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I think the Church does not do enough to go out and seek new members like the Evangelicals do. When I was in college I was invited to go to a Bible study with an evangelical youth minister on my dorm floor. I brought my own Bible and that surprised him.
During the discussion I brought up some of the fundamental parts of the Catholic faith as referenced in the Bible such as the sacraments and the primacy of Peter. They told me not to come back.
I wonder how many others were led in that direction instead of to the Church. It is a shame.

"I think the Church does not do enough to go out and seek new members like the Evangelicals do."

I agree. But, it's not "THE CHURCH" that's at fault. Blame local administration. One of the reasons is that most laypeople don't feel comptent to teach Protestants. Most times, our lives should be such that they provide an opportunity for us to witness in love on a one-on-one basis. Evangelization doesn't have to be a formal program of "Search, Seek, Teach." Get a good foundation in what the Church teaches, and look for opportunities to share what you know with friends.

**They told me not to come back.**

But you never know how many seeds you planted by talking about those issues!

God bless you!

Must agree with you on the point of Catholics and evangelizing.

We all need to look at evangelization in three steps:
First, get comfortable with the Bible and discussing Catholic points of view. This involves study on my part.

Second, get comfortable discussing these Catholic concepts with your family and close friends. Encourage family members (providing they are practicing Catholics) to voice the other side of the issue and pursue the mock discussion.

Third, reach out to those in your community. I am always talking to people in the grocery line, etc. Hi, my name is ____, do you live here or somewhere else? (Really dumb question, I know, but it opens the door.) Or you can use some other mundane question — weather, traffic, whatever.

Then once the conversation is open, mention that you are on your way to your local church. This will prompt the question — What church?

Then I mention the name of my Catholic Church and bring up the next event, Sunday of the year, etc.

Very often I get a response, “Oh, I used to be Catholic.”
I non-chalanatly say, well, maybe you still are......why don’t you stop in next Sunday and listen to one of Father ______’s great homilies?? (If that works for you — or use some other kind of invitation. With a neighbor recently — I said after finding out that she was a lapsed Catholic, Well, we will have to go to one of the Easter services over at St. _____________. It didn’t happen, but I opened the door.)

Then shut up. Better to leave them hanging. Recently one of the courtesy clerks followed me out to my car and asked me a question about my church. I answered only that question and issued another invitation.

It gets easier as you practice it.

I think the Church does not do enough to go out and seek new members like the Evangelicals do.

I absolutely DO NOT agree with that statement.

Having said that, I believe that the Catholic Church should be far more involved with evangelisation. I believe that the Catholic Church should be a witness and a token of God's Divine Mercy to man. I believe that more forceful and positive images of the Church and her members needs to be placed in the public square.

As an example, how many parishes do you know of that invited local television stations to their Easter Vigil Masses...or local newspapers? What better example is there than showing large groups of adults being baptized and/ or being confirmed? Imagine interviews with some of the newly received members...("You're not marrying a Catholic, so why are you converting TO Catholicism?")

But evangelizing like the Evangelicals do? No...I think we need to work to increase our numbers by showing the life in Christ, not by providing a sales pitch. (Not that all Evangelicals do that...not hardly...but there are enough where that's the image that comes to mind)