[Thigmaswams]

I read an interesting article today in the Christian Science Monitor regarding the future of Evanglicalism which is written by one who seems himself to be an Evangelical.

The article is about what he believes is the soon coming collaspe of Evangelicalism in about the next 10 years give or take. That inevitable crumbling he blames largely on the evangelical's ability to pass on their faith and culture to their offspring...that their attempts at Christian education and Christian counterculture product placement/branding are mostly variations on preaching to the choir. While that might be an interesting predicition to explore that would not of itself justify mention of it here. However, in the article he did say something that does concern us as Orthodox:

In his "what will be left" subsection he says
Two of the beneficiaries will be the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions. Evangelicals have been entering these churches in recent decades and that trend will continue, with more efforts aimed at the "conversion" of Evangelicals to the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. A little further down he adds
Will the evangelicalizing of Catholic and Orthodox communions be a good development? One can hope for greater unity and appreciation, but the history of these developments seems to be much more about a renewed vigor to "evangelize" Protestantism in the name of unity. It sounds to me like there are some sobering life lessons we as Orthodox can take from his analysis of the state of his own communion. It also sounds like whether we as a body are "evanglizing" Protestants or not, it won't be long before we can expect significant numbers of them flooding this way. And sounds to me like a forewarning to get our own houses in order, lay the foundations for expansion, and lay up the resources that will be needed to serve those who will be called to join us around the holy altar.

[Saduyre9de]

Personally, I don't think we can get too comfortable. First of all, this is just an editorial by one guy. It's not a scientific study, rather some personal observations based on a some statistics. That's not to say he is wrong, but I his real purpose was to warn the evangelicals not to rest on their laurels. He simply mixed in a little scare-tactic by mentioning us because nothing is scarier to evangelicals than the word "Catholic" (and Orthodox once they find out that we like saints and ritual too) apart from the phrase "converting to catholicism".

What I worry about is that many converts come to the Faith in very "heady" ways or through marriage. Most converts I meet come to the Church because they read this or that book that delved into theology. A lot of them already knew their own theology very well and came to Orthodoxy because they lead themselves to very deep questions that don't really make sense or seem relevant to the average joe or jane. Like the filioque. There are MANY people (Orthodox and not) who will never be able to appreciate why that matters. They love God, they believe in the Trinity, but try to explain to them the great controversy of the Toledo Council and watch their eyes glaze over. And there's nothing wrong with that, just as there's nothing wrong with it mattering to others.

My point is that if we wish to evangelize to protestants, we need to keep in mind that all of them matter, not just the theologically inclined. We depend on fora, books and websites to passively evagelize, but that is to a quite specific demographic. We need to learn how to reach those who aren't reading theology books or spending their time googling crazy greek words. Normal people whose skills and talents are abounding but whose interests don't lie in theology, history or patristics.

So how do we go about this?

Certainly the first and foremost way to let others know about the Church is by being Orthodox: our actions in love and offering up prayers for the heterdox. Without this, none of it matters anyhow.

But should further action be taken? What about billboards in big cities payed for by donations collected by SCOBA or local parishes just letting people know that we exist, we are Christian and we welcome them to check us out. Or local parishes agreeing to list under the one heading "Orthodox" in the Yellow Pages. Is there anything unOrthodox about any of this? Does the billboard idea (as an example only) make things kitchy? I don't think so on the surface, but "advertising" and things like these are kind of... not things we tend to do.

Joshua

[heilyprollecyspor]

letting people know that we exist, we are Christian and we welcome them to check us out.

Pax et Bonum!

The means for Evangelisation, I think is living out your tradition authentically. From my experience with the converts to Catholicism from the protestants I noticed that what made them to come to our Church was the desire for Eucharist and unity. Unity in Sacraments and unity in Church's teaching. These days there are many speakers and voices. Lots of info and advertisments, but what matters is that people see the authentic Christian life and that this is a serious and solid foundation. And that it is not one option of the many. It is important to let people know that we exist by going out into the world as Christians. In our Franciscan tradition we look at preaching the Gospel through St. Francis' prism, He says: “PREACH THE GOSPEL. AND IF NECESSARY, USE WORDS”...

