This will be my first of ten posts that deals with starting a youth group from scratch. I was very blessed when I came to my parish to be able to start from scratch. When I say from scratch, the youth director before me had a rosary making club that met twice a week for about an hour. They also had an annual ski trip. We are a parish of just under 1500 families and there were 3-4 kids involved and zero parents. The youth director was shared with another parish a little smaller than ours. She also taught at the Catholic school in town. When I was hired, the parishes decided to each hire a full-time youth director.
I was 22 years, still going to school, and had no idea what I was getting in to. I have been at the parish now for about seven years and am ready to share my advice on what I would do if I were to start over in another parish somewhere else. I will hopefully make this fitting for any size parish or youth leader role.
This first section will be on setting goals and a mission.
Oftentimes, one of the only questions I get asked by people from the parish (especially the finance and parish council) is “how many youth are involved in youth group?” I am often hesitant to answer because I know they are expecting a bigger number than I give them. Our church has a Religious Education program that is separate from the youth group so kids are not required or expected to go by their parents. Recruitment and retention is a big part of my job.
Numbers
There is a great quote from the song Everything by Lifehouse which says “how can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?” The main goal of any youth minister should be to lead youth to Christ and to get them fired up about Christ. What does that mean? You must reflect Christ and create opportunities for youth to connect with you. From there you point them to Christ and to our heavenly mother Mary. The quote from Lifehouse is true. How the heck can youth not be moved and fall in love with Christ if we are there beside them. If you want to set a number goal in the first two years of developing a youth group, set a goal of how many youth you have started a conversation with and followed up with. How many times have stepped out of your comfort to talk to youth. Not just the easy outgoing ones, but the quiet ones that you are scared of because you think that they do not like you. The recent movie “to save a life’ has a great part in it when the main character says something like ‘what good are crazy games if this youth group isn’t changing you.’ Yes games, lessons and music are important, but your group is worthless if you have 50 kids there and no one’s life is being changed by your ministry.
Mission
Write a list of ten things that you want to happen through your youth group. Here are a few we are striving for.
- Provide a positive and safe environment where youth can be themselves and not feel judged
- Develop student leaders of the faith that live honest lives
- Set youth up for life after high school and the pressures that go along with it
- Build a youth group of character
- Provide a comfortable sharing environment where youth know there is always someone to talk to
- Connect youth with the larger church, getting them involved in parish
- Offer opportunities for youth to receive the sacraments
These are a few of my general goals that I set in the beginning. I like to look at them at least a few times a year and make sure I am meeting all of them. If not, I talk with my leaders and figure out ways we can do better.
Your youth group should have a mission statement. It should be simple and to the point. It should be able to be memorized and recited at gunpoint if needed. Come up with it and live by it.
Our youth group sat at about 4-5 kids weekly for about the first two years, then bumped to about 8-12 for another year. Although people in the parish would have liked to have seen more kids coming, those first years were essential in developing leaders to lead the ones that were to come. Just about all of the youth that were involved in the first two years are still active in the church and doing well. It was because of the time I was able to spend with them. Now that the group has grown I work to develop adult leaders to do what I was able to do when I first started. I will write more about this in later posts.
