The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - How the Catholic Church Can Double in 5 Years

Episode Date: June 19, 2020

Imagine how much the Catholic Church would grow if each of us shared the Gospel with another person. Today, Jeff encourages us to embrace the challenge of evangelization and offers specific steps to share the Gospel in an engaging way. You don’t have to be an expert in theology to share the Gospel. Christ can use you in marvelous ways if you simply give him the chance. Snippet from the Show _It is our experience with the Lord that leads to evangelization, do not fear talking to people. _ 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!

You're listening to the Jeff Kavan Show, Episode 171. How can the Catholic Church double in five years? Hey, I'm Jeff Kavans. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show. And I want to welcome you to the show. once again. Here I am, deep in the woods of Minnesota, once again, and overlooking the lake. And I'm sitting down at my desk, and in front of me are one, two, three, four, five Bibles and a catechism. And I'm telling you what, I am just, I'm feasting on the Word of God today and feasting on the teachings of the church. And in some ways, it's kind of like an embarrassment of riches. We have so much. We've been given so much as Catholics, and we've got

Bibles galore. The Great Adventure Bible, right in front of me. If you don't have a good Bible, get a great adventure Bible. And copies of the Catechism behind me, I've got the writings of the saints and writings of Pope John Paul II and other various popes. I got a rosary sitting here to my right, it's just amazing, you know, what we have. But in the middle of it, I'm thinking to myself, why is it that the Catholic Church doesn't grow significantly? Why is it that we show up at an Easter vigil with a church of 3,800 families and three people or four or five people are coming into the church, which we're happy for, don't get me wrong, but this certainly is not the plan of church growth that I think Jesus had in mind when three or four people come in after an entire

year. So I want to present to you today some information that I think will help you and certainly help the church. And can the Catholic Church double in five years? I think the church can. But it is dependent upon you and it's dependent upon me. It is not solely dependent upon the bishops and the priests and the deacons and the religious. It is the common folk like you and me. We're the ones that are ultimately going to make the difference. And why? Because the bishops, the priests, the deacons, and the religious are not with the people that you are with throughout the week. At work, your extended family, your neighborhood, you're the one that is there and you're the one that needs to open up and share these good things that the Lord has given us. And I'm speaking, speaking, speaking,

more in a focused way about the churigma or the proclamation of the gospel. And you probably have heard me talk about a cup of churigma and brewing up a good cup of good news for your friends. And it's a whole chapter in my latest book, The Activated Disciple, which is available from Ascension Press. You can go there and we'll put those notes in the show notes. I'll put that link in the show notes for you. But here's my idea. And then we'll get on with this is that if everybody in the Catholic Church today could share the gospel in the next five years with somebody, then we would double. Now, is that going to happen? I would like to think it would happen, and I'm optimistic, but I know from the past history that many people just simply don't

know how to share the gospel. And here's the problem is that most Catholics, most Catholics, are lacking a couple of key ingredients when it comes to evangelization and evangelizing the world. And number one is they don't know the gospel. At least they don't know how to articulate the gospel. And number two, they don't think that it's their responsibility to share the gospel with other people. At least it doesn't come up in their daily thinking that it's their responsibility to share the gospel with people. So in this show, I do want to talk about, sharing the gospel with other people. And listen to this for a moment. This is actually incredible. If I'm asking that every Catholic in the next five years would share with

one person and bring them into the church, do you think that we could all, do you think you could do that in the next five years? That's 60 months. That's 240 weeks. That's 1825 days. That's 43,800 hours that you have available to bring one person into the church. And I think you can do it. It's a matter of being equipped. It's a matter of priority. It's a matter of modeling how to do this. And I have great joy in bringing people into the church and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.

But we make it so difficult, so complicated, and it's not. And I'm going to demonstrate that for you today. That's what you're going to get out of the show today. By the end of the show, you're going to know how to share the gospel and a few tips on how to talk to someone about it. Speaking of talking to someone, I got some beautiful email here, one from Tony. Tony writes and says, I recently discovered your show, and I'm going through the backlog, listening to your talk about picking out a handful of saints for my own life. I had four come to mine, and then during the show, you listen. at every single one of them. Anthony of Padua, my baptismal saint. St. Jerome, my confirmation saint,

St. Athanasius, my favorite writer, and St. Therese of Lizu, who my wife has a devotion to. I thought it was especially uncanny because Athanasius and Jerome aren't ones you hear mentioned often. Thank you for doing the show. Tony. Thanks, Tony. Thanks for writing. Laura writes and says, Hi, I was hoping I could speak with you at some point. We listened to your show and heard the podcast on May 22nd about the mother of Pearl. It was very encouraging since I started a small women's group and named it the oyster bar. I love that. I love that name, Laura, the oyster bar.

