The biggest thing that has come to me when thinking about this is simply the idea that youth do not come to events held by you because you are not as important to them as someone or something else might be.  Or, you are not around when people are “making plans.”  So this question is really more about how do you win their hearts?  How we get them to consider what is happening at the Church before they say yes to anything else.  Let’s face it, youth do not plan ahead.  If you are having a movie night on a Friday night, it is unlikely that you will get any real honest and true commitments from hardly anyone even if you see them all on Wednesday night.  Unless, the event is the fruit of your relationship with them.

Say What?

Think about it.  The events that you hold should be the fruit of the relationships that you have with the youth.  That means that the relationship must come first.  It is an absolute turn off when you decide “Hey I should have a movie night because I haven’t had one like that for awhile.”  It becomes something you are doing because of your job, if not in your own eyes, then at least in the eyes of the youth.  To the youth, you are promoting an event that didn’t start with them.  It started with your job.  You are reaching out to everyone, not them.  Now what if you were hanging out with a few youth having ice cream one day and one of them said “we should have a movie night!”  All of a sudden, they are the one’s hanging up the flyers, inviting their friends, and you end up not ordering enough pizza.  Wouldn’t that be awesome?

Three Quick Tips To Help You With Attendance At Your Events

Sending a message on Facebook that points youth to an event online and saying “this event is going to be awesome, be sure to invite all of your friends” is tacky.  Stop it.

Everyone can see it and the one person who does follow through will feel dorky because they are the only one who investing back into you.  Put the event on there, but let the youth take ownership of it.  If they are not doing it themselves, then you missed a step.

Call some of the upperclassmen up and ask them to help you with jobs that you created simply to have them there.

Events like this are a great time to grab those people who you do not normally get a chance to connect with.  Have one of them be the one who has to pop the popcorn and pour the drinks.  Then while all of the kids are watching a movie, have an intentional conversation with your “helper.”  Buy some snacks that are really good (I like the Reeses’ Ice Cream bars) and sneak them only to your helpers to show you like them more

Call People

Trust me, they are more scared of you than you are of them.  I once called a girl in my youth group trying to get a small group of youth to go to a movie together.  It was unplanned and I just wanted to try something random.  I started by asking her if she had any plans for the night.  Her response was that “everyone else was doing stuff and she wasn’t invited.”  I made a deal with her.  If I could get 4 others to go to a movie that evening, she had to join us.  I ended up calling 10 youth and 8 of them also were going to sit at home on a Friday night by themselves because they were not “invited” by the others.

Stop making excuses, get on the phone, be passionate about the event, and get them there.  Bribe them with ice cream if you have to.

That’s Not All

Last but not least, the event has to be memorable.  The movie you choose does not matter.  Be random, have intentional conversations, and do something that the youth will be telling their friends about on Monday.  Mark Yaconelli said it best when he said something to the effect of “You are not a good youth worker unless a rule has been made because of your ministry.”  The example he uses is the rule “There shall be no hide and seek in the pipes of the organ.”

Keep up the great work!

CREDITS: CC Image courtesy of ashleigh290 on Flickr

Everyone sits in a circle and everyone works as a team to stack as many layers of chaos as they can and can handle before your brains are fried.

So what is a layer of chaos?

One person will be the leader for the group. They will begin and end each layer, keeping track of how the group is doing.

Starting the first layer.

To begin the first layer, the leader will decide on a topic (we will use foods as an example). They will say a topic and point to another person passing the baton to them with that topic. Then that person points at another person saying their food. It goes around until everyone has went once. The last person will go back to the leader.

This will be the standard order for round one. So for the food level you should remember who you receive from and who you pass to. Practice this a couple of times as a group and then you are ready to move on to round two.

For round two the leader should pick a different category and a different start person. Go through and practice round two. Ideally, everyone will receive from and pass to a different person than round one.

