How We're Hacking the Steubenville Conference High to Launch Discipleship Groups

I've been taking high schoolers to Steubenville conferences for the last 6 years I've been in ministry. It's an amazing experience and really a huge surge of evangelistic momentum for any group of high school students. The problem a lot of us youth ministers have is following up intentionally on this event and using the momentum to bring youth into a deeper understanding of what it means to follow Jesus as His disciple.

So my co-captain Tim and I came up with a plan to hack this evangelistic momentum. The intention is two-fold: to capitalize on teens committing/recommitting to a decision to follow Jesus and make changes in their life, and to continue to foster the Christian community created in our Steubenville conference small groups.

Our plan is to use commitment cards  and a Discipleship 101 series as followup. Feel free to download and use the resources we created! If you try something like this, let me know your thoughts.

#1. Commitment Cards

I first heard about commitment cards being used at chastity talks, and I wasn't that keen on them. Then recently I heard about them again, this time through Rick Warren at Saddleback Church. The idea of a written commitment that gives teens practical next steps started to sound like the answer to the nagging feeling that comes one week after an event like Steubenville or a Lifeteen summer camp. "How did everything go? Did teens encounter Jesus? Have I done enough to follow up? Did I do a good job?"

So our commitment card serves a few purposes. First, it gives teens a physical sign of an interior movement that may have occured at the Steubenville conference. There is a brief explanation of how to pray to Jesus and make a decision of faith to follow him. Then they can sign the card and keep it in their Bible or place it somewhere in their room. 

There is also place for teens to put their contact info. We printed these cards on perforated raffle tickets we picked up at Office Max. (You can download the word file we used below.) This way we can track who made a commitment and follow up with them individually after the conference.

We asked ourselves, "What are the first basic and practical habits that someone who has just given their life to Jesus can start committing to that very day?" 

Reading Matthew 23:27 Jesus gives a great commandment "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your soul." So we decided that, at the very least, if a teen comes away from this conference committed to following one command of Jesus, this would be the best (greatest) one to follow.

So the three basic habits we will encourage teens to commit to are:

• Loving God with my heart through daily quiet time with Jesus.
• Loving God with my soul through weekly worship of God.
• Loving God with my mind through setting aside time monthly to grow as a disciple.

Daily quiet, weekly worship, and monthly growth. If a non-Christian teen comes on this conference, has a life-changing encounter with Jesus, commits their life to following Him and practicing these three habits, and then we never see that teen again, I would feel confident that teen has been prepared for a life-long relationship with Jesus. Everything else will come from those three habits. They will be seeking God in prayer every day, they will be coming to Church every week, and they will eventually seek out RCIA as a way to grow if he hasn't been baptized, or at least strive to grow in his understanding of what it now means to be a disciple of Jesus.

#2. Discipleship 101 Series

At a Steubenville conference, the Gospel message (kerygma) is proclaimed with the intention of bringing about a conversion of heart, repentance of sin, and a decision of faith. The first three means of insertion into the mystery of Christ are used, with an emphasis on Scripture, evangelistic talks, and Liturgy and Sacraments. 

There are four ways of insertion into the mystery of Christ:

1. Sacred Scripture
2. Systematic Catechesis
3. Liturgy and Sacraments
4. Authentic Christian Community

Another aspect of the Steubenville conference is the power of Christian community. Our youth ministry at our parish, as a lot of youth ministries around the country, is trying to adopt small discipleship group ministry as a way to help teens grow deeper into mature disciples after having a meaningful encounter with Jesus.

So our plan is to have three "reunions" immediately following the Steubenville conference. This will be our Discipleship 101 series where each night we will do a mini-Young Church night (following the Lifeteen gather/proclaim/break/send format) with all the teens and chaperones and adults of the steubenville conference.

Each night we will meet in our youth center to unpack one of the three basic habits of a disciple: daily quiet, weekly worship, and monthly growth. We'll have a quick fun activity, a short teaching, and then break back into their small groups from the Steubenville conference. We'll end with something practical to do that week.

