Since Pope Paul VI issued “Evangelii Nuntiandi” in 1975, the Church had a new interpretation and a new direction regarding the mission of “evangelization” - “the Gospel must be proclaimed”. This new interpretation created some confusion and caused reforms within the Catholic Church, because “evangelization” was not a widely known term for Catholics (including clergy and lay people), and even if they were familiar with this word, they were confused as to the exact meaning of it! Many Catholics regard the word “evangelization work” as something not Catholic but of other Christian Churches, because according to Catholic tradition, Catholics are not trained to do evangelization in the streets, to hold evangelization rallies etc., while brothers and sisters of other Churches on the other hand, are accustomed to doing this kind of work.

In the Catholic mind of the past, evangelization was the work of priests, nuns or specific trained persons: teachers of catechism, pastoral workers, home visitation and giving them guidance, these are all evangelization work. But today, a new change has made it clear that evangelization is the mission of every Christian, not just the responsibility of some Christians, nor only the work of foreign missionaries, nor it is limited to the work of the clergy alone. Evangelization is the work of all the faithful. Due to this new concept, Catholics are facing challenges and frustrations.

In his apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Nuntiandi”, Pope Paul VI states: “May they succeed in inviting the whole People of God assembled in the Church to make the same meditation; and may they give a fresh impulse to everyone, especially those ‘who are assiduous in preaching and teaching’, so that each one of them may follow ‘a straight course in the message of the truth,’ and may work as a preacher of the Gospel and acquit himself perfectly of his ministry.” (Evangelii Nuntiandi 5 ).

In this exhortation, Pope Paul VI also quoted from the Second Vatican Council’s document “Decree on the Church's Missionary Activity (Ad Gentes)”: Since the whole Church is missionary, and the work of evangelization is a basic duty of the People of God (Evangelii Nuntiandi 59 ). then we should clearly understand what evangelization is and how we should cooperate and carry it out to fulfill this mission.

Definition of Evangelization
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Pope Paul VI defines the meaning of evangelization in his exhortation “Evangelii Nuntiandi”: “For the Church, evangelizing means bringing the Good News into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new: "Now I am making the whole of creation new." But there is no new humanity if there are not first of all new persons renewed by Baptism and by lives lived according to the Gospel. The purpose of evangelization is therefore precisely this interior change, and if it had to be expressed in one sentence the best way of stating it would be to say that the Church evangelizes when she seeks to convert, solely through the divine power of the message she proclaims, both the personal and collective consciences of people, the activities in which they engage, and the lives and concrete milieu which are theirs”. (Evangelii Nuntiandi 18 ). Evangelization can be a very difficult and complex subject, and even church leaders and evangelizers have debated this issue endlessly.

Incomplete Concept of Evangelization
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In the past, the Catholic concept of evangelization was roughly classified into the following five views, but none of them was complete:

(1) “The View of Acceptance”: Advocates of this view believe that “evangelization” is nothing more than an invitation to accept people into the Catholic Church, including those who have been newly baptized or others who have drifted away from the church for a long time. The emphasis is on the number of church members.

(2) “Conversion Concept”: This view invites people to have a relationship with Jesus. Therefore, “evangelizing” is personal. The assessment depends on the individual’s ability to develop an inner relationship with Jesus and to respond to Jesus’ invitation.

(3) “Professional view”: This view says that “everything” done by the parish is evangelization, so the liturgy group says that liturgy is “evangelization”; the laity formation group say that formation of the faithful is “evangelization”. Not only do these ideas fail to create a situation of cooperation and unity, they create competition and chaos among each other, each with its own sphere of work.

(4) “Historical view” or “traditional view”: Those who hold this view think that the church has been “evangelizing” for two thousand years! The Church has a great tradition in this area, so just keep on with it. People with this idea are mostly passive pastoral workers who are not interested in change, let alone seek change. They are often tired and overworked doing administrative or pastoral work, and only regard “evangelization” as another activity or plan! Therefore, evangelization is not their priority, nor is it their daily routine.

(5) “Social Action Concept”: They believe that evangelization is simply charity or social justice. Birth rights defenders, anti-nuclear activists, even a hospitable, caring housewife or social worker is an evangelizer.

The above five concepts have both advantages and disadvantages. They should complete each other. I think all the advantages should be integrated into a comprehensive concept, which not only “accepts” people into the church, but also invites people to “convert” and establish an inner relationship with Jesus; at the same time, it amalgamates the traditional and professional views into a comprehensive concept applicable to the dioceses and parishes, so that all pastoral workers can join together to accomplish one another’s mission of evangelization. In fact, these five concepts are widely discussed by theologians and professional evangelists in the church today, and it is hoped that they can also reach a consensus on this.