After you have practiced just round two you are ready for the chaos. The leader will begin both rounds so they start again with round one by saying their food to the person who they said it to in round one, once that person receives level one, the leader will pass the level two category to the appropriate person. The group will pass through both levels at the same time. Once the leader has received both levels the group moves on to adding a third level.

Typically you will do this until the leader has chosen every person in the circle to start with or until someone’s brain is fried and they just can not do it any longer.

Good luck. We have seen groups get up to 14-16 levels at one time. See if you can do more!

The Community

Google+ is currently only open to adults.  Many professionals and bussinesses are currently using it to network, communicate, and share with each other.  The new ‘Circles’ method of connecting is making it extremely easy to connect and share with those in a niche field (youth ministry!).  It’s kind of neat where when we find the right youth ministers in the right circles, they can connect you with people in all of their different circles.  I know it sounds very ‘clickish’ but it is in an extremely good way.

The Ease & Speed

Once you get the hang of things, it is extremely easy and quick to have a well organized group of colleagues who are fighting in the trenches of youth ministry.  When you come across something cool, have a question, or simply think others might enjoy something that happened to you today, throw it into your “fun youth ministers” circle and let them experience it with you.  I am exaggerating a little, but truly this is the type of benefit that is offered through Google+.  If keep looking and find yourself some great circles, you will be surprised at the amount of knowledge you can gain by what others share.

Especially now that Google+ is in the beginning stages.  Things are very bare, it is easy to figure out, and you do not have many options but to set a good foundation for how your circles are set up.

The Potential

The potential behind Google+ is insane.  I have seen priests use google hangouts to pray the rosary with others and to pray the liturgy of the hours with others.  Wouldn’t it be great to meet with other youth ministers from your Diocese regularly to discuss ministry, plan events together, etc.  I know is South Dakota, where parishes are often a good drive away from each other, this feature is something I will be looking to use very soon (one I convince others how cool it is!).

Last, but not least…the games

If you do try it out and you find it’s a complete waste of time.  At least you have Angry Birds to fall back on.

Get on Google+, add me to your Youth Ministry Guru circle and let’s hangout!  Here is my profile! 

Enjoy!

This article is about following others on YouTube.  You are probably aware that you can ‘like’ people on Facebook and ‘follow’ people on Twitter.  Well you can do the same things with YouTube.  People who post videos on YouTube create a channel (a profile) where all of their content is stored.  You can follow what these people are doing in a few different ways.  I have created a simple screenr to demonstrate how to do it and have included it below.

Who To Subscribe To:

Here is quick list of a few ‘musts’ for Catholic youth minister to subscribe to.  One reason I am writing this post is also for others to share with me people that they follow.  If you know of others, please include them in the comments section below.

• Augustine Institute
• Catholic Answers
• For Your Vocation
• Fr. Frank Pavone
• Group Magazine
• Julian Smith
• Live Action Films
• Outside Da Box
• Rhett & Link & Rhett & Link 2
• Skit Guys
• Word on Fire
• Youth Ministry Tips
• Youth Specialties
• Simply Youth Ministry

Here is a quick tutorial on how to subscribe to you favorites!

Enjoy!

Pharaoh was intimidated by the Israelites and knew they would become an overwhelming force to deal with if they grew too large.  So what did he do?  He made them work so much that they did not have time to focus on their families.  At the same time this tedious schedule would take away their time for prayer and worship given to God.  As you may already know, this didn’t stop the growth as God was with them.

This is a harsh reality in our work as youth ministers.  We definitely become overworked and are taken away from doing the things that we know we must not forget to do.  But who is your Pharoah?  Many would say their priest or their parish council.  In my work as a youth minister, I would say it’s myself.  Do you demand too much of yourself? Here are a few quick tips.

Trim the Fat

Make a list of the things you give time to and prioritize that list.  I wrote another post about a year ago on this same topic.

