The New Evangelization and You : Be Not Afraid

Last updated on: March 9, 2014 at 4:32 pm by Pete Socks

The New Evangelization and You : Be Not Afraid 2014-03-09T16:32:35-05:00 Pete Socks

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The New Evangelization and You: Be Not Afraid is a timely book written by the co-founder of the Rosary Army and The New Evangelizers, Greg Willits. In the book Greg gives you the confidence to go out and evangelize your family, friends and perhaps even the world. Greg successfully drives home the point that we are called as Catholics to know our faith, live our faith and share faith. As Greg states, “This isn’t about me. It’s about being open to what God might do through you. When it comes to knowing our faith, living our faith, and especially sharing our faith, we can’t do it adequately on our own.”

The book opens with Greg’s very good explanation on what exactly the New Evangelization is. Technically….it’s now new but instead years in the making. He used imagery that struck me as a very good way to describe it. Pope John Paul II spent his pontificate gathering the kindling for the fire. Pope Benedict XVI struck the match and bent over to ignite the wood pile during his pontificate. Finally now we are in position to see the flames erupt on an awakening in the Church, perhaps the greatest one since the birth of the Church some 2000 years ago.

One of the things Greg states early on in the book is that we need to ignite our faith within ourselves while we go out and ignite the faith of others. “We must be credible witnesses of our faith willing to carry our crosses and burden of our faith” as Greg so clearly put it. He does not just throw that statement out there and walk away. A very useful part of the book comes in Chapter 10 “A Year of New Evangelizing”. In that chapter Greg has created three lists of suggested ideas for knowing your faith, living you faith and sharing your faith. Within each list there are 52 ideas for accomplishing each. These ideas include little things such as reading and prayer suggestions all the way up to starting your own blog or podcast.

Another nice addition included in the book is what Greg calls “New Evangelizers in Action”. These are short stories detailing what fellow Catholics have done to become a part of the New Evangelization. Sprinkled throughout the book are 11 examples (one in each chapter) of people who have found ways to share their faith with others. It was really enlightening to see the many unique ways people have found to share the faith. Lastly Greg challenges the reader with questions at the end of each chapter which draws the reader into further reflection.

This is a great addition to the library of anyone wanting a better understanding of the New Evangelization. It is timely and the road map Greg lays out is one that provides ample guidance to someone with the goal of evangelizing their next door neighbor or someone wanting to tackle a bigger project like a blog….about book reviews….or something similar.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I received a copy of the book for this review from Franciscan Media / Servant Books.

The New Evangelization and You

Previous Post

October 11, 2013

Weekly Giveaway : Dangers to the Faith / The Fathers of the Church

Next Post

October 17, 2013 Weekly Giveaway : The New Evangelization and You : Be Not Afraid

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A Year with Mary A Year with the Angels A Year with the Church Fathers Book News Children's Review Featured CD Giveaway Guest Post Interview Linked Review Media review Movie Review New Releases Off the Shelf Review speakers Teen Review The Clergy Speaks The Laity Speaks The Open Book Podcast Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz