Every Knee Shall Bow (Your Catholic Evangelization Podcast)

So you’ve got the kerygma down … now what? Dave “I’m Kind of a Big Deal” VanVickle and I talk about how to mature in your faith after an initial proclamation of the gospel. The kerygma is not the end of evangelization, it’s just the beginning. It’s how someone takes the first step to becoming a disciple of Jesus, but we can’t stop there, we have to make sure that we’re preaching, but also teaching. Snippet from the Show “An initial proclamation of the kerygma is not enough. It is the doorway to faith, but once you cross that threshold, you are in the house of faith, and now you must conform your life to Christ.” SHOWNOTES Catechism of the Catholic Church, 89 - “There is an organic connection between our spiritual life and the dogmas. Dogmas are lights along the path of faith; they illuminate it and make it secure. Conversely, if our life is upright, our intellect and heart will be open to welcome the light shed by the dogmas of faith.” Pope St. John Paul II in Catechesi Tradendae - “The Church has always considered catechesis as one of her primary tasks … very soon the name of catechesis was given to the whole of the efforts within the Church to make disciples, to help people to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, so that believing they might have life in His name, and to educate and instruct them in this life and thus build up the Body of Christ.” Catechism of the Catholic Church, 89 - “The mutual connections between dogmas, and their coherence, can be found in the whole of the Revelation of the mystery of Christ. ‘In Catholic doctrine there exists an order or hierarchy of truths, since they vary in their relation to the foundation of the Christian faith.’ St. Teresa of Avila - “If you want to hear God speak to you, read scripture. If you want to see a miracle, receive the Eucharist.” St. John the Baptist - “Bear fruit that befits repentance” (Matthew 3:8). 5 Practical Tips Read the Catechism, paragraphs 74-95. Pick a dogma to enter into more deeply. Connect dogma to the kerygma. For your spiritual life, ask Jesus to be Lord of your life, ask where you need him to assert his lordship over you, and conform. Pray for the USCCB. Support Every Knee Shall Bow (Your Catholic Evangelization Podcast)

Dave “Thunderclap” VanVickle and I are talking to the one and only Mark Hart—author, speaker, and Executive Vice President of Life Teen. We talk about the struggles parishes have to organize a movement of evangelization and the difficulty of training and empowering individuals to spread the gospel. Instead of just telling people to evangelize, Mark is on a mission to teach people to evangelize with a new program—The 99. Featuring Fr. Mike Schmitz, Fr. Josh Johnson, Leah Darrow, Sr. Miriam James Heidland, and more, the program will help parishes start a movement of evangelization in their communities. See more at evangelization.com. Snippet from the Show - “The Church is an organized religion, but we’re painfully disorganized on a parish level.” SHOWNOTES Quote attributed to St. Francis of Assisi - “Preach the gospel at all times, when necessary, use words.” Mark’s 4 Practical Tips As part of your morning prayer, ask the Lord for greater awareness of the people he’s putting in your path that day. Pray an examination of conscience at the end of the day (consider using Romans 12). Put your phone down more often to be present to those around you. Instead of texting someone, call them and leave a voicemail if you have to. One last tip from Gomer and Dave: Buy The 99!Support Every Knee Shall Bow (Your Catholic Evangelization Podcast)

Dave “Too Hot to Handle, Too Cold to Hold” VanVickle and I are focusing on the role of the laity in the Church when it comes to explicit word and deed evangelization. The Church needs the voice of the laity to speak up! Priests can’t go into your office and nuns can’t go into your friend’s house (probably). We are the ones that must carry the Gospel into our homes, schools, jobs, and public places. Snippet from the Show “Catholics were attempting to be modest and self-critical instead of being triumphant … We went from being triumphant and engaging in apologetics to just being apologetic.” Check out the shownotes for today's episode at ascensionpress.com/everykneeshallbowSupport Every Knee Shall Bow (Your Catholic Evangelization Podcast)

Dave “Don’t Fear the Reaper” Van Vickle and I are talking about how to keep Jesus at the heart of your ministry and your life. Today’s totally made up middle name for Dave is brought to you by listener Lina., who also asks the questions that we are answering in this show - thank you Lina! We’re talking about the vine, the branches, and the backyard … (Dave bought a new house). We start with how to open your home to engage the culture and build community and then get to a question from Lina who asks, “What are the practical steps to stay grafted onto the vine when you’ve been sent to work out in the vineyard?” In other words, how do we keep Jesus as the defining characteristic of our life when we feel called to go off and do great things on our own or within our parish? Snippet from the Show “The presence of suffering and persecution is the way that God makes you better, stronger, and woven even tighter with Christ the vine.” Check out the shownotes for today's episode at ascensionpress.com/everykneeshallbowSupport Every Knee Shall Bow (Your Catholic Evangelization Podcast)

