Let God's Voice Be Heard

Everyday we are bombarded with so much information (both useful and unvaluable) -- through our emails, facebook, twitter, billboards, tv commercials, ads on the internet and etc. We are also engrossed with the latest gadgets and the newest apps. Many of us are absorbed in the plots of  popular TV series' and movies. We are also busy with work, school, and family concerns. These among many take up our attention in our 24-hour day. It is indeed the information age.

With all these things that overwhelm our senses, the voice of God can easily get drowned in the background of the noise of the world. We can easily be distracted away from Him.  Many of these information promote values of materialism, secularism, relativism, as if trying to take God out of our minds--out of our system. Just try to notice how many Christians today struggle to have a consistent prayer time or even have the time to go to Mass on Sunday. I think one of the great challenges of evangelization today is how to get people to notice the wonderful and salvific friendship offered by Jesus Christ. It is God who initiates this relationship, but many cannot hear His voice.

Quoting Herbert Simon, he said, "What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention."

As evangelizing Christians, how do we grab the attention of today's people towards God?


1. Get Creative

Creativity is important.  Jesus will always be relevant, since He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It is a matter of being able to communicate or evangelize the Gospel message with the right medium -- hitting what is relevant to the target audience.  We need to approach evangelization by means of Creative Fidelity.

 According to http://www.publicchristian.com/?p=196 :

“Creative Fidelity” is the solution Gabriel Marcel (French Catholic existentialist philosopher) provided for the problem of time and change in human relationships. [2]

For example, the man who made my wedding vows is not the man I am today. I am more experienced, more knowledgeable, more mature, perhaps wiser, have different interests and occupations. My spouse also has changed significantly. Why should these older and wiser persons be bound by promises made by younger and more foolish people who in so many ways no longer exist?

I am sure they should; that’s what ‘vow’ means.


Is our approach to evangelization stuck in the 80's when the world was "quieter"?  Are we not a different society, now with more history, and with an evolved behavior?  Getting creative doesn't only mean having an attractive poster or theme or a new program.  It means having fidelity to the truth and depth of God's message -- and expressing it in a manner that rises above the noise of the world.  "The Church recognizes that these media, if properly utilized, can be of great service to mankind, since they greatly contribute to men's entertainment and instruction as well as to the spread and support to the Kingdom of God." (Inter Mirifica, 2)

2. Be in the world, but not of the world.

“Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves." Matthew 10:16

Many have a tendency to alienate themselves from the rest of their peers. Sure, we have to be modern day martyrs and stand of for Christ amidst persecution or getting ridiculed, but we also have to look on saving the souls of those around us. We have to connect to our peers, but not with their addictions, corrupt ways, or general unchristian habits.  We have to be loving witnesses who do not judge and condemn, but who reach out and listen.

In today's generation, many are turned off by straightforward preaching. Although preaching truly proclaims God's Word, but to quote Evangelii Nuntiandi 41:

 "Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses."

What really wards off people from hearing about Jesus is how we represent Jesus to them through our own lives. Indeed it is a tall order to become witnesses, but by His grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, we will have the strength to be true witnesses for Christ amidst an environment of "wolves."

3. Find Common Ground

What we also need to do to catch people's attention towards the Lord is to find out what their interests are. They will listen if it concerns them. Are they young parents? So, they must be dying to hear about parenting or raising children to be good Christians. Are they sports enthusiasts? So organize a sports event like a basketball tournament or a fun run. Are they technology buffs? Organize a forum on making the most out of their gadgets. Sometimes we have to transform the "noise" of the world into the sweet sound of God's voice by Christifying the secular.

If we look intently, people's natural interests may as well be a new mission area.  It may not be geographic, but if you see  how the hundreds or thousands of people with a common enthusiasm gather, there is enormous potential.  "Missionary activity is closely bound up even with human nature itself and its aspirations (Ad Gentes, 8). By finding common ground, we let God transform it into holy ground -- His kingdom on earth.

Let God's voice be heard today!  Let us emerge from the drowning noise of the secular world and sound off the beautiful ensemble of the Good News.

Permeating the Christ Culture in Society

The other day I was with two people who are very convicted in the work of evangelization. Fr. Jacob, from Bangladesh shared that even if Christians are the minority in his country, they continue to make an impact by simply being witnesses of Christ in their area. He shared to me that the way to truly evangelize is to bring families to the faith. This is something we both strongly agree upon. Moses, a CFC brother from Sierra Leone (West Africa), expressed that in spite the problems their country faces, especially coming from civil war that ended just in 2002, they do their best to pursue the work of evangelization through Couples For Christ.

No matter what color, race, or tongue--CHRIST is universal. There is one Christ culture. The culture of humility, servanthood, sacrifice, and the mandate to make disciples of all nations (Mt.29:18).

What is it that stops us from spreading the faith? Is it our office culture? Our peer culture? The Christ culture is seen and felt in our speech and in our deeds.  If one is truly filled with the presence of God, His grace will overflow to the people we meet.  With constancy, the environment will slowly transform and adapt to the culture of Christ. Let the Gospel permeate into society through the lives we live.

Be filled, let His lover overflow, and witness change!

Who We Really Are

When ordering in a coffee shop or fastfood, 9 out of 10 times my name gets misspelled. It's either Kervin, Kerby, Korby or some other version. I find it very amusing.

Names have a lot to do with identity. 'Who we are' is very important to us. We may have different concepts of our own identity, but there are truths about our identity that are constant.

1. Our real identity is that we are God's children.

What does it mean to be identified as a son of God? It means that we have to reflect the goodness of our Father king and that we are heirs to His kingdom. The devil, like Rumplestiltskin, wants to snatch us away from the Father's arms and entices us with deceivingly attractive deals and compromises to our own demise.

2. As God's children, we are to be like Christ, our brother. We are to be identified as Christians. "No longer I but Christ." Gal.2:20.

Jesus is the Word become flesh. His life meant to be an example for us to follow, for our own salvation. Christ is in us, in our hearts, and He will shine through us if we let Him.

3. The expression of our Christian identity is to be a witness.

More than preaching, the way is to live out our identity in Christ. When people imagine Christ, can they relate through our lives? Witnessing is a day to day challenge and a measure of the depth of our relationship with Christ.

Knowing ourselves is a journey of humility. When we look at our real intentions and motivation, we discover our weaknesses and how far we are from becoming like Jesus. But acknowledging our weaknesses before God is the way to move forward.

"But He gives us even more grace to stand against such evil desires. As the Scripture say, "God opposes the proud but favors the humble." James 4:6