Recognize the Grace in Ministry

The Israelites were obedient and God was with them.  It’s funny how they had no time to pro-create but God made it happen anyway.  Recognize the beautiful graces that God gives you as a youth minister.  He will make things happen His way, so get out of the way.

Focus on Why You Are Doing This

Moses was pulled out of this mess and given a special role in saving God’s people.  You are called to do the same.  Be Moses to the youth and volunteers in your parish and get rid of Pharaoh that exists in you.

If you discover that it is your priest, parish council, or parents in your parish that are applying the pressure, be sure to refrain from calling them Pharaoh to their face.  You may want to develop a more professional approach in asking them to let up a little.  In most cases an honest conversation with these individuals will be plenty to get the ball rolling, allowing you to bring life into your family and ministry.  Heck, you may find that the Pharaoh you are dealing with really isn’t a Pharaoh after all!

It seem like I have done a lot of name calling in this post.  I am not an advocate of name calling (just thought I would throw that out there).

Enjoy!

I am okay with this because I am coming to the realization that this is the mindset of too many that want to do more for their youth in their parishes and do not currently have a youth group.  Many even blame the lack of youth involvement on ‘not having a youth group.’ But what is required in order to have the typical youth group is far beyond what many volunteers are willing to commit to.  Heck, there are many parishes that have the same mentality, that “we are just not ready for something that big.”

I want to argue that youth groups are not necessary.  Obviously you will find many resources on this site that help a youth ministry program sustain through the ‘youth group’ model, but I believe they are not necessary.  In my efforts of starting a youth group from scratch, I wanted to stretch too far too soon and lost a lot of people on the way.  It was not until I realized that I needed the help and support of loving adults and parents from the parish to help that the youth group finally started to take off.  So I would propose everyone starts there.

When I was in high school, God put it on my heart to start a prayer group with my peers.  I was 16 years old, just had my conversion, and was fired up about the Catholic Church.  I did not know much of anything about the Church, Scripture, Mary, etc…but I knew the one thing God called was calling me to was to be a leader in our small town of 2400 people to my peers and ultimately to the parish.  Looking back we had an amazing group that meet for several years and I credit the success of it to one thing (outside of God’s love for me and my openness to His will of course!).  I credit it to two loving adults in the parish that supported me, watched me lead, and challenged me in my faith, my father and our parish priest.   It was me leading, but I would never have been able to do it alone.

My number one goal in ministry right now is to get adults from the parishes involved in the lives of youth and connect those adults to the vision of the ministry that I believe God is calling us to.  To develop young leaders in the faith and give them the support they need to grow and flourish doing God’s will.  This will be reflected in every program that I put on.  So when I send a high school youth back in to their parish to live out their faith, they know that they are not alone.  That if they have friends that went with on a retreat, that they would not need to depend on the immature faith of their peers to keep them accountable, but that they would find a stable and encouraging relationship with an adult that they can count on for their entire lives.

When I fell as a leader in the group I led in high school, it affected the entire group.  I could not depend on those I was leading because they were not always strong enough.  Praise the Lord that  I had my priest and father to help me get right back up again.

You do not NEED a youth group.  What you NEED is for those kids who have a desire to learn and grow in their faith to have someone to guide them and to be there to pick them up when they fail.  If these youth find a healthy relationship with an adult, it will grow.  The adult(s) should always be looking ahead so when the fruits of their Christ-like love spreads and the group gets too big, they are duplicating this love in other adults as well.  Then you start looking at a youth group as a means to make sure no one gets missed in this process and that all are welcome.

Notice I did not mention games or skits once!

Thoughts??? Please comment below.

What You Need

• Five actors
• A large mixing bowl and a spatuala or beater

Plot

The basic jist of this skit is that there is a director that is trying to get the rest of the group to act out a skit called ‘Making Eggs.’  They go through it several times and the director cuts them off and asks them to do it differently each time.  The actors are extremely dramatic in how they respond to the director’s requests.  They go through the skit several times before the director gets frustrated and leaves.

