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Author Archives: Randy Raus

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5 Ways to Get the Most Out of the 2011 Life Teen Leadership Conference

By | June 25, 2011

This Monday over 450 teens will attend our annual Life Teen Leadership Conference. This year our conference is at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. If you are heading to Kansas for the conference – here are 5 ways you can make sure you have one of the best weeks of your life.   1.) Meet [...]

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7 Things Parents Won’t Tell You

By | May 27, 2011

Unlike most parents of teens who go to work each day in some secular job, I spend my days talking with priests, DRE’s, diocesan directors, youth leaders, teens and our amazing staff at Life Teen sharing the privilege of serving in full time youth ministry. Like the saying goes – “do what you love to [...]

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What (Teens) Want

By | May 25, 2011

One of my favorite blog writer’s is Seth Godin. Seth inspires me to always think out of the box. He recently wrote a blog entitled “What (People) Want”. I couldn’t help but notice how it applied not only to adults but to the teens we serve. So here is my reframing and tweaks to Seth’s [...]

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The Case for Unassuming Youth Ministry

By | May 19, 2011

The most effective parish youth ministries maintain what I call an “unassuming youth ministry” stance. This means that they know they need to re-earn attention, re-earn loyalty, and reconnect with teens and parents as if every day is the first day they started the ministry at the parish. Signs that We Have an Assuming Youth [...]

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Who’s Barbra Streisand?

By | May 16, 2011

Think you are current on teen culture? Here is a reality check I just had. A song currently becoming popular by the dance mix group Duck Sauce is entitled “Barbra Streisand”. You remember Barbra – singer, movie star etc? It is a catchy song with several dramatic pauses that utilize the songs only lyric – [...]

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Vibrant Youth Ministry Equals A Vibrant Parish

By | May 10, 2011

I’ve heard of recent surveys of “non practicing” Catholics tell an alarming statistic regarding the future involvement in the Catholic faith for current teens who are not involved in their parish during high school. Surveys are saying that only 3 to 10 percent of high school aged Catholic teens who are not active in some [...]

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Keys To Being a Great Core Member

By | May 9, 2011

I was training a group of young core members when I commented about what a great looking group of young adults they were. I think I said they looked like they could be in a Gap Ad. All of a sudden one of the girl Core Members asked me “What’s the perfect core member looked [...]

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No Static At All?

By | April 19, 2011

In the days before satellite radio and streaming music over your smart phone, there was good old AM radio. One of the features of AM radio was that the further you were away from the signal, the more static or fuzzy sounds you would hear. In the days before cable or satellite TV there was [...]

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Advice to Any New Youth Leader

By | April 15, 2011

After starting out by hitting my head against several brick walls in the first few months on the job as a part time parish youth leader, I wish someone had sat me down and given me advice to get off to the right start at the parish. So now 23 years in youth ministry, I [...]

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Talking With > Talking About

By | March 28, 2011

I believe that who we talk about is a big indication of where our hearts are. If we spend a lot of time talking about God that normally means are hearts are alive for Him. If we talk about our families, it is a sign that family matters to us, even if it is messy [...]