Vision and Mission

VISION

Evangelism of the Chinese by the Chinese

Local bishops, priests, and religious are really working hard to spread the Gospel, but because of the demands for pastoral, administrative, and educational ministries, they need lay evangelists to aid them in the mission of evangelism in order to:

1. Proclaim the Gospel to the Chinese
2. Lead them to conversion to Christ
3. Inculturate the Gospel within Chinese culture

MISSION

Evangelism must not stop or retreat:

1. Proactively help lay persons discover and answer the call to be professional lay evangelists.
2. Provide such persons with specialized formation for evangelism.
3. Through systematic research, to provide professional lay evangelists with successful and effective methods of evangelism.
4. Through spiritual, human, and financial support to sustain lay evangelists in their mission of evangelism.

OBJECTIVE

• Formation of Lay Professional Missionaries (Evangelists)
• Parish-driven promotion of evangelism
• Action plan clearly detailed towards goal

ORGANIZATION

• Formation Center,
• Evangelism Research Center, and
• (Working) Evangelism Center.

FORMATION PROGRAM

Lay Missionary formation program is in three aspects:

• Spiritual Formation.As an individual, the lay missionary should be a spiritually mature person, Catholic, and evangelist.
• Overall Formation.Understand well fundamental doctrines of the Catholic Faith.Students take 108 units in three academic years: Theology Courses (50 units), Evangelism theories and practice (46 units), Inculturation Courses (12 units), and Spiritual Formation.
• Theory and practice of Evangelism.Students learn:

• How to motivate parishioners to start One-Brings-One Evangelism
• How to attract non-Catholics into the Church
• Effective catecheses for groups and individuals

EVANGELISM PROCESS

The evangelism process has two major stages:

• The first stage is attracting non-Catholics.
• One-Brings-One Systematic Evangelism.
• One-Brings-One Evangelism Prayer Community.
• Through these One-Brings-One programs, every parishioner invites at least one relative, friend, or colleague to participate in RCIA course. one of the two programs

• RCIA
• Pre-catechumen programs. Gradual introduction to the faith, especially through small group sharing and prayer and beginning to form a community.
• Prayer Retreat. Weekend retreat of deeper prayer and being prayed for: this weekend usually leads to a commitment to the full catechumen course.
• Catechumen Course. A fuller understanding and participation in the Catholic Faith.

Donation

Check payble to CPSJ and write in Memo section: Chinese Lay Missionaries , then mail to:

Advancement office

Jesuit California Province

PO Box 68, Los Gatos CA 95031-0068

　 Credit Card:

___ MasterCard ___ Visa ___ American Express ___ Discovery

　 Credit Card #: ________________________

Exp. Date: _______/________

　 Name (print) __________________________

　 Monthly deduction instruction: ________＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿_

On-line Donation: http://www.jesuitscalifornia.org, at Support Our Mission.　Write in the Comments box: Chinese Lay Missionaries to ensure the correct allocation of the funds.

If there is any question, please contact Yvonne Chow at chineselaymissionaries@yahoo.com

THANK YOU for supporting the

Life-changing and lifesaving work for Chinese Lay Missionaries

Mission Circle

I. Purpose:

A Mission Circle is a volunteer group of Catholics who support our lay missionary/evangelists by "adopting an evangelist". This adoption would include not only financial support, but also spiritual support through prayer and penance. It would also include getting to know the adopted evangelist, on going knowledge of how his or her evangelism work is progressing, maybe something about his personal situation, sharing experience about what is working or not working in Taiwan with their own communities, etc. In this way each member of the Mission Circle can participate in a more personal way as partners with our Chinese Lay Missionaries.

II. Financial Goal of Each Circle:

Since it takes about US$20,000 per year per evangelist for salary, insurance, retirement, transportation and equipment, US$20,000 per year is the financial goal of each Mission Circle.

III. Structure:

Each Circle is made up of Cells. Ideally the members of each Cell should know each other and live in the same general geographical area. Normally each cell should have a Cell Coordinator. Each member of each Cell should give financial support of at least 500US$ per year and the minimum total donation per Cell should be 2,500US$.

The number of Cells per Mission Circle will depend upon the number of members of each Cell and the donation each member is able to make. Hence, some Cells might have ten members who donate 1,000US$ each, or twenty members who donate 500US$ each, or five members who donate 500US$ each. The minimum number of Cells per Circle would be one; the maximum number would be eight. The final arrangement of Cells to form a complete Mission Circle will be the responsibility of Yvonne Chow.

IV. Responsibilities

A. Circle Members: In addition to the minimum financial support indicated above, the responsibility of each member of the Mission Circle is to support the lay missionary through prayer, penance and human encouragement. Direct, first proclamation evangelism is a very difficult mission and it deeply needs the spiritual and human support of the Mission Circle members. The financial commitment is made for one year; but we hope some individual members and Cells will be able to make longer two to three year commitments.

B. Cell Coordinators: to recruit Circle members into his/her Cell, provide Yvonne Chow with basic contact information, to inform her of any change in status of Cell members.

C. Lay Missionary: The responsibility of the lay missionary is to periodically communicate with each supporting member their present missionary work, evangelism experience, difficulties and fruits of their mission. Further, the lay evangelist will share with Mission Circle members who are themselves working on evangelism programs, any non-copyrighted materials we have developed in Taiwan that might be helpful to them.

At least once a year Fr. Louis Aldrich will offer members of the Mission Circle both a chance for a weekend retreat and a one day workshop on "first proclamation" Evangelism. Attendance will be voluntary.