Be Catholic Despite Your Bad Parish

As goals are being set for 2016, there is one that I think everyone should add this year and that is to tell their conversion story to at least one person. Now you may be thinking, “I’ve always been Catholic so I don’t have a conversion story.” But there is a moment in everyone’s life where they stop choosing their parent’s religion and they choose it for themselves – that is a conversion. You convert your heart from being tied to your families choices to being an independent lover of God.
For some of you, your faith has always been part of who you are. I would love to hear your story.
For some of you, you grew up Catholic, maybe fell away for a few years in college and came back to the Church. I would love to hear your story.
For some of you, religion wasn’t part of your childhood at all and you found the Catholic Church later in life. I would love to hear your story.
The great thing about telling your conversion story is that you can’t get it wrong... it’s your story. You don’t have to worry about saying the right thing or not offending someone. You’re not telling people that YOUR story has to be their story. We all come to Jesus in a different way. But Jesus can’t use your story to help someone find their own path if you don’t share it.
This year, I want you to make it a priority to TALK about how you met Jesus and how you chose to be Catholic. I know… it sounds very Protestanty of me to say that but you know what, that’s something the Protestants do really well. They aren’t afraid to talk about how Jesus has changed their life and I think we do a better job this year of sharing our own journey with Jesus.
Don’t be scared. Start with someone you know well. Start with someone who is already Catholic. Simply ask them how they became Catholic or the moment they really knew they wanted to be Catholic for themselves and not just because they grew up that way. I promise these stories are always interesting because Jesus is at the center.
Much like I never tire of hearing how someone met their spouse, I never tire of hearing how someone fell in love with Jesus. Let’s be brave in 2016 and speak our conversion stories out loud. Kim Tisor has a whole podcast devoted to telling people’s conversion stories. You can check it out at http://www.ourcatholicway.com/.
Every story has the ability to change the life of someone else in the world. Christianity was founded on this principle that we come to know Jesus and that we then go out and share that Good News with others. Share your story this year. Then go out and share it again.
It’s time for Catholicism to make a big comeback. We need to be the loudest evangelists this year. We need to lead people to the one true Church. That is the best thing we can do to heal the pain in our world today.