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Author Archives: Joan Root

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No Purple!: Sharing the Joy of Advent with Teens

By | December 21, 2011
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So how are we sharing that joy with our teens in the midst of the Advent season? Are we able to make the waiting and the longing relevant to their lives? Teen’s very lives are an Advent of sorts, a time they spend reflecting on and preparing for what they hope will be the joy of their lives to come – higher education, jobs, marriage, travel, and adventure.

Teens are waiting, waiting to discover what God has planned for them and just as small children can become impatient, overtired and cranky as they wait for Christmas to arrive, teens can suffer the same fate as they wait to arrive at their “real lives.” The purple of this season of their lives can overshadow the joy in Christ that is theirs right now as well as in the future.

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Chicken Soup for the Disgruntled Soul: The Importance of Customer Service

By | December 19, 2011
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So how do you handle things when you forget to return a parent’s phone call, miss a teen’s birthday or fail to send out the correct forms required for the retreat? What’s your response when you were too busy to assign responsibilities for Life Nights until 3 hours before Mass? Do you think of these snafus in terms of customer service? Do you go out of your way to make things right?

I think teens, parents and core members get that you care – I mean if you didn’t, why on earth would you be doing this job? But there’s also a level of expectation of quality and professionalism that exists in your ministry.

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Success: To the Core.

By | November 14, 2011

Across the board as I talk with many of you and listen to your joys and struggles, I hear consistently of a deep desire to have a vibrant, effective youth ministry in your parishes. Often in that same conversation I hear the difficulties of working with “volunteers” and the challenges that that brings. More often than not at the heart of the problem is not having spent the time properly “recruiting” Core Members and adequately preparing them for the ministry they are about to undertake.

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Robots, Monkeys and the Love of Christ!

By | April 5, 2010

Earlier this month, I was blessed to have traveled to the beautiful South African cities of Durban and Cape Town to pray with and train parishes interested in implementing Life Teen, as well those that have been a part of the Life Teen family for several years. What an amazing experience!

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Your Life Teen Music Ministry: Teens or No Teens?

By | January 12, 2009

Life Teen band leaders! How many of you have been approached after Mass by a teen with a guitar or a set of drums, harmonica, didgeridoo or flugelhorn, begging you to let them join the band? And what was your response to this request? Did you welcome them with open ears, sound unheard? After all, if they want to use their gifts to serve God they should be encouraged, right? Or did you thank them, and then explain that the Life Teen music ministry is there to serve them – they don’t need to

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Tapping into Teamwork: Finding help in your Diocese

By | October 22, 2007

When God called me out of my secure and comfortable world of disorders, shots fired calls, and drug busts, and into the really dangerous, frightening, and uncertain landscape of Diocesan youth ministry, (well OK, maybe just a little dangerous), at first I felt a bit… well, lonely. Don’t get me wrong, I never once doubted that God was calling me to serve the young church in this new way. Still, back at the police department at least I had a squad. As a Sergeant, I worked together with my officers