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work of Christ in our lives and our communities, people will recognize hope from within their own brokenness. Anyone who has seen a 12-Step recovery group will see the power of this idea.

And this is what makes this expression of the Gospel a mutual pursuit of salvation/sanctification. We must recognize that the freedom and salvation of our neighbour is caught up in our own. I am not suggesting that there is no individual component to salvation, but rather than when we die to self, we are resurrected into one Body. This is a process from individual disintegration to shared wholeness. In that sense our salvation is caught up together with our neighbours. The beauty of this understanding is that it undermines the paternalistic and arrogant superiority that has governed even well-intentioned evangelism attempts in our culture.

So what of the articulation and verbal proclamation of this Good News? Is it to be discarded as unimportant? Of course not. However, we must remember two very key points. First, our words have their greatest authority when people see an authentic commitment to the truths they expression. In the most important and crucial choices in our lives we reveal this in that we turn to people who have proven themselves, be it for health, auto care, counseling or parenting tips. This is even more true when we are talking about the Gospel. If our lives aren't reflective of the work of Christ (and again, that doesn't mean perfection), our message proves us hypocrites.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, the heavy emphasis and practice of preaching the Gospel verbally, aggressively and through a sale-pitch method (to varying degrees), largely in the form of propositional demands, coupled with the general inconsistency within the church to live and reflect the values of that same message, has made the world generally more suspicious of such a model. As a result, while this method could be (and has been) used in effective and healthy ways, it is increasingly less so as a result of these abuses. Therefore, we must now be more careful when and how we do so, making this process more crucial than ever before.

I think it was to this end that St. Francis said:

"But as for me, I desire this privilege from the Lord, that never may I have any privilege from man, except to do reverence to all, and to convert the world by obedience to the Holy Rule rather by example than by word."

Learn more about this author, Jamie Arpin-Ricci.
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