Rethinking Evangelization: The First Commission We Forgot
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Rethinking Evangelization: The First Commission We Forgot

BySusan Windley-Daoust

Introducing a new keynote! This talk explores the forgotten “first evangelical commission” for clergy and lay leaders.

For decades, we’ve invested immense energy in “the new evangelization”—developing programs, movements, and initiatives designed to reach the unchurched. Yet affiliation continues to fall, and the baptized often remain unconverted in heart.

Perhaps we’ve overlooked the key that Jesus offered from the very beginning…the first commission, the first time Jesus says “go and tell”:

“Go home to your own people and tell them what the Lord in his mercy has done for you.”

Here, in this overlooked passage, we rediscover the original DNA of evangelization: healing, story, and relationship born of mercy.

Ornate church altar viewed through an open doorway showcasing intricate architectural details.
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The Gospel of Welcome: Becoming a Parish of Radical Hospitality

Bymark519

Every parish wants to be known as welcoming. Yet many of us have experienced walking into a church and feeling invisible, unsure of where to sit, or whether anyone even noticed we came. Real Christian hospitality goes far beyond a friendly handshake at the door. It is a way of seeing every person with the eyes of Christ—especially the stranger, the seeker, and the one who hesitates at the threshold.

The question is: how? When we are accustomed to our space and its rythyms, we may be blind to the challenges outsiders feel even approaching the door.

This workshop defines and explores the Biblical roots of radical hospitality, leads people in an assessment of their space and hospitality support, and promotes the responsibility of all the baptized in adopting holy habits of hospitality.