How to Use this Plan and Strategy - Go and Make Disciples
How to Use This Plan and Strategy (¶75-79)
75. Our hope, upon issuing this plan and strategy, is that it
will lead Catholics to action. The goals, though broad, speak of the way
we live our faith. The objectives, which follow each goal, expand those
goals into several separate parts. The suggested strategies elaborate
in more detail some of the ways of working at the objectives and goals.
76. We envision groups of Catholics reading this plan together,
discussing its implications, and being stimulated by the range of
suggested strategies. We see these groups seeking to do things, both
within and beyond their own Catholic communities, in ways that make
sense for their locale and situation. This document should generate
discussion about action: the possibilities and activities present in
every Catholic parish and institution.
77. Parish councils and parish evangelization teams should be
able to use this plan and strategy to sharpen a parish's mission and to
develop concrete, suitable evangelizing activities. People who work in
unchurched or marginalized areas will carry out this plan and strategy
in less structured settings than those who work in large suburban
parishes. Youth groups will read the document from their special
situation in life and think about how to reach peers in convincing ways.
On college campuses, students and campus ministers can form groups to
see what the goals of this document mean on today's campuses. Catholics
who share the same workplace may form a group that supports their own
faith, strengthens them to invite people with whom they work, and also
explores how their faith bears upon their occupation.
78. Individuals, too, should be led beyond insight and reflection
into a range of actions that can be done in the home, the workplace,
the neighborhood, and the civic setting. Each one's personal gifts and
unique setting call for unique approaches in sharing faith.
79. Our presentation can only suggest the richness of this
ministry. In fact, at the end of this plan we explicitly invite
additional responses to the objectives we are setting forth. We look for
innovative responses, far exceeding the suggested strategies we offer
in this plan. The ministry of evangelization does not consist in
following a recipe but in letting the Spirit open our hearts to God's
Word so that we can live and proclaim God's Word to others. So let the
Spirit work!