this Bishop Baron is my great joy to
present to you the word on fire
Institute which really is the first step
in the formation of the word on fire
movement
I've asked Jared Zimmer who's the
director of the Institute to come on now
and present the eight principles that
inform the work of the Institute in the
book of Acts we hear the great sermon of
Saint Peter who proclaimed that all the
house of Israel therefore know assuredly
that God has made him both Lord and
Christ this Jesus whom you crucified and
they heard this and they were cut to the
heart and said to Peter and the rest of
the Apostles brethren what shall we do
and Peter said to them repent and be
baptized and those who received his word
were baptized and they devoted
themselves to the Apostles teaching and
fellowship to the breaking of bread and
the prayers my name is Jared Zimmer the
director of the war on fire Institute
and I'll be your host for this course on
the eight principles of the word on fire
ethos when Bishop Baron started word on
fire Catholic ministries back in 1999 he
had no idea what might blossom out of
the work of proclaiming the gospel
through contemporary media in such a way
now years later on almost a daily basis
we received contact from people all over
the world saying that they've been cut
to the heart and the first thing they
ask is what shall we do over the past
few years we've sensed the holy spirit
growing word on fire into something more
than just a ministry we sense it
blossoming into a full-fledged movement
one dedicated to the new evangelization
one that could train a veritable army of
evangelist and apologist to spread the
faith in our increasingly secularized
culture I want to bring attention to a
few harrowing statistics 25% of
Americans today no longer affiliate
themselves with religion for everyone
that joins the church six are leaving
not only are we bleeding out our own
members but when they leave there's a
high statistical likelihood that they
will join the ranks of the unaffiliated
a few years ago Cardinal Francis George
challenged Bishop Baron in regard to
answer
during this growing problem he asked the
question where are the movements for
today just as Francis and Dominic
intuitive that among the difficulties of
their time there's a specific route that
must be taken to achieve lasting and
effective change and the culture and
time they lived and looking at those
harrowing statistics it becomes clear
that there must be something to help
answer and curve this rise of
unaffiliated
not as a way to get people to join our
club but rather because we know that and
echoing st. Augustine our hearts are
restless until they rest in thee O Lord
the greatest challenge of our day is the
rise of the unaffiliated therefore our
main focus of the word on fire movement
our charism is to evangelize and
approach this problem head-on the word
on fire movement is a calling of
disciples of Christ to dedicate their
life to proclaiming Christ in the
culture we want to challenge you to live
a comprehensive life of evangelization
in which the Lord's missionary impulse
shapes every facet from home to family
to study to work the movement exists to
evangelize with a Christ centered focus
a commitment to new methods and
expressions and an apostolic life fueled
by the sacraments the movement aims to
move into the secular culture and
evangelize it from within our aim is to
help people encounter the Lord Jesus and
share the many gifts he offers through
his church it is for this reason that we
have established the word on fire
Institute for a movement to be
successful there's an absolute need to
offer formation and the ethos of its
founder and offer the guiding principles
by which its members live that is the
purpose of this course to offer you a
distinct understanding of the principles
of the word on fire movement these
principles stem from Bishop Barron's
work and passion over the years and one
might say Express the beating heart of
word on fire these principles have been
formulated prayed over and diligently
prepared so we can understand
and our distinct spirituality and the
way in which we evangelize these eight
principles are unwavering crystal
centrosome evangelizing the culture
special commitment to new media
rootedness in the mystical body leading
with beauty affirmative orthodoxy
collaborative apostolate and a grounding
on the Eucharist
[Music]