At 9:30 a.m. on May 18, Annmarie Gesualdo entered St. James Parish hall in Arlington Heights in search of a road map. Three hours later, Gesualdo, a member of the evangelization team at St. Philip the Apostle in Northfield, left with direction as well as a renewed sense of energy and purpose. “Apathy is one of our biggest challenges as we seek to welcome people into our parish community,” Gesualdo said of her evangelization team’s efforts. “It’s refreshing and inspiring to learn what [other parishes] are doing successfully and to reflect upon what we can do to bring people together for the better.” Hosted by the archdiocese’s Office of Evangelization, two Evangelization Expos, one held at St. James on May 18 and another at St. Blase in Argo on May 19, offered a frank discussion and practical tips to empower and inspire parishes’ evangelization work. The events, described as a “show-and-tell of sorts” by the Office of Evangelization’s Nancy Polacek, attracted 80 attendees representing 40 parishes. “The goal was to explore what has worked in some parishes and to reenergize the people to go back to their parishes with new energy and new ideas,” Polacek said. Continuing effort On the heels of Catholics Come Home, the most aggressive outreach initiative in archdiocesan history, local church leaders have sought ways to continue the movement’s momentum. Polacek’s office fielded requests from parishes who wanted to learn from others, inquiries that gave birth to the Evangelization Expos and a manual offering 100 evangelization ideas. At the St. James expo, representatives from 25 parishes heard Jon Matousek of St. Mary of the Annunciation discuss integrating evangelization into his parish’s daily routine. The 1,600-family parish in Mundelein hooked people into its ministry with personal greetings, invitations to church programs and functions and an architectural church tour. Summer picnics are planned at parishioners’ homes, moving parish life off of the church grounds and into the area’s residential subdivisions. At St. Cletus in LaGrange, Father Bob Clark encouraged regular Mass attendees to invite lapsed Catholics back into the church, while bold, strategically placed banners and mailings carried the Mass schedule and a list of parish services. The efforts produced results: attendance at holiday services jumped, as did collections, which witnessed a $105,000 turnaround in the last eight months. Use new media Andy Duran, the director of evangelization at the Church of St. Mary in Lake Forest, discussed his parish’s use of technology, namely its website and Facebook account, to reach out to parishioners and maintain a vibrant online presence. Blending university research with instinct and skill, the Church of St. Mary launched a new website in December alongside the Catholics Come Home campaign. Once averaging 4,200 unique visits per month, the overhauled site now welcomes four times that amount. Facebook and online videos, as well as a weekly email, further showcase the parish. “If we’re not evangelizing through this new media, then we’re not evangelizing at all,” Duran said. Peer support Julie Gorski of St. William Parish was excited to hear success stories and realize that her parish’s outreach plight is one shared by others, all of whom stood eager to swap tips and advice. A self-described evangelization devotee who co-directs St. William’s RCIA program and serves as the parish council president, Gorski said the event urged reflection and a revitalized sense of short-term and long-term goals. “What I’m seeing is that growth happens with persistence and a community of people working together to implement plans,” she said. “I’m learning that we not only have to welcome those who are returning, but also cater to those who have fallen behind so that we can keep them in the church.”