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Ascension

Lay Catholic evangelists Michael Gormley and Dave VanVickle bring you a podcast series that teaches you how to confidently share your Catholic faith with your family members, friends, co-workers, and the strangers you meet on airplanes. Every episode, Mike and Dave give you five steps you can take each week to become an instrument God uses to spread the Gospel, heal hearts, and renew his Church. Be inspired by stories of miraculous conversions and be reminded that God still powerfully intervenes to transform people's lives.

Every Knee Shall Bow (Your Catholic Evangelization Podcast)

Michael Gormley announces a new Ascension podcast that will help you share your Catholic faith with your family, friends, co-workers, and even total strangers.

Introducing Every Knee Shall Bow: Your Catholic Evangelization Podcast

Do you find making a good first impression to be awkward? Have you ever tried to say something inspiring but ended up saying the wrong things? Is the mere thought of evangelization too nerve-racking to even contemplate?
Welcome to the Every Knee Shall Bow podcast where hosts Michael Gormley and Dave VanVickle discuss ways you can bring God’s kingdom to earth, so his will may be done as it is in heaven. Every week they will answer questions, explain Catholic teachings, and give you five practical takeaways, all centering around bringing people to Jesus Christ. Today, Mike and Dave explain what Season One is all about—being unashamed of the gospel. The world desperately needs the love of God, and who else will bring it to them except you?

Be Unashamed of the Gospel

Giving testimony is one of the most important parts of the Christian life, but putting your conversion story into words can be a daunting task. We should always be prepared to give testimony to what God has done in our lives. So today, Mike and Dave talk about the central importance of testimony, why it's important, and practical tips on how to actually do it. Grab your Bible, a pen, and a piece of paper and get ready to write your testimony. 
Snippet from the Show:
Your testimony is your journey with God, your lived relationship with Jesus, and how it all started.
4 Basic Principles of Writing Your Testimony:
1) Remember your testimony is not actually yours. You do not own it, it is God’s story of what he has done in your life. 
2) Being specific about the amount or gravity of sin, does not usually add to your testimony. Be careful not to glorify the sin, it robs the limelight from God.
3) Your testimony is about God’s pursuit, and your cooperation and surrender. Remember, he plays the primary role and you play the secondary role. We should try to showcase what God has done rather than on what we did to follow him. 
4) Writing a testimony can be a bit like writing an examination of conscience. There may be a part of writing it that calls you to repentance. 
Practical Steps to Prepare Your Testimony:
1) When you begin writing, start broad and then get specific. Write about everything from the first moment of your life up until the present day. Use words or sentences that would describe you before you became an intentional disciple of Jesus. Here are some questions you could ask yourself: Did you have a life philosophy that you lived by? What were the basic principles you used to govern your life? Did you have an unsatisfied inner need? 
2) Describe your identity before you became a serious disciple of Jesus. This gets to the end goal of your conversion—be broad. Who did you want to become?
3) Focus on what made that conversion possible. What made you serious about following Jesus? Again, be broad.
4) Then focus on how you would describe yourself immediately after the conversion.
5) Then describe how you are different now. Write down five to ten sentences or words that describe who you are now as opposed to then.
6) Then write down any Scriptures, quotes, or stories that had particular meaning to you during your conversion process or that mean something to you now. This can sum up your story.
7) Then put it all together in a twenty-minute testimony. Only after you master the long testimony should you cut it down to a shorter version. 
Remember: Don’t lie or exaggerate. 
5 Practical Takeaways:
1) Read Acts 26 - Listen to the Apostle Paul giving his testimony.
2-5) Take a few days to write your twenty minute testimony using the four basic principles listed above.

How to Give Your Testimony

What does it look like to help others move from placing a basic faith in Jesus Christ to having him as their Lord, the center of their life? Every religious conversion is unique. There is no step-by-step guide because, ultimately, it is God who changes their life. However, by listening to other evangelists’ stories, failures, and tips, you can better equip yourself to be an instrument in revealing God to others. 
Snippet from the Show:
What we are getting into now is an era of time where people are totally comfortable with their children and grandchildren not being evangelized in any way whatsoever. 
5 Practical Takeaways:
1) Evangelization is much more than a hobby, but just like a hobby, you need to invest in it. Take time to invest in yourself and read the book Forming Intentional Disciples. 
2) Read “Man’s Response to God” in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraphs 142-175). It only takes 10 min. This is the best and most wonderful understanding of faith, as it lays out the individual and ecclesial dimensions of faith.
3) We want to be comfortable with the basic Gospel message, so read Acts 4:8-12.
4) To continually prepare your heart and engage in spiritual evangelization, go to your church, walk the whole perimeter, and pray the rosary for religious conversion.
5) It’s important to know what we don’t know about our Faith. Take the Apostles’ Creed and prayerfully meditate on it. Work through the different tenets of the Creed.

