Once they start school in the fall and get involved in all kind of school activities, it will be much harder to reach those rising 9th grade students. Here are 5 things you can do to reach out to the rising 9th grade students at your parish: 1. Visit them in Edge or their current religious education classes before the end of school and invite them to attend Life Teen this summer. 2. Have a huge summer kick-off for rising freshman at the start of the summer. Send out invitations and announce
By now, anyone who has, or who works closely with teens has undoubtedly heard about the “Why I hate religion but love Jesus” video that has gone viral on YouTube. Forgive me for not linking to it… my Mom taught me to keep gasoline away from matches (after my brothers and I almost launched our riding mower into outer space in 1982). Incidentally, my mother also taught me not to use the word “hate,” but that’s a different story for another day.
Other than illegal hits to the head and questionable calls by referees, the most controversial part of the NFL season is a phenomenon called “Tebowing”. Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow openly proclaims his faith in interviews, post game press conferences, in coffee shops or wherever he is. After touchdowns and during particularly tense moments of games he drops to one knee, putting his fist to his forehead in what looks like a power prayer stance that people have given the nick name – “Tebowing”.
Virtually every superhero has some weakness that makes them weak or unable to perform. For Superman it is Kryptonite: a rock-like green substance from his homeland that causes him to lose all super powers. A couple of weeks ago, on a flight traveling home from NCYC, I sat next to what the world would say is a highly successful businessman. We began talking about a lot of topics, including God and many other parts of life. I asked him what was the key to his success — without hesitation, he turned
Is there Parishnormal Activity happening surrounding youth ministry at your parish? – do the Knights of Columbus accuse the teens of taking all their left over ketchup packets from last year’s Parish picnic? – is the key to the closet in the Parish Hall now attached to a Hockey stick because you as youth leader forgot to put it back at 11 o’clock one Sunday night after a 14 hour day? – do the volunteers no longer invite the teens to help stuff parish bulletins ever since “the incident” of 2009? -
I was talking to a youth leader the other day and she lamented the fact that her parish staff didn’t respect her, in her own words, “They don’t think that youth ministry is a legitimate parish ministry.” The comment resonated with conversations with other youth leaders I have spoken with and it started me thinking. Are we as youth leaders doing anything to become better at what we are doing? Are we giving the people around us reason to believe that we are serious about being excellent at youth ministry? By
The past few months people keep sending me planking photos. Planking is an activity or game consisting of lying face down in an unusual or incongruous location. The hands must touch the sides of the body and having a photograph of the participant taken and posted on the internet is an integral part of the game. Players compete to find the most unusual and original location in which to play. The term planking refers to mimicking a wooden plank. Many participants in planking have photographed the
Are you heading to World Youth Day in Madrid this year? Do you wish you were heading to World Youth Day? Either way, you are going to get a chance to experience Life Teen at World Youth Day this year. Life Teen has a big event planned as a part of World Youth Day. Over the past few months we’ve been working with the WYD organizing committee in Madrid to coordinate what will arguably be the biggest XLT of the year at World Youth Day! Our event is the evening of August 18th, immediately following
Ok, I’ll admit it, I am a fan of technology and how it can impact youth ministry. Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook have all recently introduced more and more advanced face recognition technologies that have the potential to revolutionize the web once again. The way it works is that through now common digital photos, the computer analyzes facial characteristics and matches them with other photos. The result is pictures of the persons face can be identified in photos other than the one the software
Last week I heard someone talk about the difference between evangelizing and catechizing. He suggested that too often we rush to catechesis before someone has been evangelized—or has experienced the “Gospel kerygma.” Blessed John Paul II describes this as “The initial ardent proclamation by which a person is one day overwhelmed and brought to the decision to entrust himself to Jesus Christ by faith.” (Catechesis in Our Time)