Take a few minutes today to call your “Jo” and share with them how thankful you are for their years of service to the teens and if you can, write about your “Jo” in the comments below so this Thanksgiving, as a Life Teen family, we can give thanks for the many Core Members who are making a difference in leading teens closer to Christ.
I love middle schoolers and I love leading our Edge program. But when you fill a gym with sixty 6th, 7th, 8th graders, there’s always a huge mass of noisey energy. This is definitely overwhelming, especially for the new Edge leader. I’ve often wondered how many times I’ve “Shhhh’d” or “Hey guys, can I have your attention” in one Edge meeting.
When I first started working with this age, I was really frustrated by the fact that I couldn’t hold their attention for very long at a time and that I spent more time trying to get their attention and get them quiet than anything else.
Isn’t that what we want from our Core Members? If you’re anything like me in my early stages of youth ministry, you’re just happy with anyone who wants to be a part of the Core Team. As long as they were Catholic and breathing, they had a spot on my Core.
And guess what? We struggled. That’s not to say that these people were bad people. They were just in the wrong ministry. And as time went on, I realized that I didn’t need lots of bodies to be on my Core Team.
That opportunity lays before us at our parishes all the time – but too often we are stuck in routines, or afraid to take the risk. We’re afraid of spending a little more than we planned for that kick-off or that Christmas break all-nighter-of-awesomeness . . . but maybe if we got a little more creative and were willing to go big – Go big or go home! – (and tighten the belt on the pizza budget maybe?) we can make that kick-off or that all-nighter or that retreat first night activity the talked of the year – where grads are still talking about the awesome sumo-wrestling night or that huge bounce-house-sprinkler-pool-combo-water-war or whatever you can think of.
During my first few years as a youth minister, I was just happy that teens were showing up. In fact as long as they showed up, I considered my ministry a success. After all they had a lot of other choices, so if they were coming, I must have been doing something right.
If you had asked me during that time how my ministry was going, there’s no doubt that I would have responded the same way every time:
“It’s good.”
I live in a swing state for this 2012 presidential election, where commercial breaks actually consist of back-to-back-to-back commercials about the upcoming election. It’s pretty common to hear, “I can’t wait until November 6 is over.” I will be glad when the politicking dies down in the US, but this is one topic that never seems to rest in youth ministry.
Too often as youth ministers we try to please everyone. We want to say “yes” to everything, but the problem is that the more we say “yes,” the more we risk over-complicating our ministry, watering it down, and burning ourselves out.
We do high school youth ministry, middle school youth ministry, and Confirmation preparation. We host Bible Studies and prayer groups. We plan multiple retreats, service projects, and mission trips throughout the year. We try to please teens, parents, our pastor, the parish staff, the diocese, parishioners who have “an idea of ways the teens can serve,” and more. It’s all very noble. It really is, but sometimes, we have to be willing to say, “no.” And the sad thing is, we don’t think we can.
We can’t go into our Life Nights pretending. We can’t just go through the motions. This ministry to teens – this loving and serving of others – isn’t about putting on a show or an act. Our hearts, our entire beings must be behind this “yes” to Christ with how we will live our lives and how we live out this ministry that we are called to.
When we start putting our ministry or the “important” grocery trip above a day of rest, we loose focus of God. We don’t “work” for God (He already did all the work on the cross) we are called to love Him and not place anything above Him. When we start to put in more hours in front of the computer instead of in front of the Blessed Sacrament our vision weakens and we start to see God through the world’s eyes instead of the world through God’s eyes. He doesn’t want our hours; He wants us.
Even the best youth ministers know that they aren’t going to be around forever; the smartest ones will realize this before it’s too late. A strong leader should be able to identify and perhaps even groom one or two people to take his spot . . . without feeling threatened. Leadership always needs to be evolving . . . otherwise our ministry isn’t growing.