Search and Rescue: How to Bring Your Family and Friends Into, or Back Into, the Catholic Church
Review
“A most welcome addition to the resources in evangelization and apologetics, so essential in this new millennium.” — The Very Rev. Peter Stravinskas, author, The Catholic Response
“An excellent source to help concerned Catholics reach their loved ones. I highly recommend this book.” — Steven K. Ray, author, Upon This Rock
“This is necessary spiritual reading for Catholic apologists.” — Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago
Even St. Monica would’ve benefited from reading this book in her effort to bring her son, Augustine, into the Church! — Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR, author, The Gift of God: The Holy Spirit
How do you bring someone back into the Church? First, you pray. Then, you follow Madrid’s advice. — Edward Cardinal Egan, Archbishop of New York
Product Description
You dont have to become a biblical scholar or a theologian to be an effective spokesman for the Catholic Faith. In fact, even though you dont know all the answers and cant explain every aspect of the Faith, you can begin winning souls to the Church right now . . . using prayer, friendship, and common sense.
It sounds almost too good to be true, but in Search and Rescue Patrick Madrid explains why these are among the most effective, time-tested methods for bringing family and friends into or back into the Church. As the publisher of Envoy magazine, author of many apologetics books (including Surprised by Truth 2), and a veteran defender of the Faith, Madrid himself has used these methods successfully for years.
But Madrid doesnt give you only the benefit of his own considerable experience: in Search and Rescue he also includes simple and genial advice from St. Francis of Assisi, St. Augustine, and other great lovers of God. Get Search and Rescue the book that shows you how you can start winning souls for Christ today!
- Talking with Catholic Friends and Family: UnderstandingHow They Think and Feel, Why They Trust in Tradition, What the Bible Teaches
- My mom is a Psychic Friends are but a Catholic family, and her mom is also a Catholic, how is this possible?
- If we ask others (friends, family, church members, Stranger) to pray for us, or go directly to Jesus?
- Reasons to Believe: How to Understand, Explain, and Defend the Catholic Faith
- Reasons to Believe: How to Understand, Explain, and Defend the Catholic Faith
Search and Rescue is a practical, hands-on style, guide to evangelizing. Patrick Madrid takes the reader into the specific steps that they need in learning how to DO evangelization. He deals with using opportunities to talk to strangers, friends, family, door-to-door evangelists, and especially the bitter ex-Catholic person that most will deal with eventually. Madrid shows you that in order to evangelize you needn’t be a theological expert, but that you MUST have a proper mindset towards evangelization and the people that you are trying to evangelize. He warns that our pride and arrogance can get in the way of the best laid arguements. In fact, there are entire chapters of this book dedicated to: making sure that we are doing it for God and not for glory, not treating people like scalps to be won for the faith, making sure that we ARE sincerely friendly and loving to people (and not just trying to come across that way), and recognizing that the Holy Spirit does the true converting and that we are but tools of that conversion.
Useful ideas that will be especially gleaned by the reader of this book: making sure that you talk more to God about the person you are trying to convert than you talk to the person about God, be constantly aware of the tendancy to pride and the subsequent need for consist visits to the sacrament of confession, and being reasonably prepared to deal with common arguements.
Search and Rescue is NOT an apologetic or theological work. It is a how-to manual for APPLYING apologetic and thoelogical studies. The author gives lots of great references for where to find good study guides for the faith and apologetics, including a strong emphasis on person daily prayer and scripture reading.
This is an awesome work that will teach people how to evangelize those around us in the world, as well as how to deal with the painful situation of a close friend or family member who leaves the Church over ‘issues’ or because of a conversion to protestantism. Those looking to become serious about evangelizing people in the world, or those confused about what to do about the family member being wooed by charismatic protestant church members NEED this book.
In this, Patrick Madrid’s newest book, the author gives some practical advice from personal experience, the wisdom of the saints, and the Word of God itself.
Some of the things which are dealt with are preperation, examination of personal motives and conscience, and different situations one will deal with in the field of apologetics. Moreover, Madrid instructs the reader in dealing with frustrations, remind them always that it is the Holy Spirit, not the evangelist, who does the actual conversions, and therefore trust must be put first and foremost not in self, but in Him.
One of the better features of the book is the recommended reading list at the end. Divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced, it should prove to be very useful to budding apologists and those who simply have a desire to learn.
My only gripe is this: the text is poorly formatted. The right-hand columns are not justified, which makes the book look unprofessional, and this is really unheard of from professional publishing houses. Hopefully they will fix this for the next printing.