We all want transformation. An end to abortion and for a culture of life to develop. Before we can change the world, God wants to change our hearts first. To be a wounded healer rather than a wounded wounder. To be a reservoir of God’s graces rather than just a channel of his graces. What can we do to be effective agents of change in building a culture of life? Churchill said that to improve often is to change, to be perfect is to change often.

1. Putting the spiritual life first

Having a robust spiritual life is crucial to being an authentic witness to life. Pray how God can use your skills and abilities to serve the pro-life movement.  Your witness and integrity are crucial, being beyond reproach, your holiness will allow you to be used more powerfully by God. I recommend the books: Soul of the Apostolate by Jean-Baptiste Chautard and Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean Pierre de Caussade. Having a plan of life, a spiritual director, a routine, and a solid prayer life will enable you to see how God works and be full of missionary zeal for God’s kingdom. What is God specifically calling me to that I am not already doing?

2. Discipleship

Approaching the abortion debate from a spiritual angle with community organizing proved to be powerful beyond imagination. How can God amplify the impact you are having with your pro-life efforts?

Christ called others to leave their nets and follow Him to be fishers of men. We too are called to create a culture of discipleship in order to have the most effective ministry. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in his book, the Cost of Discipleship, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him to come and die.” Prayer vigils have been an opportunity to die to self, to witness to others.

To the degree that you find apathy - you have to be passionate to a similar degree. Recruit those already interested, in an upbeat manner, mention the features and benefits of your work, help with a vision of what is possible through your apostolate, and delegate.

3. Communicate your message with passion and purpose

One of the most impressive websites is abortionprocedures.com  from Live Action - with over 50 million views, it has been reported that 30% of those in favor of abortion change their mind after watching the videos. What kind of steps can we take to transform our ministry, our pro-life work, and the hearts and minds of those around us? After helping one person, we can help ten people, then one hundred, and then one thousand. With visualization, can scale the good in our lives.

Today, more than ever, there are many different ways we can communicate a growing awareness and appreciation of the humanity of the unborn to others. We need to personalize the issue of abortion to help people relate to the issue and make it real in their lives. Once abortion becomes personal, it becomes more real for people, rather than an abstract issue. Being an abortion survivor is a powerful example - a living witness of this principle.

In the book: Managing by Storying Around, a new method of leadership, David Armstrong advocates telling stories to communicate the important points that advice, demands, and rah-rah can’t convey. Expert storytelling helps to communicate our message to a wider audience.

40 Days for Life uses webcasts, podcasts, videos, social media, and email to help with a content strategy to communicate our vision to help Christians end abortion where they live. These methods are useful in recruiting others and sharing our vision. But being a witness is so important. Pope Paul VI said, “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”

4. Follow Experts

In any field, following an expert is a good method to find out best practices, learn good systems and methodology, and become proficient in new skills. Some of the world’s best experts are very good at popularizing simple messages to a wider audience. The idea is that if you follow the same course as an expert, you are likely to see the same results. From cooks to dieticians, fitness trainers to marketing gurus, if you follow in their footsteps, you are likely to see the same results. The message is simple: follow experts and learn to experience what they experience.

What is certain is that following experts is going to improve performance, imagination, ideas, creativity and results. Brendon Burchard even trains people how to be an experts in their field through his Expert’s Academy. The E-myth revisited recognizes the power of systems in developing good practices that can be harnessed again and again to produce outstanding results. McDonald’s is so successful because they implement winning systems into their business model and repeat them continually. Pro-lifers should look to implement systems that work in saving lives and changing hearts and minds. Strategize and systematize to spread your message.

Examples:

Online for Life: seeing more people use the Internet for information about abortion

Catholic Voices: media training

Eben Pagan: Online Marketing

Scott Klusendorf: Pro-life apologetics

Don’t sell yourself short. Identify the needs that your pro-life ministry has to flourish. Find the skills that you need to build and grow your efforts. And then turn to experts to learn best practices, avoid problems, and develop proficiency and professionalism beyond your years.

5. Know your topic

It is said you need to study for 10,000 hours to become world class in any field. Track and measure everything so you know where you can improve. Having an intimate knowledge of your topic, including aspects of law, media and culture will help you to see opportunities previously unforeseen.

David Daleiden of the Centre for Medical Progress has a PhD level knowledge of the abortion industry. As a result, he has managed to cause unprecedented damage to Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States through repetitional attacks and a baby body parts scandal.

Here are some things that have happened outside abortion centers over the last 10 years that I have seen or heard about: Ambulances, pro-abortion mobs, women bleeding, sick and wounded from abortion, journalists, Christians, medical waste trucks, policemen, and abortionists complimenting you.

6. Build your network

Building relationships with other like-minded individuals means that we do not have to reinvent the wheel, but can learn from talented individuals around the world who have been in similar situations.  Connect, Attract, and Direct people towards your mission and cause.