Here's the real power play: after those three sessions, we will challenge and encourage those still coming to meet for *three more* sessions with their small group outside of the Church.

We're hoping that these adults and teens who make it to this phase will have enough momentum to continue meeting as a discipleship group. That's the prayer at least.

So this is our plan. We'll let you know how it goes! Please say a quick prayer for us right now. Who knows what will happen, but its worth a shot! And if you'll be at Steubenville Lonestar in Dallas and you see me, say hi! I'd love to meet you.

Resources and Assets

Below are a bunch of the resources we created. Feel free to use them and edit them as you need. If you do something similar, let me know how it goes! 

Basic Commitment Card Word Doc 
(We printed on Office Depot Tickets 8 per sheet. Item 922-761)
Discipleship 101 Ad PSD
Discipleship 101 Ad PNG

Session Talks:

Promo Video:

I also recorded a video explaining this all to the parents and encouraging them to follow up with their child after the conference. Check it out below.

Free Download: 10 Day Prayer Guide

We've been putting in some work over at Reverb Culture. Weekly blog articles by fantastic writers. Lots of new designs.(I showed my wife this picture and she said "That's in the catechism?" Mission accomplished.)

If I haven't told you yet, Reverb Culture is an experiment in young adult community for Catholics. We're big on praying with Scripture and the Catechism. And we love cocktails. And weird t-shirts.

This website and community, Reverb Culture, would not exist if the Catechism of the Catholic Church hadn't changed my life. First my prayer life, then my life, then how I viewed discipleship and the future of the Church.

I've read twenty plus books from authors of the catechism and experts in the field. I've spent countless hours pouring through the catechism, studying it, and eventually began praying with it. I've also been using the catechism and this form of prayer with the catechism in discipleship, catechist training, youth minister training, small groups, young adult groups, and my own life for years.

So I'm finally putting it all down on paper. (Electronic e-book paper. E-paper.) We're calling it Dual Wielding: A Guide to Praying with Scripture and the Catechism.

It will be a full e-book that will show you how to pray with Scripture and the Catechism like a boss, and how to navigate the catechism and not be intimidated by it.

It's going to include printouts you can stick in your catechism, supplemental videos, cocktail recipes for making Reverb Culture official drinks, and a private community to pray for you and support you.

It will also include printable prayer guides like this:

This is a 10 day guided prayer through Scripture and the Catechism. At the end of these reflections, you'll have prayed with both Scripture and the Catechism's exposition of the names of Jesus: Jesus, Christ, Son of God, and Lord. Its an exposition on the part of the Creed where we say "I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord."

I really wanted to share this guide with you. I'd love for you to pray with it and give me any feedback you might have. You can download this prayer guide, which will be included as one of many in the larger study guide, for free by entering your email over at Reverb Culture.

Download the free 10 Day Prayer Guide.

If you're interested in the full guide package we're making, Dual Wielding: Praying with Scripture and the Catechism, you can learn more about it and even pre-order a copy here.

Let me know what you think! If you like it, could you do me a favor? Can you think of a friend or a few friends who would really dig this and share it with them?

Thanks! Talk to you soon.

Wu-Tang, Quality, and Scarcity: Two Things We Need (or three?)

The new and possibly final Wu-Tang album is more than two hours long. It features 31 tracks, all eight living MCs, ... sirens, bombs, samples from kung fu cinema, and original skits. And it took more than two years to produce, mostly because eighty percent of its vocals were re-recorded to capture the intensity of early Wu-Tang records. The album’s title: Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.

Here is some additional info: the CD is housed within two nickel-silver boxes that were hand-carved by a Moroccan artist and his team of ten workers over three months; there is only one physical copy of the album in existence; all digital versions have been destroyed; and bidding starts at $5 million. And we learned yesterday that Once Upon a Time in Shaolin will remain under copyright until 2103 — that’s 88 years.

I came across this article and now the Wu-Tang Clan fascinates me like an itch on the back of my head. I think a lot about making stuff. I really enjoy making stuff.

