The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Activated Disciple Series Part 6: Cup of Kerygma

Episode Date: April 8, 2022

How do we proclaim the Gospel to others? Jeff shares the seven points of the Gospel that every evangelist should know, common excuses we make up for not sharing the Gospel, and the simple way we can double our parish size in just five years. Snippet from the Show Evangelization always begins with proclaiming how the Lord changed your own life. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kaven show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is episode 265, the activated disciple retreat, a cup of corigma. Thank you for joining me again this week. In the middle of our Lenton retreat, we decided that we would take. the show and make a retreat out of it during the 40 days of Lent all around the topic of becoming activated disciples. It's a retreat based on my newest book with Ascension Press, The Activated Disciple. Put that in the show notes for you. But hey, we're having a good

time and I appreciate your feedback and I appreciate all of the stories that you're giving me about how it's making a difference in your life and, you know, trying to build a life. That's what we're doing. We don't just want to believe about Jesus. but we want to follow him as the early disciples did. And if you're going to do that, you really have to have an action plan. What does it look like? How are you going to go about it? That's what we've been covering so far.

We took a look at the first time together in a show called Fan or Follower to take a look at, am I just a fan of Jesus or am I a follower? And then we looked at the foundation of discipleship way back in the book of Leviticus on show two and imitating God. then who's choosing whom in number three, the third show. That's where we really got into the details of, you know, how do you become a disciple of the Lord? And we went back into 2,000 years ago, back into the relationship between a rabbi and a disciple in Jesus Day and found out you got to be chosen. You don't just stand up and say, I'm the disciple of a great rabbi.

You got to be chosen by the rabbi and the criteria there is, does that rabbi think you can become like him? And apparently Jesus thinks that you can become like him because he chose you. And going all in, we're taking a look at the life of a disciple in light of the church. And then last week, we took a look at prayer and study in the life of a disciple. Today, I am so excited to share with you one of my favorite aspects of being a disciple of the Lord. An aspect, I would say, that is not done so well so often. and that is that is evangelization sharing Christ with other people. How do you do it?

What's the message of the gospel? What's the proclamation? I'm going to go through all that with you today. And by the time we're done, you're going to be a new person. At least you're going to be equipped to go out there and share Christ with other people. Hey, the last two weeks I have been telling you, and some of you wrote me about this, which I appreciate, I've been telling you that I was going to share with you my plan, my first, five-year plan on how your parish can double in five years. So I'm going to do that on today's

show. I hope. No, I'm going to. I'm going to do that towards the end of the show. I'm going to share with you how your parish can double in five years. It is a proven method, and I think you're going to like it. Okay. Before we jump in, by the way, just got a phone call from some good friends of mine who asked, is there still room on your June trip to Israel, to the Holy Land? Yes, there is. And they're going, and there still are a few seats left. If you want to go, you've got to do it now, though. And you can go to my website, jeffcavens.com, under Pilgrimages, and get signed up immediately,

because that's not very far into the future. But, boy, we're going to have a good, good trip. We're also going to, in October, we're going over to Greece and Turkey in the footsteps of Paul. That's on my website. and then we're going to be putting up next January's trip pretty quick. And so it's all going again. We got that engine, you know, turned on, and we're going forward like we did for years. And this is going to be my 59th trip to Israel to the Holy Land.

Can you believe that? 59 times. And I get excited every single time. All right. Here we go. And by the way, if you don't have the show notes, just text my name, Jeff Kaven's one word to the number 3377. 3-3-7-7. We'll get you all the notes because I do give out some juicy ones. Lots of good stuff. All right. So today we're going to talk about how do you proclaim the

gospel to other people? How do you share Christ with others? And what is the gospel? How do I strike up a conversation with other people? You know, St. Peter said in 1. Peter 315, see, right away, I'm going to put that in the notes for you. It's just that easy. He said, always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for that hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Important point there. Disciples of the Lord can get a little carried away sometimes. You know, they want everybody to know, but you got to do it with gentleness and reverence. And our full account, as Peter says, a full account, it begins with the change in your own life. And then we bring scripture into the conversation. But it always

begins with the change in your own life. I remember this story of J.R. Tolkien. J.R. Tolkien spoke to an atheist one day. I mean, this guy was a hardcore atheist. And J.R. Tolkien spoke to him and told him about Jesus Christ and the proclamation of the gospel, the corigma, which we'll get into in just a few minutes. And this person actually responded. I thank God that this person, this atheist, that J.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings guy, was talking to it because that guy's name was Clive. Now, maybe you've never heard of Clive, or maybe you have, better known as C.S. Lewis. That's right. C.S. Lewis, Tolkien shared the gospel with him to an atheist, and it worked.

