Three Critical Ways to Shift Toward Apostolic Mission

According to the University of Mary Press, there are two approaches that the Church uses to engage with the wider society in her evangelizing mission: Apostolic mode and Christendom mode.

A Christendom mode makes sense when the imaginative vision of society is informed and governed by Christian values, i.e., no shopping on Sunday (the Lord’s Day). The Church embraces an Apostolic mode when society’s imaginative vision is not aligned or perhaps even hostile to Christian values. In this environment, the Church herself and individual members, are at odds with the prevailing culture.

Choosing the right mode depends on the environment in which the Church finds herself.

Bishop Fulton Sheen said, “Christendom is dead” in 1974 and Pope Francis recently gave a message to Curia staffers saying, “Christendom no longer exists.” If the Church is going to engage effectively with the wider society in 2021 and beyond, we need to move from a Christendom mode to Apostolic Mission.

Today, I will share three shifts we can make toward Apostolic Mission. Next week, I will provide two more to close out the series.

Shift from Christendom Power to Apostolic Power
Within a Christendom state, the Church gains prominence through the proliferation of Catholic institutions, buildings, and social enterprises. New members are attracted by the Church’s cultural influence, which expands the Church’s temporal resources. Hubris can set in when society is in favour of the faith. The Church may assume that her evangelizing power comes from societal prominence and political influence.

Hubris can set in when society is in favour of the faith. The Church may assume that her evangelizing power comes from societal prominence and political influence. Click To Tweet

Contrast the Church today with that of the New Testament. The early Church had few resources to draw from and little prominence to lean on. The first apostles had no buildings, parishes, or dioceses. There were no theologians, no seminaries, or seminarians. There were no hospitals, social agencies, or Catholic schools, only a few hundred followers and 11 priests. Had the Apostles operated with a Christendom mindset, they would have been deluged with despair and paralyzed with panic (University of Mary Press, 2020).

This question begs to be asked: How could the early Church, with so little resources or political influence, move forward with such great confidence, while the Church today, so rich in resources, is tipping toward fear and losing it’s passion for mission?

Answer: Pentecost.

Two thousand years ago, the Pentecost event transformed the timid, and untrained disciples into heroic and fearless missionaries. When the Holy Spirit descended upon them, He transformed their cowardice into conviction, their fear into faith.

The Apostles gained new confidence in the Message that had the power to change lives. These men knew that strength was not in numbers or political persuasion but in the intensity of the flame burning inside each of them. The Apostles continually begged the Lord “to fill them with great boldness” (Acts 4:29) and the Lord answered their prayers often with signs and wonders.

Blind to what was lacking; the early Church fixed her eyes on the power of the Gospel and the active presence of the Holy Spirit. The world undoubtedly needed to hear the Good News as it does today.

If we want to see the New Evangelization flourish in our time, we need to beg the Lord for a New Pentecost.

Blind to what was lacking; the early Church fixed her eyes on the power of the Gospel and the presence of the Holy Spirit. The New Evangelization needs a New Pentecost. Click To Tweet

We are living in an Apostolic time and have been for many years now. Perhaps the Church has been reluctant to admit it or hesitant to concede territory previously established. Perhaps, we do not want to acknowledge the obvious because we are perplexed with how to respond. Regardless, the evidence is everywhere. The Church is no longer considered a trusted lighthouse for society. Cultural influence and political prominence are fading. The latest scandals and the negative impact of the pandemic only worsen the horizon. The Church is getting smaller, divided – some would say polarized – and far less influential.

How will we respond?

Longing for the ‘good-old-days’, will we try to double down on strategies that no longer bear fruit? Or, will we humble ourselves before God and ardently pray for a New Pentecost to permeate the Church?

“Heavenly Father, we pray for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Fill us again and ignite an apostolic fire in Your Holy Catholic Church. Encourage our hearts with a new vision for what is possible in Your power. Transform our leaders, give them a new zeal, courage, and creativity. Amen.”

Shifting from Strategic Planning to Prophetic Listening
If you follow this blog faithfully, you know how passionate I am about leadership. I have advocated the Church to adopt the disciplines of organizational development, management, and overhaul much of the current approach to leadership development. I value strategic planning, innovation, accountability, org charts, delegation, coaching, effective decision making, and all things management. But without the Holy Spirit, the principal agent of evangelization, directing us, even the best practices in leadership and management will bear little fruit.

Without the Holy Spirit, the principal agent of evangelization, directing us, even the best practices in leadership and management will bear little fruit. Click To Tweet

More than anything, we need to become skilled at “waiting on the Lord” (Fr Bob Bedard, RIP) for His direction and guidance. We often make our own plans without consulting Him and move forward on projects without His go-ahead. St. Vincent de Paul said to his priests, “We will never be any use in doing God’s work until we become thoroughly convinced that, of ourselves, we are better fitted to ruin everything than to make a success of it.” One of the primary works of God is to find people into whom He can entrust His power. St. Vincent de Paul models for us that kind of man – apostolically ambitious without taking himself too seriously.

Prophetic listening honours a fundamental principle of an effective planning: everything is created twice; the physical creation follows the mental creation. Ministry initiatives that are worth pursuing, begin in the mind of God first, they are transmitted to us through listening prayer and group discernment.

Ministry initiatives that are worth pursuing, begin in the mind of God first, they are transmitted to us through listening prayer and group discernment. Click To Tweet

Jesus modelled prophetic listening for us in His earthly ministry. He was persistently returning to the Lord in prayer. During His public ministry, as signs and wonders followed Him, He explained where He derived the power, “I see what the Father is doing and I do that” and “I hear what the Father is saying and I speak that.”

