Posts tagged Evangelization
How to Build a Catholic Web Site
Mar 15th
Rome Sweet Rome
There are many articles and tutorials concerning web design, strategy, and marketing, but very few focus on the niche of Catholic evangelization. In this post, I am going to outline the strategy I used (and use) to develop, publish, market, and analyze content for CatholicTools. With using these simple techniques I have built a large Catholic blog in 3 months that attracts readers from across the country (and even the world).
As with all CatholicTools articles, this will give a good outline; however, feel free to customize each step for yourself. I am going to use resources from other websites that I find very helpful. Take note: “Don’t get overwhelmed.” Read the article, bookmark it, and come back.
Develop an Idea
Ask your self 3 questions:
- Why do I want to use the Internet to evangelize?
- What unique niche or field could I develop or write about?
- What are my goals?
Get a piece of paper and start brainstorming. For CatholicTools, I originally wanted to test if I could develop something to be at the top of Google’s search results. Well, I did that. Now my unique niche is tools that help Catholic Parishes. Specifically Catholic youth and young adult ministry. I enjoy writing about my own past experiences and sharing ideas that could help spread the Gospel.
Try to think what keeps my readers up at night? Why should a reader take the time to read my article?
More Resources
How to Choose a Niche Topic for Your Blog
Write Exciting Content
Love
But, Jason I want to buy a domain name. Before a site can be launched it needs content. Content that will be worth reading. Now, I am a horrible speller, so I try and make up for it by writing awesome Catholic content.
- Keep article length to 300-500 words (yes you can bend the rules)
- Paragraphs should be no more than 3-5 sentences. Short is GOOD!
- Use beautiful pictures (make sure they are optimized) How to Optimize a Picture for the Internet
- Make the content personal and meaningful.
- Develop 10 articles/post and write 10 more that are scheduled to publish once a week for the next 10 weeks.
- Use headings, bullets, numbers, bold, italics, and underline.
- Find someone to guest post and write some content for your site.
- Follow simple Search Engine Optimization Techniques.
- Don’t even dare worry about making money. It will distract you.
- Read other blogs/sites and mimic their style.
When I was first starting out I subscribed for 4 weeks to Copyblogger’s daily RSS feeds and Problogger. They filled my inbox with quality articles, but over time I unsubscribed because I didn’t need them anymore. However, I would suggest subscribing for the first 4-6 weeks.
5 years ago I did some work for a popular Catholic author. I suggested he give his stuff away on his blog so his blog would be the hub of information regarding this Catholic topic. The strategy worked extremely well. Many people came to read his articles, hear talks, and see pictures from events. People would leave comment, after comment on all postings. Because of this strategey he further achieved the rank of guru of his field.
This technique is call Content Marketing or becoming the Authority in your field. This is the way you should write. Give away your tips, advice, and good thoughts. Here is an excellent article on the subject. Content Marketing 101
More Resources
Learn How to Copywrite – Great Articles!
WordPress Your Publishing Platform
Mary
WordPress is a free platform that runs on a web server (we will cover later), which publishes content to the internet. Content is edited through a web browser.
I like WordPress.Org to publish my content into a website because it is free, accessible anywhere, and expandable. This tutorial is designed to show you how to set up your own web site on your own server; however you could use WordPress.Com or Blogger.
A little Homework
It is important to read the documentation if you want to learn how to use it…Or you need to hire someone to install, setup, and teach you how. It is very easy once running, but it will require a little work.
Why is it important to learn about WordPress? It’s like reading the owners manual on your new car.
Buying a Domain Name
Share a Comment
In the past I would buy .com .org .net and Dot everything else for any project I was working on. Now I just buy what I need. However, at only 10 bucks each you can easily secure yourself.
I buy domain names at GoDaddy.com. I don’t like their advertising, but they are cheap, reliable, and easy to work with.
- Always use a promo code. Google “Godaddy promo code.”
- Never buy anything else they are selling. “Just say No.”
- Ask for help and be patient.
Hosting Company
Adoration
Now you need a home for your WordPress install and domain name. Where to go? I like www.site5.com. I have used them for over 6 years and only once had a problem (which they fixed). They answer your emails, plenty of space, and low cost.
Finding a Beautiful WordPress Theme
Now the search begins for an awesome site theme. Since you probably read the documentation on WordPress you realize it’s pretty easy to add a new design to your site.
I use Mystique (I have customized my installation). Preview Here Download Here
More Themes
Search Engine Optimization
Rome is Home
Go to Google Adwords Search and search the word “Catholic” or any word pertaining to your Catholic faith. The numbers are HUGE and give a solid example of why Catholics must be on the internet.
- Register your website with Google Webmaster Tools.