And she says our kickoff series was Jeff's study on James. I'm Jeff, the studies James. We call ourselves the Pearls. God is doing great things in our little group, and I would like to share this. So, well, you did. And thanks. I love the name of your group, the Oyster Bar, and you are called Pearls. That is really, really good.

Of course, that podcast, the mother of Pearl, was about the fact that during these difficult times, COVID-19, people are struggling, and they're all cramped up in tight quarters, and that's how a Pearl comes about with a piece of sand in an oil. and because of the frustration, the irritation, outcome something absolutely beautiful. And our lady, the mother of Jesus, she is the mother of Pearl. And that's what that show was about. Thanks, both of you for writing. And if you would like to write me and you've got suggestions for shows, you can write me at the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. The Jeff Kavan Show at ascensionpress.com. That's the email. our topic, how the Catholic Church can double in five years. And I mentioned to you that the problem is, number one, that many people in the church don't know the gospel. At least they cannot articulate

it explicitly. And relationship with the Lord is such that there isn't a lot to really share with other people, other than going to church on Sunday and feast days and, you know, confirmation, things like that. But secondly, they don't know that it's their responsibility to share. Now, Pope John Paul II said that evangelization is the vocation of every baptized Christian. And if you've been baptized and you've been confirmed, then you have a mandate in your life to go and share the gospel with others. And I want to dismiss right away that many people will say, well, I don't know how to share the gospel with people. It's not my gift. But, As I read the Bible, and I've got five pretty well-worn Bibles right in front of me here,

deep in the woods on my cabin desk, I don't see anything that says that to share Christ with someone is dependent upon some special gift that only a few people have. You see, the sharing of Christ with other people is dependent upon not giftedness, but it's dependent upon personal transformation. If you've been transformed by the Lord, then you've You have something to share with people. Now, Jesus said in Matthew 28, and I'll put this in the show notes for you, and by the way, if you do not get the show notes for the show, all you have to do is text my name is one word, Jeff Kavins,

at, here's the number 33777. Talk about a biblical number, 33777. And then we will, you'll get the show notes every week after that. It's a joy for us to share with you all these good things, and we try to put together comprehensive notes so that you don't have to pull over on the side of the road and quickly write with chicken scratch on the back of an envelope, some book or some quote that I mentioned. Okay, so we do have Matthew 28, 19 through 20, 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. But here it comes, verse 20, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always to the close of the age. And so what does Jesus say is his parting words in Matthew 28, 19 through 20?

He says, after all of this time together, in these three years, after all of this time together in teaching and difficulties and, of course, the Passion Week, what does he say? Now, you who believe in me, you who follow me, you who walk in my name, you go now. You go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Now, can I ask you a question? When Jesus said, go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, what do you think he meant? and not only what do you think he meant but who do you think he was talking to well what he meant was

to teach others and proclaim to others who he is and once they convert once they they start to come to the lord you will teach them even more things and deeper things and who is this to this is to you this is to me. Yes, it's to the Holy Father, the Pope. Yes, it is to our cardinals and bishops. Yes, it is to our priests and deacons and religious. But that's only a very small, small percentage of the church. And they're busy with so many things right now in the church that they have to be busy with. And so if the plan of evangelization is completely dependent upon leadership, that we're in really a difficult place. But the leadership does address these things to some degree,

but it's up to us to expand on that and grow and teach and proclaim the gospel. You see, for the early church, it was their experience with the Lord that led to evangelization. Let me say that again. It was their experience with the Lord that led to evangelization. and St. Peter admonishes, he said every single one of us in 1. Peter 315, he says every single one of us should always be ready to render an account for the hope that is within us. Let me ask you a question, a very serious question. Do you have an account for the hope that is within you? What would you say in the elevator pitch when someone says,

hey, you look like you have hope? You look like you are filled with joy and perfect. purpose and amazement. What's going on with you? Are you prepared? Are you ready to render an account for the hope that is within you? That is something we have to work on, don't we? As Catholics, we have to work on developing an account, how we can share with other people. But that sharing with other people, that evangelization starts with Jesus who changes you and you share with the world that change that has taken place. Paul mentions this in 1st Corinthians 15, 3 through 8. I'll put it in the show notes for you.

