CBB Interview with Chris Stewart

PETE: Can you tell us a little about the work you do through our website www.castingnetsonline.com?

CHRIS STEWART: We started Casting Nets Ministries about 9 years ago. Our mission is to inspire and equip individuals, parishes and dioceses to share the Joy of the Gospel and to do so effectively. We do this with speaking engagements at conferences and retreats. We also work with parishes providing missions, leadership training and consulting. The website contains information on that work but also many articles and podcasts all on the topic of evangelization.

PETE: You outline a 7 pillar initiative for evangelization in your book Casting Nets: Grow Your Faith by Sharing Your Faith. How effective is this process?

CHRIS STEWART: We have never meet an evangelist, parish, youth group, or ministry that was spreading the Joy of the Gospel effectively that did not have all 7 pillars present in their work. You can even find all of them in Jesus’s Public Ministry. They are fundamental to the work of evangelization. Every parish we have worked with that has instituted the 7 pillars seen immediate and lasting fruit.

PETE: Why do you think the New Evangelization is so important today?

CHRIS STEWART: First I would say it is important because the Holy Father and his predecessors have called us to answer the call of the challenge of the New Evangelization. So out of obedience each of us must ask the question of what is my role in the New Evangelization.

Secondly, the Church and the world needs. If we look around we see people that are broken and hopeless. They know there should be more to life but they have not found the joy that their hearts are longing for. But they will never find the living water that quenches thirst forever unless we bring it to them. Also, we have seen an epidemic of baptized Christians who are not living the Christian life. Many today have been baptized but not catechized or not even evangelized! So we must take new steps, methods, and passion to reach the lost that are actually marked by the grace of baptism that are our own.

PETE: Is evangelization something for individuals to tackle or is it better suited at the parish level?

CHRIS STEWART: Like many aspects of Catholicism, the answer to that question is not either/or but both/and. Parishes need to have initiatives searching for the lost and welcoming them home. Parishes need to be ready to haul in the huge catch if they have equipped the laity to do their job. The parish is to sanctify and form the laity; the laity are to sanctify and from the world. The laity take what they received in the parish to their homes, neighborhoods, work places, schools, gyms, and ball parks so that others can come to know they Joy of the Gospel. Then the parish can provide the sacraments to those that they laity are bringing in from their catch.

PETE: What future projects are in store for Casting Nets Online?

CHRIS STEWART: We will be offering out Parish Mission for the Jubilee Year of Mercy called “With the Eyes of Mercy” to parishes across the country. A few spots are still available.

This year we are going to be focusing on more video content on our website, social media and in DVD.

We are also excited to begin working with some parishes with the “Seven Pillars Pastoral Plan” in which we have a prolonged engagement equipping them to apply the Seven Pillars to every aspect of their parish life.

We also have a big announcement coming on November 30, 2015 in which we will share the exciting news that a nationally known evangelist will be joining the Casting Nets Ministries team.

PETE: Time for my signature ending question. This is a blog about books. What books are currently on your bookshelf to read?

CHRIS STEWART: This is a question after my own heart. I have a personal library of about 4000 volumes so let the fun begin.

I just finished Divine Renovation by Fr. James Mallon. He has been experiencing some great success in evangelization and has an eye for initiatives that are out of the box and yet inspiring.

God Help Me by Jim Beckman. I read it this last month and I think I have suggested it to about a dozen people already.

Misericordiae Vultus by Pope Francis. While this is not a book, (it is the Papal Bull proclaiming the Jubilee Year of Mercy), it is a great read and will help get us ready to truly enter into the coming Year of Mercy.

Into the Breach, Bishop Thomas Olmsted’s Apostolic Exhortation to Catholic Men. This just came out and there has been much buzz, cannot wait to read it.

Another new release that I am looking forward to reading is Behold the Man: A Catholic Vision of Male Spirituality by Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers.

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