Enthusiasm is fruit of an encounter with Christ.
It does not need to be encouraged because it develops naturally from the invitation that Christ gives all of us. As youth leaders, the challenge is to look past the emotion and help the teenager make firmly rooted decisions to follow Christ and articulate prayer to Him. We must teach them to respond to His invitation. As youth ministers, it is our job to help a teen navigate the emotions to find their individual decision to follow Christ.
Getting teens to events and in the doors of our parish is effective pre-evangelization and evangelization. However, that is often where youth ministries stop. If we were successfully converting, catechizing and purifying the lives of our young people, we’d see a lot more fruit from the thousands of American teens and millions of international teens that attend our big Catholic events. To develop saints, we have to dive deeper and do more than get them in the door.
The next three blogs that I will write, focus on developing saints and diving deeper. I will evaluate how we measure conversion, how we bring teens through conversion and finally, I will discuss the discipleship model that Christ gave us for developing the last steps of the evangelization process.
Ordinary Sainthood [Life Teen] from Life Teen on Vimeo.
Goal for the Life Night: The goal of this Night is to show the teens how they are a part of the communion of saints – our holy family of faith – and that God has placed a call to each and every one of them to pursue holiness and sainthood. Life Night at a Glance: This Night is a great night in which the teenagers will realize the big brothers and big sisters that they truly have in the communion of saints. The Night starts with a crazy matching game where the teens will be asked to match the saint
Goal of the Life Night: Teens will better understand the communion of saints and how our heavenly community joins to us as one body in Christ. The teens are reminded of their call to sainthood, and that truly living the Christian life necessitates prayer and help from the community. Life Night at a Glance: This LIFE night focuses on the support we need and are given from the Body of Christ on earth and in heaven. Teens are taught the value of independence and the do-it-yourself lesson that means