A Youth Leader Must…. 1. Make it about Christ and not themself 2. Strive to have ministry flow from their spirituality and not have spirituality flow from their ministry 3. Form a strong team of leaders who help them reach out to teens 4. Be living the Paschal Mystery (die to self and rising with Christ) daily 5. Be completely invested in the parish community 6. Know teens names 7. Be teachable 8. Earn and keep trust 9. Be humble and willing to get their hands dirty 10.
10 years ago today, we signed the papers to purchase Life Teen Camp Covecrest in Tiger, GA. I can still remember the excited feeling of our owning a camp, and the sinking feeling of hoping that our obedience to God to purchase the camp wouldn’t lead to a huge dose of humility if it didn’t work out. In no way has the past 10 years been easy in regard to the camp. Our first summer we were only able to get 31 teens to attend our first ever Life Teen Camp at Covecrest. Not until 2 years ago did we
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
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.
The most effective parish youth ministries maintain what I call an “unassuming youth ministry” stance. This means that they know they need to re-earn attention, re-earn loyalty, and reconnect with teens and parents as if every day is the first day they started the ministry at the parish. Signs that We Have an Assuming Youth Ministry: – We start feeling successful or assume we are the only choice for teens. – We start comparing and assuming youth ministry at our parish as better than what
In the days before satellite radio and streaming music over your smart phone, there was good old AM radio. One of the features of AM radio was that the further you were away from the signal, the more static or fuzzy sounds you would hear. In the days before cable or satellite TV there was only broadcast TV with rabbit ears antennas that at times could give you a visual picture of static if you were too far from television broadcast towers. In terms of static in my spiritual journey, I have found