2017 USCCB Convocation Participants Guidebook and Journal | Page 21

The Call to Missionary Discipleship
Why Study the Landscape?
It is important that Convocation participants be aware of the
landscape in the United States since effective missionary work
requires knowing the people we are trying to reach: their hopes,
fears, beliefs, engagement with the faith, and so on. Studying the
Catholic landscape in our country can open our eyes to societal
trends and expand our perception of where God is leading the
Church in the United States.
Being aware of our local landscape (our state, county, or city) is
of first importance, since national trends may or may not reflect
the particular circumstances in which we find ourselves. As
leaders, we should be wary of relying only on our own personal
experiences or assumptions about people when making plans for
evangelization. Each of us has but a limited (human) perspective,
so research can fill in the gaps and provide valuable insights about
the local mission field.
Catholic Life Today
Since it is impossible to adequately cover all aspects of the
Catholic experience in this short guidebook, a list of helpful
sources for further research is available in the Appendix. Here we
will provide some major data points that will shape the conversa-
tions at the Convocation.
The mission field for the Church in the United States today is not
the same as the mission field in the 1950s or 1960s, or even just
a few years ago. In fact, the rapid changes all around us should
cause us to reconsider our evangelization methods more regu-
larly, even every few years. Here are some examples of what is
different today as compared with past decades:
• Technology is everywhere, especially tools for faster and
easier communication. This affects how we relate to one
another and what our ideas and expectations of “commu-
nity” are, even within the Church. It also means that the
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