We want people to convert to the Catholic Church not because it’s a popular thing to do, but because they have a genuine experience of God’s love and truth through the Church. This means we can’t water down the gospel. Dave “Lay Assistant to Exorcists” VanVickle and I talk about this vital aspect of winning hearts for Christ, as well as the importance of repentance. On a practical note, we also talk about how to start intercessory prayer groups. Check out today's shownotes at ascensionpress.com/everykneeshallbowSupport Every Knee Shall Bow (Your Catholic Evangelization Podcast)

Dave VanVickle (that’s right, no nickname today) and I are waking the dead! We’re talking about how to really reach people through evangelization. Not just a short moment of emotional connection that fades the next day, but a true conversion where a person reorients their life to God. Snippet from the Show “Taking someone’s heart of stone to a heart of flesh is a supernatural act. You are making them alive in Christ Jesus. That is a bigger miracle than resurrecting a deceased corpse to natural life.” Check out the shownotes at ascensionpress.com/everykneeshallbowSupport Every Knee Shall Bow (Your Catholic Evangelization Podcast)

Public speaking to teens: a favorite pastime of … no one. But somebody has to do it, and with some prayer and preparation, your talk can be a great opportunity to change hearts and minds—just look at the fruits that come from Steubenville Conferences. Dave “Father of Wildlings” VanVickle and I go over how to prepare a talk for high school students that will bring the house down. We want to hear from you! Email us at eksb@ascensionpress.com with your story, question, or comment—or if you’ve got a new nickname for Dave. Snippet from the Show “Christ is the one who destroys the walls of hostility that we keep building up. Every new barrier we put up, Christ is the one who tears them down. God is pursuing us.” SHOWNOTES How to prepare a talk for high schoolers Select a piece of Scripture: The Word of God is the only thing that gives real clarity in the world. Be yourself: teens appreciate authenticity Speak to their experience. 5 Practical Tips Find three narratives where Jesus pursues (or talks about) going after someone outside and brings them in. Write down your thoughts and observations. Take a half page and try to write a tract that you think would be compelling to bring someone to the Lord. Ask someone in your life to pray for you and your call to evangelize. Reach out to someone in your life and compliment them on some part of their life. Pray for the RCIA team and the adults to be baptized in your parish. Resources from the Show The Great Adventure Bible Broken and Blessed: An Invitation to My Generation - Fr Josh Johnson Ascension’s soon-to-be-released program for evangelization, The 99, at evangelization.comSupport Every Knee Shall Bow (Your Catholic Evangelization Podcast)

It’s difficult to spread the gospel if you haven’t read it. Dave “Too Hot to Handle, Too Cold to Hold” VanVickle and I talk about why it’s vital to regularly read Scripture and how to immerse yourself in the Word. We want to hear from you! Email us at eksb@ascensionpress.com with your story, question, or comment—or if you’ve got a new nickname for Dave. Snippet from the Show “The most effective evangelists are those who are steeped in the Word. Evangelization is the fruit of encounter, meditation, and study of Sacred Scripture. It’s an overflow of what’s in your heart because of your total commitment to the Word of God.” SHOWNOTES If using Scripture to prepare a talk: Take the theme and look for the scriptural narrative around it. Let the Scripture narrative guide the talk, don’t use the Scriptures just to prove your point. It is important to be regularly reading, studying, and praying the Scriptures in order to feel comfortable with them. If worried about misrepresenting Scripture or using it the wrong way: Look for outside resources to explain Scripture. Look to Navarre Bible commentary, the Fathers of the Church and Barclay’s commentary on the Bible for help. Read through the Scriptures every day, even if just a small amount. 5 Practical Tips Find an image of Catholic artwork and meditate upon it. Get the book A Father Who Keeps His Promises by Scott Hahn, or Walking with God: A Journey through the Bible by Tim Gray and Jeff Cavins to read through and get the big picture of the Bible. Pray for the priests in Africa who are being murdered. Discuss with someone the chapters in the books mentioned in the second tip. Memorize John 1:1-5. Resources from the Show A Father Who Keeps His Promises - Scott Hahn Walking with God: A Journey through the Bible by Tim Gray and Jeff Cavins GENERAL AUDIENCE St Peter's Square Wednesday, 14 November 2007 - Benedict XVI Benedict XVI Promotes Biblical Meditation SPIRITUS PARACLITUS - Pope Benedict XV Check out this podcast at ascensionpress.com/everykneeshallbow to browse the shownotes for every episode!Support Every Knee Shall Bow (Your Catholic Evangelization Podcast)

