The “Secret Sauce” to Fruitful Ministry in the Church

We are called to submit ourselves to the love of God in our lives, to be open to His will for us, and to respond in faith as He invites us to go deeper. Yes, it really is that simple.

I love grocery store donuts. One of my family members works at a grocery store and mentioned that they sometimes get to work in the bakery. Immediately I thought “now I can learn how they make those amazing donuts,” so I asked him. I’ll share the “secret” below, but being that I can’t help but relate just about everything to our work in the Church, it got me thinking…

We live in a time where there are more books, resources, and training on discipleship and evangelization than ever before. A person, desirous of sharing their faith, could spend an entire lifetime reading and studying and never really find the end of it.

We read stories of this or that parish or ministry having incredible “success.” We study the lives of the Saints and how their unique giftedness and call radically changed the lives of those of their time. We see others around us seemingly having more of an impact on the lives of others than we are and we can start to wonder…what are we missing?

What’s really important to recognize in these beautiful realities is how diverse each of the stories are. God uses individuals and their unique gifts and situations to do incredible work. This sign of uniqueness and diversity in “evangelical success” should also help us to recognize that there is no singular solution and answer to truly effective ministry…or is there?

What we see when we look at these examples of “successful” evangelization is the power of God at work. A work that we could never accomplish through our own design. In his text Abandonment to Divine Providence, Jean-Pierre de Caussade writes “the divine will asserts itself in all its power to those who give themselves to it without reserve.”

In short, if you look for the common thread in every fruitful effort of evangelization in the Church, what you’ll find is that the reason for “success” in their efforts is not because they are incredibly creative (though they may be) or because they have been dealt a better hand than you or simply just “got lucky” with their situation. The reality is that each of these “success stories” if they truly are success stories have one common thread. In each of these situations there is an individual (or individuals) who are pursuing the Lord with their lives. In their openness to do the will of the Lord, they received an invitation to follow Him. The path they took is unique to them and required an act of faith of their part. By the grace of God, they said yes to His plan and profound things happened as a result.

The term that the Church gives to describe this activity is what we call the missionary initiative. The missionary initiative is the initiative that is taken in response to, and with the love and invitation of God to “go outside” of ourselves and do HIS work! This is in fact the “secret sauce” to fruitful ministry and participation in the life of the Church. We are called to submit ourselves to the love of God in our lives, to be open to His will for us, and to respond in faith as He invites us to go deeper. Yes, it really is that simple. It’s not easy…but it’s simple.

Now, don’t get me wrong, we can all grow in the basic principles of ministry and evangelization. We can all benefit from hearing other people’s stories and learning from others successes and mistakes. But we are called to be a people of faith, willing and ready to take a step into the unknown. The fact that we can look at many of the great Saints who made a profound impact in the Church and who had little to no training or formation in evangelization should point us to this all too important reality that books and courses may be helpful, but they are not absolutely necessary.

Too often we wait until we have a total confidence in our next steps as golden opportunities just pass by. Too often we look around at others who seem to know what they are doing and try to copy them. In ministry we want others to try things before we do. Some of our greatest hurdles are often the fear of embarrassment and humiliation. Insecurities prevent us from taking bold steps of faith.

The “secret sauce” in effective evangelization is the submission of our lives, our work, and our desires to the Lord, learning to listen attentively to His voice and invitation in our lives, and to follow Him into the unknown.

I know it can be frustrating to some who believe it’s more complex than this. Well…back to the secret to how those amazing grocery store donuts are made. They come frozen in a box! Apparently, we should all get used to disappointments as we discover things really are not as complex as we might want them to be.