The problem with quantity is that it points to us, while quality points to God. When quantity says, “Look at all the teens that are coming. I’m such a great youth minister.” Quality says, “Look at the depth of prayer in these teens. God must really be moving.” When we focus on quantity, we lead teens to ourselves. When we focus on quality, we bring them to Jesus.
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 pressure that comes along with this. While many well-intentioned and “very wise” parishioners and staff members think this is easy, you know that, unfortunately, a classroom, a Catechism, and a chalkboard just don’t grab a teen’s attention
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 way. Although a star in high school, Lin did not receive an athletic scholarship to play basketball in college. After playing at Harvard, he went undrafted but eventually got a deal to play
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.