He said, for I have delivered to you as of first importance, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas. Then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brethren. at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep, and then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also

to me. And so you see, it is their experience with the Lord, and the Lord disclosing himself to them. That became really the source of their evangelization. And that's where it starts right there. And so what we have to do today, and I'm going to get into the charygma after the break in a minute or so, but bear with me here, if we're going to double the church in five years, this stuff is really, really important. If what we share with the world about our experience with Christ, if that is going to really come to fruition, you must invest time for study. you must invest time for scripture you hear that it's the bible that is the bible right there the scripture reading scripture study coming to know jesus who is he how does he think what's his goal what's his plan it's an amazing plan how do i pray how do i how do i relate to jesus what is key in my life in terms of sharing with others what he has done in my life see you

come to know Jesus Christ and you form a personal relationship with him. And then as you go deeper into study, deeper into the Word of God, deeper into the teachings of the church, then you start to develop a personal account or rendering of this hope that is within you. And so it's important for you as you study and pray and spend time in holy hours. You're not just spending time, by the way. You're coming to know Jesus. You're developing that relationship. It's important to keep your heart and your mind and your eyes alert throughout the day to whom God might bring into your life. And this is something that many, many, you don't have to write me and say, well, I know people who do, because I do too, but I can tell you many more who don't. And that is keeping their eyes and their minds alert for possibilities,

opportunities to share Jesus. This is not something in the minds of most Catholics, and it needs to be. But it's going to start with you. And as you share with others and others hear about your life and how you're not afraid and you're courageous and you're loving and sharing Jesus, then it becomes easier for other people.

At least it comes into the picture. Because right now, and I grew up Catholic, I know what I'm talking about, and you know it's right too, and that is that if you get a thousand Catholics and interview them, most of them would not say that I am busy sharing Christ with the people around me. So you need to begin to see your life as a masterpiece of God in terms of conduct and modeling the faith so that you can repeat St. Paul's words to the Corinthians when he said in 1st Corinthians 416, I beg you, be imitators of me as I am of Christ.

this is all so important. So when the opportunity comes for you to share Christ, due to pain in people's lives or the circumstances in their lives or the questions that they have or the predicament that they're experiencing due to, shall we say, things like pandemics, then you will be prepared to share with them. But then comes the question, share what? That's what we're going to get to. We're going to get to that. So when we have an opportunity to share with people, and I'm going to talk about that on the other side of the break, what the content is, it's important for us to be respectful, it's important for us to be patient, and it's important for us to be understanding when we are talking with people. Our goal is not just simply to cough up the seven points of the proclamation of the gospel. Our goal is to develop a relationship with people and to be respectful and to listen to them. and let them set the pace of our conversation and how we're going to proceed in weaving in the good news of Jesus Christ into a conversation when someone's life is shattered.

And some people are quick, others are slow. And usually when people are slow and they don't respond to what we're saying about the church, about Jesus Christ and his amazing plan of sheer goodness, when they are slow, it's usually because they have sub-questions, a subset of questions that may or not be pertinent to the basic proclamation, but it's good to listen. And it's really good to know how to bring people's sub-questions to the forefront to meet major questions about the faith. And so it's important for us to become very familiar with the curigmatic message, that is, the career, Remember, just remember, and I've said this before, if you can't remember

