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Author Archives: Randy Raus

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Why I Just Stopped Coming to Your Youth Group

By | January 6, 2011

I’m an average teen. I am in 11th grade and I work a part time job at a local grocery store. I am Catholic and was confirmed last spring. I don’t come from a messed up family, just a family that is spun in many different directions each day.I have a few close friends who I have been friends with since I was in elementary school. Most of my other friends are people I know from the internet and are part of on online gaming group I hang out with online after school. I am a loyal person and once I become your friend, I am always your friend. I just stopped coming to your youth group.

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How to Overcome the All or Nothing Mindset

By | January 3, 2011

I tend to be an all or nothing person when it comes to my expectation of doing things. I know that this is a weakness for me. God has lately kept reminding me of how merciful He is to me and how much of a work in progress I am. So last year I decided to apply a new rule for getting things done within the ministry of Life Teen.

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Move That Bus! 3 Elements of a Catholic Youth Ministry Makeover

By | December 28, 2010

What if you could take a week long break with your family and go to Disneyworld while a team of youth ministry “guru’s” came in and did an extreme makeover of youth ministry at your parish? When you returned and yelled – “Move that bus!”, and the bus rolled away – what would be different?

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I Hope You Get To Experience That Kind of Love

By | December 19, 2010

The only detail left to close the deal was if the car dealer could have the car ready for his son to pick it up in time for his senior prom. You see this dad wanted his son to know he loved and trusted him. This dad loved buying new cars and this one was special, a brand new Lincoln Continental…..

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Somebody Steals Baby Jesus Every Year

By | December 13, 2010

My wife’s aunt and uncle used to put up a large “over the top” light display for Christmas at their house. People would stop their cars and get out to look at and take pictures of the hundred’s of thousands of lights….

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Unfair

By | December 5, 2010

Many of the things surrounding Catholic Youth Ministry today could be considered unfair. Check out this list and see if you agree…

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No Plan B

By | November 21, 2010

Have you ever asked yourself the question – what was God thinking asking ME to serve in youth ministry? I have asked several people who I consider to be way down the road to holiness and who have been entrusted with being in charge of ministry if they have ever felt worthy for all that God is trusting them with? The unanimous answer has been that you never feel worthy of the trust God has placed in you.

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The Wi-Fi Teens!

By | November 14, 2010

I keep hearing experts refer to the next generation of teens being the “Wifi Generation”. Meaning that they are connected wirelessly to each other. They don’t remember a time without cell phones, WiFi internet connection and social media websites. Constant updates where friends are accepted and dropped by hitting enter are becoming commonplace for teens. Things have changed. What once were the norms in terms of issues when working with high school teens, is now the norms of working with middle school kids. The high school teens of this generation are demanding the following 4 things from Catholic youth ministry:

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C’Mon Man! – How Catholic Men Can Keep it Real!

By | November 2, 2010

There is a sports pre-game show that has a feature called “C’mon Man”. I love this feature as it shows various athletes, coaches, officials and team owners caught doing something either lame or foolish. The premise of the show is that the featured C’mon Man personality hasn’t kept it real and created a “what are you thinking?” moment. So I thought as Catholic men we could translate this into how we live our faith authentically.

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Life Teen – Leading Teens To Priestly Vocations!

By | October 29, 2010

This summer, we surveyed over 600 seminarians and found that relationships with parish priests and youth ministers were among the most influential in seminarians’ vocational discernment. 30% of surveyed seminarians stated that Life Teen played a role in helping them discern their vocation. In addition 49% had attended at least one parish or national Life Teen event during high school. What makes this statistic worth considering, is the fact that Life Teen is currently being implemented in only 1400 of the 18,000 U.S. Catholic parishes.