St. Paul Street Evangelization
http://streetevangelization.com
About:
The SPSE Story
At age 30, Steve Dawson had hit rock bottom. With a bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand, he fell to his knees in a field of grass behind his parents’ house and prayed his first real prayer of his life: “God if You are real, You’ll have to show me.” God broke powerfully into his life and within a month, Steve went to confession for the first time since second grade. As a testament to the kind of life he had been living up until this point, his confession took an hour and a half, and his penance was to say 30 rosaries!
Soon after his dramatic conversion, Steve had a hunger to share with the world the treasure he found in Jesus and His Church. And he lamented the fact that he never saw any Catholics evangelizing. He had seen Bible-waving Protestants, bicycling Mormons, and smartly dressed Jehovah’s Witnesses, but no Catholics. He became determined to do something about it.
He heard about Saint Maximilian Kolbe who evangelized strangers by offering them a blessed Miraculous Medal. St Maximilian called the medal, “Our Lady’s Silver Bullet” because it was a channel of grace, and God oftentimes used it to bring about a conversion in someone’s life. Steve decided to begin evangelizing using this medal. The method was simple. He would start a conversation by asking someone if they would like a free Miraculous Medal. Then He would tell them about it and ask if they were a Christian. The conversations happened supernaturally from there.
Steve, his wife Maria, along with another couple began to evangelize at Portland’s Saturday Market. The Saturday Market is a large art fair that takes place every Saturday and Sunday, April through December, in a park in downtown Portland on the banks of the Willamette River. The area has lots of foot traffic, as well as street performers and food vendors. Many people come for the fair itself, and others are out jogging, dog-walking, or biking on the paved path along the river. The atmosphere is busy but relaxed. No one is rushing off to work, and folks seem content to while away an afternoon. The foursome spread out a picnic blanket on the concrete, erected their “Catholic Truth” sandwich board sign, and set out Miraculous Medals, Rosaries, pamphlets, and prayer cards. They prayed a Rosary, and waited for people to approach—and for the Holy Spirit to do His work.
Over the weeks, they slightly modified their approach. Instead of just waiting for people to walk up to them, they began to offer free medals and rosaries to the people walking by. This technique was helpful in that it drew people’s attention without being too obtrusive. If someone declined or ignored them, they didn’t push the matter, they remained positive and said “God bless you!” or “Have a great day!” This approach also broke the ice for those who were interested but too hesitant to talk to them on their own. Steve was amazed at how receptive and open people were to talking about religion—and especially Catholic Christianity.
Steve wanted to share their experience with others, so he started a Facebook group and posted “stories from the street”. Soon he was being contacted by people from all over the country asking how they could do what Steve and his friends were doing. By the end of that first summer, there were already ten evangelization teams formed in ten different cities.
After graduating with a degree in business from Portland State University in March 2013, Steve and his family moved back to near where he had grown up outside of Detroit, Michigan. Soon after, he formalized the SPSE ministry by filing for, and receiving non-profit status.
Just under ten years later, SPSE has grown from a small team of friends in Portland, Oregon to an international network of over 200 trained street evangelization teams and a world class school of renowned evangelists teaching average Catholics how to take the gospel to a world starved for the good news. The various distinguished advisors and instructors within this organization include Cardinal Raymond Burke, Archbishop Allen Vigneron, Steve Ray, Mary Healy, Peter Herbeck, Tom Monaghan and many others.