by B., Minneapolis, MN, age 12
As we find innovative and temporary ways to be the Church, including new ways to participate in worship, new ways to provide pastoral ministry, and new ways to keep community we must also find new ways of evangelizing, of sharing the Gospel, and of ministering to the larger communities in which we find ourselves.
In the fourth pillar of his work, “Of What Life Do We Speak? Four Pillars for the Fulfillment of the Apostolic Work of the Church,” His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, explores “Outreach & Evangelism.” As we find ways to continue to be the Church, Metropolitan Tikhon encourages us to find new ways of evangelizing and sharing the Gospel with the world around us.
Metropolitan Tikhon describes the essence of missionary work as communicative, and but communication identified as “preaching the Resurrection with our life, a life illumined by that Resurrection,” and identifies the heart of our evangelistic vision as the Gospel of the risen Christ that every member of the Church is called to proclaim and share. Metropolitan Tikhon places particular importance on the care for youth, and calls upon them to, “give the example of missionary zeal and apostolic ministry.”
We offer here an example of this missionary zeal from a middle-school student who recently participated in the All-OCA Church School online classes. May this brief reflection be an example and a challenge to us all, regardless of age, how we might preach the Resurrection during this unprecedented Pascha.
“Every time my friend and I get together, we always end up talking about Orthodoxy. She’s always so interested, that after a sleepover one time I offered for her to come to church with me and she agreed to go.
“She came to church and loved the experience, she was confused and asked questions along the way but afterward, she said she wanted to come again another time. I offered a couple weeks later if she wanted to come again but she said her parents wanted her to stay in the house due to the spread of the coronavirus. Since this virus got in the way, I am going to invite her to our Pascha Divine Liturgy online so that we can experience together, the first online Pascha ever.
“This is important to me for the Church to share our faith with others, because without sharing it how could the Church ever grow?”
As each of us adjusts to attending the Divine Services through our devices, why not take this opportunity to invite a friend, a co-worker, or a neighbor to join us virtually in the Light of the Resurrection. It behooves us during this crisis to share the blessings we have been given, and the abundance of Orthodox material on-line makes it easier to bring the Light to the world.
View the schedule of live-streamed services from the Monastery of Saint Tikhon, with His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon.