Search and Rescue: How to Bring Your Family and Friends Into, or Back Into, the Catholic Church

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Summary: Fulfilling the Great Commission--Catholic style!
Review: Before I read this book, I thought my days as an evangelist had ended the moment I came home to Rome. Patrick Madrid is proof that the task of evangelizing is not purely a Protestant endeavor. He not only explains *why* we should help our friends and loved ones come into the fullness of truth of the Church, he gives lots of practical and sensitive advise on *how* to go out there and do it.

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Summary: Unfortunately, no advice for my retrieval missions
Review: I found this book a disappointment. I purchased the book hoping for tips on how to help my family return to the church. This book offered no information that I could use, which suprised me, as I have found so much help in other works by Patrick Madrid.

The book would have been powerful, if it stressed (or even addressed) that part of the beauty of the Catholic traditon, is that Catholic doctine, as outlined by the catechism, honors an individual's power of conscience. But Madrid neglects this beautiful aspect of Catholcism and instead advocates teaching people how to tell other people (those who have left the church or who are not part of it) that their opinions and interpretations to Catholic doctrine (and the responsibilties it entails) are wrong, whenever they acn't accept a teaching of the church, despite the fact that Catholcims as articualted in the cathechism defers to people's sense of right and wrong; their conscience as their most powerful guide. It insinutates that all of the Church's teachings are equally binding, which is not true. Not everything the Church teaches is infallible.

Madrid's book presents a very biased approach to Catholcism, and teaches is as a static faith, rather than an ongoing dialogue. This is not an uncontested perspective, and should not be presented as such. I also think that working form this approach is dissuavive, when talking to some one who almost agrees with everything the Church teaches, and is slightly hesitant to convert based on a minor precept. I recommend Richard Gaillardetz's boot "By What Authority: A Primer on the Scripture, Magiesterium and Sense of the Fiathful," for those who might have (or are speakign to those who do have)disagreements with the church, because Gaillardetz includes a good outline for discerning with the conscience if the rationale for disbelief in an area of doctrine is sufficient to consider one's self non-Catholic.

The book also claims to be a handbook for Catholics, and does not specifty "Roman" Catholicsm or Latin rite. It would have been more helpful if Madrid outlined diferent schools of Catholic thought, such as the Eastern rites, but he neglects them entirley. This would increase the ability of people to stay, enter or return to the Catholic family, if they were more aware of the scope of options in that family. Not all Catholic churches are opposed to married clergy, for instance.

He slightly errs too when he defends the doctrine of papal infallibility by commenting that Francis de Sales wrote tracts on the infallibility of the Pope, as the Pope was not granted the power of infallibilty until 1870; long after Sales' death. I thought this gave the impression that papal infallibility was a doctrine longer than it has been. Not all Catholics believe the Pope should have the position he that he is granted in the Roman Catholic church; some interpret it as theologically unsound.

My greatest disappointmet was that Madrid seriously discounts the role that a poor priest plays in a church's ability to retain its members or recruit more people. He seems to think this is rarely the main issue, but that has not been my personal experience. My family members have been driven away by a poor priest. I think Scott Hahn's "Lamb's Supper" helps people return to the church or remian despite poor priests. The Bible is full of stories of people who felt the presence of the Holy Spirit, and when we have priests who exhibit some or all of the faults that Catherine of Siena mentions in "Dialogues," and nothing positive, it can be dificult to believe that particular church is where God wants us to be, since God seems absent. It is likewise difficult to encourage friends and family members to remain with or try a parish that feel spiritually bankrupt.

At least a chapter of the book should have been devoted to how to find spirituality in a place that seems void of it, and how to reform your parish, by organizing some venue for feedback so that the priest will learn of his strenghts and shortcomings, and so that he can either transformed, or if those initiatives fails, than how to remove him so that he will be replaced by some one more able to serve the parish.

The only helpful aspect of the book to me, was the reading guide listed in the appendix for other resources.


