In this episode, we hear from Arnel and Vivian Balmeo, parishioners of All Saints Parish in Coquitlam and active members of Couples for Christ. They share their journey to discipleship in Jesus and the positive impact it has had on their marriage and family life. They also share the vital role that Couples for Christ has played in their active missionary life.

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032: The Missionary Journey Through Couples for Christ

In this episode, we replay Eric's interview with Matt Maher from the Upper Room Conference in September 2020. Matt shares his connection with the Archdiocese of Vancouver, how God has moved in his life, and how music has become a missionary platform. He also shares the impact of COVID on his family and his growing devotion to St. Joseph.

031: Matt Maher's Interview from Upper Room Conference 2020

In this episode, Eric interviews John Acosta - Director of Pastoral Services for the Archdiocese of Winnipeg. John grew up in Vancouver and was introduced to Couples for Christ (CFC) through a youth retreat. Growing involvement formed his missionary heart, which led to 14 years of missionary work with CFC. John shares his journey and experience, lessons learned, and breaks down some of the ways CFC has been engaged in evangelization and missionary formation.

030: How Couples for Christ forms Missionary Disciples

Eric has a discussion with Joseph San Jose from All Saints Parish in Coquitlam. Joe shares some practical ways that his Alpha team successfully invited close to 50 people in their proximate periphery. His passion to proclaim Jesus comes forth and he offers words of encouragement for all of us who desire to grow as missionary disciples.

029: How to Fail (and Succeed) In Personal Invitations

Eric interviews Daniel - a missionary disciple in our Archdiocese of Vancouver with big dreams for our Catholic parishes and communities. Daniel shares his experiences with Couples for Christ, Catholic Christian Outreach, the Companions of the Cross, and St. Benedict's in Halifax. Eric and Daniel explore topics such as spiritual conversations with family and friends, the awkwardness of learning how to pray with others, authentic community, and the primacy of evangelization. He challenges each of us to be protagonists in the evangelizing mission of the Church.

028: Missionary Disciples Need Big Dreams for Evangelization

Eric interviews Rachel Wong live on the Proclaim Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/weareproclaim). Rachel shares her story of encountering Jesus in Adoration and how God invited her into a unique mission, resulting in the launch of the Feminine Genius Podcast (https://www.femininegeniuspodcast.com)). Rachel shares some insights on how to get the most out of live streaming mass at home, how the Upper Room conference inspired her, and how we can all be encouraged to be lights in the world. Rachel Wong is a Catholic writer, creative, speaker and podcaster. Though she was born into the Catholic faith, Rachel had a re-conversion back to the faith in 2016. Since then, she's been on a beautiful journey of learning more about her faith and role as a Catholic woman, and she shares it with others through writing and speaking.

027: Our Unique Call to Relationship and to Mission

Megan and Nathan share how they encountered faith and community through others accompanying them, and how they are now in turn accompanying other young couples in their journey of faith. They discuss the impact of faith studies, relationships, and how conversations over brunch can be important missionary moments. Megan shares some exciting opportunities with Marriage and Family ministries - through mentorship and The Marriage Course.

026: Living out the missionary life as a family

Eric and Julia talk about opening "Holy Grounds" Coffeehouse at St. Patrick's Parish in Maple Ridge, and how the community began to grow. The coffeehouse wasn't just a novel idea but part of an overall parish strategy to call and form missionary disciples. Holy Grounds is the name of the space but the approach to community is seeing one another as holy ground, as Pope Francis stated in para. 169 of Evangelii Gaudium.

025: Starting a parish coffeehouse for community

Eric talks with Julia Hanley from St. Patrick's Parish in Maple Ridge and Tim Glemkowski, Director of Strategy for the Archdiocese of Denver in Colorado. They discuss St. Patrick's discipleship pathway and parish culture. Having a discipleship pathway is one of the main principles outlined in Tim's book Made for Mission: Renewing Your Parish Culture. They discuss how the Holy Spirit moved Julia and St Patrick's disciples to formulate their pathway from principles, and the opportunities and challenges in parish life when it comes to evangelization.

