Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story: Tools, Tips, and Testimonies

DO YOU PANIC WHEN ASKED ABOUT YOUR CATHOLIC FAITH?

Every baptized Christian is called to evangelize; yet many Catholics find personal evangelism intimidating. But it doesn't have to be! In Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story, Nancy Ward shows you that evangelization can be simply a matter of letting others know how God has worked in our life.

As Nancy explains the importance of being able to bear witness to God's love by sharing your faith story, she shares her own story of lifelong conversion and shows you how to recognize the ways God has been drawing you closer to him throughout your life. You'll also get ten tips on how to share your story in a way that is natural, effective, and un-intimidating.

In the second part of the book, you'll read more than thirty personal faith stories by Catholics from all walks of life--converts and "reverts," clergy, religious, and layfolk who tell their own unique stories of how God has drawn them gradually closer into his loving embrace.

If you've ever wished you could be a more effective witness to God's truth and love, you can learn to share YOUR Catholic faith story. You have a story only you can tell, and someone needs to hear it!

Don't panic. Read Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story. Do the exercises. Learn to journal. Explore your story. Relive your God-moments of grace. Write your faith bio. Craft a 30-second elevator speech. Keep in mind the ten tips for sharing your story.

Be inspired. Take the Saint John Paul II challenge to be a new witness in the new evangelization, one of those people who has "experienced an area of change in their lives because of their contact with Jesus Christ, and who are capable of passing on that experience to others." Saint Pope John Paul II.

Fulfill your baptismal calling. Captivate those who inquire why you are so joyful. Live the directive of St. Peter,

"Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence." (1 Peter 3:15, 16)

Nancy Ward's training in journalism, experience in writing, conversion to the Catholic Church, and maturity of spirit qualify her to write Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story at this time. She has seen the results in others and deeply experienced conversion and spiritual renewal in her own life in astounding ways. Nancy has been writing since her childhood and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism at the University of North Texas. Her media experience includes three years with the Texas Catholic newspaper and two years with the Catholic Diocese of Dallas Television and Evangelization Office. Throughout her 25 years as an entrepreneur of The Word Works, a writing and editing consulting service, her clients included corporate, technical, educational, and nonprofit organizations. She has written more than 200 articles for commercial, nonprofit, and Catholic publications. Her Christian magazine credits include Charisma, Our Sunday Visitor, New Covenant, St. Anthony Messenger, and Vocations Magazine. She has taught church newsletter seminars at Southern Methodist University, helped teach non-credit courses in technical writing at the University of Texas at Dallas, and presented public relations mini-workshops for civic organizations. Born in Fort Worth and educated in El Paso, Texas, Nancy has lived on the west coast in Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego; and the east coast in Boston and Washington, D. C. (during 9-11). All these experiences, plus foreign travel (including to the Holy Land, Rome, and Assisi), along with her Protestant childhood, give her a unique picture of the many facets of the Catholic Church. Nancy's own struggles and victories have brought her from Protestantism to the fullness of faith in Catholicism and given her the impetus to use her talents, training, and insights to create Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story: Tools, Tips, and Testimonies. She shares about Catholicism, her conversion and Christian community at http: //JoyAlive.net as well as on Catholic Mom, Spiritual Direction, Catholic Writers Guild, and New Evangelizers. She facilitates the Dallas/Fort Worth Catholic Writers and a nonfiction critique group for the Catholic Writers Guild, where she serves as a board member. She contributed four chapters to The Catholic Mom's Prayer Companion (Ave Maria Press, September 2016). Through her award-winning Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story: Tools, Tips, and Testimonies workshops, retreats, book, and DVD, she shares her conversion story at Catholic parishes and conferences, equipping others to evangelize by sharing their own stories. See http: //NancyHCWard.com.

After a varied career that has included college teaching, graphic design, and working with non-profits, Lisa Nicholas, Ph. D. (University of Dallas), now works as freelance writer (including ghostwriting), editor, translator, and book designer. Many of these activities are reflected in her occasional blogging efforts, which are aggregated on her "omniblog" at https: //lanicholas.com She particularly enjoys working with Catholic writers. Some of her writing clients and collaborators include T. M. Doran, Colleen Drippé, Andrew M. Seddon, C. D. Verhoff, and Dr. Lisa Petronis. She is the English translator of the work of Spanish writer Jorge Sáez Criado and an editor of Shared Things, the journal of the Anglicanorum Coetibus Society.