Creating. Art. Design. Expression. Speaking. Performing. Writing. Evangelizing. Catechizing. MAKING BABIES.

This is a brilliant lesson for all of us that like to make stuff.

--> Drop your expensive pen and listen. <--

There's a saying that in order to survive in a competitive market you are either the first or the best. Quality. There is always room in a market for high quality, because there's virtually no ceiling on it. The Wu-Tang clan spared no expense in making this album.

Hand-cvarved by a Moroccan artist and ten others. Read that again.

Oh, you threw some paint on a square and called it a day? Not the Wu. They took longer and spent more money and crammed more stuff into an album to make it arguably the most valuable, rare, and unique album ever. Do you slave over the stuff you make? Is it high quality?

Quality

How do you know if something is high quality? It kicks a**. People can't not say something about it. People save it. People frame it. People recited it back to you. People share it. People put it on repeat. People lock it in a museum. People are moved by it.

Lots of people. People who don't go to your Church, and people who don't know who you are, and people who aren't the same political party as you. People who are far from you. People who speak a different language. People who disagree with you fundamentally. People who hate you.

Another principal in market economics (that is, selling the crap you make) is scarcity. Scarcity makes something special. Like diamonds. (Or not like diamonds).

There is only one copy of this record. They played it publicly only once. Some people showed up in a room naked without their phones or cameras or recorders or other artificial-experience-validators. And maybe for the first time in years, this album and the weight of its scarcity forced people to shut up and just stand there. It was only going to be played once.

Scarcity

In the search for market penetration, or mass acceptance, or mainstream affirmation, do we forget to make things that are scarce? Scarcity makes something valuable. The most un-scarce things are the least valuable, or at least the least appreciated.

And not just things that are actually, physically, scarce. We often lack a scarcity awareness. The awareness that this minute passing right now is the first and last of its kind. The awareness that this life is only singular. The awareness of the scarcity of good friends. A scarcity awareness.

When making something, the maker must bake scarcity into it. Turn off the camera. Throw away the other copies. Perform it live. Do something singular.

When something can make you feel the weight of scarcity, you see it for the first time. Everything else blurs out of focus. You see it as if it and you are the only things. You really see it.

Does It Have a Scarce Quality?

The Church is calling for a new evangelization. An evangelization "new in its ardor, method, and expression". Its what Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict championed for.

I'm starting to develop a thesis that might somehow connect artists/makers/creators to the future development of evangelization. Maybe its not a big deal. But it sure does help push me further.

"As the 20th century draws to a close, the Church is bidden by God and by events - each of them a call from Him - to renew her trust in catechetical activity as a prime aspect of her mission. She is bidden to offer catechesis her best resources in people and energy, without sparing effort, toil or material means, in order to organize it better and to train qualified personnel." Catechesi Tradendae #15

Are we challenging the borders of this new frontier?

Are we striving constantly to make things that are scarce and high quality?

Or are we racing to repeat things that are popular and unchallenging and that are sure to work?

Do our talks and conferences match up to this? Or are we just repeating THE SAME FREAKING CONFERENCE and the same talks and cute sayings ad infinitum? Does our music challenge us like this? Does our art challenge us? Is it high quality and scarce, sparing no effort or toil or material means?

And here's what is most important to us Christians:

Is our Church's evangelization, catechesis, music, art, culture, writing, [fill in the thing you make] the highest quality and does it weigh heavy in that kind of scarcity that arrests people and holds them still.

Because if the Gospel isn't that, then you aren't sharing the Gospel.

Story Matters

Would you buy a thrift store porcelain figurine for $17 if someone wrote a fictitious story to explain its origins? The existence of such a thing as Significant Objects is a testament to the goodness of the internet. Authors wrote little vingettes to go with the crap objects, and they were then sold on eBay. The fact that all of these yard sale insignificants sold for a total of $8,000 is a testament to the power of story.

Jesus told lots of stories. People connect with stories. In evangelization and catechesis, you can root an idea or doctrine firmly into reality and your audience's mind by telling a story.

