Let’s face it, there can be no less thankful role in parish ministry than the youth leader or coordinator. With comments from parents asking you to do more and preach less to parish staff members wondering what you do all day, it can be a thankless role. I really don’t know of many youth leaders who are doing this for the thanks, but with so many people at times questioning your every move it still can make a negative impact with your confidence. Here are 3 things if you do them for a week,
On a recent visit to a local coffee shop to meet with a youth ministry friend, I was amazed to count that there were 52 people in the shop at 2 pm. Of the 52 people only my friend and I were having a face to face conversation. All 50 other people were sipping coffee and looking at their digital screen of choice. A good number were not just looking at one screen but 2 screens at the same time. People wanted to be together, but not necessarily interact with each other. Screens have started to completely
Making environments for retreats and life nights are some of my favorite parts of youth ministry. They really take a good life night to the next level and add some “wow!” factor when teens walk in the room.
In the past, it wasn’t uncommon for me to spend a lot of money to make a killer environment. However, times are changing and my Church is looking at greatly shrinking our budgets. How can youth ministry keep providing great environments for teens at a fraction of a cost? My solution is to build a few life night set-ups that I can reuse with elements I can swap in and out.
If there is one leadership skill that makes leaders stand out, it’s their ability to “work a room” or simply to step outside themselves and acknowledge most if not all people wherever they are. Recently while visiting a parish I asked a teen how he got involved in Life Teen? He simply looked at me and said, “Tony, one of the Core team members came up to me at our school during a basketball game and just started talking to me. At the end of our short talk he invited me to come to Life Teen.
Who are the men and woman who stay at home and eat dinner without his or her spouse every Sunday during Life Night? Who bathes the children and puts them to bed before the Life Night ends? Who prays as much, if not more, for the teens who are in the youth group? Who stands in the background at parish events while his or her spouse is recognized by everyone (and let’s be honest, prefers it this way)? Who listens to endless youth ministry drama when his or her spouse gets home? Who
Teens – and adults – are being swallowed up and spit out by a secular humanist, morally relativist culture. People have forgotten a fundamental truth about sin: namely, that God did not give Adam and Eve the right to decide what was good and evil (subjective); in His mercy, He gave them the right to choose between good and evil (objective).
In fact, that’s why I became a youth minister. I knew it would be tough, but I was up for the challenge. (And, well, I wanted a gangsta job where I could use a handheld microphone regularly.)
In reality, nine years of youth ministry taught me a lot about myself, but perhaps the biggest thing it showed me is that I’m not as brave as I thought.
If I’m honest, there were a lot of times when…
This is great motivation for outreach. We can never be satisfied with how many teens we have at our Life Nights or at our retreats, we always need to be reaching out to and sharing the Gospel with more. We always need to go after that one.
But what happens if that one decides they aren’t interested? Or what happens if that one is a teen that was really involved, but suddenly disappears and you start hearing about all of their unholy exploits? What happens when that really involved senior goes to college and becomes an atheist?
This is the holiest time of the year. Yet, the headline of Christ’s death and resurrection has been usurped by the two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court related to the definition of marriage. The conversation about homosexuality and same-sex marriage has reached a sort of frenzy as people have waited in line to get a seat at the Supreme Court, as reporters have tried to guess what the justices are thinking, and as everyone’s comments and opinions have taken over social media.
Despite how common this issue is right now, it can be a difficult one to address with our teens because it is such a polarized topic. We do our youth an injustice if we never talk about it, though. They need to know what the Catholic Church teaches about homosexuality and marriage, and why the two don’t go together.
As I was walking up, I remembered that Christ said in the Gospel of John, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” I started to think about the hardworking Core Members who are the engine of our Life Teen programs all across the globe. My heart was softening, but the idea of physically washing feet still was making me miserable.