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Author Archives: Randy Raus

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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 [...]

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W.I.J.D?

By | March 23, 2011

Most of you probably remember the WWJD bracelets that so many people were wearing 15 years ago. WWJD stands for “What Would Jesus Do?” It serves a reminder to apply how Christ lived to whatever situation we are facing. What if instead of asking what Jesus would do – we asked WIJD? “What is Jesus [...]

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How to Rock the Parish Bulletin

By | March 21, 2011

I visit a lot of parishes in the course of a year and I usually will pick up a parish bulletin to see what is happening. Since my passion squarely is with parish youth ministry, I always look at how the youth leader communicates with the community via the bulletin. First of all, let me [...]

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Lord, It’s Hard to be Humble In Ministry When…

By | March 18, 2011

I don’t like to speak of humility, just the mention of it implies I am not humble. Here is a gut check regarding humility that I have found a huge spiritual help. The Seventeen Evidences of a Lack of Humility By St. Josemaria Escrivá 1. To think that what one says or does is better [...]

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Who Is Changing The Words In Your Bible?

By | March 10, 2011

Yesterday, the USCCB released a new edition of the Bible with revised texts. This is not something that happens that often. But on a personal level, I don’t know about you, but the more I read Scripture the more the words seem to change in my Bible. I know that in reality the words aren’t [...]

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They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Skinny Jeans?

By | February 28, 2011

I may take some heat for this with some of my close ministry friends, but here goes. I have attended several Catholic and non denominational youth leader gatherings over the past couple of years and I am always amazed at “the uniform” that many youth leaders and musicians utilize. Skinny jeans, plaid shirts and hip [...]