Church evangelism
Brother,
Also it appears to me that Protestants put more emphasis on world Evangelism than we do. I certainly don't agree with their methods of Evangelism, but they are at least extremely zealous about it, and as far as I can tell they make evangelism a major priority while it appears that it is not as high a priority for us Would you agree that perhaps Catholics should place a greater emphasis on world evangelism? Also currently are there Catholic organizations that are currently traveling the world to win converts and plant churches? Could you breifly discuss the Church's current evanglistic movements.
Thanks for your help with this question,
QUESTION from Jim on August 26, 2003
Building off the recent question about the number of Catholic Churches, is it accurate to say that the Catholic Church is growing and/or winning converts at a larger rate than our Protestant brothers and sisters? I know this questions is about impossible to answer since Protestantism is so broad, but could you at least speculate an answer? I guess we all ultimately hope and pray for the conversion of Protestants back to Catholicism, and I was just curious if we are going towards or away from that goal.
Jim
ANSWER by Staff on September 6, 2003
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Dear Jim: Sorry about the delay in responding. Such statistics are difficult, but I know that from about 1993-1998 the Catholic Church membership decreased by about 18,000,000 worldwide and during the same time period the Protestants increased about 35,000,000 worldwide. However, since then, and especially in the last few years, I think I have read figures where the Catholic Church is increasing yearly at a large rate comparable to the more popular Protestant groups. In fact, Catholics were among the fastest growing in recent years. As for as evangelism, I do not know how one can think Catholics do not place a premium on evangelizing the world. Pope John Paul II has truly met the biblical prophecy of the Gospel preached to every nation. No Pope in history has traveled the world as our current pope. Each and every one of these papal trips are for the purpose of evangelism (as well as Christian unity). The Catholic Church, according to figures 4 years ago, had about 5000 missionaries in the field in parts all over the world. In addition to formal missionaries are the evangelistic effect of tens of thousands of orphanages, clinics, hospitals, disaster relief agencies, social agencies helping the poor, schools, day care, colleges, retreats, etc. scattered all over the world in nearly every country of the world. While these sorts of agencies may not appear to have an evangelizing effect in the United States and probably Europe, these agencies have a HUGE evangelistic effect in places like Africa (the fastest growing area for Catholics) and Asia (another fast growing Catholic region). The very life-blood of the Church is in keeping the Great Commission. Evangelicals and fundamentalists may put on a big show, but the most successful and enduring evangelism is not in the glitzy programs, but in the trenches where Catholics live with the people and bind their wounds, feed their stomachs, cloth the naked, and shelter the homeless. The Church does this to a greater level that any other single organization on the planet and does it without the flash and show biz and glitz. There is no other religion and not even a nation (like the United States) or world government (like the United Nations) that can outdo the Catholic Church in charity to the poor, sick, weak, hungry, homeless, motherless peoples of the world. And when we do it, we do not do it out of ordinary human compassion, but for the glory of God coming to each person whom we see as a child of God worthy of the dignity of humanity. For us it is all evangelism.
God Bless, |