A grant of $5,000 from the Madison Christian Giving Fund to sponsor a fall outreach event by the Evangelical Catholic organization in Madison is having even greater impact than expected. Madison diocese Bishop Robert Morlino heard of the donation and called his top advisors together to hear more about the grant and the event being planned.
According to Jason Simon, executive director of the Evangelical Catholic, the Bishop had never met with the group before. It was the grant from MCGF that opened the door and got the Bishop’s attention.
As a result of that discussion what was going to be a one-time event is now going to involve three to five parishes in the Diocese of Madison in an extended program of evangelism and discipleship. This program called “Reach More” is based on developing small group leaders who in turn lead impact groups within each church as well as develop more small group leaders, thus perpetuating dramatic personal evangelism and discipleship in that parish. The result will be many more lives touched over a longer period of time and is hoped will continue as a regular part of the parish ministry.
“Reach More” is a full set of online modules, over 750 printed pages, developed by Faye Darnall who is on staff with the Evangelical Catholic. Each module carefully guides the church leaders in developing a vision for the church, discerning who to call to be leaders, training these leaders to form small disciple groups, training the disciples in that small group and then send the disciples in that small group to lead, form and train other small disciple groups.
The role of the Evangelical Catholic staff will be to come alongside the church pastor and leaders of the “Reach More” program to inspire, train, coach 
and support them through this whole process. It also the hope and mission of the Evangelical Catholic staff to create a culture of prayer, discipleship, and outreach within the parish as they engage the church staff and small group leaders one on one through the “Reach More” program.
The “Reach More” program has been beta tested in many campus communities across the country including: Catholic Community at Stanford University, Duke Catholic Center, St. Thomas More Newman Center at the University of South Carolina, St. Paul Catholic Center at Indiana University, and others. The reports and testimonies coming back from these tests have been positive.
Evangelical Catholic is a nationwide organization with headquarters in Madison that, according to Executive Director Jason Simon, has a mission to be on the front lines of the church’s ministries of evangelization and discipleship. Their vision is to see all of these ministries fully awakened to the urgent need for the gospel in their communities and equipped to respond. According to the 2008 Pew Religious Landscape Survey less than a third of “practicing” American-raised Catholics still attend Mass at least once a month.
The Madison Christian Giving Fund is working across denominational lines throughout Dane County to encourage active and effective evangelization and discipleship in the name of Jesus.