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Tag Archives: Core

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Relational Ministry: The One Question That Will Help

By | October 15, 2012
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The people I am in closest relationship with are those people I have taken the time to find out the answer to one important question:

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Multi-Generational Core: Commitment

By | March 19, 2012
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Commitment! This word takes on different meanings in every generation. Some people fear it; some embrace it with their entire being. In ministry it is something that we struggle with a lot: teen’s commitment, Core Team’s commitment, staff commitment, even our commitment. When you start talking about everyones different levels of commitment it’s tempting to end up doing what Generation iY does and take some anxiety medication to feel better about our responsibility or lack there of.

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A Core Member’s Plea

By | July 25, 2011

Ever read something that immediately was a gut check for you? Perusing my email inbox, I came across a message from a core member that I felt not only her youth minister needed to read, but all of us in youth ministry could benefit from. Here is the core members unedited letter. I am a CORE member at a parish in California and this may be a rant but most of all it’s a PLEA! Our parish is huge and the life teen youth ministry is well known and established. The ministry has SO much potential yet.

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Keys To Being a Great Core Member

By | May 9, 2011

I was training a group of young core members when I commented about what a great looking group of young adults they were. I think I said they looked like they could be in a Gap Ad. All of a sudden one of the girl Core Members asked me “What’s the perfect core member looked like?” I thought for a second and then immediately responded – “that’s simple – the perfect Core Member looks like Jesus”. You see the world tells teens how they should look, as Core Members it’s not about how we look, it’s all

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Getting to the Core of the Matter – Part 3

By | January 17, 2011

Editor’s Note: Be sure to first read Part I and Part II of Chris’s series. Part three, the final act.  In a lot of ways this could have been part one.  The way we go about seeking new Core Members can have a huge impact on the success or failure of our Core.  Our attitude about the ministry of Core will definitely affect the culture of the team, so with that in mind, here’s some ideas about bringing new people into the Core Team. 3. Don’t be desperate It is the same advice I would give

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Getting to the Core of the Matter – Part 2

By | January 10, 2011

Okay, in the last blog I talked about a change in focus in the way you may be approaching the Core Team.  Hopefully you are still with me, because going strong into Core ministry will make a huge difference.  This kind of focus will definitely give you a much more consistent, healthy team… the problem is, without this next point it is not going to help your Life Teen program at all. In fact, it might just wreck it.  Read on to see what I mean. 2. Be inspired and it inspires Have you recently

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Getting to the Core of the Matter – Part 1

By | January 4, 2011

The core of something is the center of it. You can’t have an apple without a core, where would the seeds come from? And a baseball with out a core is just an odd leather bag. Have you ever noticed that the core of something is usually the hardest part? The truth is the Core Team in Life Teen is the same as the Core of a baseball or an apple. It is vital; it is a place where seed of faith come from, and it is also one of the hardest parts. Finding and keeping good consistent Core can sometimes

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The Wi-Fi Teens!

By | November 14, 2010

I keep hearing experts refer to the next generation of teens being the “Wifi Generation”. Meaning that they are connected wirelessly to each other. They don’t remember a time without cell phones, WiFi internet connection and social media websites. Constant updates where friends are accepted and dropped by hitting enter are becoming commonplace for teens. Things have changed. What once were the norms in terms of issues when working with high school teens, is now the norms of working with middle school kids. The high school teens of this generation are demanding the following 4 things from Catholic youth ministry:

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Core Team and Servant-Leadership

By | October 19, 2010

Just coming off our Parish’s Core Team retreat and with the kick-off of the academic year, I thought it pertinent to reflect on some of the beautiful things revealed to us in ministry. I have been spending some time with a book called “Jesus-Centered Youth Ministry” edited by Rick Lawrence. In it he addresses one of the startling realities of Youth Ministry in America. In some ways, we’ve become so concerned with our work, calendars and scheduling, clever programming, and engaging events that attract our teens to the Youth Ministry, that we’ve left no place for Jesus.

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The 4 Principles of Effective Small Group Questions

By | October 11, 2010

Have you ever been in charge of coming up with small group questions for a retreat or youth night? If you are anything like me, you want the questions to get teens talking and to have some depth to them so that everyone will get something out of small group time. Here is a new way to take the time and stress out of writing small group questions. It all comes down to the following 4 principles.