“3-in-1” Evangelism

My uncle, Fr. Jim, is a born evangelist. His vocation story is pretty amazing. He studied at the Naval Academy as a young man, but stopped practicing his faith because he didn’t understand it. His deeper relationship with Christ started when some evangelical protestants at the Academy invited him to a Bible study. Their love for the Gospel ignited his passion for the Scriptures. But something was missing, and he returned to the Catholic Church. In time, learning from great evangelical Protestant converts to Catholicism, such as Scott Hahn, and studying the early Church Fathers fueled a fascinating interest in Catholic apologetics.

He graduated from the Academy and served as an officer on a nuclear submarine. When I was a boy, he married my Aunt, and they had two boys, my cousins. After returning to civilian life, he worked as an engineer and traveled all over the world as a consultant doing projects with Rockwell Collins. He decided to practice evangelism with every person who sat next to him on the airplane. As the years went on, he honed his method.

Socratic Evangelism

His approach to evangelism focused on building a relationship and asking questions. He loves the Socratic method because of the disarming power of good questions. One of his favorite questions was, “Imagine if there is an all-powerful and all-loving God in the Universe and… if that were the case, what would be the most effective way to communicate His very nature to human beings?” By asking the person to imagine the possibility of God existing, it sidestepped their skepticism and frequently led to the astonishing realization that the best, most effective way would be for God to become a man.

He often closed the conversations with one of two invitations. If they were a lapsed Catholic or Protestant, he would invite them to Mass. Even if he was landing far from home, he might suggest that they go check out a nearby parish.

His other closing came in the form of another question. “Do you think you might possibly be open in the future to inviting Jesus into your heart? Is there anything preventing you from doing this right now?” He once built a spreadsheet that calculated that out of about 2,000 airplane flights and 1000 conversations, about 40 people said that prayer with him right then and there on the plane. Remember, he’s an engineer. Numbers matter.

When he was in his mid-50s, my aunt tragically passed away. He worked hard for several years to process his grief and help his sons cope with their new reality. After several years, when my cousins were finishing college, he sat down with them to tell them about the call he felt to enter the priesthood. Knowing the depth of their dad’s faith, they encouraged him to do so. He applied, entered the seminary, and was ordained to the priesthood in 2022. He now works directly for Archbishop Lori of the Archdiocese of Baltimore as his Priest-secretary.

The Power of the Invitation

While he was in the seminary, as well as his first pastoral assignment as a parish priest, he exercised his love for evangelism in a larger context. He didn’t want to fly solo anymore. He wanted to send harvesters out into the harvest.

But the reality is that many Catholics struggle with evangelism. “What do I say? How do I say it? Isn’t it kind of awkward to talk about your faith?” He wanted to make it easy and concrete for his parishioners to say, “Yes, I can do that.” That’s where he came up with the idea for “3-in-1” Sign-up Sunday. He named it that in honor of the Most Holy Trinity.

He did some groundwork beforehand. For three weekends before the big day, he had carefully vetted nine carefully vetted parishioners who each briefly shared his or her testimony at Mass. Each shared for one or two minutes about: 1) His life “before.”  2) How an invitation to Mass or a Bible study, etc., from someone they knew changed their spiritual trajectory. 3) Their life “after.”  He wanted his parishioners to hear eyewitness testimony to the power of the invitation.

Then, on “3-in-1” Sign-up Sunday, he explained to his parishioners that none of this preparation was accidental. He wanted to challenge them to commit to inviting “three people in one year” to a Church event, be it Mass or something else. “3-in-1.” He put forms in the pews that people could commit to inviting three people, but told them that this wasn’t a homework assignment where someone was going to check their answers. It was a challenge and an opportunity to live the call to spread the Gospel.

He has done this at four parishes, with around 1000 parishioners total taking the pledge. He then worked with the parish to create a calendar of events to make it easy for them to extend an invitation. Initiatives like “Life’s Most Important Questions” Talk Series, a Men’s Axe-Throwing event, and parish outdoor movie nights drew strong crowds. People responded and started building a culture of evangelism. He even added a “Three in One Workshop,” where parishioners could receive training on how to invite people and evangelize.

We are Messengers

This approach to evangelism comes right out of the parables of Jesus. You might remember the one Jesus told about the king who sends out his messengers to invite guests to attend his son’s wedding feast. The first guests invited declined for all kinds of silly reasons, so the king sent out his messengers again to tell everyone about the feast. He wanted His son’s wedding feast to be full.

The wedding feast of the King’s son is the Mass. As the Catechism states, the Mass is a foretaste of the Heavenly wedding feast. Before we receive the Eucharist, the priest intones, “Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.”

The parable reveals several key points about evangelism. Evangelism is, first and foremost, an invitation. While it is true that we cannot save ourselves, God requires our free will response to the invitation in order to save us. He gives us the option of saying no. He won’t save us if we don’t want Him to.

This points out a second characteristic of evangelism found in the parable. As an evangelist, prepare yourself for rejection. People will say no for many different reasons, but in reality, they aren’t saying no to you. They are saying no to the great King who sent you as his messenger.

Which brings us to the third, and perhaps most important point of the parable. The people who will respond to the invitation will probably look different from what you expect. It might not be your stockbroker, or your pediatrician, or the commercial real estate developer. It might be your hairdresser, or the barista who is covered in tattoos, or the garbage man. The parable tells us that all are welcome and that you will probably find people who will respond to the invitation in the most unlikely places.

The beautiful truth is that you’re not alone in this process. Since it is God’s desire for you to be “on mission,” prayers for His assistance are what I like to call “irresistible prayers.” How could God fail to answer a prayer that is aligned with His will for you? So, say a prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to point out the person that God wants you to invite to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb today. If you say that prayer three times, you will probably get three answers. Three in one, done.

But if you say that prayer every day of the year, you’ll probably get 365 different answers. Before you know it, that wedding feast will be full to overflowing.

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