Beyond the Comfort Zone (Formation Series No 2)

This is the first part of Peter Nicholson's report from a consultation with young adults involved in the Edmund Rice network throughout Australia. This report follows on from Put Out Into the Deep (2001), which identified the formation of Edmund Rice Camp leaders as an important issue for further consideration. Link

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Young Adult Ministry
Brisbane Catholic Education
GPO Box 1201
Brisbane 4001

Phone + 61 7 3840 0510
Fax +61 7 3844 5101
Email: miorio@bne.catholic.edu.au

Also: Please let CYM  know if you have any stories, young adults we can interview, young adults whom you think might write well, topics you would like to suggest etc etc....

Evangelization for young adults

written by a young adult in Broken Bay

Some people think Evangelization is about standing on the street corner proclaiming what God is all about. In some ways it is about that, I spose we have got stuck in the perspective of certain people doing certain things at certain times. A person getting up in front of a Church. Talking about a group and then heading down to the back of the Church, after the mass to talk to people about the group. All well and good. But the people you are actually targeting probably have already walked out by the time you have already started talking in front of the Church. Let alone after the Church. They race out. The people on the edges that are the people you want to get in touch with. Not the people who are already involved. Well and good. The people involved are pretty important.

Really Evangelization is about those people on the edges who come a long for some reason. They find involvement in Church activities a drag, unmeaningful or something or other. Evangelization is about bringing people in relationship with those who are not involved in the relationships. Bringing them to be part of Church activities. Evangelization is about getting in contact with people on the edges and people who don't even go to Church. The strategy is bringing the people on the edges together. Of course when you do this you put the people in the middle a bit out. You take a risk. Hopefully through relationship (and your own personal prayer) it will pay off.

The question then becomes how do we put this process into practice? In our world people are fast. People are very fast. They come into Church and they are waiting. Waiting at the start of the Mass for about 2 or 3 minutes before a Mass starts. It is one of the only times when they are not thinking about "I have to get somewhere, I've got to go and have dinner, I've got to go and have breakfast, I am hungry. I've got to leave the Church". Thus for a few minutes they are looking at their watches and thinking I've got 2 minutes. That's all right. This is one of the only times when people have a chance to go up to somebody and say "hello my name is Ben, how are you, what's your name and how was your day, how was your week?" Clearly it's not just about social things. But what you're doing is putting them on edge. You are putting them into a situation where they don't know it was coming. You are breaking down the barriers of "I don't know anybody in the Church"...to..."I know somebody. I know Ben. I have shaken his hand for the last couple of weeks. He is a good bloke". So what you're really doing is just typifying the relationship. Getting the ball rolling. Well and good what comes along with the Church(the sacraments, the praying, the different groups, the mowing the lawns), there really good but the focus at this stage should be on the introduction. There are different stages in the relationship. This stage is the beginning. I don't know anybody. Why is this person talking? I don't even know their name. Who are they? I can't trust this person.

What you need is a group of people (preferably young adults) who can go up to other young adults and begin this journey in Evangelization. The "Beginning". You may have 4 doors in the Church. So you get 4 people. 1 each to stand at the side door, and 2 to stand at the main door. You don't have to say hello to everyone. Just a few. So next week when you say "hello" you may have forgotten their name, but they may not of forgotten yours. You may have shaken 10 people's hands but they have only shaken 1 hand. They will say hi "Ben". You do this a couple months running and you form the relationship. They are expecting someone to say, "how are you going?" instead of them thinking "When is it going to start, come on, here we go, bla, bla, bla?"

This introduction can also be utilised at the sign of peace. Instead of just shaking their hand, You can say "Hi I am Ben, peace be with you". Of course the preferable time is when you can start the conversation.