We Need Laypeople

17 June 2026  2 Kings 2:1,6-14

“Fifty men of the sons of the prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan.” (2 Kings 2:7)

Lay evangelistic associations, formed at times of political and spiritual upheaval, reach all the way back to the time of Elijah.

In the ninth century B.C. there were prophetic guilds, often called the Sons of the Prophets, gathered around spiritual masters like Elijah and Elisha. When prophetic leaders died (or, as in Elijah’s case, were assumed bodily into heaven) new leaders were chosen by the prophetic guild, choices often accompanied by powerful signs, like Elisha’s demonstrations of power with the mantle of Elijah (cf. 2 Kings 2:13-14).

The days of Elijah were frought with political and spiritual catastrophe. Following the death of King Solomon, the land of Israel was divided into the rival kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and monarchs whose spiritual hygiene was unreliable at best.

Laypeople recognizing spiritual hunger and organizing to satisfy it has a robust history, so much so that it is pretty safe to attribute to such movements most of Christianity’s growth over time.

It led to occupations by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, and the Romans, creating the kind of spiritual blindness that rendered many Jews incapable of recognizing their Messiah when he appeared.

The emergence of the Church in the first century A.D. bears a striking family resemblance to the Sons of the Prophets of the 9th century B.C., as does the emergence of Christian monasticism with St. Anthony of the Desert in the 3rd and 4th centuries, the rescue of European civilization under the Benedictines in the 6th century, and the beginnings of the Renaissance with the Franciscans and Dominicans in the 13th century. The pattern continued with the missions of the Jesuits in the 16th century, the Redemptorists in the 18th century, and a host of missionary societies in the 19th century like the Marists, the Sisters of Mercy, and the Little Sisters of the Poor.

In the 21st century we have already seen Word on Fire, Ascension Press, Hallow, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (officially recognized by the Vatican with the formation of CHARIS), and the “quiet revival” of adult converts, especially in the U.S. This year alone saw a 38% increase nationwide in Catholic converts at Easter (in some places, like Los Angeles, CA, Pueblo, CO and Norwich, CT growth exceeded 100%) and a doubling of Bible sales since 2019. All this is to say nothing of small, local associations in parishes and schools that recognize the spiritual hunger they see and try in their own ways to get out in front of it.

Laypeople recognizing spiritual hunger and organizing to satisfy it has a robust history, so much so that it is pretty safe to attribute to such movements most of Christianity’s growth over time.

When Elijah was taken up into heaven in chariots of fire, he left his coat behind (2 Kings 2:14), and Elisha picked it up. It doesn’t take too much of a stretch to see the mantle of Elijah at work still. Perhaps it is time for your parish, your school, you, to reach out and touch it like Elisha did.