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Author Archives: Lisa Garcia

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Honoring Your Graduating Seniors

By | May 1, 2009

Graduation season is upon us. You can’t deny it any longer – just look at the stack of graduation party invitations that is sitting on your desk. As a youth minister I have always had a love/hate relationship with this time of year. I love it because it is a time to look back over four years of relationships, ministry and growth. We get to celebrate what God has done in the lives of our teens. I love the opportunity to honor the teens in front of the entire community and have them pray for

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Recap of the “YM Mission Trip” to Nicaragua

By | February 5, 2009

In January, Life Teen (along with Mustard Seed Communities and CRS) hosted the second Youth Minister’s Mission Trip. The purpose of this trip is to give youth ministers a hands-on experience of a mission trip as well as training on how to lead a teen mission trip. This trip was born from a desire to empower more youth ministers to give their teens an experience of loving and serving Christ in the poor. The mission team that God assembled was as varied as the locations they came from. 9

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Out of the Box: Making the Most of Life Support (October 2008)

By | October 6, 2008

New freshman, new Core members, new school year – with all this “newness” going on, it is good to have some constants. Your trusty Life Support box has arrived! I encourage you to take some time and look through the resources (and yes, play with the toy). As always, the written content of the Life Support box is also available in the “member resources” section of ym.lifeteen.com. I pray that the contents of this box blesses your ministry and allows this school year to be filled with

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Taking Teens on Mission Trip

By | August 19, 2008

“We’re on a mission from God” – Blues Brothers Someone asked me recently what were some of my favorite moments as a youth minister. In a instant thousands of images flooded my mind, everything from crazy Life Night skits gone horribly wrong, to late night talks with teens drinking entirely too much caffeine, to retreat pranks involving gorilla costumes. My work in youth ministry has been so richly blessed. But there are images and moments that rise above them all. Some of my favorite

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Photo from My Beloved Retreat

By | May 2, 2008

Our first Life Teen Women’s Retreat was a HUGE SUCCESS!

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Summer Programming Made Easy

By | April 16, 2008

As graduation season quickly approaches, we turn our attention to summer. The three months (give or take) of summer break present us with unique opportunities and challenges in youth ministry. Some programs shut down completely while others keep a full schedule all the way through the summer. As you begin to decide what your ministry will look like this summer – I humbly offer a couple of suggestions to keep in mind: Summer is not time for youth ministry hibernation! Teens have more time to

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Which one of the Seven Dwarfs are You?

By | March 4, 2008

Grumpy? I was sitting in front of my computer trying to get through the millionth email while ignoring the ever-growing pile of “stuff that should have been done yesterday” when the phone rang. Annoyed, I picked up the receiver and put on my best happy voice to say “hello!” On the line was one of my former teens; a girl with extraordinary joy and faith, you know, one of those who makes you look good as a youth minister. She immediately asked me, “what’s wrong?” To which I replied,

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Why You Need a Core Team Retreat

By | February 21, 2008

With everything else that demands our attention as youth ministers, with all the time that the Core already gives to the ministry, with our priests overbooked and overcommitted – why do a Core retreat? It is a valid question, but the answer is even more vital. The reason to include a Core retreat as part of your ministry is that it is not YOUR ministry. A retreat helps re-energize, refocus and remind us why we do youth ministry (as well as whom we do it for). If a Core retreat isn’t part

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New Life Support Resources, New Sections Coming Up

By | January 31, 2008

Last week our staff took a day off from our ordinary chores around the office to pack all of the Life Support boxes. The cardboard box that shows up in the mail at your parish also shows up on a 1000+ parishes the same week. So you can imagine that filling all those boxes is a big ordeal here in Mesa. Packing the that many boxes is repetitive, but it’s an exciting ritual for staff because it’s the culmination of a lot of hard work. So much time and prayer went into developing each of those resources! As

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How to Keep Christmas Alive After December 25th

By | December 25, 2007

The Advent candles are just a puddle of wax in the wreath. The teens are finally done cramming for their finals. And the shopping malls are (almost) done with the frenzy of Christmas shoppers. But for all the preparation we do for Christmas, December 25th seems to come and go all too quickly. That is why the Church in her wisdom gives us an entire season for Christmas instead of just one day. So while all the stores are taking down the Santas and putting up the Bunnies – we are just getting