It’s a Friday night at a local high school football game. The lights on the field are as bright as the marching bands rendition of the school fight song is loud. The parent section sports team colors with pride while the teen section leaves you questioning the latest fashions. Cheerleaders, mascots, football players and referees are in game mode on the field, but the stand is where game is on for you, the youth minister. As a first time youth minister, I struggled with this situation because I never felt I was reaching enough teens in the stands, in the pews or on the field. Relational ministry was what I loved most about youth ministry, but I never felt like I was doing enough.

Fast-forward a few years and my playing field became a desk, a computer and a phone as I took on the role of Startup Coordinator for Life Teen. The environments I eventually became comfortable with for relational ministry are removed and suddenly, that same feeling of inadequacy sneaks up. On a daily basis I would sit down at my desk and have hour-long conversations about the same things: “How do I start Life Teen?” or “How do I get a Core Team?” or “How do I set up a Youth Mass?” Which led me to ask, “How am I supposed to reach out, train, pray with and support hundreds of new parishes and know that I am giving them everything they need?” The answer came in one word…webinars!

Webinars are one way that we as a Parish Outreach Team want to support you as in your ministry. We recognize that not everyone can come to a Life Teen and Edge Training Convention or Conference but you still need to be trained and you still need to connect with us as a staff. We also know that time is precious and no one wants to spend days playing phone tag waiting for an answer. Therefore, keeping that in mind, we developed four webinar trainings to support you from your playing field in a time sensitive way, including:

• Starting Life Teen: Steps to successfully start Life Teen
• Starting Edge: Steps to successfully start Edge
• Liturgy 101: Starting a Youth Liturgy
• Core Recruitment and Training (Life Teen and Edge)

Some of the benefits of attending a Life Teen or Edge Webinar training are:

• Connection to the Life Teen Staff and International Family. When you attend a Life Teen and/or Edge Webinar, you will connect with youth ministers, priests, music ministers and Core from around the globe. Many webinar participants have shared that hearing someone else ask a question that they felt embarrassed to ask made them feel less alone in ministry. Hearing the joys, disappointments, and even prayer requests of others in the field of youth ministry allows us to connect in a way that a one-on-one conversation cannot.
• Excellent Training. One of the best things about the webinars is the training. In one hour you will receive a directed training open to your questions and concerns. Our staff will walk you through a PowerPoint presentation complete with web cameras, web site navigation and document transfers by the use of the internet. In addition, a recorded video will be sent to you after the webinar so you can share the information or watch again.
• Life Teen: More Than a Box of Resources…We Are a Movement! So often, parishes that purchase Life Support see it as just a box of resources. Please know that you have signed up for more than a box delivered three times a year; you have signed up for an ongoing relationship. And this relationship is not one sided. You have gifts that God wants to share through the movement of Life Teen and Edge. This collaborative community allows for the Holy Spirit to stir in and through the Life Teen movement. We pray you will be open to share your gifts with us and allow us the honor of sharing our gifts with you.
• Relationship Development. One of my favorite aspects of webinars is that once the questions and training are out of the way, there is room for ongoing relationship development. As a staff we care about your ministry, but we care about you more. It is so easy to isolate yourself in ministry and not ask for help or prayers. We desire to be there for you in the trials and triumphs. Therefore, once a webinar has been completed and we as a staff call you to check in, we do so with a desire to know you as much as your ministry. Webinars give us freedom to take these times of outreach to a deeper level.

Our staff may not be in the pews at your Church or the football stands of your local high school, but we want you to feel like you’re being cheered on in ministry. To register for one of our four Webinars or to read a more complete explanation of the webinar sessions, visit catholicyouthministry.com/webinar.

Whether you are already registered for Life or Edge Support or you are looking into starting, we want you to sign up for a webinar or two. This is a free service and you do not have to be a Life Teen or Edge subscriber to participate. We pray that this is one way we can support you as you reach out to the teens on your playing field.