Tell more stories. End your talk with a story. Write a story into your thing. Put a story on the website. Throw a story into the newsletter. After that conference send out the story of one of the teen's experience to the parents.

Tell more stories.

Figuring Out How to Evaluate Ministry Methods

As you may have guessed by a previous article of mine about common fallacies found in critiques of youth ministry, I get pretty testy when it comes to people's opinions and critiques of different methods of ministry. I'm not against us making things better, but I go a little crazy when I read a majority of the comments, articles, and books that are a part of this conversation. (Some definitions first. When I say ministry, I'm speaking of ministries in the Church that deal with evangelization and catechesis. Also, I'm using method in a broad sense. Think Lifeteen, YDisciple, peer ministry, Adoration, Lectio Divina, gregorian chant, small groups, experiential catechesis, inductive methods, deductive methods, praise and worship, talks, skits, activities, coloring books, Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, relational ministry, prayer ministry, conferences, spoon man, summer camps, etc. etc.)

I'm working on an article that I hope will offer a framework for evaluating methods and methodology for ministry, using specifically youth ministry as a practical example.

But I want your input first.

While doing some reading I came across this quote from the GDC in a fantastic chapter on this exact topic. It is Caroline Farey's work in the book The Pedagogy of God. Her chapter is titled "Methodology in the Light of the Pedagogy of God".

Here's the first:

"The Church, in transmitting the faith, does not have a particular method nor any single method. Rather, she discerns contemporary methods in the light of the pedagogy of God." General Directory for Catechesis 148

Caroline takes this quote to set up her thesis that all methods must be evaluated against God's pedagogy, or God's method.

(I love this because one of the biggest problems is the lack of distinctions we make between the objective and subjective ways we speak about a method.)

Caroline's bold claim is this:

Catechists (read youth minister, blogger, DRE, Diocesan Minister, speakers, etc) need formation, firstly in the deposit of Faith, then in the pedagogy of God... and then in how to examine methods and methodologies in its light in order to discern those methods that are suitable for communication the Faith and those that are not."

Caroline Farey in The Pedagogy of God p.163

So Here's my question to you:

How do you evaluate different methods of (youth) ministry? What makes a particular method successful?

Answer in the comments below or email me. Say something smart or witty and I may include it in the article I'm writing. I'm looking forward to the discussion!

Talk: The Catechism and Apologetics

This week I got to fill in as a speaker at our Parish's series of talks on Apologetics. The topic my coworker gave me, knowing I'm a total nerd about this, is Using the Catechism in Apologetics. I love speaking about the Catechism, and I feel like this talk really summarizes a lot of my research, prayer, and thought on the catechism. In a way it was more of a crash course fire-hydrant-to-the-face on the catechism. There is a LOT of good content packed into this. So I'm throwing it up here hoping it might bless you in some way. I'd love to hear what you think.

Here's the handout: The Catechism and Apologetics PDF

Also, the Homily by Father Raniero Cantalamessa that I refer to and handed out can be found here.

Part of why I set out to create this website was just to document my attempts at growing and thinking and being creative and working for the Church. I tend to lean more towards being vulnerable and messy than polished and neat.

I've been thinking and reading about the Catechism, ministry, evangelization, and catechesis for years now. There are a lot of ideas I've come across or seem to have come up with that I think really need to get out into our Catholic communities. Part of the problem is figuring out the best way to do just that. One of the ways we are trying is through culture, beauty, and the witness of a lifestyle transformed by the Catechism (like we're trying to create at Reverb Culture).

Another challenge is trying to fit all these ideas and big concepts into a digestible talk or format that isn't dry and gets people pumped about the catechism. The Apologetics series normally only runs an hour long, and I'm still working on the best way to present this material (i.e. I have a hard time shutting up once I get going) so we ran a little late (hour and a half).

So, I see this talk as a draft. I definitely learned a lot prepping for it and delivering it. There was a huge response afterwards as people came up and shared with me their reactions.

