PORTLAND---To impart the message that evangelization is crucial in all aspects of parish life, the Diocesan Office of Lifelong Faith Formation hosted a special presentation entitled “Discover the Evangelizing Power of Your Parish” on Saturday, January 10, at the Chancery in Portland. Over 80 people, many involved in parish work or ministries, gathered for the event, including individuals who participated via video conferencing from Caribou (pictures below).

The featured presenters were nationally-known evangelization consultants and authors John and Therese Boucher who spoke about the best practices to most effectively bring people to God and transform parish groups into evangelizing.
“We hope that we’re able to give people a vision of evangelization and some of the practical pointers,” said Therese. “That is always one of our goals. And when I say practical, just a different way of relating to all the different people that the parish comes in contact with. The bottom line is that we need to believe that God brought them there, whether it’s a parent who wants first Communion or somebody who needs to bury someone. They have their reasons, but I think God has His reasons for bringing them to us.”
Topics at the workshop included “God’s Call to Share Our Faith with Others,” “A Community of Disciples,” and “Maturity and Collaboration.” Throughout the daylong presentation, the Bouchers stressed the need and importance for evangelization in everyday parish life and the need to work together in that mission, noting that God sometimes calls us to work together with people not of our own choosing and stressed the importance of remembering and reflecting upon the deep family bond that comes from being brothers and sisters in Christ.
“When God gathers us together with other people, say on a parish staff, say in a ministry in a parish, He does not ask us our opinion about whom we should be serving with,” he said. “In my experience, we don’t always play well together. We can become tunnel vision. We’re focused on just what we’re doing. We forget about what other people are doing. We get totally involved, and we want to have as much resources to do what we’re involved in, and we can step on other people’s toes, every once in a while, and they will step on ours."
Participants on Saturday came from 13 different parishes from around Maine, including seven members of the recently-established evangelization team at St. Michael Parish in Augusta.
“I definitely got some good ‘take home’ messages, things that we can do,” said Martha Nielsen, the team leader at St. Michael. “We had already decided that hospitality was something we wanted to work on, so that’s been reinforced. I’ve also heard some suggestions on really doable actions that can have an impact, such as having a class for parents who either want to have a baptism in their family or their kids are going through first Communion. So the whole idea of training for them that is more than just a one-day workshop, something that’s a little bit longer, a little bit more in depth, because I would like to reach young adults.”
The Office of Lifelong Faith Formation is looking to offer similar workshops in the future. Participants and those in parish life were also encouraged to pick up some of the Bouchers’ books including Sharing the Faith that you Love: Four Simple Ways to be Part of the New Evangelization. To learn more, visit www.johnandthereseboucher.com, www.catholicevangelizer.com or www.christkey.com.