Rating:
Summary: Wonderful truth.
Review: One night my sister invited a friend for dinner and I beat him over the head with questions about being Lutheran. I was so ashamed of it later...I only wish I would have read Search and Rescue earlier! I love being Catholic, I just did not know how to share my joy with others properly. This book gave advice straight from the Bible and the saints on how to share our faith. The descriptions about fallen-away Catholics were just like MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY. The book not only told me what aspects of a person's background to take into consideration, but it also helped me examine my own motives. Best of all, Search and Rescue outlines a "Reading Plan" for Preliminary and Intermediate sources, which I plan to dive right into, so I can start filling in the information I am missing about my faith.

Rating:
Summary: Honest and Holy Practical
Review: Patrick Madrid has once again outdone himself. In this indispensible encyclopedia of evangelization tactics, Madrid appeals to heart of all Catholics and restores the urgency of our Lord's request "Go and teach unto all nations." Clear, concise and heart warming, it was a pleasure to read the trials and successes Madrid has had in his own apologetics career. Drawing from this experience, he methodically assembles the ultimate guide to living out the gospel. Prayer, Scripture and Catechism reading, supplemental study and reliance on God permeate the pages of this book. I felt a true spark of motivation and thought of my family and friends who were once Catholic and how earnestly our Lord desires them to be of "one faith" in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. This is a must read for anyone who wants to reach out with the heart and not just their head.

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Summary: The How-To of Evangelizing, Not a Theology
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Apologetical Starter Guide
Review: Search And Rescue: How To Bring Your Family And Friends Into (Or Back Into) the Catholic Church is the first practical volume to provide specific help to Catholics who want to win back friends and relatives who have become inactive in the Catholic faith. The message is that rank-and-file Catholics need not be biblical scholars or learned theologians to operate as effective spokespersons for the Catholic Faith and still win souls to the Catholic Church through the use of prayer, friendship, and common sense. Search And Rescue is highly recommended for anyone seeking effective strategies for apologetics and evangelization with respect to friends, colleagues, neighbors, and family members.

Rating:
Summary: Helpful but not very
Review: This book could have been much more helpful. It does give good quotes from the Bible, lessons he has learned, and examples from history to help along the way. However, most of what he says seems obvious at times. Even though it's obvious, it's good advice, but advice that is hard to follow. The recommeneded reading list is a great addition at the back of the book to help people begin reading about the Catholic faith.

Rating:
Summary: Helpful but not very
Review: This book could have been much more helpful. It does give good quotes from the Bible, lessons he has learned, and examples from history to help along the way. However, most of what he says seems obvious at times. Even though it's obvious, it's good advice, but advice that is hard to follow. The recommeneded reading list is a great addition at the back of the book to help people begin reading about the Catholic faith.

Rating:
Summary: Manual for the New Evangelization
Review: This is the one book that really opened my eyes to the reality of the issues about most non-catholics. This book is the practical guide to anyone who always wanted to share their Catholic faith to non-catholics but don't know how. Offer lots of Prayers for the conversion of non-catholics and then follow what this book says. It is not our clever arguements that converts people but the loving grace of Jesus Christ our God. As St. Francis said: "Evangelize always using words only when necessary." This 'Search and Rescue' book really shows 'How to Bring Your Family and Friends Into, or Back Into, the Catholic Church.'

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Summary: An excellent "how to do personal evangelism" for Catholics
Review: We hear a lot of talk these days in Catholic cirlces about "evangelism" and "the new evangelization," and ask ourselves "OK, how?" Madrid's new book "Search and Rescue" answers that question quite handily. Before reverting back to the Catholic faith from a long stint in evangelical Protestantism I had become familiar with any number of books (and programs e.g. "Evangelism Explosion") written by Protestants for Protestants on how to share the good news of Jesus with others. As a Protestant I often found books of that genre quite helpful. When I came back to the Catholic Church this past year I was disappointed at the dearth of like books written for a specifically lay Catholic audience. With Madrid's new book he has provided lay Catholics who want to share their faith a much-needed guide as to the what-to-do and what-not-to-do's as the opportunities present themselves.

My only disappointment (a minor one) was that in his otherwise thorough bibliography of recommended reading in the back of the book he did not include any of Lorene Hanley Duquin's excellent books such as "When a Loved One Leaves the Church" (published by Our Sunday Visitor Press) or "Could You Ever Become a Catholic?" (published by Alba House Publishing). Although not written as handbooks for evangelism per-se, they provide a very broad overview of the many reasons Catholics leave the Church, or why those outside convert. [...]