I'm going to keep thinking and praying about this stuff, and trying every way imaginable to get the Catechism and these ideas out there. I keep feeling it is needed now more than ever.

Join me, won't you?

Let's make a mess.

"The deeper reception of the catechism in the life of the Church still lies ahead." Cardinal Ratzinger

Free Webinar on the Catechism and Cocktails

Hey. Its been awhile since we've talked. This ^^ is my new office and my new standing desk. And this is my new hands position I make when I'm testing out a camera angle. I've been super busy lately resurrecting Reverb Culture from its dusty hibernation. We've made a lot of podcasts, and one of our articles made it onto Patheos (and the front page of New Advent). And I'm working on a few other super cool projects that fall under Reverb Culture's evolving banner: reaching young adults and creating a culture of wild living based in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Its weird. And amorphous. But I keep doing it for (hopefully) the best reason: because I love it. Its not a ministry or an apostolate or new evangelization. I just really like making stuff. And maybe, like hipsters, because its not claiming to be these things, it therefore is all these things.

Or maybe not.

But hey, I'm really excited for the next experiment straight out of Reverb Culture. Its a free live webinar! Coming to you live 7:00pm CST on Thursday May 21!

Over the past four years, I've

learned a heck of a lot about the catechism, both in theory and in practice. I've researched and read a whole shelf-full of books, homilies, and communio articles on the catechism. I've stalked the web for tools and resources. I've used the catechism every week in catechesis (I'm a youth minister, remember?), in young adult settings, at Diocesan Conferences, men's retreats, RCIA, Theology on Tap, and catechist trainings.

You might be thinking "Whoopty doo dee doo! You read the catechism and talk about the faith. Big deal."

Yeah, that's what I used to think too. But after four years of reading the catechism and reading holier people than me talk about the catechism (Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, Ratzinger, Fr. John Hardon, Fr. Eugene Kevane, Barbara Morgan, Pope St. John Paul II, etc) I began to start praying the catechism. Then slowly the catechism became a framework, a way of life, and finally a style of being Christian that seemed to all originate back with Acts 2:42 "They devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching, to the breaking of the bread, to communal life, and to prayer."

I want to share this way of being a disciple of Jesus through devotion to the deposit of faith in a way that rouses the heart of modern man. It is in no way boring or stale or heady. Sure, the Four Pillar Life starts with reading what seems at first glance to be dry, inside baseball, theological language. But its when we start taking the Deposit of Faith and incarnating it in our lives that our Christianity can really become interesting, and deep, and invincible. It becomes unswayed by popular opinion or scandal or fear. I'm not championing an ignorant shutting out of the world and clinging to closed-minded dogmas. I'm talking about spending a little less time with the popular arguments and a little more time returning to the deep wells of the Deposit of Faith that seem untapped as sources to draw out and base the culture we build off of. If we meditated on the Trinity only half as much as we meditated on sex, I think we'd have better music, and art, and beer, and sex.

We have been summoned to return to a way of devotion to the Deposit. A return to allowing the echo of Faith to reverberate in our lives. To build a Culture of Reverb. (I'm sure you didn't see what I just did there...) In this way I hope Reverb Culture answers the challenge to engage the world and with the catechism to "retransform the letter into a living voice."

This webinar is a first step. Training wheels almost. I hope it represents this idea of an Acts 2:42/Catechism/Reverb Culture way of doing things. And I also hope that it makes the catechism seem less intimidating and honestly, more fun and raw and engaging.

The hour and a half webinar is really just an experiment, so I don't know if you'll ever be able to watch it again after we do it live. I'm really trying to make something I don't see out there. I'll give some pointers on the catechism, take audience questions from y'all, show you two of my favorite cocktail recipes, and send you some free pdf downloads to help you turn into an expert catechism wielder. It will be fun. Bring a beer.

So if you're interested, check out the webinar landing page and sign up to join and reserve your spot. When you sign up I'll send you details on how to join the webinar when we get closer to May 21. Be sure to tell your friends.

