_Snippet of the Show
“Your role in the kingdom of Heaven is to advance the Gospel in the world, and maybe this quarantine can reemphasize the power of the laity.”_

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We want to hear from you! Email us at eksb@ascensionpress.com and don't forget to text “EKSB” to 33-777 to subscribe!​ You can also go to [AscensionPress.com](media.ascensionpress.com) full shownotes.

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Check out the shownotes at AscensionPress.com or text EKSB to 33-777.

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Today we are pulling an episode from the archives about spiritual warfare, becuase it's a hugely important topic.

Quite literally, spiritual warfare is a struggle between two kingdoms—a battle between man and that which draws man away from God.

This fighting and resisting evil is a common experience, yet many don’t believe they are at war. Therefore they come unprepared to fight the battle.

We discuss the Church Fathers’ understanding of spiritual warfare, the context behind the Church’s teachings on the subject, and practical ways you can resist evil and equip yourself with the best possible resources.

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Today is a short episode about the meaning of generosity in the Christian life. We don’t usually hear about generosity until tithing time, but generosity extends far beyond dollars. We need to practice generosity at all times, especially when it comes to our prayers and participation in the Church.

Snippet from the Show
Generosity is not God asking too much of us, it is God asking for a fraction of what he has already done for us.

SHOWNOTES
2 Corinthians 8:9 - For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

Philippians 2: 5-8 - Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.

• GoFundMe for the VanVickle family

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The repentance aspect of Advent is highly neglected but extremely important. Most people like to focus on the love of God made man (which is huge, don’t get me wrong) but what is the proper response to this great love? Repentance.

So, how do we repent, why do we repent, why is Advent a season of repentance?

Snippet from the Show
Our entire Theology revolves around repentance because it’s not Jesus overlooking our sins, it’s him dying for us so that we may be transformed.

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We also talk a bit about parish bureaucracy and the hierarchy of the Church. Let’s just say you should pray for your parish.

What do you think about philosophical approaches to evangelization? Do they work? Are they helpful? Email us at eksb@ascensionpress.com with your story, question, or comment—or if you’ve got a new nickname for Dave.

Snippet from the Show
“Your spouse is not sufficient to make you happy. They are a human person and your heart has an infinite longing that only an infinite God can fulfill. So if you demand your husband or wife to complete you, you are asking them to be God for you. That’s unrealistic.”

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Snippet from the Show
This is not the time for good priests, good bishops, and good Catholics; it is a time for heroic priests, heroic bishops, and heroic Catholics.

Shownotes

Listener Feedback from Amanda
Last week I met with a local parish priest to talk about the possibility of creating an evangelization position at his parish. I'm a former campus missionary (Brew City Catholic, I think Gomer spoke at one of our annual conferences!) and Father wanted to invite me to help him convince his parish and finance councils that creating a dedicated Director of Evangelization position would benefit the parish. In order to do this, he asked if I'd be able to develop something like a 5 year plan. As soon as I left that meeting I searched "Parish evangelization podcasts" which is how I came across the two of you! In the past week, you've become my favorite podcast. I love the practicals! My question for you is this: where should I start? Do you have any resources that I could explore as I begin to develop this plan? My "Step One" as it were is simply to start an intercessory prayer group, but I'm rather intimidated by what is a very daunting task. If we succeed in convincing the council that this position is worth it, I would in fact be the only full time person on staff. Our religious education program is through a different parish. It would be the pastor and I starting almost essentially from scratch. This is a vague request, but I appreciate any wisdom you can share!

8 Things to Consider When Developing a Parish Evangelization Plan

1. ADULTS NEED CONVERSION: Most Catholic parish employees and volunteers do not think adult Catholics need evangelization, but they desperately do. Evangelicals convert adults. They target adults and they get them. We don’t because we just make assumptions about faith and conversion.

2. STUDY OF EVANGELIZATION: Your parish council and finance council needs to understand the Church’s vision of evangelization and Catholic discipleship. You need to study the heck out of this so it becomes second-nature to you and you can educate the staff, the councils, and any key stakeholders.