It’s hard to start proclaiming the kerygma, “God loves you and has a plan for your life”, when someone doesn’t believe in God. Dave “All Thriller No Filler” VanVickle and I wade into the world of apologetics as we address a listener's question about how to evangelize an atheist. Our faith is rational. Don’t fear questions about what we believe, because at some point over the past two thousand years, that question has already been asked and answered. We just have to find it. We want to hear from you! Email us at eksb@ascensionpress.com with your story, question, or comment—or if you’ve got a new nickname for Dave. Snippet from the Show “Catholic students need to understand that faith is not irrational. We don’t leave our minds at the door. That’s the Catholic tradition, it’s OK to question.” SHOWNOTES Christianity has reasons for its beliefs. Start with Jesus as a man, his birth and resurrection. Pray and ask others to pray with you for conversion. Ask: What is your moral absolute? What do you base your morality on? Look into metaphysics. Teaching even a little bit of it helps people look into things and start thinking. Keep the conversation about their relationship with God, but also learn about apologetics. Have material around that they can “stumble on.” Make sure they understand we welcome and encourage questions about our faith. 5 Practical Tips Think about how you would change your testimony if you knew there was an atheist in the audience. Memorize names and facts about your community members to show that you care about them. Pray with us for the conversion of the boys at this high school. Build a database of online answers to atheism. Practice reverse mentoring. Ask someone younger than you to teach you something. Resources from the Show The Handbook of Christian Apologetics - Peter Kreeft The Handbook of Catholic Apologetics - Peter Kreeft, Ronald Tacelli Fundamentals of the Faith - Peter Kreeft More than a Carpenter - Josh McDowell Apologetics and Catholic Doctrine - Archbishop Michael Sheehan Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis The Reason for God - Timothy Keller Making Sense of God - Timothy Keller Memorare Prayer Magis Center website- Fr. Robert SpitzerSupport Every Knee Shall Bow (Your Catholic Evangelization Podcast)

There’s good news and bad news. Bad news: Gomer is out today, so no fun nicknames. Good news: this episode is all about equipping you for spiritual warfare and fighting the kingdom of evil. Spiritual warfare and evangelization go hand-in-hand. Turns out the devil doesn’t like it when you try to win souls for Christ. Acknowledging the reality of spiritual warfare is an important first step. Once we realize that we’re fighting battles everyday, we can use these principles to guide the way. Snippet from the Show “Spiritual warfare is more than a metaphor for the spiritual life, it’s a reality ... We’re all at war with the world, the flesh, and the devil.” 10 Practical Principles of Spiritual Warfare By his passion and death, Christ won a definitive victory over Satan and the kingdom of darkness and any personal victory we have is a participation in the victory Jesus won and gave to his church. The devil and the fallen angels play a mysterious role in the drama of salvation. The battle that they wage against us is a test of God’s elect. While powerful, the devil is only a creature and if we stay close to Jesus Christ and his Church we should not fear the actions of evil. The way we participate in the victory of Jesus Christ is through personal faith, moral living, and prayer. The devil should not be given too much attention but his actions should not be ignored. The Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. Michael, and all the saints and angels are our allies in this battle. Any spiritual warfare you conduct for others is first won in the battle for your own heart. Humble submission to God and the Church is a powerful weapon against evil. True holiness as witnessed in the lives of the saints is what destroys the kingdom of darkness. The devil despises: A sure knowledge of the sonship that comes from baptism, knowledge of the abundant mercy of God, authentic Christian community, and a clear knowledge of, and courage to speak out about, what is good and evil. 1 Practical Tip If you’ve never thought of yourself as a spiritual warrior, take some time to see how you have entered into the spiritual battle. See more at ascensionpress.com/everykneeshallbow We want to hear from you! Email us at eksb@ascensionpress.com with your story, question, or comment—or if you’ve got a new nickname for Dave.Support Every Knee Shall Bow (Your Catholic Evangelization Podcast)