Click here to check out the nifty spiffy landing page for the webinar.

Barbara Morgan's Catechist Training Podcasts

If you attended Franciscan University and majored in Catechetics, then you remember the name Barbara Morgan echoing as reverent whispers throughout the halls and classrooms. In short, Barbara Morgan helped establish the Catechetics program at Franciscan University under the direction of Msgr. Eugene Kevane. (Who is also a catechetics powerhouse. He founded the Notre Dame Institute for Catechetics and was a powerful mover during the catechetical renewal of the JPII era.) Most of the current catechetics professors at FUS studied under Barbara Morgan. She no longer teaches at FUS, but currently is the DRE at the Christ the King Catholic Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Yes, that Christ the King.)

She is a brilliant master catechist. She's lived the vocation of the catechist for decades, has trained catechists on the college level, and has helped shape the direction of the catechetical renewal we are still experiencing in the Church.

And currently, you can listen to her Catechist Formation series on the Christ the King Podcast feed. You can sit at the feet of the master and get trained by her yourself.

Think about it. Maybe you attended FUS and studied catechetics, or maybe you didn't and wish you did. Maybe you're a parent who wants to know how to keep your kids Catholic and pass the faith on to them. You can get some training straight from the Founderess of the Catechetics Department of Franciscan University. Which I might add is a world-renowned catechetics program. These lectures synthesize catechetical methods down to the most essentials and deliver it to an audience of volunteer catechists. How would Barbara Morgan herself take someone from zero to hero in 10 sessions?

These lectures are so good, I've listened to all of them more than 10 times each. I'm resisting hyperbole and over-hyping these lectures, but they are outstanding.

Here is Christ the King's Podcast Feed.

Here is Christ the King's Podcast category called "Catechist Formation". There are a lot of other lectures and guest lectures from Barbara Morgan's continual formation of the volunteer catechists. There are other series as well with Barbara Morgan walking through all of doctrine (Yes, you heard that right.) Good stuff in here.

Barbara Morgan: Catechist Training Methodology

Introduction to the Course Book

Vocation of the Catechist

Handing on the Faith

Organizing the Message

Handling the Message

Unlocking the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Facilitating Conscience Development and a Strong Moral Life Pt. 1

Facilitating Conscience Development and a Strong Moral Life Pt. 2

Managing Student Behavior

Catechizing from Music

Catechizing from Art

How to Listen

Option One (The Best)

When you click the link, you will see the episode title, a description, and then a small link that looks something like this:

At the bottom is the "direct download" link.

Right click the direct download link (while on a computer) and click "download linked file as..."

Save the file to your desktop and then you can listen to it from your computer, or download it to your phone (iTunes) and listen to it from your phone. Now you have Barbara Morgan forever.

Second Option (not recommended)

Click the direct download link and listen to the audio from your browser, without the ability to scan through the audio. Or you can lookup the Christ the King podcast stream in your phone's podcast app, and then search for Barbara Morgan's lectures spread throughout the entire stream of episodes. I've done this for months until I finally just went and downloaded all of Barbara's talks and loaded them into iTunes.

Blue Jeans and the Catechism

I wrote something and Word on Fire thought it was good enough to publish! Read the Catechism! Just wanted to share it with y'all here. You can read the full article here. Do me a favor and leave a comment on the article on Word on Fire. :)

---

There was one thing on the minds of all Bishops gathered in Rome on November 25, 1985: blue jeans.

George Cardinal Law addressed the Bishops with these words: “Iuvenes Bostoniensis, Leningradiensis et Sacti Jacobi in Chile induti sunt ‘Blue Jeans’ et audiunt et saltant eandem musicam.” 

And for the first time in the history of Catholic Synods, Bishops were talking about blue jeans. In Latin.

This is the opening of the 1985 Extraordinary Synod of Bishops, twenty years after the close of Vatican II. Cardinal Law spoke to all the bishops tasked with reviewing Vatican II’s twenty year impact on the Church. His argument was simple but clear.