It absolutely worked. Now, what I'm going to do here in today's show is, first of all, in this first part, I want to share with you what the 7. of the gospel are. Jesus said at the end of the gospel of Matthew, he said, go into all the world and make disciples. He didn't say go into the world and make small groups, go into the world and write books, go in the world. These things are all good and so forth. But at the heart of it, he said, go into all the world and make disciples. That's what we're called to do as disciples of the Lord. But one of the problems that we run into is that while we are told to go out and proclaim the gospel, come to find out, a lot of us don't know what the gospel is. I mean,

seriously, what is it? If somebody had you cornered and said, you know, live or die based on tell me what it is, what would you say? You know, some people say, well, we go to church and God died for us. It kind of, you know, throw out a few things. But really, can you tell someone in a meaningful way what the good news of Jesus Christ is. Well, I'm going to share with you what that is, and it's not something I'm making up. It's something the church teaches. It's something that is not Catholic or Protestant. It's the gospel.

You know, it is in the book of Acts eight times. They have what's called the charismatic message. Now, the good news is called the charygma. Now, you're thinking to yourself, I'm not going to remember that word. Well, it's going to be in the show notes first. of all. That second of all, I'm going to actually give you a way to remember it during today's show. And I guarantee it, just like I guarantee doubling your church in five years, I guarantee you're never going to forget the charygma, the proclamation of the gospel. So these are the

seven points of the gospel. Before I give them to you, I'm going to predict something, all right? And everywhere around this world that I have shared this, I have been right in my prediction. I'm going to predict that when I start to share these seven points that make up the gospel, that which we are to share with other people, you are going to be thinking in the back of your head, there ain't no way that that is coming out of my mouth. I know you're going to think that on some of these. I know it.

But I want to assure you you can share this, and I'm going to tell you the reason why you can share it, because we've got an ace up our sleeve here on this, and that is the power of the Holy Spirit, which I'll get to in just a moment. Okay, so what are the seven points of the proclamation of the gospel? And these are in the catechism, too. Number one, number one, and this is very straightforward.

Number one, God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life. Okay? That's number one. That's the first point of the gospel when we share with someone at work or parking lot at Walmart or out to eat or summer vacation, whatever it is. We get into a conversation with someone, and one of the things that we share with him is that God loves you. He has an amazing plan for your life. Right now, let me predict. Right now, you're probably thinking, oh, that's so simple.

It sounds so kind of, you know, just kind of overly simple. Well, it is simple, but it's the truth. Number two, the second point in the proclamation of the gospel is sin will destroy you and ruin God's plan for your life. So sin has really made a mess out of this. God loves you and has a plan for your life. Number two, sin has made a mess out of this plan. Now, you're thinking, Jeff, isn't there a way I can tell someone about God without bringing up sin. Well, we'll look at that. So number one, God loves you and has an amazing plan for

your life. Number two, sin will destroy this plan. It will destroy you. Sin will destroy your family. It'll destroy you. It'll destroy everything it runs into. Number three, Christ died for you. He loves you so much he died for you. That's pretty straightforward, isn't it? So, number one, God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life. Number two, sin will destroy this plan, make a mess of things. Number three, Jesus loves you so much he died for you. So those are the first three. Now, the fourth one is, this is where you get into some of that language where a lot of people say,

see, I told you, I'm not going to say that, no way. And you will, because I'll share with you in a minute why you will. but if you stick with me here, you are interested. I have confidence in you. More importantly, God has confidence in you. Okay, so the fourth point is that we know that Jesus loves us and died for us. Number three. So number four, we are called on now to respond to that by repenting and believing the gospel.