3. START AT THE END OF CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP: List the qualities of a Catholic disciple in your parish. What are the different aspects of following Christ that matter most. Then ask yourself, “What do we currently offer and what new things need to come into being that will lead people to this end goal of discipleship?”

4. THE PITCH NEEDS A TIMELINE: Your councils want practicals. Your case becomes stronger when you offer a timeline and your strategic initiatives to them to consider.

5. SOW THE SEEDLINGS YOUR FIRST YEAR: Councils want to see the sizzle, “What are you offering us now?” They want to see where the money goes quickly, but you need the time to build up discipleship. So, create seedling programs that are short and sweet that will perhaps later be developed into full-blown ministries or processes. This demonstrates your are building something and you take away their anxiety.

6. THE FORMALIZED GOAL OF ONE-ON-ONE MINISTRY: Part of my job is meeting one-on-one with people and working with them. Start with the classes and funnel them down to the small group. From the small group, try to connect with them one-on-one. Also, the people in the office and the pastor and the councils and any other stakeholders need to see that meeting one-on-one is an essential part of your ministry. Others will gossip incessantly that you aren’t doing your job because you aren’t in your office. But meeting with people is your job.

7. PARTNER WITH ALREADY EXISTING MINISTRIES: The lowest hanging fruit is partnering with the ministries and groups that already exist at your parish. Your job will be to change the culture toward evangelization, constantly holding evangelization up to them and showing them how central it is to the Catholic life. Offer retreats, days of reflection, brief talks, testimonies, whatever it takes to these groups to spread the gospel.

8. TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE PARISH’S CULTURE: Do not, for the love of Christ, try to put a round peg in a square hole. Understand your parish’s culture and specific ministries’ cultures before you start imposing your approach onto them. Realize culture is expressed through things like schedules and priorities at the parish. Do your best to work within the culture to change the culture, but don’t think you'll be successful if you blindly start throwing things around. Nothing will stick. Nothing will change, unless you’re patient!

Five Practical Takeaways

1. Pray for the Councils who will make these decisions. And listeners, let’s all pray a Hail Mary right now for Amanda, her pastor, and her parish.
2. Meet regularly with a group of like-minded people in the parish to pray and discuss the missionary nature of the Church and the parish.
3. Come up with your top three essential tasks of a director of evangelization and email them to us. We will figure out what to do with them.
4. List five things besides going to Mass that makes someone a practicing Catholic. Do something daring for the gospel.

Resources
Steubenville Discipleship Quad
Models of the Church by Cardinal Avery Dulles
The 99: An Evangelization Mission Series
Pocket Guide to the Rosary by Matt Fradd

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For two weeks we kept trying to record a show together, but my daughter ended up in the hospital (she’s home now) for a few days and threw everything off. Prayers appreciated! Dave was flying all over the country talking about Catholic spiritual warfare (like a gentleman ought) so instead I’m bringing you another example from my own ministry of how I preach the gospel.

This talk was given to the men's group at my parish (even though some people don’t like those cough Dave cough) and focuses on the message of salvation through Genesis up to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and points to the responsibility this puts on Christians to spread the good news.

We will be back with a regular show next week so you can hear the wonderful vibrato of “The Bearded Fox” himself.

Snippet from the Show
“The very spirit of Christ is breathed out upon us, giving us the ability to overcome sin, death, and darkness in our own lives. The Holy Spirit is the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ unleashed into the human heart.”

SHOWNOTES

Matthew 28:16-20 - “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.’”

Dr. Scott Hahn - “The moment I’m more outraged at another person’s sin than my own is the day I need a reality check, because their sins don’t send me to hell the last time I checked.”

Genesis 3:15 - “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

GK Chesterton on Original Sin - “The only doctrine of the church that’s empirically verifiable”

St. Paul - “I do the very thing I don’t want to do, and I don’t do the very thing I want to do. Who will deliver me from this wretched body?”

