The church was not established to be closed on itself or isolated from the world, but to proclaim the Good News to everyone even “to the ends of the earth.” It is the first form of evangelization, which is called missio ad gentes. The audience for this mission activity of the Church are those who have not heard about Jesus and have not recognized in Him the only Redeemer of human beings. These people would include the representatives of the non-Christian religions, the religiously indifferent and atheists. The missionary activity of the Church provides them with an opportunity to receive the Good News and become members of Christ’s Church.
The Church, as a reality not solely Divine but also an institution with human dimensions, has been fulfilling in its history the mission of proclaiming the Gospel by various methods, depending on specific social and cultural conditions as well as various situations and mentalities of the people living in a particular epoch. The Good News comes from God, but the methods of proclaiming it are, at least in some parts, a human enterprise. Therefore there is the need for a critical reflection and courage to make necessary modifications regarding the methods of realizing the missionary mandate.

Nowadays mission is not only a journey to remote places, but also it is a journey of Christ’s disciples to their own inner selves to deepen their faith, cleanse their motives for acting, and reaffirm the ultimate authenticity of their Christianity. They do this to re-evangelize themselves and their local communities, and to respond to the gifts of the Holy Spirit in order to become an icon of God’s love for people in the modern world.
In Redemptoris missio John Paul II asks questions related to contemporary doubts: “Are missions still current? Are they not being replaced by the dialog among religions?” The answer of the Holy Father is unambiguous: “Respecting beliefs and forms of religious sensitivity of other people, it is necessary to confess with simplicity our faith in Christ, the only Savior of human beings. This is the faith, which we have received as a gift from above without our merit”. A Christian is called to repeat after St. Paul: I am not ashamed of the Gospel (cf. Rom 1, 16). The Church cannot fail to proclaim Christ. The missions are the consequence of our belief that without Christ there is no salvation. In our times we can observe the tendency to give a secular meaning for salvation. Many non-Church institutions have in their agendas the promise of “salvation” for human beings. They are, however, partial and reduced-to-the-horizontal-dimension programs, which do not promote the integral liberation of human beings from moral, social, and spiritual threats. In this situation it is more urgent to proclaim to the World the Good News of salvation in Christ.
The fundamental form of evangelization, which is the missionary activity of the Church, is found in the difficult and complicated process of interpersonal communication, which ultimately should lead to communication between God and the person. Taking up this task by Christ’s disciples in every time and condition requires overcoming specific barriers and acquiring a great deal of competence. We may become good instruments of pre-evangelization when we have a deepened understanding of Revelation, and when we realize that spreading the Word of God is primarily a matter of grace and prayer not our communication skills. We become effective when we are able to initiate personal contact with a listener and when we communicate to him or her not only Divine truths regarding human beings, but also God’s love to the human being.
Understanding evangelization in this context, we realize the importance of the methods and techniques of communication, appropriate selection of words and arguments, and proper use of group dynamics. Proclaiming the Word of God is not merely one among many messages that the contemporary world addresses to people. It is a space within which God enters into the consciousness, heart and conscience of a particular person to lead him or her on the way of conversion and salvation. Therefore, a missionary is a carrier of the most incredible communication that one can imagine.

Fr. Marek Dziewiecki