Ministry Planning Worksheet for a Clear Path of Discipleship

We've set out at our parish to communicate and implement a parish vision and strategy from womb to tomb.

Our mission: To build a Church of missionary disciples in Grapevine, Texas.

Our strategy: To use a clear path of discipleship to walk people through the stages of Encounter, Grow, and Serve.

(This is a simple articulation of the catechumenal model, or the evangelization process). 

One challenge is making sure all of our ministries are balanced - meaning they are intentional at each stage of this clear path of discipleship. First, all of our ministry coordinators, volunteers, and parents should be aware of a clear path of discipleship. Then all of our leaders and coordinators of ministries (think youth ministry, adult ministry, young adult, mom's ministry, etc) should be planning their efforts around the clear path of discipleship. They can also evaluate where they are weak or strong and what areas to be working and praying on. Finally, the clear path of discipleship should be communicated regularly. This helps people walk others along the path in a customized way, and also helps people know what well best help them where they are at.

I've used something like this before; you can see early versions of this two years ago when I was trying to think of a way to aritculate an evangelistic model for youth ministry. I was also inspired by a version created by Eric Gallager of Discipleship Focused Youth Ministry to create one for our own specific needs, context, and language.  Feel free to download the pdf below and create your own version based on your situation.

If you use something like this to train volunteers or your ministry team, let me know what you learn!

Downloadable Worksheet
Clear Path of Discipleship Ministry Planning Worksheet.pdf

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.

What is the Basic Gospel Message?

“So…what is the Gospel message?” As the Director of Youth Evangelization and Catechesis at our parish we’ve been focusing on the basic Gospel message, or the kerygma, in all of our volunteer training. There are lots of ways to articulate the Gospel message in its entirety and plenty of places to learn it.

What I wanted to share is the best way to summarize and teach the basic Gospel message that I’ve come up with so far. I’ve used this structure to train catechists, evangelists, core members, parents, youth ministers, etc. Its not my own and has morphed slightly over the years.

A Few Caveats

•  I’m going for brevity here. There is a lot of nuance and background knowledge not included in this article. Don’t fall into the trap of assuming this is all there is and that the Gospel message can be condensed and chopped down to something as simple as four points. This is just a way to teach others and a springboard. Think of these four points as training wheels.
   
•  I’m trying to come up with something that is simple, easy to teach, and easy to remember. These constraints have pros and cons. Keep them in mind when teaching this.
   
•  You would never just read these four points to someone. That would be bad. This is a mental structure for disicpleship, evaluating where someone needs more of the Gospel Message proclaimed to them, and for planning talks, retreats, curriculum, etc.
   
•  I’m open to revision, because I’m sure there are a hundred ways this could be better or more theologically accurate. But again, we are going for simple and teachable.
   
•  You could spend years compiling scripture citations for these four points of the Gospel. I just included some big ones that came to mind. Let me know if you can think of better ones!

Sources for the Four Point Gospel Message

I’m taking this from memory from a class with Prof. Bob Rice at Franciscan University called Parish and Personal Evangelization. I’m also borrowing some from Barbara Morgan’s Catechist Training Sessions where she covers Ephesians 1:3–14 as The Plan of Salvation.

And lastly, to ensure that we aren’t just coming up with our own stuff here, and to lean on the authority of the Church, I’m borrowing from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The first three paragraphs of the catechism beautifully summarize and articulate the entirity of the faith and the plan God had from the beginning, as well as how all the pieces fit together - God, man, sin, Jesus, the Apostles, the Church, the future, and the end (or beginning, however you look at it).

The 4 Point Gospel Message

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1. God loves you and has a plan for you.

Catechism: God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength.

Scripture: Genesis 1, 2, Ephesians 2:7, 1 Peter 5:10, John 17:21, Ephesians 2:7, Isaiah 43:1

2. Sin seperates us from God, but not God’s love for us.

Catechism: He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church.

Scripture: Romans 7, Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23

3. Jesus Christ’s life, passion, death, and resurrection redeemed us from sin and restores God’s plan, allowing us to become adopted Sons and Daughters of God.

Catechism: To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior.

Scripture: John 3:16, Romans 6:23, Romans 5:8, 1 Timothy 2:6, 1 John 4:10

4. Turn away from sin, turn to Jesus Christ, and join God’s Church, in the Holy Spirit

Catechism: In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.

Scripture: Acts 2:38, John 3:5, 1 John 3:1, Galatians 4:6

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Follow Up and Supplemental Resources

We use the four points to train people in the Basic Gospel Message. Another way to summarize these four points could be:

Creation  //  Fall  //  Redemption  //  Restoration

We also teach these four points as a framework for discipleship. Does the person you are discipling understand these four points? Do they believe these four points personally? If not, those are gaps that can be filled in over a couple intentional meetings.

Every fall middle school and high school retreat is also based around these four points, wrapped in a relevant and fresh new theme.

You could also plan your semester curriculum around these points, constantly referring to them, but teaching any number of themes and doctrines from the faith.

We tell our catechists that proclaiming the kerygma in this way should be done constantly throughout the year and referenced at least generally in each lesson. Always focusing on Jesus Christ and an invitation to a personal relationship with Him in the Holy Spirit through the Catholic Church.

The Plan in Ephesians 1:2–14

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved.

In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will in accord with his favor that he set forth in him as a plan for the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.

In him we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of his glory, we who first hoped in Christ.

In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised holy Spirit, which is the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s possession, to the praise of his glory.

Catechism Paragraphs 1-3

God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.

So that this call should resound throughout the world, Christ sent forth the apostles he had chosen, commissioning them to proclaim the gospel: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." Strengthened by this mission, the apostles "went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it."