Two questions to ask yourself

1. Why is it so difficult for you to evangelize?
2. How has the resurrection of Jesus changed your life?

Resources

• Frank Sheed, Theology and Sanity
• Pope St. John Paul II, Theology of the Body

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If you are a catechist, thinking about becoming a catechist, or work with catechists in any way, this episode will be extremely helpful.

Snippet from the Show
What is catechesis? It’s about giving growth to a faith that already exists because of evangelization that has already happened. But if evengalization hasn’t happened, what are we maturing?

5 Practical Takeaways

1. Read and pray with Ephesians 4:1-16
2. Memorize Catechesi Tradendae paragraph five.
3. Handwrite every student’s name and pray for them for 1 min every day.
4. Write one sentence per lesson that ties it to the person of Jesus Christ.
5. Come up with one example from your life per lesson.

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The Church needs the voice of the laity to speak up! Priests can’t go into your office and nuns can’t go into your friend’s house (probably). We are the ones that must carry the Gospel into our homes, schools, jobs, and public places.

Snippet from the Show
“Catholics were attempting to be modest and self-critical instead of being triumphant … We went from being triumphant and engaging in apologetics to just being apologetic.”

Check out the shownotes for today's episode at ascensionpress.com/everykneeshallbow

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Today’s totally made up middle name for Dave is brought to you by listener Lina., who also asks the questions that we are answering in this show - thank you Lina!

We’re talking about the vine, the branches, and the backyard … (Dave bought a new house). We start with how to open your home to engage the culture and build community and then get to a question from Lina who asks, “What are the practical steps to stay grafted onto the vine when you’ve been sent to work out in the vineyard?”

In other words, how do we keep Jesus as the defining characteristic of our life when we feel called to go off and do great things on our own or within our parish?

Snippet from the Show
“The presence of suffering and persecution is the way that God makes you better, stronger, and woven even tighter with Christ the vine.”

Check out the shownotes for today's episode at ascensionpress.com/everykneeshallbow

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Dave “Lay Assistant to Exorcists” VanVickle and I talk about this vital aspect of winning hearts for Christ, as well as the importance of repentance. On a practical note, we also talk about how to start intercessory prayer groups.

Check out today's shownotes at ascensionpress.com/everykneeshallbow

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Snippet from the Show
“Taking someone’s heart of stone to a heart of flesh is a supernatural act. You are making them alive in Christ Jesus. That is a bigger miracle than resurrecting a deceased corpse to natural life.”

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Snippet from the Show
“One person can bring about dramatic change at a parish.”

We want to hear from you! Email us at eksb@ascensionpress.com with your story, question, or comment—or if you’ve got a new nickname for Dave.

SHOWNOTES

How do you lead when you are not in a leadership position?

• Try to be close friends with the current staff on evangelization teams.
• Try to win the front of “what is the truth” and make sure everyone is on the same page on what they believe.
• Give talks on what the life of catechists and parish workers should look like.
• Encourage the use of Scripture and the new Catechism for formation.
• Give talks on how to have a personal relationship with Jesus in the context of the Catholic Church.
• Offer a talk on the history of the Catholic Church in America since Vatican II.
• Pray for the leaders and with them.
• Work with your priest to prioritize and organize an annual staff retreat.
• Have a “ministry leader summit.”
• If people are refusing or rejecting evangelization, work with your pastor to make sure the appropriate people are in the right positions.
• Go in trying to win souls for Christ, not fight them.
• Remember to always be praying for these people.
• When confrontation has to occur do not do it out of hate for people but in service to people who are missing out on the gospel.
• You need to have the courage to stand up for the truth and gospel when needed.

5 Practical Tips

1. Go to NewAdvent.org and search the name of a church father (St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Athanasius … )
2. Pray for the CCD staff (or another staff group) and their openness to the gospel.
3. Listen to Mike’s talks on the kerygma at Soundcloud.com/AMDGomer.
4. Meet once a week with your pastor and discuss the kerygma.
5. Send this podcast to your CCD Staff.

Check out the resources from this episode at ascensionpress.com/everykneeshallbow

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