LA CROSSE — Sherry Weddell has been crisscrossing the U.S. and the globe to engage Catholics. Her main concerns are that Church attendance is on the decline, many Catholics no longer believe in a personal God, and the Church is in need of reform.
I attended a diocesan-wide training in La Crosse in 2013 where Weddell spoke.
Times of challenge
She began the presentation with this focus: “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,” Weddell said.
Equipping parishes
She co-founded and serves as co-director of the Catherine of Siena Institute, an affiliated international ministry of the Western Dominican Province dedicated to equipping parishes for the formation of lay Catholics for their mission in the world.
Weddell created the first charism discernment process specifically designed for Catholics in 1993. She has also developed numerous unique formation resources for evangelizing post-modern Catholics, facilitating gifts and vocational discernment, and understanding the theology and mission of the laity.
Forming Intentional Disciples
Weddell’s recent book, Forming Intentional Disciples, is a bestseller and has generated an enthusiastic response from pastoral leaders and committed Catholics.
What is evangelism? She says in her book, “The Holy Father has defined evangelism beautifully. It is ‘to serve men and women by revealing to them the love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ’ (Redemptoris Missio, 2).”
She says, “People sometimes conceive evangelism only in terms of assisting ‘inactive’ Catholics to become ‘active’ again, of getting them to come back to Mass, of taking up again their identity as Catholics.
“If we focus only on turning inactive Catholics once again into active ones, we may inadvertently skip over something essential: discipleship and mission.
“Do these ‘returning’ Catholics return to our parishes and to the Mass in order to follow Jesus? Are they actively seeking to receive the love of Christ through the sacraments and to bring the love of Christ to others?
“We must ask these questions because the true goal of evangelization is forming disciples and apostles, not just having more people in the pews on Sunday. Are they becoming ‘active’ because they have first become disciples? I ask this because discipleship, not just activity, is the true goal of evangelization.”
Vocation of the laity
She said a good place to begin is the idea that evangelism is intrinsic to the vocation of lay Christians, that ‘“All the laity are missionaries by baptism (Redemptoris Missio, 71).’”
Weddell says that when we speak of evangelization, we are talking about reaching out to the people and “calling them to become lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ and responsible members of his Church. Anything less than a proclamation and evangelization centered around life-long discipleship is less than Catholic.
“With this definition in mind, we can then ask: what is the best method to reach out to the unchurched and call them to discipleship? I believe that a very strong case can be made that forming and enabling lay Catholics to be the primary evangelists to the unchurched is the most effective and most truly Catholic way to go about our mission.”
The five thresholds of conversion
The participants learned 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.
Weddell puts heavy emphasis on sharing your own personal witness in gentle, intriguing, and non-threatening ways.
She highlighted the thresholds of conversion/pre-discipleship that individuals move in and out of, based on their life experiences:
1. Initial trust — When a person is able to trust or has a positive association with Jesus Christ, the Church, another Christian, or something identifiably Christian. Trust is not the same thing as active personal faith. But without some kind of bridge of trust in place, people will not move closer to God. Trust is the foundation of all relationships.
2. Spiritual curiosity — When a person finds that he or she is intrigued by or desires to know more about Jesus, his life, and his teachings, or some aspect of the Christian faith. Something about Christ or the Church captures his or her attention and he or she is inclined to want to know more. Curiosity is still essentially passive, but it is more than trust.
3. Spiritual openness — When a person acknowledges that he or she is open to the possibility of a personal and spiritual change in his or her life. This is a very difficult step to take, especially in our current culture, with its general negative view of religion and Christianity. Openness is not a commitment to change, but people who are open are simply admitting that they are OK with the possibility of change.
4. Spiritual seeking — When people move from a passive to an active seeking to know God, who is calling them to a relationship with Him in the Church. This is where a person is seeking to know if he or she can commit to Christ and the Church in a real way.
5. Intentional discipleship — This is the decision to “drop the nets” as the apostles did, to make a conscious commitment to follow the Lord Jesus in the midst of His Church as an obedient disciple and to reorder one’s life accordingly.
Called and gifted
To help disciples along the way, it is useful to help them discern their spiritual gifts. The process created by the institute provides a path for the discernment of charisms and personal call at the parish.
Called & Gifted™ is a three-part discernment process intended to help ordinary lay Catholics in the average parish discern their charisms by participating in an introductory workshop, taking a spiritual gifts inventory, working with a trained member, and engaging in an in-depth discernment process.
The Catherine of Siena Institute has trained Sarah and John Ramthun, Cathy Lins, and others within the Diocese of Madison as facilitators and interviewers for this process.
Weddell says, “Be prepared for conversion because when life at the parish level changes, the life of the whole Church will change.”
For more information on the Catherine of Siena Institute, go to www.siena.org or call 888-878-6789 (toll free in the U.S.).