Basic Definition of Evangelization
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Grassroots evangelizers offer several simple and general definitions of evangelization:

(1) Evangelization is welcoming all into the kingdom of God.

(2) Evangelization is an invitation to a personal and loving relationship with Christ, who sent by the Father to announce His Gospel to all, can nourish a relationship of love and care within the church community.

(3) The third definition includes personal and shared responsibility: “Evangelization is going beyond the self to nourish the spiritual life of others.”

(4) Another simple definition of evangelization is: it is like “a blind beggar leading another blind beggar to survive, and in the process, both of them regain their sight. This definition points out that both the evangelizer and the evangelized need to pursue and share the Gospel and must be willing to act in a spirit of mutual respect and communion so as to achieve a continuous conversion.

Elements of Evangelization
Evangelization needs the following elements:

(1) Love: Love is the first and most important element, love God, love others and love yourself.

(2) Invitation: Invite people to have an intimate relationship with Jesus.

(3) Continuous conversion.

(4) Seeking consciously and actively to surpass ourselves and expand our community.

(5) Nurturing spiritual growth in communities of faith and worship.

(6) The service of love.
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In his exhortation “Evangelii Nuntiandi”, Pope Paul VI summed up the prerequisites for effective evangelization in four words: preaching, repentance, acceptance and service.
(1) Preaching: “The Gospel must be proclaimed by witnesses. Take a Christian or a handful of Christians who, in the midst of their own community … show their capacity for understanding and accepting, for sharing their life and destiny with other people… they radiate in an altogether simple and unaffected way their faith in values that go beyond current values,” (Evangelii Nuntiandi 21 ). “Yet, it is still not enough... The Good News proclaimed by the witness of life sooner or later has to be proclaimed by the word of life. There is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not proclaimed.” (Evangelii Nuntiandi 22 ).
(2) Repentance: The attaining of the kingdom of heaven and salvation is beyond any human effort. It is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, who urges and sustains each individual’s total interior renewal, which the Gospel calls repentance (Metanoia); it is a radical conversion, a profound change of mind and heart.” (Evangelii Nuntiandi 10 ).
(3) Acceptance: “In fact the proclamation only reaches full development when it is listened to, accepted and assimilated... Such an adherence, which cannot remain abstract and without deep roots in the believer’s real life, reveals itself concretely by a visible entry into a community of believers. Thus those whose life has been transformed enter a community, which is itself a sign of transformation, a sign of newness of life: it is the Church, the visible sacrament of salvation.” (Evangelii Nuntiandi 23 ).
(4) Service: “Between evangelization and human advancement - development and liberation - there are in fact profound links… how in fact can one proclaim the new commandment of love without promoting in justice and in peace the true, authentic advancement of man? We ourselves have taken care to point this out, by recalling that it is impossible to accept "that in evangelization one could or should ignore the importance of the problems so much discussed today, concerning justice, liberation, development and peace in the world. This would be to forget the lesson which comes to us from the Gospel concerning love of our neighbor who is suffering and in need.” (Evangelii Nuntiandi 31 ).

Evangelization and Pastoral Work
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In order to better understand the concept of evangelization, we must first clarify the difference between evangelization and pastoral work. Originally, evangelization referred to spreading the Gospel to those who do not know Jesus and do not believe in the Lord. To continue the work of cultivating faith in those who know the Lord and have been baptized, this is actually pastoral work. These two different names clearly define the two responsibilities of the church: Evangelization is to introduce Jesus Christ to those, who are outside the sheepfold and pastoral work is directed to those who are in the sheepfold.

Evangelization and pastoral work are interrelated activities in the church: in evangelizing the listeners and leading them to be baptized, the church needs to continue to shepherd the baptized people, help them grow in their faith, and enabling them to share in the mission of evangelization.

In recent years, both theologians and ecclesiastical literature have used the term evangelization extensively for pastoral work. The reason: Some church members may have been baptized as infants with absolutely no exposure to the church, or no religious formation at all. In other words, they are baptized believers who do not know Jesus at all, or they are believers living outside the church, they have never received the first evangelization. At times the term New Evangelization is used to indicate this pastoral work for taking care of baptized Catholics who have drifted away from sheepfold. Evidently we should keep the difference between these brothers and sisters and those who live in a non-Christian culture and never heard of Jesus Christ or they heard it only superficially. When we say that the evangelizer must first be evangelized, or we speak of evangelization of the devout or evangelization of the faithful, we simply indicate that evangelization brings us to grasp the essential of our faith, Jesus himself, and invites us to continual proclamation and conversion, bringing the grace of conversion to the believers.