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Category Archives: Leadership

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Stuff Youth Ministers Like #6: The Dramatic Pause

By | May 21, 2012
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As a Youth Minister one of the biggest parts of your job description is to teach teens the faith. Now, if the previous statement came as a shock to you . . . umm . . . well . . . you may want to chat with your Pastor. If not, then you know the [...]

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Multi-Generational Core: Communication

By | April 25, 2012
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Communication (or the lack of it) can often leave us frustrated like Abbot and Costello. We need to accept that the days of face-to-face communication are limited (unless you are using iChat or Skype). People are busier than ever juggling career, family, activities, volunteer commitments, school, faith, and personal lives. The tools we use to communicate make as much of an impact as the message we are sending. If we think one form of communication is all we need, we are wrong!

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The Value of an Apology

By | April 11, 2012
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We have a problem with a group of “mean girls” in our youth group. Only they’re not mean to their peers – they’re mean to me. “We don’t play games,” one told me last week, her Powderpuff Football Champion T-Shirt mocking me as she rolled her eyes.

They refuse to participate in any game, skit, or large group discussion. During moments of silence or prayer, I can almost always count on one of them to start giggling, and despite seating Core Members right in the middle of their group, they keep up a constant stream of chatter during the teachings. Worst of all, they always manage to foil our small group splitting techniques and all 5 of them sneak their way into the same small group every week.

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Catholisizing our Everyday Speech

By | March 21, 2012
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Sometimes it drives me crazy to hear the words coming from people’s mouths in ministry. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been corrected by others and have learned that the words I say really do matter. They can make a difference.

As youth ministers we have to believe this especially as we read WORDS in Scripture, listen to WORDS from homilies, talks, and teachings, sing WORDS to praise songs, and finally pray WORDS aloud at Mass, Life nights, or one-on-one. Call it consistency or advocacy, I’ve found that the more we are intentional with our words the better we will be serving in God’s ministry.

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Multi-Generational Core: Commitment

By | March 19, 2012
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Commitment! This word takes on different meanings in every generation. Some people fear it; some embrace it with their entire being. In ministry it is something that we struggle with a lot: teen’s commitment, Core Team’s commitment, staff commitment, even our commitment. When you start talking about everyones different levels of commitment it’s tempting to end up doing what Generation iY does and take some anxiety medication to feel better about our responsibility or lack there of.

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How Often Do You Catch Teens Doing Something Right?

By | March 13, 2012
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As Youth Ministers and Core Team members, it’s vital that we walk daily with the teens we minister to. Sometimes that may mean catching them doing something wrong and lovingly correcting their behavior. But how often do we catch them doing something right? Imagine what our ministries could look like.

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Kony 2012 and Your Teens

By | March 9, 2012
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Teens want to be engaged in changing the world. For most of us in youth ministry this isn’t a surprise. We’ve seen how compassionate teens can be and how much time and energy they are willing to give to something they believe in. Most of the world (or at least, most of my parish), however, doesn’t see this.

They believe teens to be self-centered adolescents who care only about their immediate circle of friends and family and frequently make poor decisions. The Kony 2012 campaign serves to remind all of us of the incredible capacity for empathy that teenagers have and how hard they are willing to fight (even in the face of criticism) for a cause they believe is worthy.

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Who’s Your Jeremy Lin?

By | February 28, 2012
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If you’ve turned on your TV at all in the past few weeks, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve heard the name Jeremy Lin, especially if you watch ESPN. Standing 6 feet, 3 inches tall, weighing 200 pounds, Jeremy Lin is the starting point guard for the New York Knicks. But it wasn’t always this [...]

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Going Deeper, Part 4: Discipleship

By | February 8, 2012
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In the same way, we can model our youth ministry after the way that Jesus modeled his ministry. In youth ministry we offer programs, resources, Life nights, methods, conferences, rallies, mission trips, etc. All of these things only take us so far with teens. The heart of effective evangelization, catechesis, and the purification of youth culture is in discipleship – mentoring teens in personal relationships. People learn the faith from the example and witness of other people.

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Going Deeper, Part 3: Hand Motion Sickness

By | January 25, 2012
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Don’t get me wrong, Catholics pray with their body. We lie prostrate, we kneel, we sit, and we fold our hands in a posture of prayer. Sometimes we even extend our hands over our head in an open posture of worship.

All of these postures, even the hands over the head, are rooted in Scripture and the Tradition of the Church. They reflect the interior disposition of the soul and it’s receptivity to Christ. So what about hand motions? Why do I say it is not prayer?