024: Having a Discipleship Pathway

In this episode, Eric sits down with Brian Joel, a parishioner at St Matthew's in Surrey. Brian shares with enthusiasm his journey towards discipleship through men's retreats, CCO faith studies, and with encouraging mentors. Brian has been involved in leading many ministries at St. Matthew's, including Alpha and the CCO Faith studies. He shares how he sees missionary discipleship as allowing God to work through him to help others. Brian Joel has been a parishioner at St. Matthew's for the past 20 years. He grew up as a Protestant and converted to Catholicism in 2001. He is very active in his church participating in many ministries, including Bible study, Discovery Discipleship and Alpha. One of his favorites is Man’s Destiny which just held it’s fourth conference this year. He is a long-time Surrey resident where he lives with his wife and family, he owns a software development company for over 25 years and likes to run marathons.

023: How Being Part of Small Groups Can Strengthen Discipleship

Brett and Eric discuss the importance of hospitality in our communities. Some simple actions like paying attention to the details, focusing on the person, and extending authentic curiosity, can help our communities in being hospitable to our proximate periphery. Hospitality isn't just a strategy, it's the privilege and responsibility of each of us as members of our parish communities.

022: Taking Small Steps Towards a Culture of Hospitality

In this episode, Brett and Eric discuss the missionary dimension of the home. There are many opportunities in our everyday living that allow us to witness to our faith. This episode was recorded earlier in the year, but it has impact and relevance for us today. Proclaim is about inviting disciples to proclaim Jesus in their homes and communities and we can take small steps towards growing the missionary dimension of the home.

021: Making Our Homes and Communities "Missionary Outposts"

In this episode, Eric and Brett discuss the role of relational trust in evangelization - why it is important, how suspicion plays against trust, and some tips to building trust in our proximate periphery. 1:19 Relational trust is the bond that exists between two people that allows for influence to happen 1:52 The first step towards faith isn't always faith itself but being in a trusted relationship with a believer 3:38 The Church is no longer viewed as the trusted lighthouse for society that it once was 5:02 Suspicion is the opposite of trust 8:43 Relational trust includes all those things that are outside the words of evangelization 8:52 People don't care how much you know unless they know how much you care 11:39 People are more likely to listen to witnesses over teachers, but listen to teachers because they are witnesses. 15:00 Being relevant in people's lives is being present in their moments. 16:25 Alpha as a great way to developing trusting relationships. 19:28 Practical tips to building relational trust: listing to people's story, authentic curiosity, asking open-ended questions, expressing genuine interest. 25:45 Building trust between parents and children who have walked away from faith. 27:40 Parents are the best people to intercede for their children. 28:30 Resource "Praying for your sons and daughters, and those you love, by Vernon Robertson" 31:30 Brett's word of encouragement - the little things are the big things when it comes to building relational trust 31:45 Eric's word of encouragement - you're not alone. We're all learning to build trust. Proclaim is here to help.

