Becoming Good Soil
We believe that God has a tremendous dream for your parish. Not simply to make your parish more welcoming, dynamic, or vibrant, but that it is a place of palpable formation in authentic Catholic discipleship. Where the cultural milieu is your fellow parishioners really grasping their Catholic faith, praying every day, frequently receiving the sacraments, openly speaking about their relationship with Jesus, and living saintly lives in the heart of the Church.
The Office of Evangelization seeks to accompany parishes in this effort of becoming “good soil” of evangelizing activity and disciple-making. This involves envisioning and implementing a whole parish paradigm that focuses on forming Catholic disciples, thus, making your parish an epicenter for missionary activity. This missional process is simple and takes the long view of slow growth over time. At its heart, it’s doing what Jesus did; making disciples, a few at a time.
We work with parishes to develop a broad vision of evangelization & discipleship for your parish. This vision is in line with the vision of the Church, which is to reach all people (ad gentes!) by proclaiming Christ and making disciples. This process helps parishes grasp an articulated vision of what God wants to do at the parish.
We help parishes develop a cohesive strategy for how to make their vision come alive at the parish. We explore what your parish can do to intentionally help parishioners, and even non-parishioners, to call others to fall in love with Christ, form them in the ways of discipleship, and to send them to be disciple-makers who accompany others.
We work with a number of your leaders to “drop their nets” and begin living a life of authentic Catholic discipleship. They will be formed to live discipleship, but also to share it with others as true missionaries in your parish.
As evangelization & discipleship takes deeper and deeper root at your parish, our Office continues to assist in various ways. At this point, it’s up to parish leaders to continue to reinforce and align everything at the parish around Catholic discipleship and to stay focused on the parish’s mission.
Pete Burds Director of Evangelization 414-758-2219 burdsp@archmil.org
Margaret Rhody Associate Director of Adult Evangelization 414-758-2218 rhodym@archmil.org
Micah Pfundstein Associate Director of Campus Evangelization 414-758-2221 pfundsteinm@archmil.org
Doug Ulaszek Associate Director of Youth Evangelization 414-758-2211 ulaszekd@archmil.org
3501 South Lake Drive St. Francis, WI 53235