Preaching Missionary Discipleship: A Homiletic Response to Declining Participation at Risen Christ Catholic Parish in Denver and the Catholic Church of the United States of America

Eric David Zegeer

Etd

Preaching Missionary Discipleship: A Homiletic Response to Declining Participation at Risen Christ Catholic Parish in Denver and the Catholic Church of the United States of America

Public Deposited

MLA citation style (9th ed.)

Eric David Zegeer. Preaching Missionary Discipleship: A Homiletic Response to Declining Participation At Risen Christ Catholic Parish In Denver and the Catholic Church of the United States of America. Aquinas Institute of Theology. rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/778e5f36-5b1a-4953-81ab-1ff42b0190e7.

APA citation style (7th ed.)

E. D. Zegeer. Preaching Missionary Discipleship: A Homiletic Response to Declining Participation at Risen Christ Catholic Parish in Denver and the Catholic Church of the United States of America. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/778e5f36-5b1a-4953-81ab-1ff42b0190e7

Chicago citation style (CMOS 17, author-date)

Eric David Zegeer. Preaching Missionary Discipleship: A Homiletic Response to Declining Participation At Risen Christ Catholic Parish In Denver and the Catholic Church of the United States of America. Aquinas Institute of Theology. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/778e5f36-5b1a-4953-81ab-1ff42b0190e7.

Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.

Creator

Eric David Zegeer

Keyword

Theory

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Abstract

This thesis proposes an acronym consisting of seven essential characteristics for the exercise of preaching in the Sunday Eucharistic liturgy that considers the statistical data of the decline of Catholic Sunday participation in the United States while being informed by the theology of missionary discipleship in Catholic teaching.Chapter 1 provides an introduction that contrasts the actual decline of American Catholics in the participation of the Sunday liturgy with the Church’s teaching on missionary discipleship.Chapter 2 provides a comprehensive explanation of the Catholic Church’s teachings on the vocation to a life of missionary discipleship of every baptized Catholic in the context of stages or steps of spiritual growth that lead to a fully lived baptismal calling.Chapter 3 looks at the statistical data of Catholic participation available since the scandals of child sex abuse came to light around 2002. It considers the impact it has had on the Catholic Church in the United States as a whole as well as some specific generations.Chapter 4 offers an in-depth explanation of the acronym “BREATHE” and how each characteristic of that acronym should inform our preaching. It also loosely corresponds each letter to the seven different stages of growth toward missionary discipleship.Chapter 5 and its subsequent appendices provide the statistical data of one Catholic parish where the acronym was implemented in a five-week preaching exercise to reach the most Catholics possible in that one setting. It then considers the response and how that aligns with the statistical data found in chapter three.Chapter 6 offers conclusions to the thesis overall and a recommendation of how to move forward while acknowledging the limitations of this one exercise and the importance of an overall plan to form and send the average parishioner into the world to bring more souls to Christ.

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