How can I become a chastity speaker?

Want to become a chastity speaker? Here are seven steps to get started:

1.    Pray. 

If you are willing to speak to a million people, are you willing to pray and fast for as many? You don’t need a stadium to reach the masses. You just need to offer your Masses. Your zeal for souls is a great thing. Therefore, entrust your desires to God, and ask that the doors would open in His time.

2.    Read Soul of the Apostolate.

This classic, by Jean-Baptiste Chautard, will help you understand the importance of step one.

3.    Continue your education.

If you’re not yet in college, choose a solid Catholic college, if possible. In the meantime, read great books, such as Love and Responsibility by Pope John Paul II, or a simplified version of it, such as Men, Women, and the Mystery of Love, by Dr. Ted Sri. To teach chastity, you don’t need a degree in Theology, although it helps. To further your education without having to get a four-year degree, look into the immersion courses offered at the Theology of the Body Institute. These are brief, intense courses offered to deepen your grasp of the Church’s teaching on human sexuality through the lens of the Theology of the Body.

4.    Bloom where you’re planted.

Instead of strategizing ways to speak internationally, find ways to promote purity in your own community. Here are several ways to begin:

• Contact local Crisis Pregnancy Centers to see if they run an abstinence program, and ask if they need any help. Many of them do work in schools and churches in your community to promote abstinence.

• Volunteer for a local youth group. Through retreats and teaching nights, you should have plenty of opportunities to witness to others about chastity. Life Teen is a great place to begin.

• If you know a religion teacher at a local Catholic high school, ask if you and some friends can speak about chastity in a classroom to the students.

• Start a chastity club on your high school or college campus.

• Launch a chastity project.

• Your diocese may have a chastity program, and may be looking for volunteers. By calling the diocesan offices in your area, you may find an opportunity. In particular, ask for the diocesan directors of youth ministry, pro-life, and marriage and family.

• Contact the National Abstinence Clearinghouse. They may be able to point you to abstinence movements that are looking for volunteers in your area. Also, contact them at info@abstinence.net and get on thier email list, so you’ll stay up to date on the latest news and developments in abstinence education, STDs, legistlation, etc.

5. Serve.

Once you’ve spent some time ministering in your own area, consider serving on a missionary team. Here are four great apostolates to consider:

• The Culture Project

• NET Ministries

• FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students)

• Generation Life

• Missionaries of Purity

6. Plan wisely.

If you’re looking for full-time employment as a chastity speaker, realize that speakers typically never start as speakers. Most of them first held jobs as youth ministers, diocesan directors of youth ministry, high school teachers, and such. It takes at least five years of public speaking before people will know of you, and during this ramp-up time, you would not be able to support yourself unless you had another profession to financially sustain you. This other profession doesn’t need to be a religious one. You could pursue any career, while teaching chastity on the side, thorough any of the volunteer opportunities mentioned above.

7. Prepare your talk. 

Click here for tips on how to give a chastity talk.