I dream of a “missionary option,” that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation.
(Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, no. 27)
This website adopts the agricultural process to illustrate a possible path to become an evangelizing, mission-oriented parish, focused on forming intentional disciples that will fulfill Christ’s Great Commission in today’s post-Christian world. “The parish is a privileged place where the faithful concretely experience the Church” (John Paul II, Ecclesia in America, no. 41). It is also where deeper evangelization and constant renewal are required. Every parish is called to respond to the times and to develop a suitable road of discipleship, with new methods for the proclamation of the Gospel that will awaken conversion and an evangelizing zeal.
The process proposed to become an evangelizing parish does not present a “one-size-fits-all" approach; it offers instead an understanding of a possible journey, and resources to guide the discipleship efforts of the parishes in our Archdiocese. The phases of this path can also be paralleled with those areas that many of the parishes in the Archdiocese of Atlanta are already advancing, in response to the 2015 Pastoral Plan: Knowing, Living and Sharing the Faith.