Fraternally yours Br. Dcn. Antanas OFM

[Saduyre9de]

I love that quote. However, your Church has the both the distinct privilege and burden of the public being aware of who you are. Privilege because even the not so theologically inclined are somewhat aware of you views on communion, unity among bishops and teaching and some basic idea of your claim to be THE Church (as opposed to their general idea of the the Church is). Burden because many THINK they know what you believe and, so, many are closed to even considering you.

For us it's the opposite. We enjoy the benefit of people not knowing who we are because it's more likely they will enter with an open mind (although it could be closed really quickly once they realize that we hold a lot in common with "those Catholics") but we also suffer from being so unknown because 1) there aren't many of us (or at least who actually practice on a regular basis) and 2) most people don't even know we exist or that we are Christian. Hence, my wondering if we shouldn't considering getting the word out JUST so people know we are there and we are Christian. It's just saying, "Hey, um, we're here too. When you're looking for a Church you may just want to consider the Orthodox Church... in case you didn't know." lol

So, I think it is difficult to cmpare our burdens and advantages in this issue. Do you see where I'm coming from?

Joshua

[immoceefe]

My priest the other night said converts are becoming Orthodox not because of evangelism but because of technology. People have access through the web to Orthodox sources in English that they never had before. So it is only natural that people show up long after they have done a lot of reading.

[heilyprollecyspor]

Pax et Bonum!

I totally agree with you. You are very clear in your thinking. I just want to add one more concideration about the Orthodox Churches. I do not know a lot about the Orthodox in North America, but in my country it is very closely linked with nationality. In Lithuania Orthodox Church is considered to be the Russian Church, or the church of the Russians. This might put an obstacle for a convert who wants to join the Church but who is not of the same national background as the Orthodox Church. I believe in States and in Western Europe it is different, but I do not have any point of reference for that.

Fraternally yours Br. Dcn. Antanas OFM

[Saduyre9de]

My priest the other night said converts are becoming Orthodox not because of evangelism but because of technology. People have access through the web to Orthodox sources in English that they never had before. So it is only natural that people show up long after they have done a lot of reading.

I agree with your priest. But you would never reach someone like my wife who is very intelligent, but not interested in surfing the web, reading about in depth theology, etc. Granted, she was introduced through me, but I think about all of the people out there who have no Orthodox friends and whose paths will not likely cross with us simply becuase they never even realized we were out there. Nothing ever piqued their interest. I think sometimes we converts forget how very unknown Orthodoxy is among the non-Orthodox.

Technology is doing a lot to bring converts to the Church, but there are only certain demographics it can reach because it is still a very passive form of a evangelism (which is fine, so this is not a complaint or criticism, just a thought that perhaps we are missing an entire demographic).

Joshua

[heilyprollecyspor]

Pax et Bonum,

On the other hand, I think, why some of the protestants are converting is that some kinds of protestantism have lost their identity as protestants. They are turning back to the Tradition of the Church with the capital 'T' in search for authenticity and some of them end up joining us.

Fraternally yours Br. Dcn. Antanas OFM

[immoceefe]

I was simply making an observation, Joshua, not an argument...I am a firm believer that there is an Orthodox way of evangelism in America, potentially, that we should be carrying out.

I don't claim to know what path to take, because I don't. I only know that if you try to hold on to what you have you will lose it.

In the Greek Orthodox Church we have something for kids called Greek school -- afterschool programs that teach kids Greek stuff. Greek language, cultural history, that sort of thing. Nothing wrong with that so far as it goes, but we must go further. Most Greeks in the U.S. are highly educated, and many are quite wealthy, and many hospital wings etc. are endowed by people with Greek names. How about our philanthropy working more toward recovering classical education, which Greeks have the trademark on. This is a great way of introducing people not only to the life of reason, but to faith, the two being sides of the same coin.