FaceBook Evangelism
I was recently told by an evangelical friend from my former church on facebook that I talk more about Catholicism than Jesus. The person wrote that they were reading about the gospel of the Catholic Church on my pages, not the gospel of Jesus Christ.
This is how I responded:
"Jesus is the center of my life and is more important to me now than he ever has been. It was my return to the Catholic Church 6 years that brought that about.
I use facebook to explain the truth and beauty that I have found in the Catholic faith. I was misinformed for so many years and told things about the Catholic Church that were not true. Once I realized the joy peace and intimacy with God that can be had through Catholicism, it would be selfish to not share it with my brothers and sisters in Christ, who like me, never understood Catholicism . Every day more and more people are discovering this and my conversion/reversion to the Catholic Church was not an isolated event. That's why I frequently post about converts. To show that other evangelicals and Protestants studied, prayed and were led by God to join the Church. Many pastors losing their livelihoods in order to do it!
I didn't become Catholic on a whim, but strongly felt I needed to do it once God revealed to me the truth about the Church.
Without the grace of Christ in our lives, none of us can live the Christian life. I don't find the Church full of rules and laws. I find the Church like a gentle mother guiding its children along the path of salvation. We as Christians were never meant to be without the Church and as a Catholic I believe he gives all what we need to live the life He has called us to.
The gospel of the Catholic Church is the gospel of Jesus Christ:
God sent his only son into the world to save sinners, by dying on the cross, and rising again . Most of my fb friends already know that, and I desire to share with them what additional grace can be had for them through the Catholic Church.
If you discovered a treasure , you would share it with others. That's how I feel about my Catholic faith. "
This is how I responded:
"Jesus is the center of my life and is more important to me now than he ever has been. It was my return to the Catholic Church 6 years that brought that about.
I use facebook to explain the truth and beauty that I have found in the Catholic faith. I was misinformed for so many years and told things about the Catholic Church that were not true. Once I realized the joy peace and intimacy with God that can be had through Catholicism, it would be selfish to not share it with my brothers and sisters in Christ, who like me, never understood Catholicism . Every day more and more people are discovering this and my conversion/reversion to the Catholic Church was not an isolated event. That's why I frequently post about converts. To show that other evangelicals and Protestants studied, prayed and were led by God to join the Church. Many pastors losing their livelihoods in order to do it!
I didn't become Catholic on a whim, but strongly felt I needed to do it once God revealed to me the truth about the Church.
Without the grace of Christ in our lives, none of us can live the Christian life. I don't find the Church full of rules and laws. I find the Church like a gentle mother guiding its children along the path of salvation. We as Christians were never meant to be without the Church and as a Catholic I believe he gives all what we need to live the life He has called us to.
The gospel of the Catholic Church is the gospel of Jesus Christ:
God sent his only son into the world to save sinners, by dying on the cross, and rising again . Most of my fb friends already know that, and I desire to share with them what additional grace can be had for them through the Catholic Church.
If you discovered a treasure , you would share it with others. That's how I feel about my Catholic faith. "
posted by Russ Rentler, M.D. | 8:00 AM
3 Comments:
>>Fidelity to the Gospel can never be infidelity to the Church<<
Christianity rests on two poles, the Gospel and the Church. The Church must be perpetually be referred to the Gospel, but the Gospel must be perpetually lived in the Church. Fidelity to the Gospel can never be infidelity to the Church. The true, the only legitimate reform is that which has its source in love of the Church, which causes the agony of not seeing the Church so perfect as Christ would wish it, but which at no moment can be separated from the Church. For this, the unique Church, remains ever the Spouse of Christ Jesus, whatever be the sins of the men who make it up. We do have the duty of humbling ourselves; we have never the right to humble the Church. -
The Scandal of Truth, written by Jean Daniélou, S.J., in 1962
thanks Owen! Very apropo for this issue.
The gospel was never meant to be lived outside and separate from THE CHURCH.
I will post this on my FB page !
thanks
further, in answer to your (rhetorical?) question:
"If you discovered a treasure , you would share it with others. That's how I feel about my Catholic faith."
Penn Gillette gives about as good an answer to that as I've ever heard in this vlog:
"I've always said, I don't respect people who don't proselytize...If you believe there's a heaven and hell and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life and that, well, it's not really worth tellin' them this just because it would make it socially awkward...ah, how much to you have to hate somebody to *not* proselytize? How much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?
I mean, if I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you and you didn't believe it but that trick was bearing down on you - there's a certain point where I tackle you and *this* is more important than that.
This guy was a really good guy. He was polite and honest and sane and he cared enough about me to proselytize and give me a bible..."
Gillette goes on to say that he knows "there is no God and that one polite person doesn't change that but I'll tell you, he was a very, very, very good man,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhG-tkQ_Q2w
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