The Reality of Religious Conversion: Stories, Failures, and Tips from Catholic Evangelists

Merry Christmas from Every Knee Shall Bow!

Merry Christmas!

Kerygma is a Greek word that means proclamation. We, as Catholic Christians, are called to share the gospel message as we evangelize: God loves you, has a plan for your life, but because of sin we have been separated from him, and the only one who can save us is Jesus Christ. Through our repentance and turning toward him we come back to life with him. This is the context in which all of our Catholic faith can be understood. In this episode, Michael and David provide a brief history behind the Kerygma, expound upon this basic gospel message, and give you five tips on how you can start proclaiming the gospel.
Snippet from the Show
For most of us Catholics, we think repentance is the thing you do in the confessional. We don’t realize that in the Catechism, it is repentance, the interior sorrow, that sends us to the confessional.
4 Steps of the Kerygma:
God has a plan for your life.
Sin interrupts that plan and separates you from God.
Jesus Christ died and rose so that you could be forgiven of these sins and be united to God in heaven.
Through faith and his Church, you can be united to God forever. 
Five Practical Tips to Help you Enter Into the Kerygma and Start Proclaiming it:
If you do not have a vital relationship with Christ, start with Mark’s Gospel. Read it as straight through as you possibly can. Ask yourself as you are going through it: “What do the words and deeds of Jesus reveal to me about God the Father’s heart?”
In the book of Acts there are eight different kerygmatic sermons that the apostles give. Prayerfully take one of them (we suggest Acts 2:14-36) and meditate on it. 
Write down in your own words the basic gospel message.
Intentionally go and ask someone if they have some need in their life that you can pray for. 
Start to build a relationship with a non-believer by inviting them to do something that is mutually enjoyable.

The History of the Kerygma and the Power of the Gospel

The phrase “Physician heal thyself” (Luke 4:23) references the often forgotten truth that one must solve their own problems before attempting to fix the problems of others.
Becoming a true Catholic evangelist requires more than just knowledge of the Faith, a certain style, or even success. Your life must reflect the fact that Jesus Christ is active, makes a difference, and has healed your heart. As an evangelist, you are held to a higher standard and your personal life needs to be a fitting witness to your evangelization.
How can you do this?
The answer is simple: prayer. Prayer creates a true Catholic evangelist because the Holy Spirit is the cause of conversion. Today Michael and David share ways you can incorporate prayer into your daily life and how that prayer will make you a true Catholic evangelist.

Physician Heal Thyself: How Prayer Creates a True Catholic Evangelist

Mike and Dave, the hosts of Every Knee Shall Bow, take time to answer your questions and respond to your reviews. They also provide resource recommendations such as Alpha, Sherry Weddell, SEEK, and more! At the end of the podcast, they also provide five easy ways to observe effective evangelization in action!
Snippet from the Show:
The beautiful thing about our Catholic faith is that when you conform yourself to a celebrity...you lose yourself. But what Christ wants in conforming to him, instead of losing yourself, you actually gain yourself back, and become who you truly are called to be.
Resources Mentioned on this Show:
1) Alpha the Catholic Program
2) Sherry Weddell and the Catherine of Siena Institute
3) Divine Renovation a book by Fr. Mallon and Ron Huntley
4) SEEK 2019
5) Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling a book by Andy Crouch
6) The Rubin Report: “A Bishop and a Rabbi Discuss Religion”, a YouTube video
5 Practical Tips
1) Open up your computer and see what churches or movements in your area are doing well with evangelization. 
2) Read Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch
3) Pray for a specific priest that they might be able to communicate the gospel well
4) Watch “A Bishop and a Rabbi Discuss Religion” from the Rubin Report on YouTube.
5) Start an evangelization journal. Get a notebook dedicated for growing as an evangelist. Write about who you are praying for, mistakes you made, things you want to try, talks you have given, basically anything to do with evangelization. Write our practical tips and how well you did. This will help you grow as an evangelist.