There it is. It's the R word, repent. Now, I understand that. The word repentance has gotten kind of a bad. rap in our culture. And you know, you kind of get this idea of a guy standing on the street corner with a great big sign saying, repent or die, you know, repent or go to hell. And I understand that. That's why I use what the catechism says. The catechism talks about repentance, and here's how it defines repentance, which is what I use in my, you know, talking to people. It says

that repentance is a radical reorientation of your life to God. That's really what repentance is. It's a radical reorientation of your life to God. Now that's doable. And most people think it's doable. They think, well, I don't know about repentance, but can I radically reorient my life to God? I could do that. I like that. I like that. So that's what I tell people when I talk to them is that, you know, look, God wants you to reorient your life to him. You want you to radically reorient your life to him. And people, it's amazing, how many people will listen to you. So number one, God loves you and has a plan for your life. Number two, sin has messed up this plan. Number three, Christ loves you and died for you. Number four, repent and believe the gospel. Number five,

then we're called on to be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. You see, when we're baptized, that's when sin is forgiven. Original sin is forgiven. You are knit to the church. You are a member of the household of God. You receive a portion of the Holy Spirit, of course, during this. And you have new citizenship. You're a member of the household.

Yay. And then receive the Holy Spirit. that's confirmation notice these are two of the sacraments of initiation baptism and the holy spirit you see the holy spirit in confirmation gives you the power to live this life it uh it fits you know it completes the promises of baptism and it makes you an official and a courageous witness of christ yeah i know you don't have what it takes without the holy spirit i'm i'm with you on that when I'm in the same boat, but with the Holy Spirit, you can live this life and you can be a witness.

And then number six, that we are called on to abide in Christ and his body of the church. In other words, part of the good news is that people are invited into this family. Now, is the family perfect? No. No. Is the faith perfect? Yes, what Christ has given us is perfect. but the people in the church aren't always perfect.

I know that. I mean, look what I did. If I'm in the church, it's not perfect. I won't say anything about you. But if I'm not in the church, it's not perfect. I know that. But Jesus wants me to be in the church, and there's so many benefits, it's the sacramental life. And then finally, number seven is go make disciples.

Go make disciples. So those are the seven points of the proclamation of the gun. gospel. If you're at all interested in proclaiming the gospel, then you have to know those things and they have to become your own words. It has to be part of the fabric of conversations when you're talking with people. And you've got to use prudence and, you know, you've got to be sensitive in discussing this with people and finding the right opportunities to say something. You don't just run around barking out these seven things to everybody. You met. You met. it's a it's an outline that is meant to be shared now right away you're thinking yourself i don't know

i don't know jeff i don't know about that and the reason is is because we have some excuses we have some reasons why we can't we can't share these seven things with people and i'm going to share those excuses with you uh right after the break in just in a in a couple of minutes but here's the thing I was going to share with you, and that is that one of the reasons that people do not share this good news with other people is that they think that, well, I can't change someone's life. I can't get into their heart and do heart surgery, to which I would say to you, you are right. You cannot. As a disciple, you don't have that ability.

That's way above your pay scale to get into the hearts of people and actually change. their hearts, as if you and I were a spiritual heart surgeons. I can't do it. I agree. But, get this, three different times in the New Testament, we see that when the message went out, the Spirit of God confirmed the message. Do you get that? It's the Spirit of God that confirms the message in the heart of the person you're talking to. You're just responsible for sharing this good news. The Holy Spirit works on the heart at the same time, and the Holy Spirit, I got news for you. That is the Holy Spirit's pay scale. The Holy Spirit can do this heart surgery in ways that we cannot. And so when we are evangelizing and when we are sharing Christ as disciples,

activated disciples, you're working with the best partner possible, and that is the Holy Spirit. And that's why this works. And I have seen it hundreds of times in my life. Hundreds of times have I seen people so impacted by the message that they began to just weep right there. Now, I'm going to take a break. When I come back, I want to share with you some of the top excuses, and I want to share a story with you of actually putting this together. a real story of putting this together in a real life situation. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show.