020: Relational Trust in the Role of Evangelization

In this episode of the Proclaim Podcast Eric Chow continues the conversation with Deacons Raffaele Salvino and Richard Conlin. They discuss their experience with CCO's intentional accompaniment masterclass, prophetic listening, and the need to become great listeners in order to live out our missionary discipleship. 0:50 Evangelii Gaudium 169 The Church will have to initiate everyone – priests, religious and laity – into this “art of accompaniment” which teaches us to remove our sandals before the sacred ground of the other (cf. Ex 3:5). The pace of this accompaniment must be steady and reassuring, reflecting our closeness and our compassionate gaze which also heals, liberates and encourages growth in the Christian life. 3:47 Deacon Richard: What a privilege it is to enter into their lives because the Lord has chosen them and deeply desires to have a relationship with them. 8:30 Discusses their experience of CCO's Intentional Accompaniment masterclass. A way to connect years of formation of seminary into living out the parish life. You can find CCO's Intentional accompaniment model https://cco.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/CCO-Intentional-Accompaniment-Booklet.pdf 12:02 What were some of the ways you found yourself applying intentional accompaniment in your ministry? Deacon Richard realized that an email blast wasn't enough. "I needed to reach out to them personally..there has to be intentionality to invitations" 16:30 Deacon Raffaele, we need to be prophetically listening - having one ear to the person and one ear to heaven. 20:45 Deacon Raffaele, What is not prophetic listening - while they're talking, I'm not listening and crafting my apologetic response. 20:40 "By your baptism, you're a prophet. The Lord has got your back!" Deacon Richard 26:30 "If I can be a good listener, then I can be confident that the Holy Spirit can work through me" Deacon Rafaelle 33:56 Christ modeled accompaniment with his disciples, and from there his disciples went on to accompany others. Deacon Raffaele. 35:10 Deacon Raffaele's word of encouragement - Accompaniment is easier than you think. Deacon Richard's word of encouragement - listen well Eric's word of encouragement - accompaniment isn't just hanging out, it's also inviting people to deeper discipleship and knowing where to take them. Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!

019: Listening well and intentionally accompanying

Eric Chow has a conversation with Deacon Rafaele Salvino and Deacon Richard Conlin about the impact of relationships in their journey to discipleship and vocation. They discuss why relationships matter and the missionary skill of 'matchmaking': taking God's grace and matching it with people's needs. 1:00 Deacon Raff Salvino shares his story 3:55 Deacon Richard Conlin shares his story "Going to confession, that day I became an intentional disciple and a missionary disciple. I just had to go tell everyone what happened" 7:32 How friendship witnessed to Deacon Raff: "I knew there was more, I wasn't sure where it would come from, but I knew it was possible. I encountered Christ in adoration as the fulfillment of all my deepest desires." Deacon Richard "Out of that commitment, the intentionality of journeying with someone, our ability to be a disciple came about. You're commiting to a person, it's not a program you're putting someone through, you're not trying to fix someone. You're committing to the person and that relationship brought us here. " 11:40 -12:10 "The Archdiocese of Vancouver wouldn't have Deacon Richard and Deacon Raff if there weren't a couple of people who wanted to commit to us. And out of that relationship we have a relationship with Christ and we want to share that full time, all day everyday, and that's what we have the privledge to do now. You being intentional about a relationship with someone...you never know what could come of that" 15:20 Deacon Richard says "When you look at the people that you want to bring to Christ, you have to ask yourself if there's a genuine relationship of trust there. Are you only reaching out to them to invite them to events at church? Or do you hang out with them to build trust or text them to see how they're doing? Or is it always connected to 'can you come to this next event? " 17:50 - 18:36 Deacon Raff talks flag football and Christ 18:42 - 19:30 Deacon Raff missed faith study, leader came to his family's house. 20:48 Deacon Richard discusses how preaching has helped him grow as a missionary disciple. The skill of "matchmaking" - taking the grace of the readings with the needs of the people, and you match them. But it's not just for preaching, this is a skill that all missionary disciples need to grow in. 24:30 Being a missionary is challenging, and experiencing rejection in an invitation is a moment that strengthens us as missionary disciples. "Not having it all together is one of the greatest assets that you have (as a missionary disciple) because you're authentic. You're authentically striving to live a life for God, and the people around you see that. They see your flaws and they also see the beauty of that too, so that when you make that appeal to live a life for Christ, it carries so much more weight and authority." 33:43 Deacon Raff dismantling the lie that "only the priest evangelizes" and "I don't know enough to be a missionary". 34:56 Deacon Raff says"I would die with a huge smile on my face if I could see every single parishoner know that, by baptism, God has called them to be a missionary."

018: The Impact of Intentional Relationships with Deacon Raffaele and Deacon Richard

The Proclaim podcast features all things around sharing Jesus with others. Join Brett Powell, Heather Khym, and Jason Jensen as they talk to inspiring disciples about how they live on mission.

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