We don’t need another influencer. We need YOU!

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I refreshed my notifications. Again.

Nothing new. Again.

I had spent a few hours writing, filming and editing an Instagram reel that I thought could help Catholics better understand the Eucharist. And it was all for nothing.

Well, that’s not true. People watched it. Just not as many people as I had hoped for.

I put my phone down and took a deep breath. I was frustrated with the video’s performance, but I was even more frustrated with my heart’s focus on performance over purpose.

I lost sight of what’s most important. Again.

We live in a time in which the Church’s members are as empowered as ever in their mission to evangelize the world. Whether we’re a priest, a religious or a lay member, each of us is called to go and make disciples of all nations, and we can do that in more ways than we’ve ever been able to. With just the click of a button, we can instantaneously reach larger audiences than Jesus ever had access to.

That’s wild.

For all the talk about our world being in a post-Christendom age, we live in a time in which Catholic podcasts top Apple’s charts, Catholic conferences grow bigger and bigger each year, more and more celebrities convert and share their faiths publicly, and Catholic merch is actually hip.

That’s incredible! It’s a great time to be Catholic.

And it’s a great time to be reminded of what it means to live out the mission of the Church.

With how hyper-connected and content-crazed our time is and with “Catholic famous” solidifying itself in the Church’s patois, it’s a great time to be reminded that we don’t need a sizable platform to make a sizable impact in evangelizing (and I’m writing to myself here as well).

With all the great gifts our modern times have brought us, we can be seduced into thinking that the size of our reach determines the size of our impact on mission. We can buy into the lie that becoming a “Catholic influencer” is how we influence others into becoming Catholic.

It’s a dangerous road to go down when we think that quantity of followers equals impact.

It’s an even more dangerous road to go down when we think that fame equals fruit.

If we only focus on macro-sized mission efforts and forget about the micro, we risk celebrating the celebrity rather than prospering the Gospel. The macro is intended for worship and for helping put the micro into action.

So please, don’t get me wrong. The Lord can certainly move through large platforms (and I think he is moving through a lot of different platforms today), and there’s certainly a need in the Church for corporate worship (I’m a big fan of gathering together), but the quality of our relationships (especially our relationship with God) determines our impact. This has always been true, and it will always be true, because this is the method of evangelization that Jesus gave us.

Jesus could have come down from Heaven in thunder and lightning to win over the masses. He could have taken Satan up on Satan’s offer to give him all the nations. Instead, he chose the little way of befriending twelve ordinary men and equipping them to go out into the world and do likewise.

Almost a century and a half ago, St. Thérèse of Lisieux followed in Jesus’ footsteps with her “Little Way” of doing small activities with great love. Never a public face outside of her convent, St. Thérèse went on to become one of the Church’s most influential members in its 2,000-year history. Today, she’s an influencer’s influencer simply because she washed dishes for her sisters with a pure heart.

Jesus taught us, and the saints proved to us: Our real influence is with the real people in front of us.

Dr. Michael Green, an Anglican priest, wrote a book called Evangelism in the Early Church, in which he explains that at least 80% of the early Church was evangelized because of everyday believers. In other words, at least 80% of the Gospel’s advancement was due to regular men and women simply living their lives in an authentically Christ-like way, forming deep friendships and boldly proclaiming their beliefs within those friendships.

I love this!

It’s so easy to think that the apostles took care of everything in the early Church. I’ve been guilty of thinking that wherever the apostles went, the faith went, and wherever they didn’t go, the faith didn’t go.

We all need to be reminded of this today: The apostles were vital, absolutely, but it was the everyday person who carried the crux of the load for the Church.

It was the father who exemplified the faith for his children and taught them its truths.

It was the woman who befriended her neighbor, earned their trust and then introduced spiritual conversations into their relationship.

It was the priest who carved out time each day to pray for his people.

It was the young person who dared to look different from the culture’s expectations.

It was the family who practiced hospitality and invited others to share a meal.

It was people like you and me.

Today, it’s easy to think that if we don’t have the following of Father Mike Schmitz or Bishop Robert Barron, then we can’t have a real effect on the Church’s mission. Father Mike and Bishop Barron are vital to the Church today, just as the apostles were 2,000 years ago, but each of us has a part — a crucial part — to play in building up the Kingdom of God. We play this part most effectively and most influentially through simple, strong relationships with those around us.

The truth is this: We don’t need another influencer. We don’t need another keynote speaker. We need you. We need you as you are, where you are and how you are.

So may we strive to remain focused on those in front of us, knowing that the smallest impact on a single soul has infinite value.