Since launching CatholicYouthMinistry.com back in January 2010, the Life Teen Media Team has had a running list of bug fixes and features that we’ve been working through. Today, we introduce to you a new feature of the site: comments.

CatholicYouthMinistry.com is built on a pretty cool piece of software called WordPress which allows us to build quick, functional, and beautiful websites. All of our recent web projects have been built on WordPress, including our Missions and Donation websites. With CatholicYouthMinistry.com, we always knew that we would have lots of optional features to include, but we wanted to make sure that the core functionality of the site worked first before incorporating other features. We realized that adding this functionality was a pretty quick integration. We may change the way the comments work over the next few weeks, so don’t worry if something changes all of a sudden.

Why Comments?

Comments are a sticky issue. On the one hand, they’re an easy way to join a conversation. They provide that relational connection with each other that is vital in the ministries that we are a part of. On the other hand, comments can quickly turn into petty conversations or their tone can become un-Christian. We’ve created CatholicYouthMinistry.com to be a safe and encouraging place to do better Catholic Youth Ministry for the entire Church. Please be mindful of what you share.

We firmly believe in relationships. We believe comments can help facilitate better relationships and better communication between different people in youth ministry. You may feel alone in this ministry, but know that there are literally thousands of people who come here every day who are often in the same boat as you.

Comments facilitate better ministry

We need to share new ideas, encourage each other when we are down, and continue to be faithful to the Church’s teachings. We want lively discussion, so don’t be afraid if you don’t always agree with what a blogger writes. Sharing ideas and challenging assumptions about youth ministry has helped us all grow into better catechists.

We also want you to share what worked and what didn’t work in a resource. Give specific ways others might be able to tweak the night for their own youth group. Your experience might just help another youth minister lead a teen closer to Christ. How’s that for the Universal Church!

Try out the comments. Let us know we need to tweak anything. You can use Facebook, Twitter, or OpenID to easily login to the comment system. We’re here to serve you. Know that you’re all in our prayers. Have a blessed Triduum!