Ascension Roundtable (Your Catholic Ministry Podcast)

You know that parents are the primary educators of their children, and that’s why it can be so hard when it seems completely left to you, the catechist, to teach them the Faith. How can we, as parish communities, evangelize parents during those key moments of sacramental prep so we can help them encounter Christ, understand their calling as parents, and embrace their role to bring their children with them to heaven.

In a perfect world, we’d bring thousands of souls closer to Christ in our lifetime. But in reality, we'd be lucky to help even ten people grow considerably in their faith. In today’s episode, Dr. Carole Brown explains how our impact may seem insignificant, but if we focus our efforts on building up small groups of disciples, a serious ripple effect may lead millions of people to Christ over the course of time.

This week’s episode is part two of a conversation about dealing with divisions within a parish. If you want to hear the first part of the discussion, go back and listen to episode thirty-one. In today’s show, Tom and Allen respond to a listener’s question about evangelizing people within one’s own parish. They make several key points, reminding us to tread lightly and challenging us to recognize our own continuous need to be evangelized.

Today we sit down with Luke Carey and Michael Gormley, hosts of the Catching Foxes podcast and enthusiastic lay evangelists. We talk with them about reaching millennials with the message of the Gospel, building communities of radical vulnerability, and the laity’s vocation to bring our faith beyond the parish. These guys are hilarious, insightful, and passionate about reaching a predominantly “unchurched” generation. Stay tuned.

As long as the Church is made up of human beings, certain levels of division will continue to exist. When we’re working at the parish level, how do we understand and work through those divisions with charity and prudence? In this week’s episode, Tom and Allen share an approach to discerning the roots of conflict between parish members, helping everyone move toward unity.

Most people don’t associate ministry with entrepreneurialism, and in certain ways, that's for good reason. But in this episode, we sit down with Matthew Pinto, president and founder of Ascension Press, who shares with us seven entrepreneurial impulses that he believes are valuable to anyone working within the Church.

Catechesis, evangelization, theology…you've certainly heard these terms, but what’s the relationship between them? And when it comes to catechesis, how can we make sure we lead people to deeper intimacy with Christ instead of just filling their heads with information that doesn’t affect their hearts? In this episode, Dr. Bob Rice shares advice on how to make catechesis come alive, and he reminds us that the most important ministry in our lives is the ministry God does within our hearts.

Jim Beckman and Tom McCabe worked at the Catholic parish closest to Columbine High School at the time of the shooting, and they were some of the first people on the scene after gunshots were reported to them by a parishioner who lived nearby. In this episode, they share their experience of that infamous day, and they reflect on how the Columbine event fundamentally changed their approach to ministry.

Mary Ann Wiesinger is the Director of Evangelization and Parish Outreach for the Archdiocese of Miami, and she’s working with Archbishop Wenski to help Miami parishes become centers of hope and evangelization. Mary Ann breaks down what that means, explaining how they’re helping parishes become centers of hope by building parish communities where parishioners will risk face to face encounter. She then shares an interesting strategy that Miami parishes are using to better understand the realities of the people within their parish boundaries and tailor their parish offerings to better reach them.

Today we chat with Maria Mitchell, the producer behind the Ascension Presents videos. In the first part of the show, Maria shares the story of how being in Rome when JPII died helped her realize her vocation to produce powerful Catholic media. She and Allen then talk about the importance of creating non-cheesy Catholic art, and the responsibility we have to tell the Christian story in a beautiful way that catches the world’s attention. In the second part of the show, we get practical, and Maria gives you a few simple tips to help you improve the look and feel of your ministry events.

Jeff Cavins grew up Catholic, but he left the Church at age 18, eventually becoming a protestant pastor. Some years later, he returned to the Catholic faith, bringing with him a lot of practical insight from his time in the protestant community. In this interview, he shares some of those insights, emphasizing how the Catholic Church can better share the fullness of the faith by learning from practical techniques used by our protestant brothers and sisters. He also reminds us never to take the richness of our Catholic faith for granted.

In the third episode of our miniseries on evangelization, Dr. Marcellino D’Ambrosio shares how Christian hospitality and the witness of Catholic community are among the most powerful, yet under-played, instruments of evangelization in the life of the Church. Tune in for tips to help you cultivate a hospitable parish, make space in your life for others, and create community within your imperfect home.

If we want to evangelize, we need to rediscover something that the Early Christians knew very well—that telling stories about how Christ has transformed our lives is what will catch people’s attention. So how do we build a Catholic culture where testimonies play a central role? Tune in to the second episode in our miniseries on Evangelization to hear Dr. Italy’s wisdom on this topic and get practical tips to help you start incorporating more testimony into your ministry.

In this episode, Dr. Marcellino D’Ambrosio (aka Dr. Italy) puts the New Evangelization into the context of the ups and downs of our Catholic story. The early Christians grew from a group of 120 at Pentecost to 10% of the Roman empire in about 300 years. How did they do it? Dr. Italy discusses this and other key times in Church history, explaining how the New Evangelization is and isn’t so new.

Today we interview Brice Sokolowski from Catholicfundraiser.net. He’s going to tell you why you should fundraise (hint—it’s not just about the money), and how you can avoid common Catholic fundraising pitfalls.