Faith And Facebook: Evangelizing A Rural Parish Community In Southeast Missouri

DOMINIC OKON IBOK

Etd

Faith And Facebook: Evangelizing A Rural Parish Community In Southeast Missouri

Public Deposited

MLA citation style (9th ed.)

DOMINIC OKON IBOK. Faith And Facebook: Evangelizing A Rural Parish Community In Southeast Missouri. Aquinas Institute of Theology. rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/ca42f348-1dcd-48b1-80fd-0e3c510d5589.

APA citation style (7th ed.)

D. O. Ibok. Faith And Facebook: Evangelizing A Rural Parish Community In Southeast Missouri. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/ca42f348-1dcd-48b1-80fd-0e3c510d5589

Chicago citation style (CMOS 17, author-date)

DOMINIC OKON IBOK. Faith And Facebook: Evangelizing A Rural Parish Community In Southeast Missouri. Aquinas Institute of Theology. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/ca42f348-1dcd-48b1-80fd-0e3c510d5589.

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

Creator

DOMINIC OKON IBOK

Keyword

Evangelism--Strategy

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Abstract

In Southeast Missouri, where Catholics are a minority, the challenge of diminishing participation and reduced membership requires an intentional engagement of the inactive members and the unaffiliated within the community. Unfortunately, many members of the laity do not have the awareness or skills to evangelize. In a rural community, the challenges seem more significant due to limited personnel and resources. This thesis project aims to equip the laity with the skills and tools to evangelize inactive Catholics and the unaffiliated. It will involve growing in prayer, study, generosity, evangelization, and the discernment of their charisms. With the benefit of social media engagement like Facebook live stream, an opportunity to engage and evangelize is available for our rural parish community. The resources from experienced lay evangelists in evangelization and social media engagement will provide a template that can enhance the development of a program on evangelization for my rural parish community. To test the effectiveness of these resources, seventeen participants engaged in a nine-week program to learn how prayer, study, generosity, evangelization, the discernment of their charisms, and teamwork can prepare them for evangelization. This thesis engaged the inactive Catholics and the unaffiliated in rural Southeast Missouri by using Facebook live stream as an evangelization tool. The focus of this project is thus reminding active Catholics of their responsibility to evangelize and how utilizing a familiar social media portal like Facebook can enhance the process even in a rural community.

Publisher