Featured Blogs
Can You Really Watch Your Language?
Is it just me, or is profanity becoming more and more acceptable in modern culture? I’ve had a few recent conversations with middle and high school youth about why profanity is not even seen as something bad! They told me that cursing isn’t a big deal because it pales in comparison to more destructive habits, such as drug addiction or alcoholism. The continued use of profanity can, in reality, lead to other types of destructive behavior.
Transforming Youth Culture, Part IV of IV
Here are 7 points to focus on if you wish to transform Youth Culture and build the Kingdom of God. Be Holy. When asked what the greatest problem in the Church is, Pope John Paul II responded, “We don’t have enough saints.” Teenagers are starving for truth, but they live in a false reality and they do not know what truth looks like. They need people to witness to holiness. If you become holy, the youth will naturally follow you because you will stand above the lies of their world. Someone once asked, “Why is it that spending ten minutes with Mother Teresa can change someone’s life more than spending ten years with me?” We need to be holy if we want to transform youth culture. Youth ministers need personal prayer time, sacramental grace, spiritual direction and community more than teenagers need it. We need to make sure that we are pursuing holiness if we wish to make teenagers pursue holiness.
Four Tips for Remembering Teens’ Names
God calls us by name. Our names, whatever the reason our parents chose, are important. Knowing our teens and calling them by name is an important part of youth ministry.
Give It Away Now: Thirst for Change
In September 2008, Life Teen hosted the first global Life Night. As one family we donated more than 450,000 pounds of clothing to charity. In September 2009, we moved from clothing to food and were able to donate more than 200,000 food items to local food pantries and soup kitchens. This year we are at it again. This time we are joining together to “give drink to the thirsty” (another corporal work of mercy). We are asking all our Life Teen parishes to do the same Life Night and Edge Night on the same night – September 26, 2010. This time we are collecting change (and bills) to help bring clean drinking water to villages in Africa.
Principles of Youth Culture, Part III of IV
If you have been following along with my previous blogs, I have discussed why it is important to study youth culture and what we can learn from the history and development of youth culture. In studying the current youth culture that we live in, here are 10 principles that can be observed: Youth are driven [...]
Edge Support: July 2010
Go to the Edge Resource Timeline for a full of list of Life Teen Resources
- Semester Planning Guide with 12 Edge Nights
- You Never Let Go Retreat
- Edge Video Support #2
- Robbie Seay Band CD
Comprehensive
Youth Ministry
Renewing the Vision: A Framework for Catholic Youth Ministry sets forth three goals and eight components for comprehensive youth ministry. Life Teen, as a parish-based youth ministry model, fulfills all eight components through a sacramental sprituality, resources, training, and direct parish support. Our mission is very simple: to lead teens closer to Christ.
Systematic
Catechesis
Life Teen has created a systematic and engaging curriculum that follows the USCCB's framework for high school catechesis.
Step 1 – Pray. Step 2 – Repeat.
The ministry that I coordinate, The REAP Team, has just begun its 22nd year of presenting retreats. Our longevity can be attributed to the fact that we haven’t given up on teenagers, and any success we might have in reaching teens for Christ can be attributed only to God’s grace. I am absolutely convinced, though, that one big reason that God’s grace flows so freely through our efforts to His kids is that we are rooted in prayer.