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Tag Archives: Church

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10 Reasons Why Youth Ministry is Going to Thrive at Your Parish

By | July 28, 2011

1.) You and your team are praying everyday for the teens you serve 2.) Hospitality toward teens and their families is overflowing 3.) Continually improving the teen Liturgy is a main focus 4.) There is a core team of adults who laugh, pray together, evangelize and spend relational ministry time with teens 5.) Each meeting you have with teens is treated like it’s another major event 6.) Teens are listened to 7.) Ministry is heading deeper rather than wider (your focused on taking what you are

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What (Teens) Want

By | May 25, 2011

One of my favorite blog writer’s is Seth Godin. Seth inspires me to always think out of the box. He recently wrote a blog entitled “What (People) Want”. I couldn’t help but notice how it applied not only to adults but to the teens we serve. So here is my reframing and tweaks to Seth’s list and how we could apply it to Catholic Youth Ministry. Here are five easy and not so easy things you want to make sure you are doing for the teens in your parish… 1. Notice Them Make sure when you see a teen

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Who’s Barbra Streisand?

By | May 16, 2011

Think you are current on teen culture? Here is a reality check I just had. A song currently becoming popular by the dance mix group Duck Sauce is entitled “Barbra Streisand”. You remember Barbra – singer, movie star etc? It is a catchy song with several dramatic pauses that utilize the songs only lyric – Barbra Streisand. I was driving with my soon to be 10th grader Jonah yesterday and asked him if he knew who Barbra Streisand was. I thought for sure he would – but he looked at me and said he had

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Vibrant Youth Ministry Equals A Vibrant Parish

By | May 10, 2011

I’ve heard of recent surveys of “non practicing” Catholics tell an alarming statistic regarding the future involvement in the Catholic faith for current teens who are not involved in their parish during high school. Surveys are saying that only 3 to 10 percent of high school aged Catholic teens who are not active in some way with their parishes will become active Catholics in later years. In other words, for parishes that are waiting for people to get involved when they are older, the chances of

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Advice to Any New Youth Leader

By | April 15, 2011

After starting out by hitting my head against several brick walls in the first few months on the job as a part time parish youth leader, I wish someone had sat me down and given me advice to get off to the right start at the parish. So now 23 years in youth ministry, I have decided to write some advice for any one who’s new as a youth leader. Advice for new youth leaders: 1.) It’s Not About You, It’s About the Teens – The world and our Church has seen enough self centered leaders. We don’t

Life Teen Video Support

Church Semester Introduction

Keywords: |

Once again, Katie Heller takes us through this semester’s theme, Church.

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5 Creative Ways to Avoid Your Ministry Becoming Irrelevant to Teens

By | January 31, 2011

Ever wonder if you are losing your touch or if the teens you are reaching out to are finding the ministry irrelevant for the world they live in? Here are 5 creative ways to avoid your ministry becoming irrelevant to teens -

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Four Things You Can Do Right Now to Increase Teen Attendance At Your Next Event

By | January 28, 2011

At the start of my first assignment as a youth minister in a parish, I asked the teens what they wanted to do. They gave me a list of 42 events. So I took out a calendar and scheduled each one throughout our summer. We went from 15 teens attending to 85 teens active by the end of summer – here is what I did to boost attendance and what you can do to get more teens attending your events.

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Move That Bus! 3 Elements of a Catholic Youth Ministry Makeover

By | December 28, 2010

What if you could take a week long break with your family and go to Disneyworld while a team of youth ministry “guru’s” came in and did an extreme makeover of youth ministry at your parish? When you returned and yelled – “Move that bus!”, and the bus rolled away – what would be different?

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Unfair

By | December 5, 2010

Many of the things surrounding Catholic Youth Ministry today could be considered unfair. Check out this list and see if you agree…