Cardinal Schonborn, a major editor of the Catechism who was present at this Synod, summarizes Cardinal Law’s speech in Introduction to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

“In a world where young people all over the world wear the same blue jeans, shouldn’t it be possible to express the faith in a common language? It is not only possible, it is necessary – and mainly for two reasons: first, because the world has definitively become one, sharing the same problems, the same anxieties and hopes; and second, because the faith in itself is unity.

Unity is an essential feature of Christian faith. This vision of one faith in one world fired not only Cardinal Law’s inspiration; it became the driving force of the synod’s discussion about the idea of a catechism. At the end of the synod, the Holy Father made the idea his own.” (p.39)

At the close of this Synod Pope St. John Paul II put together a commission of Bishops and Cardinals, assisted by then Cardinal Ratzinger, to take up Cardinal Law’s idea and write a universal Catechism of the Catholic Church. It would be the first of its kind since Catechism of Trent written in 1566, over 400 years prior.

The call for a Catechism might sound antiquated. It might sound this way most especially for people passionate about the New Evangelization. The New Evangelization is a call for evangelistic efforts new in “ardor, methods, and expressions” that engage modern culture and modern man.

How could a Catechism possibly engage our culture and the people we find ourselves tasked with evangelizing? How could this be an authentic fruit of Vatican II? Is this a return to the painful Catechisms of the past forcibly shoved into the minds of so many Americans?....

Read the rest of the article here.

An Evangelistic Model for Youth Ministry

There are a few problems I’ve come across frequently in conversations about youth ministry. The first is sweeping generalizations. “Large group models suck.” Or “Life Teen is inadequate.” Or “We need more cowbell.” Most critiques of any type of youth ministry model I’ve read create a straw man based on personal experiences of deficient youth ministry. A good model or strategy can always be poorly executed. Another problem is a misunderstanding of the purpose of different types of events or programs a youth ministry may do. To me, looking at the large group event and crying “This doesn’t go deep enough or make disciples!” is like expecting an Alpha course to prepare people for Baptism. That's not the purpose of Alpha. There are multiple contact points with youth that should constantly be pointing to a next step in the Christian life.

What I don't see much of is anyone formally proposing a model of youth ministry that extends beyond a specific weekly event. I wanted to propose a paradigm loosely based on the Catechumenate that I currently believe is the best way to approach youth ministry.

The Mission Territory

Youth ministry reaches out to a specific mission territory in a specific time and place and culture. Pope St. John Paul II in Redemptoris Missio defined three mission situations of evangelization that exist today.

First is the situation in which people haven’t heard and therefore don’t care about Jesus Christ and the Gospel. This is the area of ad gentes missionary activity.

The second is the situation in which people have heard and do care about Jesus and his Gospel. This is the area of pastoral activity.

The third, and most culturally common, is the situation in which people have heard or think they’ve heard about Jesus and everything He has to offer, and have decided to reject it. This is apparent in America even on the scale of whole families, generations, or communities. They’ve been exposed to the Church in some degree, and have rejected it. This is where the need for the “new” evangelization comes from. It is a new territory to be evangelizing people who have already been exposed to the Gospel message and are not hearing it for the first time.

I think this third situation is the most commonly experienced in youth ministries around the country. But to some degree all three situations are present and should be dealt with if youth ministry is going to make disciples.

Acts 2

The Catechumenate is an ancient model of Christian Initiation that has been used in some form since the Early Church. It is a process that leads a person on the fringes of the Church into full sacramental communion with Jesus Christ within the Church. In our post-Christian cultural context of Catholics who are sacramentalized but not evangelized, I think the Catechumenate is still a powerful organizing model for evangelization, because of its focus on conversion and movement.

The Catechumenate exists in a seminal form as early as Acts 2. Go read Acts 2. Do it.

