Start a Team Guide

“The moment has come to commit all of the Church’s energies to a new evangelization … no believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples.” -St. Pope John Paul II, Remptoris Missio

Contents

This document will give you the information you need to discern opening a local SPSE Team in your community.

  1. About St. Paul Street Evangelization
  2. Team Leader Responsibilities
  3. Partnership, Application & Reference
  4. Training
  5. Hitting the Streets

About St. Paul Street Evangelization

Christ’s call to evangelize was made to every Catholic Christian (CCC 1816), and the Second Vatican Council reiterated this need, urging each of the baptized to bring the Gospel, found fully in the Catholic Church, to a culture that desperately needs it.

Lay people also fulfill their prophetic mission by evangelization, “that is, the proclamation of Christ by word and the testimony of life.” For lay people, “this evangelization acquires a specific property and peculiar efficacy because it is accomplished in the ordinary circumstances of the world.” (CCC 905)

St. Paul Street Evangelization is a grassroots, non-profit, lay apostolate dedicated to working with God for the salvation of souls through the proclamation of the Gospel in the public square.

We provide the training and resources necessary for Catholics to share our faith in a joyful and non-confrontational way, allowing the Holy Spirit to move in the hearts of those we encounter.

Patrons: The patrons of SPSE are St. Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles, and Servant of God, Fr. John Anthony Hardon, S.J. St. Paul Street Evangelization is consecrated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas.

Our Method of Evangelization

Our goal is to directly evangelize the people we meet by building a relationship of trust, and calling people to faith, repentance, and discipleship.

We usually start a conversation with someone by offering them a free sacramental, such as a Miraculous Medal or a rosary. If they accept, we tell them a little bit about the sacramental, and then we continue the conversation using our 4-step evangelization method of Listen, Befriend, Proclaim, and Invite.

And, of course, for any evangelization effort to be fruitful we have to pray. We pray that the Holy Spirit gives us the right words to say, and that He’ll work in the hearts of the people we encounter. We should pray prior to and at the conclusion of an outing. And then we should continue to pray for everyone we’ve ever evangelized, and everyone we ever will, that God will convert, save, and sanctify them.

TEAM LEADER RESPONSIBILITIES

We ask our team leaders to commit to certain roles & responsibilities, and to agree to some faith life commitments as well as our code of conduct. 

Here they are:  

Types of Street Evangelization Teams

There are different types of street evangelization teams. What kind of team do you want to have? 

ENROLL IN OUR SCHOOL, FILL OUT AN APPLICATION & GET A FAITH REFERENCE 

After agreeing to the commitments, and deciding what kind of team you’ll want to lead, the next steps are to enroll in our evangelization school, complete the team leader application, and get a faith reference. 

Enroll in our School & Partner with us

We ask each team leader to partner with us in this most urgent mission of saving souls and building up the kingdom of heaven. The recommended donation is $15 per month with other partnership levels available. Your partnership gives you access to our evangelization school, our support staff, all of our online resources, as well as discounts and free shipping in our online store. Team leaders are free to enlist the help of other individuals, groups, or parishes to cover the costs of running a team. Click the link below to register for our school.

https://evangelizationschool.com/school-registration/

Application

Here’s the link to the team leader application:

https://streetevangelization.com/st-paul-street-evangelization-new-team-leader-application/

Reference

After completing the application you’ll receive an email with a link to send to the person you want to submit a faith reference on your behalf. It could be a priest, someone from your parish, bible study, or another group, but it cannot be a family member. 

Locations Page

After completing the steps above, and speaking with Bob to confirm that you’re a good fit for our apostolate, you will be an official SPSE team leader. We will add your team to our Locations page with a gray pin that indicates your team is “in development.” 

You will receive your own website that allows you to email members of your team, post upcoming outings, and share stories from the street. People who visit our website will be able to contact you through this Locations page.

TRAINING

The next steps are learning our evangelization methods, and learning how to lead a team. 

Evangelization Training

Team Leaders are required to do one of the following:

Street Ready Evangelization Call

After training, Team Leaders need to demonstrate proficiency in the four basic skills of evangelization through our Street Ready Evangelization Call. We know from experience that when evangelists are proficient in these areas, deeper and more fruitful conversations take place. The 4 basic skills are: 

To learn more, and to schedule your Street Ready coaching call, click here

Team Leader Training

In addition to learning how to evangelize, a team leader needs to learn how to lead a fruitful evangelization team. Brian Lee hosts a quarterly onboarding webinar for Team Leaders where he goes over everything involved in being a team leader. Topics include:

Brian will send TLs a zoom link to the webinar in the days leading up to the training.

Also, check out our Team Leader Training video course

HITTING THE STREETS

Find a Partner

Start small. You don’t need a team of 10 people in order to get started. Jesus sent his disciples out two by two (Mark 6:7), so it only takes you and one other person to begin. You’ll want to point your partner and anyone else who wants to join your team to our training. Our Virtual Street Evangelization Workshop was designed specifically for people that you’ve recruited to join your team.

Get Supplies

We have all kinds of supplies for you to purchase in our store.

We recommend purchasing a full starter pack. It usually lasts six months to a year. 

When you receive your supplies, get them blessed by a priest or deacon. This blessing turns these religious objects into sacramentals, and sacramentals have the power to ignite faith in someone we encounter on the street.

Pick a Spot

The next thing you’ll want to do is find a good place to evangelize. Look for public places where there is a lot of foot traffic like festivals, art fairs, public parks, farmers markets, or college campuses. You can also find indoor locations such as a soup kitchen or community center. Always set up where you have a legal right to share our Catholic faith. You can evangelize on private property with the permission of property owners. 

Here’s an example of what a set up can look like –

Or a wagon if you prefer to be mobile –

Conversation Helpers

We don’t have a script memorized when we evangelize — the point is to have an authentic encounter with someone. Having said that, here are some things we can say to help facilitate a fruitful conversation:

Breaking the Ice

Listen & Befriend

For the non-Christian

For the non-Catholic Christian

For the Catholic

Proclaim

Invite

Grow Your Team

Our Team Development Center has a number of resources for team leaders to help grow your team. It includes information on how to recruit team members, how to promote your team, formation materials, and resources to be used in your parish and out on the street. 

Contact me with any questions or concerns or if you just want to chat.
Bob Wilson
bob@stpaulse.com
(734) 377-4602
I can call you: bobspse.youcanbook.me