I Don't Like Youth "Ministry"

I don't like youth ministry. Maybe its due to my non-conformist tendencies (a weakness). Maybe I'm playing a semantics game. Or maybe I'm crafting a straw man. But I don't have much written for this Tuesday, so allow me to just rant and externally process.

I think inherent in the culture of youth ministry over the past decade or two is a noble sense that our kids are lost and the Church needs to work harder to save them. Some very effective and dynamic approaches have developed and I believe they have done a lot of good.

But now a generation of home-grown youth from Lifeteen-esque programs are going to college and growing up. As youth ministers and lay evangelists in the Church, we are all struggling with this sneaking suspicion that our youth aren't staying Catholic. I don't know the statistics. I'm not critiquing Lifeteen or  any method or approach per se.

But I think if I were honest with myself (a youth minister) and everyone else, I would say that I don't really like youth ministry. I don't think it should exist. At least not as a "ministry".

When most Catholics use the word "ministry" they mean a service of help provided by the Church to a particular group of people. Divorced ministry. Homeless ministry. Campus ministry. Young Adult ministry. Youth ministry. Pastoral ministry.

I've been starting to feel that our Churches don't need that much youth ministry. If youth ministry is a means by which the Church tries to evangelize and serve her youth, then it makes sense to have a youth ministry. But what happens once a teen is evangelized? Where does a teen go? Back to the youth ministry?

I don't think Churches need youth ministry. I think our Church needs youth. And therefore we don't need a youth ministry as an end to itself, we need a youthful Church.

The youth have a Church. Its their parent's Church. And its their grandparent's Church. And its your Church. Youth Ministry is what reaches outside the Church to youth, but it should be more like a bus station than a home.

Three years ago I started calling our youth ministry in Toledo the "St. Patricks Young Church Movement". Or just "St. Pat's Young Church". I moved to Texas where the youth ministry took on the same name. St. Francis Young Church. Youth Minister friends started calling asking if they could use the name too. Our goal is to lead teens closer to Christ and his Church through community, worship, and discipleship. It's all based on Acts 2. Preach the Gospel, ask youth to repent and join Jesus and His Church, and then BE Church - community (the Christian life), worship (the sacraments) and discipleship (the creed and prayer of a Christian). When youth show up to our "events" I want them to fall in love with a different way of life offered by the Church, not a ministry.

It might seem trite and like straining gnats, but for me it represented a shift in my focus, purpose, and "ministry".

The goal of "youth ministry" is not to get kids to be involved in youth ministry. The goal of youth ministry is to get kids to fall in love with Christ and become part of His Church.

No one wants to live in a hospital. No one wants to just perpetually fix themselves.

To me it seemed like I was inviting kids to come get fixed, and become a part of a group of people who are all about fixing people.

"Hey, you! You should come to my "fixing kids" night. It's every Sunday night. It's a group and community all focused on fixing kids and bringing them to Christ. Once you've found Jesus, you can then keep coming back to a group trying to get kids to find Jesus."

I started feeling like the end goal of everything was ministering to youth. But perpetually ministering is not the goal. The goal is connecting young people to the Church, not to a ministry of the Church. The goal is for the young people of our Church to BE Church.

Maybe this is why we are all struggling with the kid who graduated from high school three years ago and still only feels fed and close to God in the youth ministry. They are the lifelong core members.

The first converts to Catholicism in Acts 2 devoted themselves to the teaching of the Apostles, the breaking of bread, the community of disciples, and prayer. Is our ministry reaching out and helping youth devote themselves to our Church's life of creed, sacraments, morality, and prayer? The early Church evangelized very powerfully through their daily witness of living as Church.

Should't every Church have a ministry that is focused first on "ministering" and then on mobilizing the young people to be part of their Church? Shouldn't I as a youth minister be a little more concerned with carving out a place for youth to BE Church at our Parish? A Church does youth ministry when a kid goes to Mass. A Church does youth ministry when a kid goes to Confession. A Church does youth ministry when a kid serves as a Eucharistic minister, or altar server, or in the food pantry, or as a Lector.

Youth ministry in its current form is a bandaid because parents don't know how to evangelize their kids. Most parents don't know the faith. Most parents don't know Jesus. But parents are the primary catechists and the first heralds of the Gospel in a child's life. The more we help youth be the young Church, the more our Church will evangelize without the help of our youth "ministry". And the more our youth will grow up and do the same to their kids - connect them to Jesus and His Church.

The more we make youth "ministry" obsolete and unnecessary the more we do our job as youth ministers. The more we empower people to be Church, the more families will evangelize their kids, and the more kids will become part of the Church, and not ministry.

