Evangelization workshop encourages taking Catholicism to the streets

Anxious to be part of a new initiative in the Diocese, some sixty to seventy participants gathered at Immaculata High School in Somerville Nov. 23 for a workshop on street evangelization. The training was preceded by Mass celebrated by Msgr. Joseph Celano, pastor, in Immaculate Conception Church, a few blocks from the school. The initiative was organized by Adam Carlisle, diocesan Secretary for Evangelization and Communication. 

The workshop was conducted by Adam Janke, chief operating officer of St. Paul Street Evangelization, a grassroots non-profit organization, dedicated to responding to Jesus’s mandate to preach the Gospel to all nations, in this case by taking the Catholic faith to the streets.

Janke who has been involved with St. Paul Street Evangelization for 12 years, was working as a parish director of religious education when he came across SPSE online while it was still in its infancy. Raised a Baptist and familiar with street and online evangelization, he was immediately intrigued and attracted by the non-confrontational and fruitful approach that SPSE’s founder, Steve Dawson, was taking to street ministry. After converting to Roman Catholicism, he started his own team and joined as one of the members of the founding board of directors. 

Participants received a 50-page Basic Evangelization Training Participant Workbook which detailed the content of each session and a two-page Testimony Guide that addressed the why and how of street evangelization: “Why give a testimony?” “How to structure a testimony,” and “How to prepare and give a testimony.” All documents contained very practical “nuts and bolts” information based on the experience of the many years of evangelization by the SPSE. 

The day consisted of five 45-minute sessions, each of which included an exercise: Urgency of Evangelization, The Etiquette of the Evangelist, How to Effectively Share the Gospel & Your Testimony, The Role of Apologetics, and The Role of Prayer & the Holy Spirit. 

Janke opened each session with concrete, practical stories about the successes (and the inevitable failures) of street evangelization. The workshop culminated in “practicing what was preached” as attendees were bussed from the school to Main Street in Somerville to actually engage in street evangelization. 

One participant, Tom, offered a very poignant report on his experience with a small band of evangelizers: “A young man named Liam from St. John the Evangelist (Dunellen), Jim from Califon and I did go out onto the streets. We first huddled together in the cold wind on Main Street and prayed that the Holy Spirit would guide us in this endeavor. We each took turns in offering medals or rosaries to passersby. All people we offered medals or rosaries to, refused our advances, except one. I gave a Miraculous Medal (the one that I received in my welcome package from SPSE) to a woman putting change into a parking meter. I explained the history of the medal. (In her acceptance of my offer, I completed the practical exercise assignment for Lesson 4 of the SPSE Introduction to Evangelization course. Yay.) 

“Then we encountered a man named Anais. When Jim asked him if we could pray over him, he said yes. So, the four of us held hands or wrapped our arms around each other and prayed together for Anais’s family. His eyes were filled with tears afterwards and he thanked us. We then walked on and encountered and prayed over a man with a bicycle named James. He was grateful for our offer. James appeared to be homeless. He accepted a rosary from Liam. 

“We headed over to Shoprite, a local grocery chain store, where we were rebuffed by many. We did meet a homeless man named Thomas sitting on a bench near an alley way. We prayed over Thomas, and while James was praying, another homeless man named Doc (with a cane for the blind) joined us. They were both very grateful on this cold night. James had two McDonald gift cards which he gave to Thomas. We headed back to the bus to transport us back to Immaculata High School where we had received our training. I asked our group to continue to pray for Anais, James, Thomas and Doc.”