In the wave of the New Evangelization, Pope Francis’ directive was to celebrate a month of Extraordinary Mission in October 2019. This declaration began an impulse in Vancouver of disciples who wanted to take action.
The Archdiocese of Vancouver decided to launch a movement that would ignite disciples in their missional call. They partnered with us to create an inspiring brand and campaign that would celebrate, unite, and mobilize Catholics to live this out in their homes and communities.
The diocese was taking on something unlike anything Vancouver had ever seen. We started by spending five days together in Glass Canvas’ strategic Sprint process, establishing the heart of the movement and what God was stirring in our diocese.
We wanted to ignite disciples to proclaim Jesus. To do this well, we broke the strategy into three phases.
Our goal was to move people deeper in their journey with God. Specifically, intentional disciples (those who loved Jesus but not on mission) would be encouraged to become missional disciples (those who love Jesus and our on mission). These missional disciples would be equipped to accompany potential disciples in their journey.
We focused on first developing phase one—mobilizing disciples. We worked with Vancouver articulating the foundation of why this movement existed, brand values, and brand promise. From this, the Proclaim brand was born.
We created a logo, visuals, and brand language that would be the wise and joyful voice to emulate the brand’s mission. We then packaged it into a brand manual to be used as a strategic tool for brand decisions and communications from here on out.
Our efforts would be specifically focused on missional disciples who were already doing great things in their communities.
“In many ways, this movement wants to give voice and strength and purpose to a bunch of disparate entities, individuals, movements, communities, all doing heroic things. But let’s bring them all together without diminishing any of their impulse, direction, but bring it all together under one moment where we get to celebrate the good of what’s happening, and maybe, by working together, making an even bigger impact.” – Brett Powell, Archbishop’s Delegate for Development and Ministries
To support people well, we needed to keep our efforts focused and offer practical tools. There were so many great resources but we needed to focus efforts. We chose Alpha and Discovery, based on its easy usability, history of success, low barrier entry points, and practicality.
To avoid potential bottleneck at the diocesan level, we also focused on going straight to the people and bringing them together under one roof. This would be key in creating a community of united people rather than siloed efforts.
We sent personal invitations for the Upper Room Conference, the official launch of Proclaim. Here we both celebrated their work and empowered laity to go back to their parish and beyond.
“When we first started talking about how Vancouver was going to respond, Archbishop Miller very quickly got into the opportunity in front of us. The event we have is not to celebrate something only, but launch something… This is not to be a gathering event only but a sending event.” – Brett Powell, Archbishop’s Delegate for Development and Ministries
At the conference, attendees were invited into the heart of the movement through video, speakers, and a memorable brand experience. The conference, with a capacity of just over 1000 people, sold out.
The Tilma Platform had been our platform for the Proclaim website and online registration. This made it easy to create a list of attendees and do email follow ups with next steps.
This list of emails would also be automatically subscribed to Proclaim, where they would receive specific content around evangelizing in your homes, communities, nieghborhoods, and workplaces.
Mobilizing people meant training people. The Proclaim training offered skills in our specific tools, Alpha and Discovery, and in general relational evangelization. Sessions were hosted by leaders in the diocese, across different cities, and over the span of several months to make it as accessible as possible.
Meanwhile, in the digital space, a branded platform had been built as ongoing support for disciples. Together, Proclaim and Glass Canvas created niche content around relational evangelization.
Under the same umbrella of a focused strategy, we decided on a few critical channels: email, a Facebook group, and Instagram. The private Facebook group was created as a hub for members to support one another, ask questions and share resources. Instagram was an avenue of inspiration. And weekly emails brought very specific, curated content and important updates to our members’ inbox.
“(The Archbishop) was prophetically saying, and my hope for this month of mission, is for an impulse that transforms everything. That it would lead to community after community after community, embracing the New Evangelization, embracing a new way to do pastoral ministry, embracing the newness of the continual refiring of Pentecost. And that’s what exciting.”Brett Powell, Archbishop’s Delegate for Development and Ministries
Vancouver, British Columbia
Columbus, Ohio