Curigma, then you can certainly remember Curig, the coffee maker, curig, you can say it right now, say curig, now say Ma, that's our mother, she's with us, praying, ma, now say it all together, Curig, Ma. That's what we're talking about. It's important to become familiar with the curigma as a basic template. to proclaim Jesus Christ to the world. And that is a responsibility that we have. And I'm going to challenge you today. And I'm going to challenge you to challenge your friends. And if you're leading a group, a Bible study, or some kind of study in your church, or a women's group that gets together, a men's group, a book club, whatever it is, I challenge you to challenge others to know the basic

proclamation of the gospel, the corigma. And do not fear talking to people. Do not fear talking to people. Matthew 10, verse 19. Jesus says, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment, what you are to say. And I can attest to that that so many times when I felt the Holy Spirit wanted me to talk to someone at a restaurant or a sporting event or a gas station or whatever it might be, wherever it might be, I didn't know really what I was going to, talk about, but all I knew was that the Lord wanted me to talk to them. So I started up a conversation. And perhaps we'll have a whole show in the future on how to start up conversations. But once you start up the conversation, you can be sure of one thing, and that is God will give you what you are to talk about at the moment. You see, these are reasons why many people do not share. They are so afraid. They think they've got to know everything. They've got to,

they've got to be able to explain all of the minutia to people who are inquiring, people who are in trouble, peoples whose lives are shattered. And it's not your responsibility at the beginning to answer every minute theological question or point that people bring up. But you do have a responsibility to share the basic proclamation with them. You know, there is a time actually when we do share the minute details and get deeper. into it. After somebody comes into the church on the Easter vigil, the next seven weeks after that, from Easter Sunday to Pentecost, you've got seven weeks. And that's called the time of mystogogy. And that name comes from the Greek and refers to the profound and joyous mystery of living life

fully aware that Jesus is Lord. And the newly initiated, what are they called, neophytes? It's Greek for new believer. And it's then that we really start going into the details. But the basic proclamation of the gospel comes first, and that's what we are responsible for. So now when we come back from the break, we are going to look at the basic proclamation. We're talking about how to double the church's size in five years. That's right. In five years, all it takes is for everyone to bring one person into the church by sharing the good news. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Every one of us is made in the image of God. We are unique, worthy of love, and called to greatness. In this world, though, we can be distracted from that truth and begin to

doubt God's love is real. You see, we live in a world that tells us we are not smart, attractive, thin or rich enough. It is easy to focus on the ways we fall short of worldly perfection and forget that we are already made perfect. We are already enough. I'm Danielle Bean, author of You Are Enough, what women of the Bible teach you about your mission and worth. You Are Enough dives into the stories of women in the Bible

so that you can fully see God's plan for your life. To order, visit ascensionpress.com or Amazon. And welcome back. We're talking about how to double the church in five years, how the Catholic church can double in five years. And people say, Jeff, you're a dreamer. Yes, I am a dreamer. I am a dreamer because I serve a God who can do amazing things

beyond anything I can ask or think. And that's where I'm at. And I know many of you are in that place, too. You know that God can do incredible things. Okay, so what is the basic proclamation of the gospel? I'm going to ask you to memorize this. And if we ever meet at a conference and you say, I listen to your podcast, I just may ask the question, what's the corigma? What's the proclamation? Well, the corigma is the basic proclamation. And number one, is that God loves you and has a plan for your life. That's amazing, isn't it? Now, we live in a world that's literally never satisfied. We live in a world that is yearning and longing for all kinds of things in their life, whether it's trying to be fulfilled in sports or food or activity or entertainment

or commerce. Popularity on the internet, you can go on and on, but it never satisfies people. And the reason for that is that they are created for God by God. And there is a God-sized whole in our souls that only God can fill. And so God wants us to literally turn away from a world that is largely unsatisfying as far as ultimate satisfaction goes and what we're really looking for. And he wants us to turn towards him. And so, number one, when we're talking to people, And by the way, we don't just say these things, you know, just give point after point after point. These are points that we weave into natural conversation following the pace of the person that you are talking to.

And at the end here, I'm going to share with you why this works. Because you might be thinking, Jeff, that's not my gift. Oh, I can't do that. Oh, my gosh, that's not going to work. You are wrong. You are wrong. You are wrong. It works.

it's the gospel so number one god loves you and he has a plan for your life now don't you think you could weave that into a conversation someone says well is there another way to put it well come up with one i dare you come up with a better phrase than god loves you and has an amazing plan for your life i don't think you can do it if you can email it to me the jeff cavans show at ascensionpress com i'll put it right on right on the show god loves you and has a plan for your life number two sin will destroy you. That's part of the gospel. Eight times in the book of Acts, we have this whole curigmatic message in different forms and shapes.

