Preaching Goes Viral

What Good Can Come Out of This Crisis

M4: Self-references and leadership: Author mentions self or group leader(s)

I witnessed another simple example of reaching out toward others when I asked our Parish Council and some members of our Bible Study groups to each call up a number of parishioners within our Church Family, just to check up on them and to let them know that the Church is thinking of them and ready to help them if they have any particular needs. I divided up the names and asked each of these leaders to call up 8 people. At first one member said that they couldn’t do this because they were too overwhelmed with work and busy with other things. Yet as each person began making calls and connecting with different parishioners, this particular member, who initially didn’t think they had enough time to make the effort, decided to call up a few people. A couple days later she texted me and said, “As I called people, I realized how happy they were to hear from me and to receive a call from the church. It made me feel so good to reach out to them. Now, each day I call a couple more people, and I keep looking for others to call beyond the list of names that you gave me!” One of our other council members told me something similar: “It was so meaningful to call up all the names on my list that after a few days, I decided to call them all up a second time!”

2022-12-16

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Fr. Luke A. Veronis