How can deacons help evangelize?

The Tidings, the Catholic newspaper of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, this week offers one answer, with this intriguing look at a unique deacon ministry that is striving to meet people where they are:

In a day of spiritual reflection that brought veteran and new deacons and their wives together, the former urged the latter to “take an extra step and use the marketplace” where they work and live, as a platform for evangelization.

The March 14 event — hosted by the Deacon Mission Center Ministry Inc. to lure new deacons to their street ministry in South Los Angeles — found a receptive audience among the class of 2008.

“I came with great expectations,” said Nellfa Salazar, the wife of Deacon John Salazar of St. Francis of Assisi Church, Los Angeles, “but little did I know I was going to learn that my blessings never end, and that we can still bless many others.”

The center, a volunteer-based outreach ministry opened near St. Michael Church in October 2006 by Deacon Peter Wilson and his wife Norvell, was incorporated as nonprofit in February 2008. It can be used by the deacons and lay men and women volunteers to develop continuing education programs for all parishes in the surrounding communities.

During the event, deacon couples as the Wilsons — who have been in diaconate service for the last 27 years at St. Rose of Lima Church, Simi Valley – shared ideas of how to add a new dimension to outreach ministries in inner cities.

The first year after their ordination is usually the time when deacons get established in their own parishes. It is the time for spiritual growth and for developing strengths and skills and for reflection on the ministry God has called them to serve in, explained Deacon Wilson.

The center, he said, was planned with the hope that new deacons would play a role in the community in drawing people to church during a time of growing violence and religious apathy.

“We don’t just feed, but teach how to feed,” Deacon Wilson said. The center’s main purpose is to offer a space for development of leadership skills, spiritual growth and strengthening of Christian values.

“Pews are empty because we haven’t done our jobs,” Wilson said during his opening presentation. He urged the new deacons to challenge themselves to minister outside the church and to meet people’s needs in their own environments.

“We minister to the people in the church, to the ones who are already saved, but we leave out the people outside the church,” he said. “We need to meet people’s needs in their cities, at their homes or at their workplace. That is why we call it outreach. When their needs are not met, people leave.”

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