Search and Rescue: How to Bring Your Family and Friends Into - Or Back Into - The Catholic Church

by Patrick Madrid

You don't have to become a biblical scholar or a theologian to be an effective spokesman for the Catholic Faith. In fact, even though you don't know all the answers and can't explain every aspect of the Faith, you can begin winning souls to the Church right now...using prayer, friendship, and common sense.

It sounds almost too good to be true, but in Search and Rescue Patrick Madrid explains why these are among the most effective,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 192883227X
• ISBN13: 9781928832270
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Sophia Institute Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Great read!

Pointers on what to do if family has left the one true faith. You can be the example of Christ!

This Book is Nothing But a Textbook for Con-artists

The book is a collection of cheap 8th grade debating tricks which the author regards as clever. It show you how you can con people into a religion that they don't want or need. The people who should read this book are those with a desire to become catholicism's version of the Hare Krishnas who bother people at airports.

The How-To of Evangelizing, Not a Theology

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.

Manual for the New Evangelization

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.'

Excellent Apologetical Starter Guide

Patrick Madrid takes you step by step, situation by situation, into the nuts and bolts of what it means to witness to others. He teaches with a gentle prodding to stop making excuses and get out there to bring the true faith to others. He systematically breaks down all the requisites one needs in order to be an apologist who is "always ready to make an account of the faith that is within him." If all of that were not enough, at the end of the book he compiles a comprehensive reading list from beginner to advanced so that one may slowly become familiar and acquainted with both theology and the prevailing anti-Catholic, anti-God, and secular humanist arguments that most Catholics are faced with at one time or another in their life. This book is an excellent introduction to apologetics, and lays out a very clear and concise list of "steps" one should take in learning, re-learing, and witnessing their Catholicism to others. Madrid leaves no stone unturned and definitely prepares the new recruit for a battle unlike any the world has ever seen. However, I would also recommend this for the more advanced apologists as well that they may remind themselves of what they might have forgotten in the midst of their constant battles. I highly recommend this book and guarantee you will find it quite informative, not to mention, an excellent reference book when you move from beginner to more advanced. God Bless

Rank-and-file Catholics need not be biblical scholars

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.

The Place to Go for Answers

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.