Sin will destroy you. Nothing in the world is so destructive to the family and to the individual life like sin. Because sin, when it enters our life, has a goal, and we are told in scripture that the goal is death. You see, it's death. It's like the COVID-19. If left unchecked and unaddressed, and we don't take precaution, the whole world could be affected by it. That's not to say everybody's going to die, but certainly everybody is going to be affected by COVID-19 unless we do something about it. And this is what is part of the gospel. It's out there. Sin will destroy. you. It will conquer your family. It will destroy your own personal life, indulgences that don't

really satisfy all of these desires of our heart. We go in a multitude of directions to try to satisfy ourselves, and we find ourselves in sin, and it destroys our life. And so number three, the good news is Jesus Christ has died to save you. Isn't that beautiful? Jesus Christ has died to died to save you. And so as you are created for a plan of sheer goodness and you're dealing with the destruction of your own family in life and you can't figure this out, here we have an answer and that is that Jesus Christ has now died for you. He has made a way for you to experience the love of the father and a family of healing the church. And so what he's going to ask is the fourth part of the curagmatic message. These are things that we weave into conversations with

people. And at first, you might say, wow, that's going to sound really strange. It might. It might. But it's the truth. It's the truth. Christ did die for you. I don't need to come up with a better way of saying it. So what is our response? Number four, repent and believe the gospel. You see, to repent, metanoia in Greek means to turn the mind around, completely turn in a new direction. And in the case of our friends that we're talking to, we are going to give them a challenge to turn from the life that is killing them, the situation that is destroying them, and we're going to ask them to repent. Now, you're saying, Jeff, do you really use that word repent when you talk to your neighbors? well my friend no I don't I use what the catechism says in paragraph 1431 which will be in the show notes what do I use I love this it says that interior repentance is a radical reorientation of your

whole life to God that's the way I explain it to people is that I tell them after telling them that God loves them and has a plan for their life and that sin destroys our life and messes it up royally. But Jesus came to die for you and he asks you now to radically reorient your life to him. You think you could say that? It's so easy. It's so easy to do this in a natural conversation. And yes, you might feel a little bit weird at first, but I promise you that this will impact people if you say it sincerely as a friend, as a co-worker, in the proper place. I'm not saying you have to break away from your assembly line at work and start handing out cards to people. You just might find yourself on the unemployment line with that, but to use wisdom when you

share these things. And I love that paragraph 1431. And I'm going to put it in the show notes because it's just that good. And number five, after they say, yes, I need to I need to wrap. reorient my life to Christ, then the next point is to be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. So in baptism, their sins are forgiven. They are brought into the family of God. They're incorporated into Christ. They become a member of his body, the church. And then the work of transformation begins. It begins in earnest. You see, up and to this point, you're not obligated to answer every theological question that people have and every detail before they make a decision that, yes, I'd like to go further. You'd make the basic proclamation, and that proclamation

really works on the heart of people, and when they say, I want to go further, we introduce them into the RCA program in the church, where it's a very purposeful walk towards Christ that will initiate them. And then the seven weeks after they come into the church, that's the time, of the mystogogy, all the readings on Sunday are geared to the neophyte, the new beginner. Now we begin this transformation, and when now we go deeper into questions that need to be answered. So that's number five, be baptized, receive the Holy Spirit. By the way, that's confirmation. Confirmation, and that's when you receive the Holy Spirit. And the graces of baptism are completed and you've been given power, power to share the gospel as an authentic witness.

And then number six, you are called to abide in Christ in his body, the church. So as you begin to grow in Christ, after you've made this radical reorientation of your life to Christ, this is good to know as you lead other people, after they have made this radical reorientation. radical reorientation to accept Christ and to believe Christ. And they go through the RCIA program and they are brought formally into the church. We're encouraging them to abide in Christ and his church. And that is to be a part and active in the body of Christ, which is his church in the world. It's his body in the world. And then the seventh, it's easy. moves forward. Go make disciples is number seven. So once you have come to Christ,

you bring other people to Christ. That's the order that this takes place in. And so those are the seven points of the curigma. Curig, remember, curigma. We're brewing up a cup of good news for people. That's the message right there. And here's why it works. Now, this This is the part that I've been waiting to get to, and then we'll finish the show, because we've been talking about so much today. But I've given you the seven points of the churigma, and you're responsible for, number one, memorizing them. Yeah, that's what you're called to do. Memorize those seven points. Memorize the seven points.