Okay, here's the gut check right here, because if nothing changes, nothing changes. Do you want to be holy? And do you want to be an instrument of renewal in this world? And if so, do you believe it's possible? Do you know what it looks like? Do you know where to begin? Because if nothing changes, nothing changes. My name's Father Mark Mary.

I'm a Franciscan friar of the renewal, and I wrote a book called Habits for Holiness. And it pulls from over 800 years of Franciscan tradition, wisdom, and experience of radical and total discipleship in the midst of the world, but in a way which begins with little steps and works not only for religion, not only for priests, but for everybody. The change you desire is possible, the conversion you desire is possible, the renewal you desire is possible, the healing you desire is possible, and it begins with little steps. So to guide you on your way and to help you make the next best step of renewal in your life, I'd invite you to pick up a copy of my book, Habits for Holiness.

God bless you. All right, so before the break, we were talking about the seven points of the carigma. And remember, at the end of this show, I'm going to share with you how to double the size of your church in five years. Proven plan. Absolutely. I'm not kidding about that either. It's a proven plan. And if you do what I am going to suggest, your church will double in five years.

Okay, so God loves you. Got an amazing plan for your life. Sin destroyed this. Christ loves you. He asked us to repent, be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. Come into his church and abide in him in his church and then go and make disciples. It was a number of years ago that I was speaking at a church. And I was sharing just this, the carigma.

and these two guys came up to me real sharp young guys probably i don't know 21 22 years old and they looked at me and they said can we talk to you for just a minute you said sure and they kind of looked around like hey we really liked the talk it was so good it was moving loved your illustrations but we just have a question for you and i said sure what's that and they said um you know you talk about god loves us has a plan for our life and that sin destroyed this and Jesus loves us. We get that, but we're just not sure that people today are going to, you know, respond to that. You know, it's kind of a simple message. And they said, is there another way to put it? And I sat there and I thought about it for a second. And I like to play with people's brains a bit.

So I said, let me think about this for a second. And I walked away and acted like I was in deep thought, which I was. But I was thinking about this. And I looked back at them and I went back to thinking. And then I walked over to him and I said, you want to know if there's another way to put this? I said, yeah. I said, no. And they're like, what?

Come again? What do you mean? No. I said, no. I said, why don't we do this, guys? One by one, let's just take each point. I'll give you five minutes to improve on it. Shall we do that?

I'll work with you on it, too. Let's go with the first one. God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life. Let's try to improve on that for a moment, shall we? So I walked away, playing with her brain. I walked away and acted like I was thinking. I did think. And then I looked back at them and it came back and I said, you got anything?

And they said, no. I said, I didn't think so. And I said, do you know why? And they said, why? Because it's the truth. It's the truth. Let's go to the second one. Sin has screwed up this plan.

Go ahead. Let's prove on that. Same answer. Can't do it. Let's do this one then. third one. Let's improve on this one. Jesus Christ loves you so much he died for you. Go ahead. I'll give you 10 minutes on that one. Improve on that. They said, we can't. And I say, that's right. And you know why, guys? It's the truth. It's the truth. Get some guts. Get some love.

It's the truth. It is the truth. My friend, I got to tell you, I just got to be honest with you right now. If it shakes up a little bit, that's fine. We need some shaking up. It's been a whole. lot of shaking in my life. And that is this, we don't have another message. You don't have another message. Stop running from it. Stop being afraid. The Holy Spirit is working with you. You've been given a simple message to share with your friends who are dying, addicted, committing suicide, abandon, anxious, depressed. They need the truth. What are we afraid of? I get really, I get really, what do we need to do to get people to start to brag about the most important thing in their life?

We don't have another message. Friday, fish fries are not going to win the world, okay? They're good, don't get me wrong, especially the ones in Minnesota, but it's not going to change the world. It's the good news that changes the world. It is the good news that changes the world. Now, I have learned just to share this in normal conversation with people, and I can see in the expression of their face that God is working on their heart. Now, let me go with you a couple things here of excuses, and I'll make this quick, but you'll get it really, really quick.

