscover Catholicism to distribute at Christmas Masses, making it the largest single order in the history of the program.

Forming Intentional Disciples

How can we transmit a living, personal Catholic faith to future generations? By coming to know Jesus Christ, and following him as his disciples. These are times of immense challenge and immense opportunity for the Catholic Church.

Consider these statistics for the United States.

• Only 30 percent of Americans who were raised Catholic are still practicing.
• Fully 10 percent of all adults in America are ex-Catholics.
• The number of marriages celebrated in the Church decreased dramatically, by nearly 60 percent, between 1972 and 2010.
• Only 60 percent of Catholics believe in a personal God.

If the Church is to reverse these trends, the evangelizers must first be evangelized-in other words, Catholics-in-the-pew must make a conscious choice to know and follow Jesus before they can draw others to him. This work of discipleship lies at the heart of Forming Intentional Disciples, a book designed to help Church leaders, parish staff and all Catholics transform parish life from within. Drawing upon her fifteen years of experience with the Catherine of Siena Institute, Sherry Weddell leads readers through steps that will help Catholics enter more deeply into a relationship with God and the river of apostolic creativity, charisms, and vocation that flow from that relationship for the sake of the Church and the world.

Learn about the five thresholds of postmodern conversion, how to open a conversation about faith and belief, how to ask thought-provoking questions and establish an atmosphere of trust, when to tell the Great Story of Jesus, how to help someone respond to God's call to intentional discipleship, and much more.

And be prepared for conversion because when life at the parish level changes, the life of the whole Church will change.

Buy this book on Amazon for only $11.99.