Then as you engage society, look for opportunities. with your eyes, with your ears, with your intuition, you look for opportunities to engage in conversation with people, which is not hard to do. It's as easy as, are you having a good day? How's your family dealing with COVID-19? What do you think about the fact that the twins and all the baseball teams are not playing right now? I mean, there's so many ways to just engage in conversation. And if the Lord wills it that, you know, that the problems in their lives are going to come to the surface and you might have an opportunity to share good news with them, then so be it. That's wonderful. But here's the message. You don't have, this is the message. Get it, get it, get it. The success of the proclamation in the heart of the person you're talking to is not dependent. I'll say it again, is not say it in a car right now, wherever you're at. say it, it's not dependent upon my cleverness. It's not. It is dependent upon me proclaiming the good news to them, but the responsibility for confirming this message in the heart of the person

you're talking to is the responsibility of the Holy Spirit. It's the responsibility of Jesus. It's the responsibility of our father. And what does he do? He takes this message and confirms it. If you'll give the message out there, God will confirm it with signs and wonders. Three scriptures that I'm going to give you, Mark 1620, and they went out and preached everywhere while the Lord worked with them, worked with them, and confirmed the message by accompanying signs. So they went out there and preached. They went out there and proclaimed. They were in the break room talking to fellow people. And the Lord worked with them. And he confirmed the message. You see, the Lord can do things in the heart that we cannot do.

Hebrews too, therefore we must pay the closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it. For if the message declared by angels was valid in every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord. That's the good news, isn't it? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to by us, by those who heard him, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his own will.

And then 1 Corinthians 2.4, I love it. Paul says this. Oh, this is good. He says, my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom. It wasn't clever. but in a demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Bingo. I love that. I love that because it tells me, look, when I go out there and talk to people, my success in this is not dependent upon my ability to speak or my cleverness of words or jokes or just plain darn witty. No. When I go out there and talk to people

and I bring Jesus into the conversation, and I start to tell them that God loves them and has an amazing plan for their life. What's happening is that the power of God and the demonstration of the spirit takes place, the confirmation of the message takes place in their heart, and things happen. Things happen. Oh, my word, I could go on all day about this, and I don't know if you could go all day listening to me to talk about this, but I could talk about this all day long. I look at these Bibles on my desk. I'm reminded that I'm, yeah, I am deep in the woods here by the lake. But I'm reminded of the responsibility that I have to take what my hands are upon right now.

Right here, the Bibles, the Catechism. Hear that, a little different sound. That's the Catechism. That's the Bible. They're in the same family. It gives us the Word of God that we are responsible for knowing, living, and share. would you try to share with other people that we're going to change and double the church in five years you say jeff you're a dreamer yeah i am i am but i'm tired i'm tired of of just you know

thinking that the church is going to grow through a few people marrying into it it's it's hard to talk to people uh about jesus when we don't know what to do with them in the church maybe you can be a part of that solution in your own parish by becoming an R-C-I-A director. That's the right of Christian initiation for adults, R-C-I-A. Maybe your church needs you. A lot of us will sit back and say, boy, I wish that was happening in my church, yet you're listening to this show. You can be a part of the change that we're talking about.

How the Catholic Church can double in five years. Let me just remind you one more time that five years, means you've got 60 months to bring one person into the church. You have 240 weeks to bring one person person into the church. You've got 1,825 days. Let's really get honest here. You've got 43,800 hours to bring one person to Christ. Again, if you want the show notes, just text Jeff Kaven's one word and text it to 33777.

Seven, I want you to know, my friend, I love you, and I'm praying for you, and I'd like to pray for you right now that you will be a part of this movement to double the church in five years. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I thank you for your gospel that you've entrusted to us, and I thank you for bringing us into your family and involving us in the spreading of the good news around the world. Lord, shake us up, shake us up, and may we shake all of the scales of fear and discouragement off. May we walk in courage and love and boldness, equipped with the corigma and nurtured by the foundation of our relationship with you. Lord, I pray for all my friends right now that you would bless them and give them courage to be a part of. sharing the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen. I love you. Look forward to talking to you next week.