There's some common excuses as to why I cannot share the good news of Jesus Christ with dying people. Okay, number one, it's not my gift. Have you heard that one? It's not my gift. It's not my gift to share this with people. I'm just not gifted at it, to which I would say, what do you mean it's not your gift? People say, well, it's not my gift. You know that sharing the good news of the gospel has nothing to do with giftedness.

There are gifts in the spirit. Don't get me in the church, don't get me wrong. There are gifts in the church. but when it comes to sharing the good news with broken people, that has nothing to do with giftedness. That has everything to do with love and compassion and confidence and who we are and who we're working with. We're working with the Lord, the Holy Spirit. That's what it comes down to. You know, a few years ago, my brother-in-law, who was nuts about Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney came to the Twin Cities target field a number of years ago.

And I won't tell you the whole story, but I ended up with some tickets, seven of them. And my brother-in-law is nuts about Paul McCartney. Well, I didn't even say anything to him. You know, I just got my family members together. And we went out for an incredible night with Paul McCartney. No breaks. He sang like it was 1969. It was amazing.

Well, the next day, the next day, I call him. at my brother-in-law, and I say, Mark, you're not going to believe it. It was incredible. He says, what was incredible? I say, what was incredible was Paul McCartney. He was at Target field last night. And I had seven tickets. And he says, you what? Yeah, Paul McCartney was here. I had seven tickets. I brought a bunch of family members. And he says, do you, you knew Paul McCartney was in town and you didn't tell me? What? And I say to my brother, Mark, I say, well, Mark, Come on. Back off a little bit there, dude. Come on. That's not my gift. You would have said, say what? Mark, I mean, I have a gift for buying tickets, but I don't have a gift for telling people about them. He would have destroyed me that night. He ended up going with us, but you know what I'm saying, right? It's not my gift. No, it's about love. It's about the power of the Holy Spirit. Here's the other one that's used a lot. People will say, I don't know enough. I don't know enough.

And this is kind of funny because I understand, you know, we sometimes think that we have to know so much before we share things about the Lord with other people because we're afraid they're going to ask some really hard questions about the priest scandal, women priests, you know, why can't marry men be priests and, you know, just all kinds of questions. And I get that. The people are like a little worried that they're going to get the Zinger question. But that's okay because sharing Christ with people is not about answering everybody's question. It's about telling people the truth and the Holy Spirit convicts hearts when we do that.

And so if I said, well, it's not my gift, you know, oh, by the way, I like that one, particularly during the offering at Mass. Because when that basket comes around, I'm telling you what, this is a very convenient excuse. When the basket comes around, all I do is I raise the basket up, I look around to everyone sitting around me in the pews, and I just make a quiet announcement that this is not my gift. Anybody with a gift around me here? Anybody can take the basket because everybody knows I'm not gifted in this area. Yeah, right.

Everybody contributes, don't they? Just like everybody has a charism for evangelization. At least that's what St. John Paul II said, I believe it. and I think you believe it too. And by the way, being a little, you know, in some of this, but the reason is because we have such a need out there. And I believe that if you're listening to this, you can do it. And I believe you have a heart too.

I just want to throw that in. I really do believe you have a heart to do it. Okay. So it's not my gift. It's not a good one. I don't know enough. It's not a good one because it's not a matter of you knowing enough. It's a matter of you knowing him.

and what he's done in your life. You see, people say, well, I don't have a testimony. Oh, yeah, you do. No, they say, I don't. I've always been a Catholic. I've always been in a church. I got married in a church. Our kids were baptized.

Hey, guy, you got a good life. All these broken, addicted people are looking for that life. You got that life. And so the miracle that acts as a platform for you to share with people is what Christ has done in your life. He has done wonderful things. Share with people what God has done in your life. It's very, very powerful. Okay, so we're going to go just a little over time on this show, but I want to get this in. There was a story, and I'm going to tell you this real quick. I was at a conference in Philadelphia, and I went to, it was a lot of my friends

in the publishing industry, Ascension Press. We were there at a hotel because we were out of towners, and during the day we had conferences, we had meetings and things and presentations, and at night we would gather at the hotel and we would have, you know, some glass of wine, some cigars and pipes and things on the balcony or on the patio, rather, at the hotel, just a nice time of fellowship. Well, I'm a disciple of the Lord, and that means that I'm usually aware of what's happening. around me. I look around. I listen. And I looked to the left and I was aware that there were two ladies, a couple of couches down, who were listening intently on our conversation. And it was all about

