No More Donuts-as-Usual
How my top three go-to evangelization books fit together in the scheme of things.
A few weeks ago I reviewed Contagious Catholic by Marcel LeJeune, and I said that if you could only read one book on evangelization, this was the book. Today I want to talk about why I said that. Obviously it wasn’t out of raw, unfettered self-interest, so there must be something else going on.
What’s going on is this: If you can only get one single idea about evangelization hammered into your precious skull, Marcel LeJeune hammers home the one central idea you can’t get by without.
Let’s pause here and clear up a basic fact: Reading is not holiness.
If you subscribe here, you’re probably a reader. You enjoy reading things so much you sign up for extra reading material. Reading helps you. It inspires you. It keeps you going.
That’s great, and I am grateful you are here, but not every saint is a reader. Some people just don’t read very much. In our work discipling other Christians, we need to be realistic about just how much someone is going to read.
That’s what this post is.
For light-readers and absolute non-readers, the type who aren’t even going to read one whole book, consider Susan Windley-Daoust’s 101 Ways to Evangelize: Ideas for Helping Fearless, Fearful, and Flummoxed Catholics Share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
This one is short. The basic facts of how evangelization works are front-loaded, and then the remainder of the text is ideas on how to get going. If you have parishioners who are eager to evangelize and you’re looking for a literary pep-rally to spur them on, this is a fantastic conversation-starter.
People who do like to read but aren’t Big Readers will read it cover-to-cover and soak it up, because it is short and readable and action-oriented.
People who don’t honestly read much at all will skim a little bit and also maybe open to the page that you tell them to open too, and then if they ever get stuck in bed with a rare tropical disease and there are no sports on, not even curling, they might read it while they fantasize about being able to get back to action.
If you’re a reader? It’s a great book, loaded with ideas. Recommended. But read Contagious Catholic so that in leading discussions about your evangelization strategies you can keep your group focused on the end goal. All the ideas in 101 Ways to Evangelize are ordered towards ultimately accomplishing the most important thing, which is what Contagious Catholic explains in detail.
You who read here, and who can generally be counted on to read not just one full-sized book but multiple full-sized books in a single year? Definitely you should read The How-To Book of Evangelization by your favorite substack blogger.
There’s not a specific order I recommend reading my book and Contagious Catholic. Mine (The How-To) gives you the big picture of all the different things we do within and beyond our parishes to enable evangelization and discipleship, and how it all fits together. What part is there for the liturgy, or apologetics, or retreats? What role does each one serve in the evangelization and discipleship lifecycle?
Contagious Catholic drills down to the very most central part of that web of evangelizing activities and focuses 100% on the core actions of personal conversion, relationship-building, proclaiming the Gospel, and mentoring new and renewed Christians in the practice of evangelizing.
It would be nuts to say, “Oh, we don’t need to do the works of mercy, we just need to make friends and proclaim the Gospel.” So The How-To explains how works of mercy fit into that process of relationship-building and Gospel-proclaiming. And so forth with everything else we do in the Christian life.
For one-book readers, I looked at the risks of reading only my book versus reading only Contagious Catholic:
If you only read Contagious Catholic, you might temporarily convince yourself that none of the usual “stuff Catholics do” really matters. You might for a time erroneously decide that feeding the poor or apologetics or making beautiful sacred art or hosting coffee-and-donuts is not of any importance. There’s a risk you’ll drop it all and spend 100% of your resources on personal relationships ordered towards proclaiming the Gospel and discipling believers.
Okay, then what?
Then in your discipleship group you’re gonna notice that Jesus says to feed the poor. In learning how to answer questions for yourself and others, you’re going to end up studying apologetics. Some of you are going to make beautiful sacred art because you can’t help it, you just love Jesus that much. Some of you are going to want a donut after Mass. And thus, bit by bit over time, you’ll discover through the process of being human that all these things we do as Catholics can be, and should be, ultimately ordered towards evangelization and discipleship.
The How-to also spends a fair bit of time on basics like listening skills and is permeated with a ton of awareness of the deeper spiritual mentality of evangelizing relationships.
Again: If you read only Contagious Catholic, you might end up spending more time on trial-and-error as you work all that out from scratch. But you’d be working on the most important things, so you’d get there in the end.
You can save a lot of time by reading two books. I definitely think that if you are a two-book reader you should read both The How-To and Contagious Catholic, and use your expertise to keep redirecting those in your parish towards the importance of making sure All The Things We Do are ordered towards effective evangelization.
But I’d rather you forget everything you know and focus only on the core concept of relationship-based evangelism than use my book as an excuse for donuts-as-usual.
Photo: The Krispy Kreme donut-making assembly line, churning out doughy, airy, grease-laden donuts like God intended, not your absurd circular cake-products. Photo by Neil Turner, CC 2.0. It is truly a marvel how many results turn up when you search “doughnut” on Wikimedia.
Also, personal update: Massive thanks to you who prayed for my silent laptop. My favorite tech guy was able to get the sound working again, hallelujah.
Bless your heart (this phrase proves I am southern at the core, even as a Minnesota transplant!). Thanks for the kind words, and I agree the other two books (yours and Marcel's) are excellent reading for the life on mission.