When many people hear the word, “evangelize,” they think of the most widely known definition, which is to convert people to Christianity. In this day and age, Catholics need to expand on this definition and live out “evangelization,” local priests and parishioners say.

“Evangelizing to me means going out on the streets and telling people how much you love God,” says Julia Zurenko, a freshman at Divine Child High School. According to Zurenko, this generation needs to do more about its faith and what it believes, which dovetails with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ insistence that now is the perfect time for the “New Evangelization.”

The “New Evangelization” invites Catholics to rekindle their relationship with God and the Church and spread the Good News. This movement was started by Pope St. John Paul II, when he said, “faith is strengthened when it is given to others!”

If today’s Catholics want to evangelize, they must spread the faith to others to make it stronger, says Felice Kowalewski.

“The fact that I am of Polish descent made me feel very close to him,” said Kowalewski, the parent of a former Divine Child student. “It was an honor to have him (Pope John Paul II) as pope.”

Like Kowalewski, many look up to St. John Paul II when it comes to evangelization. But in order to be evangelizers, we must first evaluate ourselves spiritually to see if we have what it takes, Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron says in his recent pastoral letter, “Unleash the Gospel.”

In a section of the letter titled “Evangelizing the Evangelizers,” Archbishop Vigneron details what Catholics must do in order to spread the word and evangelize.

“There is a tendency to think ‘once converted, always converted.’ But in fact we are all in constant need of evangelization, because we are in need of deeper conversion,” the archbishop writes.

Humans are not perfect, and often sin and make mistakes. But if one is always “following him on the way” (Mk 10:52), Catholics can stay close to Christ and show others their path and journey to God, said Fr. Stephen Pullis, director of the Archdiocese of Detroit’s Department of Evangelization, Catechesis and Schools.

Once Catholics better themselves as evangelizers, they can more effectively evangelize people of different backgrounds, said Fr. Pullis, who added the “New Evangelization” is something that everyone can share and embrace.

Stepping outside the box and getting out of one’s comfort zone to share the faith doesn’t necessarily mean standing at a street corner and throwing Bibles at random strangers passing by. Rather, doing small acts of kindness every day and showing people how children of Christ act can make a big difference.

Emma Baran is a freshman at Dearborn Divine Child High School and is writing about ‘Unleash the Gospel’ for her journalism class.