There are two basic approaches to teaching and preaching to audiences that are present among those who are called to present. The first approach I will call the Assumption Approach. The second approach I will call the Foundational Approach. It is, of course, likely that every audience has a mixture of all types of people that must be taken into account. Nonetheless, these two basic approaches generally rise to the surface.

The Assumption Approach basically views their audience as a group of people who have already experienced a profound conversion by encountering Jesus in their hearts through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Presenters assume, by virtue of their audiences’ baptism (most often received in infancy), that the audience has already encountered Christ. They see them as connected with Christ, and desire, through a love for Him, to grow ever closer to Him.

Can your audience relate to your description of having a profound love for God, like the person they love most on earth?

The Foundational Approach views their audience as needing the foundation of an encounter with Christ. They see them as having been given some information about the Catholic Faith but lacking a legitimate encounter with Jesus that is experienced in their heart. Their approach then seeks to minister to their audience from an awareness that this foundation must be in place to move them to a deeper faith.

Illustration

I was invited to speak to a group of teenagers at a Catholic High School on the subject of Chastity. Seeking to understand my audience better, I asked if there were any reasons why this particular subject. They responded with “we are having an increase of teenage pregnancy.” Probing deeper, I asked if the students were already evangelized? The response was, “not really.”

Using a ladder, I described Chastity as being the eleventh rung and encountering Jesus in their hearts as the first. Can we really expect students (or adults) to rise to the eleventh rung if they haven’t risen to the first?

As a general rule, I prefer to use the foundational approach. I would rather assume that they have not encountered Christ and use verbiage that can call those who have encountered Christ to a deeper sacrifice, while introducing those unfamiliar with conversion, to Jesus.

One simple question to ask:

Are we preaching/teaching to toward a conversion that is achievable in the lives of our audience or are we just dispensing information?