- Read about Search Engine Optimization
- Track How People Find Your Content using Google Analytics.
- Install the Google Sitemap Plugin.
- Keep writing Content regularly.
These steps actually work. If what you write is worthless and nobody reads it, your ministry isn’t working. It needs to be improved. In addition it takes time. Yes, weeks, months, sometimes years.
RSS and Email Newsletters
An RSS feed is automatically generated from your site with your current publications and either emailed or downloaded to the person’s computer. It is so your audience can receive your new updates with out always checking your site.
This is important to grow, because it ensures a regular audience of readers. If you look around CatholicTools you can find strategically placed links asking readers to “Sign Up”
FeedBurner is the company that manages this service for free.
Another retention tools is an Email Newsletter. The company I like the best is iContact.com.
More on Emailing
Email Newsletters for Catholic Parishes
Examples
As you look around CatholicTools.com take notice of all the listed practices in place. Everything is place for a purpose. Copy it (don’t copy my content and paste it on your site, but copy it’s style).
A few more good examples of sites practicing these techniques:
Spirit Daily – Great content and Great niche
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Loading ...An Urgent Call to All Catholics
Feb 17th
Go Deep
Words from Scripture often fall on deaf ears. These same ears would respond to the cries of a small child in trouble, a plea of help coming from a burning building, or a whimper from an injured dog, but the call from our Lord goes unanswered.
The message of Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, is not one that should hidden because of shyness, but must be proclaimed from the housetops (Mt 10:27).
The love of Christ is what impels (2 Cor 5:14) one to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord. “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel…I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more. To the Jews I became as a Jew…To the weak I became weak…all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” (1 Cor 9:16-24)
Too often Catholics forget to evangelize. Maybe because many are brought up in the faith and it’s just passed down from generation to generation. This excuse is no longer acceptable.
Mass attendance grows smaller and smaller, young people are leaving the Church in droves, souls are falling to hell like snowflakes (Fatima), and the faithful are losing faith in the Bishops.
Urgent Wake Up Call to Catholics
Enough with planning, procrastinating, and feeling sorry for ourselves. The effort that goes into complaining could be used for winning souls for Christ.
The Lord is calling for an urgent reply.
Right after Pentecost the disciples are seen out in the street proclaiming the saving power of Jesus Christ. (If you have forgotten about miracles, just ask for one).
- “Every day in the temple and at home they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:42).
As a boy Jesus was urgent in his Father’s will.
- “I must be about my Father’s business” (Lk 2:4).
Again in the parables Jesus is saying be quick.
- “Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame….Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled” (Lk 14:21-23).
Even the Angels work with haste.
- “Go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen” (Mt 28:8).
- “Men of Galilee…why do you stand here looking up at the skies?” (Acts 1:11).
Ever watch a good sports coach? They never accept excuses…Even the good ones.
- “Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for oyu, go and proclaim the kingdom of God” (Lk 9:60)
Catholics Have a Great Message
The Mass, Sacraments, Rosary, Scripture, Tradition, Saints, Theology of the Body….And this is just the tip of the ice burg.
SALVATION!
Next time a planning meeting comes or the daily grind, think about how important the Message of Jesus Christ is to proclaim. There is no time for procrastination. Go out to all nations and preach the God News.
Prayer
Just an end note. All this going out is also in conjunction with praying and asking the Lord for guidance and His will. The disciples spent time with Jesus to learn how to pray, preach, and teach. So must we spend time with Jesus, because if He isn’t inside of us, what do we have to give?
Popularity: 9% [?]
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...The Problem with Catholic Schools
Feb 11th
Blue for Mary
Catholic schools used to be one of the great foundations of education and evangelization across America. However, since the 60s we have had two generations of Catholics who have not participated in Catholic education. I remember my own education being extremely beneficial and formative in my faith. I can’t say that it benefited all of my classmates, because many have left the faith.
What was once a cherished symbol of identity for a parish has now become a financial stigmata.
Recurring Problems
- Catholic schools are closing their doors and charter schools are opening inside the abandoned buildings.
- Enrollment has dropped significantly and what was once only partially funded by parishioners now has grown into a financial burden for parishes.
- Parents would rather send their children to public school because there is no visible advantage to sacrificing for a Catholic education.
- Graduates are abandoning the Catholic faith or graduate poorly catechized.
- Schools are breading grounds for gossip and ‘clicks’ of parents. I would suggest also that a certain majority of parents of school children are not attending Mass regularly. (This is a different issue that could be addressed further.)
Missionary Work
The Catholic Church advocates in Ad Gentes that schools are an excellent means of forming youth in the faith.
