An App for Catholic Evangelization
We have all seen John 3:16 at Football games, at soccer games, and on the walls at arenas. It’s “evangelization”, but is it effective? This app gives you a 22 year tested method of evangelizing Catholics and non Catholics, and as a bonus it is translated into 10 languages, and there are training videos!
“For God so loved the world, he gave his only son,
so that whoever believes in him might not perish,
but have eternal life”
(John 3:16)
This app was created for Evangelization, first and foremost.
Catholic Christian Outreach has added their most effective evangelization tool into an app, and they have a lot of people using it. Built into Catholic Christian Outreach’s app is the Ultimate Relationship. The Ultimate Relationship booklet provides a clear and easy way for anyone to share the Gospel message in a clear, simple and personal way. It’s available on both major platforms, Google Play and iTunes iOS.
Catholic Christian Outreach’s App and the Ultimate Relationship
What is Evangelization?
Evangelization means to fulfill the mandate of Jesus Christ to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19), so that all might respond to the Father’s love and be saved through communion with Jesus and His body, the Church. At the core of evangelization is “the proclamation of Christ and his Gospel by word and the testimony of life,” which invites conversion, evidenced through faith in Christ, repentance, and full communion with the Catholic Church. (Catechism of the Catholic Church Glossary).
The Archdiocese of Vancouver, BC has an excellent page describing what evangelization is: http://rcav.org/evangelization/
Who is Responsible for Evangelization?
Every baptized person:
“To teach in order to lead others to faith is the task of every preacher and of each believer”
(St. Thomas Aquinas)
How Can I Evangelize as a Catholic?
Everyone can evangelize. And it really isn’t complicated.
When I need to accomplish something I look to the experts in the field. You could say that the first evangelists are the disciples of Jesus. After all, their work in evangelization, and making the message of Jesus known has lasted the past 2,000+ years. One of the new experts in the field of the “New Evangelization” is Catholic Christian Outreach (CCO). They have been around for the past 25 years, working with the same core gospel message and reaching out to one of the most difficult demographics to reach: university and college aged students. Catholic Christian Outreach is established on 12 University Campus. But more than that they train and equip many other organizations like F.O.C.U.S., and Youth Arise International and have trained their own student missionaries every year. This year they are focusing in on evangelization at World Youth Day 2016. What to know how do they do it?
The Gospel message in a brief and engaging booklet format
The Ultimate Relationship booklet provides a clear and easy way for anyone to share the Gospel message in a clear, simple and personal way. It opens the door for a personal encounter with Jesus and invites the listener to respond in faith to his invitation to relationship. It takes only minutes to share and is effective in missionary and outreach efforts. The Ultimate Relationship World Youth Day Edition is currently available in ten different languages (link to pdf booklet) and over 20,000 booklets have been distributed in the past year alone and used in over 20 countries. (Available on CCO app).
Cover of the Ultimate Relationship booklet. This is the English edition.
What’s in the App?
The app contains the ultimate Relationship, but it isn’t the only thing in the app. For now, we are going to focus on the top left corner for the Ultimate Relationship. Tapping there takes you into the actual booklet.
Then tap on the language that you want to use. (These are links to the same document in PDF format). You can use the Ulimate Relationship in it’s PDF file format but it is just a little more complicated to save and use on a device, and some devices don’t display PDFs very well. Either method is fine, while the one in the app would be easiest.
Just look at all of these translations. That is amazing. You can reach so many people with this app.
Ultimate Guide to App Evangelization
Catholic Christian Outreach has put together a training video that makes using this booklet both more effective and very easy to share. Effectively using the app in evangelization can be a bit frightening, but don’t worry short training videos help you out. It may even seem a bit silly and awkward to use a booklet to share your faith. I can attest that this booklet is really effective at giving you a platform to share your faith.
Can Apps Be Effective Catholic Evangelization?
Evangelization is most effective when in a relationship, that is what the disciples of Jesus taught us. But they also taught from the boat, they spoke to crowds. The Ultimate Relationship gave me a starting point to speak with my family and friends about my relationship with Jesus, as well as offer an opportunity to start their own faith journey by praying and being open to hearing God’s voice. I used the Ultimate Relationship in university to share with many of the students I encountered. I was shocked at how effective and simple to use it is, and how so many people could be touched and moved by the text in the booklet.
What To Do After
The app has some extensions that allow the user to find a bible study to connect into a community and foster faith deepening and growth. This is a tool, just like we are 
, and any tool can be used to share your faith. This is a great method, it is easy to learn, and it is simple. There are many parishes across Canada, U.S., Uganda, Philippines, and other places that have started their own faith studies. They have all the support tools ready for you to start your own, like training videos, leader guides and participant books. And best of all: it is really simple and very, very effective.
Some Issues with this New Evangelization App
The app uses an embed form of Issuu.com, and at the time of the publication that meant that there were several ads that showed up along the bottom of the screen. I didn’t like that. I thought it was a bit tacky, I am not sure if it was done on purpose, or if the developers were aware of it, but they were there. After a while though they seemed to disappear.
Effective Ministry in the New Evangelization
Catholic Christian Outreach is a university student movement dedicated to evangelization. Their target group is university students, but this can be extended to any demographic. I have personally used this tool in ministry, in parishes, on campus, and in random street encounters. It was effective. I highly recommend it. It’s free. They are distributing 1 million copies of it for World Youth Day 2016 in Krakow, Poland in all 10 languages. That in itself is a testimony to the effectiveness and outreach that it brings to your faith sharing abilities.
It has official approval. From the official World Youth Day organization.
Nihil Obstat: Patrick Fletcher, Ph.D.
Censor Deputatus
Imprimatur: +Terrence Prendergast S.J.
Archbishop of Ottawa, Canada (National Capital)
They have trained lay people, priests, bishops, and more to use it.
Catholic Apps reviews the evangelistic apps from Catholic Christian Outreach. This is a effective Tool for evangelization, being used on university campuses, and on mission project world wide. 10 Languages, and approved by the church.
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