God. And so I just took notice of it. I didn't stare at him or anything. I just took notice of it. And then after about 20 minutes or so, a lot of the people said, well, I were going to hit the sack tonight and tired. And I looked over to the left and these two ladies were at the end of my And I'm the disciples, so I start conversations. That's a good little tool by the thing to remember. And so I looked over at him, I said, so what brings you ladies to Philadelphia? They said, oh, we're here for a Melaluka convention. And I kind of heard about that, some kind of healing salve or something.

And I said, oh, that's interesting. And they said, what are you doing here? And I said, well, I'm with a Catholic publisher, and we're here for our annual business meeting. I'm a Bible teacher, and her face changed, and she looked at me, and she said, she said, you're Catholic? And I said, yeah. And she said, I got a problem with you Catholics. You couldn't get me to come to one of your churches.

And I'm like, whoa, okay, what am I going to do here? God loves you and has an amazing plan. Now, where am I going to start, right? And so I said, well, what's your name? And she introduced herself, and I told her my name. And I said, well, wiles, you got some strong. feelings about the church here. And inside, to be honest with you, I'm thinking, where do I begin? Do I begin with answering all over questions? And I said, well, you know, what are your

problems with it? And she goes, well, you've got this priest scandal. You made this thing up about the papacy. And you got all this art in Rome that you could sell and give to the poor, but you don't. You know, those were the three, believe it or not, those were the three big arguments. Now, I could have sat there the rest of the night and one by one tried to answer those questions, but you know as well as I do, that would not have moved the dial one bit, right? Because her problem wasn't the art in Rome. Her problem was she didn't know Jesus. And that's what the corigma is.

That's what I'm all about. That's what you're all about. So instead of going into all that, I said, you know, can I just talk to, just let me share with you just for a moment here. And then I told her, I looked right at her and her friend, and I said, the truth of the matter is is that God loves you and he loves me and he loves the people you were just talking about. He loves you so much and he's got an amazing plan for your life. Her whole, I'm telling you, her whole expression changed instantly when I said that. And then I told her, I said, but you nailed it right on the head. Sin. Sin has really screwed

up lives and you mentioned a couple of incidents here and I get you. There's no defending that with the priest's scandal due to sin. And I said, and I know it in my own life that sin messes up this plan. I said, I'm not going to ask you, but I imagine you would say the same thing. Her face is becoming softer at this point. And then I told her, but the truth is that Jesus loves us so much that he died for us to make our lives what you're hoping all of us would be. Her whole face changed.

To make a long story short, we ended up talking for, I don't know, 20, 25 minutes at that point, and the discussion got to the point where I could ask her a question, and I asked her this. I said, I'll call her Helen for the sake of the show. I said, Helen, if you could ask God for anything, anything, what would it be? What would you ask him for? If anything today, and her face got very serious. Her eyes started filling up with tears. her lip and her chin started to quiver. She looked at me and she had a hard time getting it out. She said, I, she said, I, I just want to be happy.

She started crying. I said, me too. I get you. And it begins with Jesus. We ended up with a nice conversation that night. And then the next day, I was down in the atrium of the hotel, and she came walking down with a friend of hers. And it was just like right out of the Bible. She comes over with her friend and says, that's the guy that told me about Jesus last night.

And she said, are you guys going to be out there again tonight? And I said, yep. And she said, can I join you? And so she came down that next night. And it turned out in our discussion, we had a marvelous discussion. And I asked her where she was from. And she said, Minnesota, and I said, me too. I said, where in Minnesota?

She goes, well, suburb, the Twin Cities, called Bloomington. I said, that's where I grew up. What street? She told me the street, and I said, you are not going to believe this, but I grew up on the next street over. She goes, you're kidding. I said, no. And then I asked her, I said, when you get back to Minnesota, would you come to Mass

with Emily and myself if we invited you? She looked at me with a smile, and she said, absolutely. this is less than 24 hours from the point where she said you couldn't get me into a Catholic church with such venom you see the message has power the carigma has power you're dealing with a loaded powerful message and all God is waiting for is for his his disciples to let it go in love and sensitivity. Oh, we make this so complicated. No wonder, you know, a church of 3,000 families has three people coming to the church.

