Working with my Catholic parish, I plan to organize a group to offer the Alpha Course, an 11-week series of meetings at a private residence intended as a non-threatening way for people who are not Christian but are curious about Christianity. The approach is evangelization through friendship targeting secular neighbors. Meetings entail socializing over food and drink followed by viewing of a 30 minute video on a topic of basic Christian teaching followed by a discussion. I hope that this will help our parish, which is quite dynamic but focused mostly on its own people, to extend its care to work for the good of the city. In the style of Hebraic leadership, this approach of course starts from God, aiming to spread his word in an effective way. It then accounts for personality, meeting people where they are and not expecting them to come to our church, but instead going out to their neighborhoods. Finally, it considers history. In our southern town, Catholics were always a minority, often ethnic, to conservative Protestants, usually Anglo or African-American. This effort tries to show that Catholics are not exotic or odd but instead, normal neighbors who can be good friends.