How it is Acted Out

I will start by going through the basic skit that the actors are trying to perform.

• (Stage begins with mom up front stirring eggs)
• Child (walks up to mom): Hey what are you doing?
• Mom: Making Eggs
• Child: Cool!  Can I have some?
• Mom: Uh…ok.
• Child (tastes eggs with finger, gets immediately sick, and falls to the floor as if they died)
• Mom: OH NO!  (picks up phone and calls 911)  Please help! My child is sick.
• (Two or three ambulance people coming rushing in making siren noises, they pick up the kid and start carrying them to the back)
• Director stops them and complains about how bad they are acting.

So this is what happens several times.

The skit starts with the director having them do ‘Take 1.’  The director is really excited and has a lot of energy.  The first time the actors act out ‘Making Eggs’ it is just boring and pretty slow.  Then each time the director chooses a different key word that they want the actors to try.

A common transition between tries would be:

• 1st Time – Boring
• 2nd Time – Be a little more ‘energetic’ (acts out really fast and overly excited)
• 3rd Time – Need to slow things down.  Keep the excitement but slow things down (actors are in slow motion)
• 4th Time – Takes it as they are mocking the director and asks them to act like adults (actors are very intelligent)
• 5th Time – Way too adult-like, bring it down just a notch (actors all act like babies)

Anyway, you get the point.  You probably do not want to do it more than 5 or 6 times.  At the end of the last one the director, throws down their clipboard and walks out of the room.

Have more ideas to add to this skit?  Post them in the comments section below!

I have recently been delving into my copy of the new YOUCAT put out by Ignatius Press.  The YouCat is short for Youth Catechism.  I just want to through a few comments up about it and how I think it can and will be utilized in youth ministry.

What is it?

The YOUCAT is basically the youth version of the Catechism.  This is talked about in the forward of the book that when the committee that originally helped develop the Catechism  we have today met, they knew that this would need to come later.  It is not the Catechism, just dumbed down nor is it a literal translation of the Catechism.  It is simply a youth version of our beliefs organized much like the Catechism is.  The content is written in a question and answer format and gives references to where these answers can be found, on a deeper level, in the Catechism.

Another thing to note is that this is not an official Catechism for youth.  It does not come from the Vatican and it does not come from the USCCB.  It is a product of Ignatius Press.  This leads me to the next important point.

Pope Benedict

The pope’s name and endorsement is all over this thing.  Actually here is a quote that is found on the back.

Study this Catechism!  This is my heartfelt desire.  Study this Catechism with passion and perseverance.  Study it in the quiet of your room; read it with a friend; form study groups and networks; share with each other on the Internet…. You need to be more deeply rooted in the faith than the generation of your parents…

So… the pope is a big fan of it.  Actually the first picture in the YOUCAT is a picture of him holding the hideously ugly yellow YOUCAT with a grin on his face.

What Should We Use It For?

This is not the Catechism.  You can not reference it like you can the CCC.  Resources that you use for youth groups or religious education will reference the CCC and this will be of no help to you in that way.  Right now it is just something that can be used to help give our youth a better understanding of the faith.  It is more of a personal study resource.  I can see publishers coming out with resources to supplement the YOUCAT for better use in the classroom.  I could even see curriculum referencing the YOUCAT along with the CCC.

I would definitely recommend having extra copies of this on hand to give away to those youth who want to know more.  Maybe as graduation or Confirmation gifts.  If you have a good leader, maybe even leading a study group to go through it.

More…

Just to forewarn you, it is still pretty deep reading for a high schooler.  I believe there are some who could get through without much of a problem, but the average high schooler may still struggle with.  Youth in the U.S. are considered high schoolers usually.  The rests of the world seems to use the word youth for 16-30 years old.   I would recommend getting a copy to review for yourself and go from there.

Do you have thoughts or questions on the YOUCAT.  Please post them below!

Link to YOUCAT Here

Pope Benedict’s Forward

Enjoy!