Easter Vigil. I wonder. Because we're not teaching people to share the good news with other people and how to do it. And that's why I've dedicated my life to really two things, I guess. One is biblical literacy with the great adventure. and the other is to make disciples and learn how to evangelize, have dedicated myself to that. And it's really what renews my relationship with the Lord, to be honest with you. It really, really does.

Now, let me share with you here a way that you will never, ever forget the corigma. And by the way, I really recommend that you write those seven points down, and they are in my book on the activated disciple. and Ascension Press actually has some really cool laminated cards and pages with the corigma on it and we'll put that in the show notes for you as well and it's cheap like a buck a piece or something like that you can get I think a package of 10 for 10 bucks and share them with all your friends okay so here's how you can remember the carigma because already you were thinking I just can't remember that word corigma why does the church have so many foreign names so here's how you do it okay the first thing is how many how many times have you ever had a cup of coffee made

from a curing machine probably a lot right in those little k cups that you put in there you can get decaf regular you get mocha all kinds of tea whatever okay so you have seen a curig machine right okay so say it once with me curig go ahead say it again curig and again curing all right So you've got that one down. You've probably been using that for years. Now, the second part of it, who's the mother of evangelization? Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mary. You can call her Ma.

Now let's put it together. Curig, ma. Another time. One more. Curig, ma. Curig ma. That's it. So you got it.

Here's what I pray. I pray that every time you see a curig machine, every time you see a curig machine, I will be in your head. and I'm not going to let you go. You're going to be reminded of this every single time that you have an obligation to share the good news of Jesus Christ with other people. That is what I'm hoping for. That's what I'm going to pray for.

So if I meet you at a conference this year over in the Holy Land, and I want to hear from you that, yeah, every time I see a curig machine, I'm reminded of the curigma and the sharing of the gospel. Now, before I go, I told you I was going to share with you how to double your parish in five years. here it is. And it is guaranteed, and that is this, that if every person, let's say your parish has a thousand people, just use that number, a thousand people, and if every person in your church

over the next five years brings one person to Christ, just one, in the next five years, if every person in your parish brings one person to Christ into the RCI experience, sponsoring them, being with them on the Easter vigil, just one in the next five years. Your parish will double. Now you're thinking, oh, I thought there were DVDs and workbooks for that. No, it's that simple. I'm not kidding you. I'm being a little funny, but I'm being very serious. And that is. is that if you, if everyone in your parish, you just bring one in five years, will double. And I'm going to, and just for today's show, an added bonus, okay? If after five years you have not brought one person to Jesus Christ, I will extend this offer

by two months. Give you two more months to bring one person to the Lord. You can do that. Come on. You know you can do that. Everybody's doing it. You can do it. So, in all seriousness, I want to just wrap this up and just encourage you today to walk as an activated disciple. Be prepared to share about the hope that's within you and to walk with people, to bring them to the answer they're looking for. Seriously, people are broken, people are anxious, people are looking for something. We have that something because that's something is someone, Jesus. All right, my friend, we're going to prepare for next week. Next week, we're going to be talking about putting it all together into a life. It's going to be a good time together.

Let me pray for you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, I thank you today for giving us your life and thank you for inviting us to walk with you and to become like you. And Lord, we are in awe that you have trusted us with the message of the kingdom, to go out and to share. Give us courage, Lord. Give us the words and the boldness to share your message with people. May we decrease and you increase

every day of our life. We thank you, our dear mother, Blessed Virgin Mary, for praying for us to be faithful witnesses to your son, Jesus Christ. Oh, Lord, may our tongues be as ready writers. ready to speak at any point in Jesus name amen name of the father and the son and the holy spirit

amen i love you my friend i look forward to seeing you next week and of course every morning the devotional on the hello app that is a fun time to get together with you in the morning thought i would mention that god bless you have a wonderful week Thank you.