A shift into Apostolic Mission means being committed to prophetic listening. A clear word from the Lord comes before strategy. Discerning which way to go – to the right or to the left (Isaiah 30:21) – comes before executing a specific plan to get there. Conversational intimacy in prayer with the Triune God is not only a privilege but also a necessity in Apostolic Mission time. “Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labour in vain,” the Psalmist says.

A shift into Apostolic Mission means being committed to prophetic listening. A clear word from the Lord always comes before strategy. Click To Tweet

Read the Acts of the Apostles, to see how much directional guidance the early Church received from the Holy Spirit. For this reason, the Acts of the Apostles is often referred to as the Gospel of the Holy Spirit. We read, “And the Holy Spirit said to them …” or “The Holy Spirit led them to …” and “Then the Holy Spirit stopped them from going near…” It is almost as if the Holy Spirit was running the show, that He was in charge, that He wanted to lead. Of course, He did, and He still does. And the Apostles let Him. Would they dare do otherwise?

Prophetic listening means going to the Lord with an open heart and a blank slate, totally open to His vision and direction for the ministry. God loves when we pray, “Lord, here are our plans, please bless what we are doing.” But prophetic listening prays differently, “Lord, we ask You to show us what You are blessing, and we will do that.”

Prophetic listening means going to the Lord with an open heart and a blank slate, totally open to His vision and direction for the ministry. Click To Tweet

I am reminded of the words of A.W. Tozer who wrote, “If the Holy Spirit were withdrawn from the church today, 95% of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95% of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.”

“Lord, please bless what we are doing, and show us what You are blessing. Speak to our hearts. May we have the grace to wait patiently for Your word and then, have the courage to act on what You have spoken. Amen.”

Shifting from the Christendom Messaging to Apostolic Preaching
There was a time when the Church did not have parish buildings. No Catholic schools, no seminaries, no hospitals, and no universities. But the Church has always had preaching.

In Christendom, the Church can make a dangerous assumption that everyone has heard the basic Gospel message and personally responded to it. Likewise, why would people of faith attend Mass if Jesus were not the centre of their lives? Preachers can be mistakenly convinced that everyone has heard the basics, and then, in turn, the Sunday sermon may turn into a demonstration of the Gospel’s relevance to the latest fad in pop culture. How many of us have heard a sermon based on the book, ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’?

This assumption is dangerous to souls. Not everyone has heard the basic message. Not everyone has personally responded to the call of Jesus, to accept His saving work and become His disciple. Saint John Paul II said it this way, “Sometimes even Catholics have lost or never had the chance to experience Christ personally: not Christ as a mere paradigm or value but as the living Lord, “The Way, the Truth and the Life.” He also said, “It is necessary to awaken again in believers a full relationship with Christ, mankind’s only Savior. Only from a personal relationship with Jesus can an effective evangelization develop.”

The Catholic Church is a preaching Church. It always has been and always will be. Shifting our preaching from Christendom mode to Apostolic mode means a return to the simplicity of the basic Gospel message and continually extending an invitation to personal faith. Apostolic preaching is preaching Jesus Christ, Him crucified and risen from the dead, not with the eloquence of words or contemporary fads but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.

Consider the coordination of global efforts in the fight against COVID-19. Well, the reality is, there is another overlooked virus plaguing humanity. It is 100% contagious. Every individual on the face of the planet will catch it and 100% of those will die because of it. And yet, this virus is largely ignored in popular media, enhancing the danger. Sin is the virus and only the Christian Church has the vaccine.

I am not being trite, nor am I trying to trivialize the pandemic. This is not a play on our current situation. Everything written above is true. Sin is a deadly virus, it infects us all and the prognosis is death, meaning separation from God. Jesus is the only One who can save us from this virus. Faith in Him and receiving His grace is the only antidote. Therefore, Jesus is our message to the world,  Our message is the same today, tomorrow and forever. Should the Church ever forget that preaching the Gospel is the primary reason we exist, we will be in trouble.

I believe in the power of programs like ALPHA and CCO Faith Studies. Their place in the evangelizing mission of the Church is secure. I am grateful that the Archdiocese of Vancouver is so committed to using these tools in our efforts for parish renewal. The time in which we live requires that our pulpits be set on apostolic fire from a clear proclamation of the Kerygma.

Every passage read in the Sunday lectionary points to Jesus and the freedom He has won for us. Every Sunday affords the opportunity to invite hearers to accept Christ personally, not as a mere paradigm or value, but as Lord and Saviour.

Jesus reserves for Himself the privilege of transforming lives. He allows us to participate in His great mission by stewarding the message He gave the Church to proclaim to the world. Why would we rely on our own creative ideas, relevant messaging, and clever words when the power of the proclaimed Gospel is more efficacious than anything else in the world?

The transmission of the faith is not reserved for those in priestly ministry, although their role is significant and ordained by God. But the call to holiness and mission is a universal call that is conferred at baptism, not at ordination or the profession of religious vows. For this reason, Pope Pius X said, “What is the thing we most need, today, to save society? Build Catholic schools? No. More churches? Still no. Speed up the recruiting of priests? No, no,” said the Pope. “The MOST necessary thing of all, at this time, is for every parish to possess a group of laymen who will be at the same time virtuous, enlightened, resolute, and truly apostolic.”

The Church is a mystical union between both spiritual and human dimensions. This week, I focused on three spiritual principles to help us make the shift from Christendom to Apostolic Mission. Next week, I will unpack two human principles.

Have a great week!