N o one gets into youth ministry because they love administrative office work. And while I do have a handful of colleagues who have truly mastered the art of the Google spreadsheet, I know that for many of us sitting in an office inputting medical information is not what we had in mind when we signed on to ministry. Most of us would rather grab coffee with a student than spend our days tracking down adult volunteers to ensure they’ve completed their Safe Environment paperwork. I’ve often heard the statistic that the average shelf life of a youth minister is... Read more
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Articles Under: Youth Ministry
When you began working in the Church, how many friends did you have who were also serving in ministry? For me, it was several dozen. These youth ministers, Catholic school teachers, missionaries, and seminarians all began their work with so much zeal for the mission ahead of them. Yet, nearly ten years later, I can count on one hand the number of those friends who are still involved in full-time ministry. Maybe you’ve experienced something similar. Most of these friends of mine devoted several years of their lives to a university formation and tens of thousands of dollars to be... Read more
St. Thomas Aquinas explained the imagination as “a storehouse of forms received through the senses” that are later called to mind. [1] St. Augustine considered it as a form of “spiritual vision,” distinct from our corporal and intellectual senses. [2] St. Theresa of Ávila described it as one of the most important powers of the soul. [3] Each of these Doctors of the Church spent ample time writing on the power of our imagination and its relationship to the life of faith. They understood that our imagination is part of our physical and spiritual nature. As such, it can affect... Read more
Most of us who serve as catechists in a religious education or youth ministry program share some common attributes: Our faith is important to us. It has served as a compass for our life; We want others to come to know the beauty of the Catholic faith; We answered a call for catechists—sometimes generously and sometimes reluctantly, only because we are aware of our limitations. It’s vitally important to the life of the Church that our faith is handed on to the next generation with fidelity and accuracy. But it’s not always easy. Sometimes we are blessed with people who... Read more
“When you love something so much, you talk about it. You can’t contain it. If you find something that you think is the greatest thing in the world, what teenager is quiet? There are none.” When I encountered that quote, my outlook on youth ministry changed. It was the day I realized that something was missing in our parishes. It was why, despite hundreds of thousands of Catholic teenagers attending youth groups, camps, and conferences every year, young people were still leaving the Church, some as young as ten years old. [i] As those of us in the pews are... Read more
As I write this article, I'm nursing the tail end of a mild bout of COVID-19. I don’t share that for pity but to point out how much the world has changed in the past few years. Before this decade, I didn't know what a novel coronavirus was. Everything I understood about pandemics was mainly picked up from disaster movies. Social distancing was only a dream my introverted wife possessed in her heart. And the virus that demanded fear as it first swept across the planet is now so common that it's possible to write an article while infected. Though... Read more
“For freedom Christ has set us free… For you were called to freedom... serve one another through love.” (Galatians 5:1, 13) Diego is eleven years old. For years he has received religious formation through the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) in a carefully prepared environment for the religious life of children called an atrium. He is working with a material known as the “Unity and Vastness of the Kingdom of God,” a timeline that takes a long and essential view of the history of salvation. Diego ponders the moment in this history when God says, “Let us make humankind... Read more
Over the past seven years that I have been working in youth ministry, the only thing that has remained consistent is that young people are constantly changing. The middle and high school students I worked with in my first year of ministry are radically different from the students I encounter today. There are a vast number of factors to consider when looking at the constantly shifting youth culture, but it is certainly the case that the dawn of TikTok partnered with a global pandemic has catapulted our young people into a new era—an era defined by uncertainty, division, and an... Read more
To the surprise of my friends and family, I love being a middle school teacher. While admiring my enthusiasm, most people picture a hectic classroom filled with rowdy youth. It is true, some days I swear my students are on their second cup of coffee by first period. I have learned to enjoy these days because underneath all of that energy rests a deep desire to encounter Christ. In their fast-paced culture, young people’s hearts crave moments of silence, peace, and union with Jesus. When I first started teaching, I wanted each middle schooler to learn how to pray and... Read more
Who could survive a low-paying, time-consuming, unpredictable, and exhausting job for more than a few years? And if they do survive, who could possibly thrive, especially as a family? We are living proof that it is possible, but it takes an important skill that many of us were not taught: building and protecting boundaries . The first requirement to continue in ministry for more than a few short years is, of course, knowing ourselves to actually be called by God to this work. When we are called by God, bringing others into a deeper union with Christ and his Church... Read more
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