As the Father has sent me, so I send you.
-John 20:21

To understand the mission of an evangelization team, it is first necessary to understand the mission of Jesus Christ himself.  The word “mission” comes from the Latin word missio, which means “sending.”  When we speak of Jesus Christ, we mean fundamentally, the Son who is sent (missio) by the Father into the world.  Frequently in the Scriptures, Jesus identifies himself simply as “the One whom the Father has sent.”  Jesus never separates his proclamation of the Gospel from his identity as the Son who is sent by the Father.  Like Christ, our work in service to the new evangelization must be deeply characterized by this same sense of missio.  We are first and foremost those who are sent by Jesus Christ and this, as an extension of Christ’s own being sent by the Father.  This means that our vocation to evangelization is fundamentally something that we have first received.  We are not masters of our work, but instead we are stewards of a work entrusted to us by God.  As Christ comes from the Father and comes not to do his own will but “the will of Him who sent me”, so we enter our ministry with a firm detachment from our own will and a strong desire to be in service to God’s will.  Our service to God’s will is not an abstract concept, but takes concrete form as service to the Church in all of her concrete reality:  her teachings, her hierarchical structure, her liturgical life, etc….  An evangelization team is permeated by this sense of having been sent by Christ and for this reason its members are deeply aware of their position as disciples of the one Master who sends them.  They recognize their need for continual conversion and transformation in Christ and seek ever to seat themselves at the feet of Christ, learning from him and listening to his voice.   This takes place above all through each person’s life in the Church through:

1. Continual deepening in understanding of and living the Church’s teachings on faith and morality
2. Regular reception of the sacraments, particularly the Holy Eucharist and Confession
3. A life of self-giving love according to one’s state of life
4. A mature and regular life of prayer

In service to the evangelization coordinators and teams of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the Office for Formation of the Laity offers opportunities for those involved in the Church’s great work of evangelization to become aware of and enter more deeply into the mission aspect of their ministry – that is, each person’s identity as one who has been sent by Jesus Christ and are therefore called to be animated from within by his call

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Evangelization Retreats

Evangelization Formation Series

Summer 2012:  Persons In Christ
        Listen to Persons In Christ Formation Series

Winter/Spring 2013, A Time of Grace

Evangelization Regional Meetings

Spring 2012:    What’s New About the New Evangelization?

Meet Our Teams

St. Rose of Lima Evangelization Team, North Wales