The Marriage of the Head and the Heart

We sat every Sunday morning in that hot master-bedroom-turned-classroom of an old cinderblock house on Church property. It seemed to flow in and out of the dead leaves and sticks and palmettos and low hanging spanish moss like a stereotypical Florida home built in the 70’s. Brown and tan and empty and rotting and weirdly nostalgic and safe. Like visiting your friend’s granny. Regardless, we definitely dragged our feet in the rocks after Mass as we walked from the Church to the house where CCD took place. The room always smelled like granny was hiding in a closet sniffing pinesol. All the metal chairs in the hot but otherwise empty room faced the front and therefore so did all 18 of us sweaty 9th graders. This is catechesis in 2003 in Valrico, Florida. It was my freshman year of high school. If you’re reading this, chances are you too can harken back to that classroom where you stared at the back of Melissa’s head wondering what a Mexican wedding would look like. You might still remember the strange endearing sympathy you felt as your volunteer catechists stood at a half-broken formica table and tried to hold the attention of a room full of your hormonal freshman peers raised on Pokemon, Adult Swim, and iPods.

Let’s be honest: those Sadlier religious-ed books were out-gunned from the beginning.

To this day I still wonder how I ended up willing to (or at least praying that I would be willing to) die for the things those volunteers spoke about in that room. I remember telling my friend Darryl to say “transubstantiation” to throw the teacher off. The Catholic faith was another chunk of information I could wield to stroke my ego just like the (little) philosophy, martial arts, and LOTR information I possessed.

Somewhere during senior year of high school or freshman year of college I bumped directly into Jesus for the first time, andthen quickly tried to ignore Him by burying myself in self-aggrandizing information gluttony. Its a lot more comfortable to follow Jesus if you feel like you’re an expert in Jesus-knowledge. I learned about typology and colored salvation history timelines. I could recite - from memory - Jeff Cavin’s hour long talk from the audio CD “I’m Not Being Fed”. But I made sure to never look up from the information directly into the eyes of Christ. It was like a relationship that only existed on Facebook.

I find it sad that to this day too many people believe there is a strong dichotomy between Catholic doctrine and a transformational relationship with a personal God. I’ve been guilty of this most of my life. Many times I’ve been running from one extreme to the other. I’ve either hidden in my head from my heart’s need for Jesus, or headlessly chased Jesus around with my heart.

“The principal task entrusted to the Council by Pope John XXIII was to guard and present better the precious deposit of Christian doctrine in order to make it more accessible to the Christian faithful and to all people of good will.”

Do you know what Pope St. John XXIII believed the principle task of Vatican II was? What he really wanted to accomplish with all that Church window opening? “To guard and present better the precious deposit of faith”. Catholics who are deep in the evangelization frenzy, steeped in Catholic meditations on beauty, or armed to the teeth with apologetics tracts might hear this as a sad trombone.

And maybe that’s because deep down we aren’t sure if there can exist a marriage between our heads and our hearts.

Maybe we really believe that when we are 19 and reckless we can have a religion like a love-affair but when we are finally 35 and mortgaged we need to grow up and learn some facts and let the naive passion of our youth fade into the past like First Communion.

I, however, choose to believe that the panting of our hearts can be quickened by the slow and seductive revelation of God in the form of doctrine, tradition, and dogma. Maybe that’s really what all the doctrine should be viewed as: a lover writing from a foreign land revealing who He is.

For too long the distance between the head and the heart has forced me into a false dichotomy. I should either be a frenetic charismatic or a staunch Thomist. The spirit and the letter. I think its normal for this tension to exist. Its part of how we are made. But what would it look like if the two were married?

It looks like Divine Revelation.

I believe it looks like the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the Papal Household, seems to agree.

“…we need to discover the CCC’s pulsating heart. And what is this heart? It is not a dogma or a truth, a doctrine or an ethical principle. It is a Person: Jesus Christ! “On page after page,” – the Holy Father writes regarding the CCC in the same Apostolic Letter – “we find that what is presented here is no theory, but an encounter with a Person who lives within the Church”

We can get our heart into the heart of Christ by walking over the bridge of revelation.

The more Revelation becomes our bridge to the heart of God, the more we unite our head and our hearts. Then we can begin to transform the catechism from “a silent instrument, like a valuable violin resting on a velvet cloth, into an instrument that sounds and rouses hearts.”

[photo: rocket-fueled]

Evangelization Porn

If you were enjoying a great weekend with friends and told them you were thinking about building a nuclear fusion reactor in your backyard, like this kid did, chances are most of your friends wouldn’t have much advice to give you. “Um, be careful…” But if you told them you were thinking about building a shed in your backyard, if you have friends like mine, most of them would give you some advice. It probably wouldn’t all be good advice. Some of your friends might argue about trivial things like the materials you should use, or the location in your backyard, or the color you should paint the shed, for example.

