Worship and Evangelization Outreach / Sean Hussey

Goal of evangelization includes living as intentional disciples

Are you a follower of Jesus, or just a fan? Growing up, I was certainly a fan of Jesus, but I wasn’t a follower. I knew some things about Jesus, but I didn’t know Jesus.

In college, I met some incredible followers of Jesus. These people shared their stories and their lives with me, and they witnessed to me what it meant to be a disciple. Through that community, I was led into a personal relationship with Jesus, and I made the decision to follow him.

Pope Benedict XVI once said, “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”

The goal of evangelization is to introduce people to the person of Jesus Christ, and to invite them to follow him as an intentional disciple. Evangelization is not an imposition, but an invitation to eternal life.

As the archdiocese’s new coordinator of evangelization and discipleship, I want to serve alongside you in this great call to evangelize. Please allow me to introduce myself and share with you some of the exciting things we are working on.

My name is Sean Hussey. I am the youngest of five children, I have 10 beautiful nieces and nephews, and my wife, Paige, and I are expecting our first child in February! I am extremely grateful to be joining the team here at the archdiocese. I hope to support and serve our priests, parish evangelization leaders, and anyone interested in evangelization to build up cultures of evangelization and discipleship at our parishes through ongoing discipleship formation, practical training and resources.

Our most recently released resource is called “10 Things a Disciples of Jesus Does.” The word “disciple” comes from the Latin word for student. Therefore, we must ask: How do we live as a student of Jesus? In other words, what does a disciple do? This new resource we have available in English and Spanish will be a helpful tool for you to be more intentional in your own walk with Jesus toward eternity, and as a tool to share with others to introduce them to habits of being disciple of Jesus. You can access this resource at www.archindy.org/catechesis/10Things2019.html.

Another resource we are putting finishing touches on is an evangelization guidebook. It will provide a model for implementing and sustaining a process of spiritual multiplication (by God’s grace) through evangelization small groups and one-on-one discipleship efforts. We hope that this guidebook will be an ongoing support for anyone continuing in the work of evangelization, the essential mission of the Church.

If you are someone who is interested in evangelization, I would encourage you to ask your pastor or parish life coordinator who your parish’s point of contact is with the archdiocesan Office of Evangelization. You can offer to help that person or, if no one has yet been identified for that role—offer to be that person and contact me in the Office of Evangelization. We can provide you with the support and resources you need.

May God give us the grace to live as intentional disciples of his Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
 

(Sean Hussey is the evangelization and discipleship coordinator within the archdiocesan Secretariat for Worship and Evangelization. He can be reached at shussey@archindy.org.) †