CHARLOTTE —With more than 10,000 families participating in a hundred-plus ministries at St. Matthew Church, it's challenging for parishioners to keep up with everything happening at one of the nation's largest Catholic churches.
Jim Alvarez, St. Matthew's audiovisual coordinator, is sharing his talents and the news about the south Charlotte parish through online broadcasts called "MATTtv."
"Honestly, the goal is to electronically evangelize," Alvarez said. "To show how much of God's work is here and what goes on around us. I think some people tend to feel like they get lost here in the community, but 'MATTtv' connects them a bit."
Alvarez, who spent three decades in television, writes, shoots and produces the bi-weekly internet news broadcast.
"It's something I've always wanted to do," he said. "It's been a personal journey, about how I can use my talents at the church to serve others.
"I came up with this crazy, wild thought of shooting some of the happenings here and sharing it with the community, our community."
Alvarez started working part-time at the parish about four years ago, and now he produces gospel reflections and video series for the parish, including the Puzzle of Life Lenten reflections.
He said he put together the first show "under the radar." He handed the pilot to Monsignor John McSweeney, pastor, and asked him to review it. Monsignor McSweeney gave Alvarez the green light and he's up to nine episodes now.
"Monsignor has been awesome, even participating in the broadcasts. Having his support has been helpful," Alvarez said.
Monsignor McSweeney said he is delighted with the success of the broadcasts.
"Following the leadership of Pope Francis, we are trying to utilize every means of social media to communicate the good news of Jesus Christ, and I am pleased that our teens and young adults are so involved in the production of our 'MATTtv' series," he said via email.
The idea of the brief news broadcasts is to share information about the ministries at the parish as well as personal stories of people's spiritual journeys, Alvarez said. "What I found were people were aware of what was going on, that there were these ministries, but not what they did or who they served."
Alvarez wanted to produce the show every week, but said he had to be realistic. A new show is posted online every two weeks and promoted through social media. Eventually, he said he hopes it can play on the electronic billboard televisions across the church campus.
"It boils down to reaching people where they are – on their tablets, on their phones," Alvarez said. "I feel like it's really where God wants me and needs me to be now. I'm happy and it's fun."
The broadcasts are hosted by parishioner Valerie Mazel and a small group of teens who contribute the youth angle.
Producing the broadcasts doesn't cost anything additional, as Alvarez is on staff and the equipment was purchased when the church started its Lenten reflection videos.
Each episode of "MATTtv" has garnered a couple hundred views on You Tube, with the most-viewed episode, an interview with Monsignor McSweeney at his 40th anniversary of the priesthood, reaching more than 500 views.
"The people who have seen it have been realty positive," Alvarez said. "Their response has been that they love it and they didn't know that the ministry we highlighted was all about.
"It's still a work in progress for us. It's still new enough that we can tweak it as we go."
At www.youtube.com/stmatthewcatholic: Tune into St. Matthew Church's biweekly broadcasts of 'MATTtv'
LINCOLNTON — A member of St. Dorothy Church in Lincolnton has turned to using his woodworking gifts to make wooden crucifixes and encourage other families to strengthen their relationship with God, after he and his own family went through a crisis several years ago.
Patrick Campbell was once a successful woodworker and self-described workaholic, keeping late hours on the job while his wife Joy homeschooled their nine children. Then Campbell lost his job, and the family sank into financial trouble. Their financial woes were compounded by chronic sicknesses, both physical and psychological, and by what the family described as "family wounds and heart brokenness."
On his wife's birthday, the desperate Campbell took his children into the garage of their Clover, S.C., home and they all worked together to carve a simple wooden cross for her. When they presented the cross to Joy Campbell, he recalls, he felt at peace – knowing that God was with him and his family even through their difficulties.
He kept on making crosses. In fact, he made 60 more crosses and crucifixes, each one different from another, feeling in his heart that they were somehow meant for other families in similar straits as his own.
That fall, in November 2013, Campbell decided to use the rest of the family's savings to go with his wife to a Catholic Charismatic renewal conference hosted by Damian Stayne, founder of a small Catholic lay community called Cor et Lumen Christi.
At one point during the conference's Saturday night healing service, Campbell recalled, he could feel God's presence. He started praying to God to help him with his financial problems, crying out in his heart, "I am ready!" Then Stayne spoke up, asking for the person who was associated with "Batman and George" to stand up.
Campbell realized that Stayne was talking about him: his favorite character as a kid was Batman and he grew up drawing a character named George. He stood up and, with much hesitation, went up to Stayne. "Why would God care about a man without a job?" he thought.
Stayne prayed over him, telling Campbell that he would not have to worry any longer.
The next day, Stayne introduced Campbell and his wife and invited them to talk to the conference participants about their family and their crosses. Campbell told everyone that he liked Batman because he was the only superhero who had no superpowers – he just had a special tool belt. Likewise, the cross is a powerful weapon in our spiritual tool belts as Catholic, he said, holding up one of his wooden crosses. Stayne grabbed the cross and said everyone there needed to buy one.
Campbell sold all 60 of his crosses that day, and he and his wife received invitations to attend other events.
From that day, he decided to devote his life to making crosses. He feels like his family's mission is to bring hope of healing to other families, he said, through the unique crosses he carves and his family helps to design.
His wooden crosses and crucifixes each feature a St. Benedict Medal – one of the oldest Catholic medals, and with its message "Vade retro satana" ("Step back, Satan") it is a popular sacramental used to ward off spiritual and physical dangers, especially those related to evil, temptation and poison.
Campbell explains that each cross is made from solid wood. He uses two types of wood fashioned together to represent a man and a woman united in marriage, or three types of wood to symbolize the Trinity. He crafts a number of designs based on feedback from his wife and children and others: some featuring a corpus, some in the shape of a Celtic cross, some with blessed salt inserted in them. But they all feature a St. Benedict Medal at their center.
Campbell and his wife are now Oblates of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Peace, a "private association of the faithful" in Davidson, and their family has a great devotion to St. Benedict.
Their "Cross of St. Benedict" family ministry aims to promote devotion to the St. Benedict Medal and to the Rule of St. Benedict as a guide for family life, to promote daily prayer as the work of God ("Opus Dei") to heal broken and dispirited families, and to encourage Catholic families to display sacred art in their homes.
"Having a visible sign of this cross in our homes not only protects us from evil, it is also a reminder of our salvation and an invitation to take up our daily crosses and follow the Lord," the Campbells write on their website.
Proceeds from sales of their artwork benefit the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Peace, and their parish.
The family has also shared their testimony of healing through talks and prayer – emphasizing every family's need to grow spiritually together as well as individually, to fend off divisiveness and promote unity, and above all, to encourage every family to pray and seek the sacraments.
They write on their website, "Our testimony is about the healing of our family from what seemed like an impossible task of healing 'family wounds and heart brokenness' and chronic physical and psychological disorders." Through their experiences of the mercy and love of Jesus, they write, "We have peace in our family life. And, we have begun to share to other families how to attain this peace too."
— Amber Mellon, correspondent
Learn more
See more photos of Patrick Campbell's wooden crosses online at www.crossofstbenedict.com or call them for more information at 1-888-510-4492.