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Category Archives: Maintaining Quality Ministry

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Turning the Tables: Ministry to the Core Team

By | February 12, 2010

How are your Core Members doing? Take a moment and think about everything you’ve done in ministry this year and then look at what you have planned. Does your Core know that they are loved and appreciated? Do you know how they are doing spiritually? Before you read anymore, take a moment to pray for [...]

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Dealing with the “Other Stuff” of Youth Ministry

By | February 11, 2010

When I first started in youth ministry I was green, youthful, and enthusiastic.  I attended Diocesan meetings excited, only to encounter tenured youth ministers who appeared burned out. The longer I stayed in youth ministry, the more I understood how people get burned out. On the outside I was as enthusiastic as ever, but in [...]

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Burnout-shmurnout! How to Keep the Ministry Fires Burning

By | February 10, 2010

In April, I will celebrate my 7-year anniversary with our Life Teen program – two years as a Core Member and five as the youth minister. I had heard that the average life span of a youth minister in one place was pretty short. After some research, I found my answer – the typical rate [...]

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FAIL! Sometimes I Am Really Bad at My Job.

By | January 27, 2010

Last month, I had a great moment with one of my favorite teens! (Yes, I do play favorites. You can ask any of my teens and they will proudly tell you why they are my favorite.) After a night of trying to pray with teens (a night that I had spent countless hours developing, praying [...]

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Turning on the Light: Pro-Life & Youth Ministry

By | January 20, 2010

Sure, I always said that I was Pro-Life but what was I actually doing to help promote the Pro-Life movement, especially when it comes to the unborn? Bottom line is that I was doing nothing. I was letting everyone else do the work for me. I would tell my teens that protecting life is important but I was never passionate myself. How could I expect my teens to be passionate if I was not setting the example? I realized we absolutely cannot expect our teens to be passionate about the Pro-Life movement unless we are.

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Sacramental Wallflowers: How to Include Parents & Sponsors in Confirmation

By | November 18, 2009

A wallflower is one who remains on the sidelines of an activity due possibly to shyness or unpopularity. Unfortunately, we can look around many confirmation preparation “dances” and find some sacramental wallflowers tucked away in the dark corners. It is not uncommon that those who are not fully engaged into the rhythm of our efforts are adults – both parents and sponsors.

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Finding Freedom in the Sacrament of Reconciliation

By | November 11, 2009

The Sacrament of Reconciliation. For many teens, it’s an answer to the question: “What about the Catholic faith do you appreciate?” It’s also an answer for many teens to the question: “What part of our faith do you not understand or practice?” Therein lies the beauty and complexity of the Sacrament of Reconciliation; teens can easily name it as one of the seven, yet many of them don’t frequent it regularly for various reasons: i.e. they find it intimidating, they’re not sure what to confess, or they don’t understand why they need to go to a priest instead of directly to God for forgiveness.

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Are You Making a Small Deal Out of Confirmation?

By | October 22, 2009

It continually surprises me when I get asked the question, “Can we just make Life Nights our parish Confirmation program?” Don’t get me wrong, I understand the reason for the question: not enough time to do Life Teen and Confirmation or you don’t have enough catechists or you’re trying to kill two birds with one [...]

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Out of the Box: Making the Most of Life Support (October 2009)

By | October 1, 2009

It’s fall again – already! The craziness of summer gives way to the frantic start of a new school year, new freshman and fall programming. This new start can be overwhelming but also filled with new opportunities to lead teens closer to Christ. This is the final box of eight-semester curriculum and 2010 will bring [...]

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Top 5 Reasons to Put Life Teen on Speed Dial: 480-820-7001

By | August 25, 2009

As a parish youth minister for 8 years, I anxiously awaited every 4 months for the new “Life Support” box of goodies to arrive in the mail. What would the new Life Nights look like? What new music could I listen to in my office or car? What fabulous new Life Teen toy would I [...]