Summary
How do you share your blossoming faith with old friends who “knew you when…”? Do you slide back into the old routine when you’re with them or do you proudly proclaim your faith? What if they challenge you? Are you equipped to answer them in a way that will encourage them to consider the faith without repelling them from the Church?
Objective
You can feel your faith growing. You even enjoy discussing faith in the right company such as Church functions, Father’s Team, conversations with people who you know agree with you, and maybe even in arguments with people who are clearly opposed to your beliefs and very easy to disagree with. But how do you integrate faith into your friendships? How about with friends or family who have left the Catholic Church? Growing faith can create a feeling of contradiction when you are placed in situations and with people that used to be familiar and comfortable. Now you may find that some of those situations do not support your faith and what you have grown to believe. Discerning how to use the gifts your faith has brought and how to integrate this into your relationships can be challenging. The objective of this topic is to uncover some useful ways share your faith and draw your friends closer to God.
Bible Readings
1. Mat.4:19
Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men
2. Mk.16:15
Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel
3. Jn.15:16
Ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit (See also Mat.24:14)
4. Isa.6:8
Whom shall I send? Here am I; send me
5. Lk.9:2
(Jesus) sent them to preach…the Kingdom of God
6. Jn.20:21
As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you
Catechism Readings
1. Paragraph 905
Lay people also fulfill their prophetic mission by evangelization, “that is, the proclamation of Christ by word and the testimony of life.” For lay people, “this evangelization . . . acquires a specific property and peculiar efficacy because it is accomplished in the ordinary circumstances of the world.”
2. Paragraph 2044
The fidelity of the baptized is a primordial condition for the proclamation of the Gospel and for the Church’s mission in the world. In order that the message of salvation can show the power of its truth and radiance before men, it must be authenticated by the witness of the life of Christians. “The witness of a Christian life and good works done in a supernatural spirit have great power to draw men to the faith and to God.”
Small Group Questions
1. Have people noticed a change in you? Have you had the courage to tell them about you faith? About father’s team, etc.
Recommended Resources
2. http://shop.mycatholicfaith.org/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=122
3. http://www.stpatparish.org/evangelization/practicalways.pdf
Accountability
1. Tell at least 2 friends about Father’s team.
Author(s)
Chris Runte & Tony Heekin