The Apostles "going out" into Jerusalem after Pentecost caused non-Christians to take notice. They were amazed and perplexed and asked "What does this mean?" St. Peter stands up and gives the first sermon of the post-Pentecost Catholic Church and proclaims the kerygma, or the proclamation of Jesus Christ and the Gospel. The crowd is "cut to the heart" and asks "What shall we do?" This is a moment of conversion and they crave to respond to what they've heard. "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

So the three thousand in the crowd do as Peter recommends and they enter the Church, the first RCIA class of  33 A.D. But what do you do with three thousand newly baptized Christians? Form Church communities where the Christians can live out discipleship! What does that look like?

"And they devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching and the communal like, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." Acts 2:42

I'll save my rant about the Catechism (creed, sacraments, morality, and prayer) and its importance in the whole discipleship conversation for later.

A Process of Evangelization

The early Church's evangelization efforts, and the Catechumenate, take on this loose rhythm:

I think this is the best way to organize a youth ministry because it focuses on outreach, conversion, movement, and discipleship. Its christocentric. It is balanced. Focus too much on one area and you'll have unhealthy results. If we aren't focused on conversion, then we are just running a club. If we aren't intentionally focused on moving teens from where they towards a deeper relationship with Christ, then they are moving backwards. If we aren't focused on discipleship and only focused on initial proclamation, then we are providing a superficial spiritual high.

It also takes into consideration and addresses the various levels of commitment to Christ a large group of teens will have.

Fringe

"They were perplexed and amazed and asked "What does this mean?" but others mocking said "They are filled with new wine." Acts 2:12

You'll notice that there were two reactions to the Apostles. One was open and curious and one was hostile. Just like JPII's three situations of evangelization, there are two forms of fringe youth: those who have never really heard the Gospel, and those who are openly rejecting it. The first step in youth ministry is engaging and building trust with youth on the fringes of the Church.

Examples: meeting teens at school, going to sports games, fun social activities, outreach outside the parish, softball tournaments

Proclamation (kerygma)

"Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth..." Acts 2:14-36 "Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart...'What shall we do?'"Acts 2:37

St. Peter proclaimed, in a powerful and definitive way, the Person of Jesus Christ and the Gospel message. He appealed to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the prophecies that foretold his coming, and the witness of the Apostles. It was intentional and direct and it cut them to the heart. It demanded a response. Youth ministry needs to create moments where the basic Gospel message can be proclaimed to youth in a way that demands a response from them.

Examples: large group model, Lifeteen model, Steubenville Conferences, Covecrest, Summer camps, Confirmation retreats

Conversion (metanoia)

"Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the same Holy Spirit." Acts 2:38-40

The climactic transitional moment for the hearers marks a turning point where they no longer are passive or on the outside. They make a public and definite decision to repent of sin and "turn" their lives fully over to Jesus, beginning discipleship. They encounter the Person of Jesus Christ in the sacraments and become initiated into the Church

Examples: Connecting youth to the sacraments, Mass, encouraging repentance of sin, renewal of baptismal promises, adoration, Confession

Discipleship (didache)

"And they devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers." Acts 2:42

Only AFTER conversion can the newly initiated begin diving deep into the demands of discipleship. This is the place for proper catechesis and for a challenging of youth to dive deep into the life of a disciple. This stage requires more individual attention and accountability, and small groups seem best suited for this period of growth.

Examples: small group model, yDisciple, Bible study, discipleship, Forming Intentional Disciples, deeper formation and catechesis

Mission (apostolos)

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations..." Matthew 28:19

The final stage of discipleship is being sent by Christ with the mission of the Church to go make disciples. You'll know your ministry is thriving and youth are maturing when they begin using their charisms and gifts to go out and make disciples of others.

Examples: youth taking on ministry, youth helping lead small groups, giving their witness, putting on retreats, giving talks, leading others in discipleship

So...

This is just a quick glance at the way I've grown to think about youth ministry. None of this is mine, its all stolen from a hundred different places. There is so much more that I could have said and have left out, but I think this gives a good starting point. The big takeaway is that there are so many ways this can be accomplished. But I do stand by the argument that this is one of the most effective ways to approach and think about structuring a youth ministry at a parish.

What do you think?