With special care, let them devote themselves to the education of children and young people by means of different kinds of schools, which should be considered not only as the most excellent means of forming and developing Christian youth, but also as a valuable
public service. – Decree on the Mission Activity of the Church – Ad Gentes
The Church sees the value in our schools as forming young people in the Faith, but our schools unfortunately don’t see the mission of the Church. (Before someone gets upset, I have seen plenty of great Orthodox Catholic schools. Yes, they do exist, but the bad ones always steal all the attention.)
It is for this reason we need to change and reform the mission of our Catholic schools and display the advantage of attending Catholic schools
Areas of Improvement
- Authentic Catholic Teaching – Determine if the Faith is properly being taught.
- Develop Prayer and Devotional Life – Emphasize and cultivate the value of prayer through First Friday devotions, daily recitation of the Rosary, Daily Mass, Brown Scapular, Scripture Reading.
- Parish Participation – Promote Sunday Mass attendance and evangelize to parents of students.
- Witness to Jesus Christ – By teachers actions, schools environment, and leadership.
- Pray for more areas of growth. This list is limited.
Opportunities for Catholic School Growth
School
Yes, these suggestions are radical, but also traditional. They would require an environment of sacrifice and change. Yes we can. Teachers and administrators would be asked to develop their own faith life in accordance with Catholic teaching.
Students formed in the Faith would have to be the number one goal of education. Salvation through Jesus Christ must be a top priority. Students who have a relationship with God will be open to learning more, because Jesus Christ is ‘Wisdom.” God the Father is all knowing. Scripture teaches to “Love one another.”
By advertising these advantages and changing the emphasis in our schools we will be fulfilling our mission as a Catholic school.
The Lord did not say, “Count my sheep.” He said, “Feed my sheep.”
What do you think?
Popularity: 7% [?]
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Evangelizing is the Mission of the Catholic Church
Feb 4th
Evangelization
Have you ever sat in a Catholic parish meeting and everyone is asking what we should do? The answer is evangelization. That’s not coming from me, but from the Church. The Church is given the call from Jesus Christ.
As the Father sent Jesus into the world, so does Christ send His Church into the world “to make disciples of all the nations.” So cry out like a voice in the desert, “Evangelization, Evangelization, Lets Go Out and Evangelize.”
I encourage you to read Evangelii Nuntiandi by Paul VI. This document is full of reasons why we must go out, just like Christ, and call people to Him.
Evangelization should be at the center of our ministries. In this mission we will find our identity. This purpose of evangelization is for an interior conversion.
How do we evangelize?
We first look to Jesus in the Gospels and call on the Holy Spirit for direction.
Start with Prayer. Be nourished on the Word of God and the Bread of Angels. Before going out and preaching the Gospel listen to what it has to say. Take time with your evangelization team to pray with the scriptures, go to Mass together, pray the rosary, and make full use of the sacraments.
Don’t rush the process. Listen to where the Lord is calling. After the Lord was baptized he went out in the desert for 40 days, so to must we be prepared.
Witness – Go out. First in our daily lives. They will know we are Christians by our Love. Live as a sign of contradiction to the times. Our witness, preaching, and proclamation of the Good News will “evoke admiration and conversion.”
10 Evangelization Activities
- Welcome Back – Call, Email, Send Letters, and welcome those who are on the parish database who never come to Mass
- Intercession Team – Start a group of people who pray for those ‘out’ evangelizing and those coming back to the Church
- Door-to-Door – Start canvasing neighborhoods around the parish welcoming people to the Christian community.
- TV Commercials – They have worked in Arizona.
- Youth Group – Teens are learning for an opportunity to encounter Christ
- Bible Study – Open the Bible and invite others to come here the Good News. (The Good News is Salvation.)
- Catechism Class for Adults – People want to learn about the faith
- Neighborhood Parties – Invite families to come to someone’s house and watch a religious video, share a meal, or pray the rosary.
- Learn to Evangelize – Offer a night to encourage people to live as a witness in their daily lives.
- On the bus, at home, in school, or at work, everywhere we go Proclaim the Jesus Christ has risen.
The Lord went from town to town preaching to the poorest who were often the most receptive to his message. So the next time you see a homeless person tell him about Jesus Christ. Pray with him. Share with him the love of Christ.
What Do You Share When You Evangelize – All the aspects of His (Jesus) Mystery
- The Incarnation itself
- Miracles
- Teaching
- The gathering together of the disciples
- The sending out of the Twelve
- The cross and the resurrection
- The permanence of His presence in the midst of His own
Be a witness and speak about the joy and happiness of belonging to the Kingdom of God. Proclaim the liberation from sin and snares of the Devil.
Give witness to the radical conversion and the laying down ones life so that others might have life.
“Do not be afraid.” John Paul II
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