Q&A and Resource Recommendations with Every Knee Shall Bow

When evangelizing, there comes a moment in time when you will invite someone to completely give their life over to Christ and begin living a Christian life. 
How do you know what moment is right?
What does the invitation look like?
Why is an invitation to Christian life so important?
Using Scripture, contemporary faith formation tools, and personal experience, Mike and Dave explain the sometimes subtle art of inviting someone to live a fully authentic Christian life. 
For more information visit ascensionpress.com/everykneeshallbow (https://media.ascensionpress.com/category/ascension-podcasts/everykneeshallbow/)
Snippet from the Show:
“If you read the Gospels, you are going to see constantly that the one man who could have demanded, is constantly instead inviting.”
Tips on Invitation:
1) Invitation should be gradual
2) Invitation should be compelling but not forceful
3) Invitation should be loving and gentle
5 Practical Tips:
1) Create one gathering of friends doing some activity. Invite someone who is on the “outside” of your group to take part.
2) Acts 10:34/43 Peter is preaching the Kerygma. Take it line by line and pray through it.
3) Meet one of your neighbors that you haven’t met yet. 
4) Start your own group of intercessors. Ask one person to specifically pray for the people you will encounter and that you and others be open to the Lord’s words.
5) Go to Adoration for thirty minutes and pray for those specific people you will encounter and evangelize.
Resources Mentioned:
The Calling of Saint Matthew (http://www.caravaggio.org/the-calling-of-saint-mathew.jsp) painting by Caravaggio
Ananias Training (https://siena.org/ananias) from the Catherine of Siena Institute

The Art of the Invitation to Christian Life

Church teaching is an important part of our Catholic Faith. Today, Mike and Dave are going to show you how to incorporate the church into the kerygma.
They explain how fellowship is not socializing and why the Church comes before the individual in the plan of God.
“Our love for Jesus and for our neighbor impels us to speak to others about our faith. Each believer is thus a link in the great chain of believers. I cannot believe without being carried by the faith of others, and by my faith I help support others in the faith.” (CCC 166)
Snippet from the Show:
You have not given yourself faith as you have not given yourself life. The believer has received faith from others and should hand it on to others. (CCC 166)
5 Practical Tips
1) Meet someone at your parish that you have never met before. It can be as simple as introducing yourself.
2) Read 2Timothy 2.
3) Read CCC 176-184.
4) Pray for the staff of your parish all week long.
5) Look at the four steps of the kerygma below and compare them to your personal testimony. (You can also go to the shownotes on at ascensionpress.com/everykneeshallbow.) Pencil in what parts of your testimony line up with the kerygma. This will help you make the kerygma center stage of your testimony and not your personal story. 
4 Steps of the Kerygma:
1) God has a plan for your life.
2) Sin interrupts that plan and separates you from God.
3) Jesus Christ died and rose so that you could be forgiven of these sins and be united to God in heaven.
4) Through faith and his Church, you can be united to God forever.
Recommendations
1) Fr. Spitzer’s book New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy
2) Rev. Timothy Keller’s book The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
3) C.S. Lewis’ book Mere Christianity
4) Dr. Peter Kreeft’s book Fundamentals of the Faith: Essays in Christian Apologetics
CCC #166

Understanding the Personal and Ecclesial Dimension of Our Catholic Faith

Dave VanVickle (that’s right, no nickname today) and I are waking the dead! We’re talking about how to really reach people through evangelization. Not just a short moment of emotional connection that fades the next day, but a true conversion where a person reorients their life to God. 
Snippet from the Show
“Taking someone’s heart of stone to a heart of flesh is a supernatural act. You are making them alive in Christ Jesus. That is a bigger miracle than resurrecting a deceased corpse to natural life.”
Check out the shownotes at ascensionpress.com/everykneeshallbow (https://media.ascensionpress.com/podcast/waking-the-dead-transforming-a-heart-of-stone/)

Waking the Dead: Transforming a Heart of Stone

Waking the Dead: Transforming a Heart of Stone

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