Jimmy Mitchell – Sharing Faith with Friends

While the majority of conference attendees were enjoying entertainment with Fr. Leo, over 500 students & chaperones chose, instead, to attend a session focused on how to share faith with friends. Obviously, the teens & adults attending this presentation were serious about bringing the Gospel to their loved ones.

While acknowledging that sharing faith can be awkward, Jimmy asked the crowd a thought-provoking question, “If you had five minutes to share the Gospel with someone, what would you say?”

While sharing some stories from his own life about successes and failures in evangelizing others, Jimmy gave us all some important ideas to keep in mind as share our faith with others –

1) It has to be personal; telling our own story is essential. As we are told in 1 Peter 3:15-16, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence…”

2) We can’t be too aggressive; we need to remember that we are dealing with human beings with their own unique thoughts, feelings, and struggles. If we don’t keep in mind the humanity of others, we can end up alienating them.

3) We have to lead with love, so that those we evangelize will know that we really care, that we can be trusted, and that they can confide in us.

4) It’s not primarily about our efforts; sometimes someone else will more effectively reach our loved ones for the Kingdom. The conversion of others is, ultimately, the work of the Holy Spirit.

5) We need to be people of prayer, so that are more able to clearly discern how much we should be talking, and when we need to be quiet.

Near the end of the workshop, everyone broke into pairs and shared their own experiences of the Gospel with one another.

As Jimmy concluded, he reminded us to begin our evangelical efforts with friendship, and to rely on the help of our Blessed Mother, Mary.

So, again, here’s the question: “If you had five minutes to share the Gospel with someone, what would you say?”

Quotables

“I was tired of being the Catholic who didn’t know why he believed what he believed.”

“It’s really hard to share the Gospel with someone you don’t know.”

“It’s never been more necessary for us to be evangelical Catholics.”