7. Overcome Challenges

Navigate through opposition, setbacks, letdowns, and frustrations, while making constructive progress.

The challenges I have experienced organizing a 40 Days for Life campaign have been: persecution and apathy.

Persecution has included: threats, kamikaze cyclists, derogatory jokes, vilification in the national media, physical and verbal abuse, imitation, and eggs, water, and horse dung thrown at volunteers.

In the face of difficulty, the lives of many unborn children have been saved. We knew that the mission and purpose of a 40 Days for Life campaign is to save lives, inspire hearts and minds, and impact eternal souls. Through these experiences, I have learned spiritual and mental strength. I don’t know what challenges you will encounter in your ministry, but learning to overcome challenges will ultimately make you stronger and more effective in your work.

8. Improve Community Outreach

A/ Use resources from the Human Life Alliance. The organization exists to help pioneer educational initiatives and has some outstanding magazines and resources to use.

b/ Have a dynamic social media presence. Read the books Epic Content Marketing and Youtility to learn to be an expert.

c/ Host a pro-life video. Films such as Unplanned, Blood Money, Maafa21, 40, October Baby, Doonby, Crescendo, and Bella all have powerful pro-life stories. Movie to Movement specializes in the movies. It’s easy to host a film at your parish, university, school, or local cinema.

d/ Know your community. Understand the lay of the land in your local community. How many abortion centers are there? How many abortions are performed a year? How do you reach young people with a message about the culture of life? What works when speaking to people in your town, and what can convince them of the truth? How can you reach the hearts and minds of individuals most effectively?

e/ Promote resources from Chastity Project. Jason Evert works for chastity project. It is possible to print these outstanding resources very cheaply and promote the very high quality work in your community. Get a project going in your area, inspiring young people with a message about chastity.

f/Go door to door with pro-life resources. Go door to door in your local community with a pro-life message, and with magazines and resources. You never know who you might meet! Shawn Carney once met an abortionist’s spouse going door to door! This is a powerful and courageous way to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.

g/ Reach all the Churches in your community with a pro-life message for pastors. Priests for Life has many useful resources to help you reach out to Churches. Help to convince local Churches to do more to help build a growing awareness of the humanity of the unborn child in your local community.

h/ Promote existing pro-life apostolates in the community. Is there no 40 Days for Life campaign in your local community? Why not get one going? Is there a local post-abortion care group? How about a crisis pregnancy center? Have a look for ministries that are missing in your local area and see what you can do to get new groups up and running.

i/ Bring a pro-life message to your local school. Encourage your local school to have speakers from a pro-life group (in the UK, such as LIFE). They can bring a powerful and lasting pro-life message that will be remembered for decades by teachers and pupils alike. Help prevent abortions happening, by bringing a positive message of hope to young people. There may be teachers willing to take a pro-life message to all their pupils you can connect with.

j/ Contact medical professionals in your town. Investigate if there is a way to bring a pro-life message to doctors, nurses, and medical professionals in your area. Maybe some of them are already Christians who were previously unaware of successful pro-life ministries in your area.

9. Promotion Strategy

We should be bold in our desires to transform society. We need entrepreneurs to reach the particular tangible needs of the pro-life movement. When the grassroots of our movement is thriving, we will inform culture, one person at a time, save lives, and stem the tide. Culture informs politics and each life saved from abortion is potentially a lifetime of regrets avoided.

Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. The whole point of 40 Days for Life is to turn to God to bring the beginning of the end of abortion. Why would you not want an omnipotent, all-knowing personal God to help end abortion?

Lies and discrepancies

What I find astonishing about the abortion debate is how: euphemisms seem to make a common appearance rather than truth telling. From ‘choice’ to ‘product of conception’ to ‘my body, my choice.’ Women are denied informed consent, not being told about the medical, physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological consequences of abortion. The financial and ideological interests of abortion providers are rarely mentioned. Fear is used to prop up abortion myths. The real stories of abortion experiences are rarely mentioned in the public sphere: the woman coerced into an abortion by her boyfriend, the ambulance that arrives to collect the botched abortion, the woman who is physically sick after an abortion and can barely move, and the women who feel like they have no choice when they go for an abortion. How fragile are the lies, silence, euphemisms, and Orwellian doublespeak that props up the lies and lack of transparency that enable us to live in a country with abortion on demand? I think the walls are thinner than you think.

I cannot think of a person who deliberately goes to get pregnant, to have an abortion.

What would be on your dream list to see the end of abortion?

A renewal in family life is needed to eradicate the agony of abortion. Can you imagine a world where abortion is unthinkable?

10. Do it anyway

When you are discouraged or disheartened, do it anyway. When others let you down or fail to respond to challenges, do it anyway, if there are no tangible signs or marked difference, do it anyway. If the weather is appalling or winds and rains abound, do it anyway. Amidst any of the challenges, go out there and make a difference. You can plan and successfully implement, the most effective life-saving strategy based on your community’s needs.