It will take more than warm fuzzies to evangelize our society. It will take solid planning, strategies and tactics. Fortunately, the founders of the Cursillo Movement created a master plan for evangelization, which, if executed on a large scale, would contribute greatly to the transformation of our society.

The overall strategy of the Cursillo plan is simple: Christianize those people responsible for creating or influencing the institutions in society, thereby giving a Christian backbone to society.

More specifically, the plan calls for creating committed Christians:

(1) to Christianize through their personal spirituality the environments of institutions in which they operate in their daily lives—family, parish, business organization, schools, and civic and social organizations;

(2) to create core Christian communities within those institutions with other Catholics or Christians—not just organizations of Christians, but Christians who share deeply their Christianity with one another; and

(3) to link up in support groups with other committed Christians to help one another persevere in their Christian lives and dedication to evangelization.

The wisdom of this master plan can be seen in a number of Cursillo insights. First, a person’s beliefs, attitudes, values and behavior patterns are formed to a great extent, not by institutions, but by their environments where one is open to being influenced by others and wants to be accepted by the group. So, to transform society, committed Christians must transform institutions by transforming their environments. They are challenged to let their Christianity bloom in the environments where they are planted.

Second, a given environment within an institution can be analyzed. What ideas and attitudes are accepted? What types of behavior are encouraged? Who are the people who create the spirit by reason of their personality or conduct? Those persons become the targets for the Cursillo strategy of "Make a friend. Be a friend. Bring a friend to Christ."

What most environments lack is loving relationships. Only self-giving on the part of committed Christians produces loving relationships.

Third, creating core Christian communities within institutions influences their environments, because outsiders sense the dynamics of a Christian community and are attracted by the self-giving and loving relationships of community members. When that happens, Christian communities impact their environments.

Fourth, the isolated committed Christian is the spiritual Rambo, the John Wayne, the rugged individualist. The basic reality of human nature is that persons change and grow in groups. A real Christian community is a growth community—a necessity for personal and spiritual growth.

Moreover, the process of Christianizing ourselves and society is an overwhelming task. It can’t be done alone. That is why committed Christians must be linked together in core Christian communities with other committed Christians to share their spiritual journeys.

You may be thinking to yourselves: "It all sounds very logical, but the plan depends on finding or creating committed Christians." That too is part of the Cursillo’s master plan for evangelizing society.

The founding fathers of the Cursillo Movement created the Cursillo Weekend, literally, a short course—Thursday night to Sunday night—aimed at giving participants a new vision of how to live their Christianity and the leadership skills to Christianize society. The end result: a weekend experience that is truly an empowering experience—followed by a support program after the Weekend.

The planning, the strategies, the tactics, the dynamic training program and the post-Weekend support program are all contained within Cursillo’s master plan for evangelization. An effective package to transform our secular society into a Christian society!