I’ve been in situations where a group (staff meeting, team, ministry, friend group, family, etc) is discussing how best to do something. Interestingly, there are always far more people speaking who have never built a shed, than people who have. Most times the small trivial details become the focus of the hot debating in a room full of people who have never built a shed or at least don't build sheds very often.

Why won't anyone speak up when you talk about the difference between a slow carb, low carb, and paleo diet, but everyone, even the physically and obviously hypocrite, are willing to give you exercise and nutrition advice in general?

Its because things that are easy for us to get our minds around and visualize we take for granted we know how to do. Things that seem hard and complex that we obviously have no idea about, we just assume we wouldn’t know the first thing to comment on. If we think something is simple, (Calories in = calories out. Exercise more. Eat less crap.) it is easier to criticize and critique it. If something is difficult and complex, its much harder to constructively critique it as a whole, so we focus on the easy and trivial parts.  And plus we've seen a lot more people try to build a shed than build a nuclear fusion reactor. (See Parkinson's Law of Triviality.)

Is evangelization turning into the shed of the Catholic world? Maybe. Maybe we've seen so many different attempts at evangelization we're tempted to think its not really that hard in practice. Maybe we feel like we know how it should be done, because we know how WE came to have whatever faith-life we currently have. Maybe its just in the circles of Church ministers I run in. Or maybe its just me.

Or maybe it is such a difficult and complex topic that we get caught up talking and arguing about the easy and trivial aspects we can easily get our minds around. Its way easier to debate the color of a shed than focus on the difficult endeavor of building a nuclear fusion reactor.

There is a type of Evangelization Porn that is being consumed in large quantities by people in the Church. Sometimes even good quality stuff can turn into Evangelization Porn. It really has more to do with the consumer than with the producer. You don’t know you’re making Evangelization Porn as you make it. But you know you’re making Evangelization Porn if the majority of the people who participate and listen and read and attend and watch and participate never go out and actually do it. They never go evangelize.

It feels good to consume Evangelization Porn. You feel like you’re doing your part and you get the adrenaline-pump that comes with thinking about doing anything really worth doing. But the truth is its way easier to attend a conference, or listen to a talk, or write a tweet, or read a book, or write an article, or share a picture on Facebook, than it is to evangelize. That's the lure of Evangelization Porn. It only involves you. Its safe. There is no other person involved.

Dealing with a person who desperately needs Jesus in their life is hard. Its draining. It often requires loving someone for a long time. It often requires hearing things that don’t make sense to you and that you don’t agree with. It is seldom easy or not messy. It always requires lots of prayer. It is always draining. It frequently is as un-glorious as changing diapers, or going to lunch with your sister, or being charitable to a stranger.

The tempting thing in arguing passionately about the methods and modes of evangelization is it feels rewarding. You feel like you are really working. Like you are really evangelizing.  When really all you’re doing is getting caught up in butt-slapping and hanging out with the choir you’re preaching to. (Never, ever, using those two phrases in conjunction again.)

Evangelization porn doesn't bear fruit. Nothing gets accomplished. No one is being loved. No other person is involved. It is self-amusement. It is fantasizing about evangelization.

Evangelization always requires another person. You can tell you’re starting to make Evangelization Porn when you start talking about “people” instead of a person. You can tell you are starting to get addicted to Evangelization Porn when you are consuming more than you are doing.

Here’s some quick math to help diagnose Evangelization Porn Addiciton:

#1 How many pro-life articles have you read this month: #2 How many times did you do something about it this month:

#1 How many times this year did you consume news or media in general and get mad about the “gay agenda", or consume media arguing against same-sex marriage, homosexual relationships, etc?: #2 How many times this year did you talk to someone struggling with same sex attraction issues or living a gay lifestyle?:

#1 How many books this year did you read on the subject of evangelization? #2 How many times this year did you pray with someone you know?

#1 How many times this week did you use phrases or words like the culture, culture war, culture of death, relativism, feminism, intolerance, agenda, liberal, conservative, orthodoxy, or heresy? #2 How many minutes this week did you expose yourself to ideas you disagree with NOT being explained by people you agree with?

#1 How many times did you read apologetic materials? #2 How many people who don’t already attend a Catholic Church did you talk to this year about the way your faith has impacted your life?

#1 How many talks about Jesus did you give this month to a crowd? #2 How many hours did you intentionally spend with a person who really needs Jesus?

Instructions: Divide the first number by the second number: If the number is less than 3 than you are probably doing a pretty good job staying away from evangelization p0rn. If the number is 1 or less than you’re a hero. Or you don’t have internet. If the number is greater than 3 than you are probably addicted to Evangelization P0rn.

Full Disclosure: My numbers suck. I'm mildly addicted to evangelization porn. The first step is admitting you have a problem. The second step is prayer. The third step is to stop consuming and get out there and do something.

"Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams..."

-Dostoevsky

 "The devil frequently fills our thoughts with great schemes, so that instead of putting our hands to what work we can do to serve our Lord, we may rest satisfied with wishing to perform impossibilities.” 

-St. Teresa of Avila

This Story about Pope John Paul II is Changing My Life

I recently heard a remarkable and supposedly true story involving Blessed Pope John Paul II and his driver, and this story has been haunting me for the past few weeks.

The story goes that Pope John Paul II was getting out of a car and his driver accidentally slammed the Pope's fingers in the car door. What a great opportunity to see what someone is really made of. My Dad slammed my fingers in the trunk of a car one time, that was the first and last time I ever swore in front of my Dad. I'm still afraid of trunk space.

Legend has it that the first whispered words out of Pope John Paul II's mouth were: "Thank you, Lord, for loving me this way."

I don't know about you, but this story rocked my face off. In a situation where you are suddenly slammed into abrupt pain - stub your toe on a chair, poke yourself in the eye with your toothbrush, or reach down to pick up your shoe and slam your eyebrow on the kitchen counter - what comes out of your mouth comes straight from your heart. It is more a knee-jerk reaction than well thought out intellectual response. A lot of my reactions to situations like these seem to be four letter words...

This story reminds me of Jesus' words:

"The good man out of the treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." Luke 6:45

Situations like these are opportunities to see what you are really made of, and to see what is really in your heart. If you live a life like Pope John Paul II, you are constantly aware that every moment of your life is a gift from God. Your heart is overflowing with love for God, and a constant awareness of His love for you. Everything God allows to happen to you is for your good.

Suffering, pain, disappointment; these things are given to us to bear because these things will make us Saints. Becoming who we are created to be hurts, because we are weak and would rather seek pleasure than love. Even the small moments of life give us opportunity to grow closer to Christ, to love God more, and to overcome our little sufferings and crosses with the grace and love of Jesus Christ working in us.

The past few weeks I have been trying to respond to the little difficulties and sufferings in my life by quietly saying "Thank you, Lord, for loving me this way."

"The way of perfection passes by way of the cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes." Catechism of the Catholic Church 2015

Strange Notions: Atheist and Catholic Conversations

 You need to know about the launching of a new website, Strange Notions, spearheaded by Brandon Vogt who knows a thing or two about "new" media and the new evangelization. (Check out his book here: The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet)

After St. Paul preaches in the Areopagus in Athens to the intellectual elite, they respond saying "May we learn what this new teaching is that you speak of? You bring some strange notions to our ears, we should like to know what these things mean." (Acts 17:19-20)

[youtube=http://youtu.be/ieDRMoxhySo]

With a website trailer like that, the adrenaline is already flowing just at the idea of a site that sets out to bring intellectual conversations between atheists and Catholics to an internet in dire need of it.

StrangeNotions.com is designed to be the central place of dialogue online between Catholics and atheists.

Its implicit goal is to bring non-Catholics to faith--especially followers of the so-called New Atheism. As a 'digital Areopagus', the site will include intelligent articles, compelling video, and rich discussion through its comment boxes.

The site is laid out in blog post format, with by-topic articles from a team of contributors presumably written with an atheist audience in mind.

The list of main contributors for the site is world class, with some of the best of the best as far as Catholic writers and thinkers go. In my humble opinion, this is one of the best lineups I've ever seen for a Catholic website of this nature.

I also like the extensive recommended books list that doesn't pull punches and is intellectually demanding.

I'm very interested to be watching this site unfold and participating in the conversations.

I do wonder, however, what will draw intelligent atheists to this site and the conversations and not just your normal trolls that lurk on Catholic websites. It would be great to see this website reach out to atheist bloggers and speakers to engage them in open dialogue in a way that goes beyond just the comment box. To have a thinking atheist write a response or article defending his position would add to the website's claim to be an open forum of reason and dialogue. Maybe even a HuffPoLive-esque Google Hangout would work well.

This is a site to watch and get involved with, learn a thing or two, and even send to your skeptical atheist friends challenging them to engage in dialogue with the authors and thinkers. Pray for this "digital areopagus", because it is a much needed space in the mission territory of the internet.

The Brains Behind It All:

Brandon Vogt is an award-winning author, blogger, in speaker. In 2011 he released his first book titled The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet (Our Sunday Visitor). The book includes a Foreword by Cardinal Sean O'Malley, an Afterword by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, and was endorsed by a several other cardinals, bishops, and leading Catholic thinkers.

Since then he’s established himself as an expert on Catholic new media and in May 2011, Vatican officials invited him to Rome to discuss social media. At the meeting, Archbishop Claudio Celli explained that the Church's mission today is to "open a conversation with the world." That's precisely what StrangeNotions.com is designed to do.