Those who with God's help have welcomed Christ's call and freely responded to it are urged on by love of Christ to proclaim the Good News everywhere in the world. This treasure, received from the apostles, has been faithfully guarded by their successors. All Christ's faithful are called to hand it on from generation to generation, by professing the faith, by living it in fraternal sharing, and by celebrating it in liturgy and prayer.

What do you think?

What would you add, subtract, or change, and why? How do you train people to proclaim the Gospel message? What experiences have you had in teaching or proclaiming the Gospel this way?

Leave me a comment below!

The Pope, John Boehner, and Zacchaeus

The Pope is in the US! There's plenty of coverage around the web, so I won't pretend to inform you.

However, this morning in prayer (prayer that involved browsing Facebook at one point, I'll admit) I noticed these things. Going back and forth between the news, Scripture, and then dual wielding Scripture with the Catechism, all of these things came together. It all hit me pretty hard and I'm still processing why exactly that is. I'll just leave them here in the order I came across them without any interpretation. Feel free to offer your thoughts.

Luke 19:1-6 He came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” And he came down quickly and received him with joy. 

549 By freeing some individuals from the earthly evils of hunger, injustice, illness and death, Jesus performed messianic signs. Nevertheless he did not come to abolish all evils here below, but to free men from the gravest slavery, sin, which thwarts them in their vocation as God's sons and causes all forms of human bondage.

1443 During his public life Jesus not only forgave sins, but also made plain the effect of this forgiveness: he reintegrated forgiven sinners into the community of the People of God from which sin had alienated or even excluded them. A remarkable sign of this is the fact that Jesus receives sinners at his table, a gesture that expresses in an astonishing way both God's forgiveness and the return to the bosom of the People of God.

Luke 19:7-10 When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.”  And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” 

2412 In virtue of commutative justice, reparation for injustice committed requires the restitution of stolen goods to their owner: Jesus blesses Zacchaeus for his pledge: "If I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." Those who, directly or indirectly, have taken possession of the goods of another, are obliged to make restitution of them, or to return the equivalent in kind or in money, if the goods have disappeared, as well as the profit or advantages their owner would have legitimately obtained from them. Likewise, all who in some manner have taken part in a theft or who have knowingly benefited from it — for example, those who ordered it, assisted in it, or received the stolen goods — are obliged to make restitution in proportion to their responsibility and to their share of what was stolen.

2712 Contemplative prayer is the prayer of the child of God, of the forgiven sinner who agrees to welcome the love by which he is loved and who wants to respond to it by loving even more. But he knows that the love he is returning is poured out by the Spirit in his heart, for everything is grace from God. Contemplative prayer is the poor and humble surrender to the loving will of the Father in ever deeper union with his beloved Son.

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.

Tig Notaro has Cancer and You Can Too

"Hello."

[Applause]

"Good evening, hello. I have cancer. How are you?"

[Applause and some weird laughing from the audience.]

"Hi. How are you? Is everybody having a good time? I have cancer. How are you?"

[Audience laughing.]

"Ah, its a good time. Diagnosed with cancer."

[Awkward audience but still laughing.]

sigh "Feels good. Just diagnosed with cancer." sigh

Tig Notaro walked on stage in Largo, Los Angeles in 2013 and opened her stand-up routine with this deadpan greeting.

Over the next thirty minutes Tig externally processes her very recent (days, if not hours prior) diagnosis of cancer, her mother abruptly passing away, and a horrible breakup.

"Its okay. Its gonna be okay. It might NOT be okay. But I'm just saying. Its okay. You're gonna be okay. I don't know what's going on with me."

I'm not a comedy expert, but when this album came up on Spotify the other day it caught me totally off guard and transported me immediately to a very strange space. An oddly humorous and wonderfully honest and special space.

The Human Experience 

Someone once told me that as catechists and evangelists, we should pay attention to and learn from comedians' ability to observe present human experiences and explain it so completely to an audience. They have a finger on the pulse of contemporary culture. Comedians can take an experience so banal and familiar to us, dissect it, and present it in such an insightful way that we all are left saying "Yes! Yes. There is no way to argue with you. That is absurd and hilarious and I do it every day."

A large portion of popular stand-up comedy right now is observational humor. The surprise of something familiar suddenly exposed as completely absurd is what makes it so funny. Its a tangible kind of funny.

"Its so hard because right now in my life when I have a show I don't feel like 'Oh I want to go talk about how funny it is that a bee was taking the 401 freeway.' Like all the jokes I've written I just am like, I can't even bring myself to talk about it. Because, and just, everybody relax: my mother just died."

The audience reacts in a sad manner, with some awww's and gasps, and a few shocked chuckles. You can feel the tension between tragedy and comedy. Like Bruce Willis as a crazy and nervous cop with wild eyes cracking a joke to himself as he rolls out of a moving car.

"Should I leave?"

And the audience bursts into laughter.

"I can't believe you're taking this so hard. You didn't even know her."

More laughter. It dies down and one solitary man is heard chuckling in that silence.

"Sir, this should not tickle you that much." 

And everyone loses it.

A Strange Thing

Thomas Nagel, in an essay on The Absurd, tried to pin down why a situation, or life in general, could be considered absurd.

“In ordinary life a situation is absurd when it includes a conspicuous discrepancy between pretension or aspiration and reality.”

— Thomas Nagel

This pretty much sums up Tig's whole stand-up set on coming to grips with her mother suddenly passing away and her battle with cancer.

"After we buried her we drove back to Texas... And I was checking the mail, and the hospital had sent my mother a questionnaire, to see how her stay at the hospital went. Mmmmm...not great."

Absurd.

And the way she explains it, its hilarious.

Tig bounces back to the topic of cancer.

"I had to get a mammogram done so I had to stand there with my shirt off and the technician said, 'Oh my gosh you have such a flat stomach. What is your secret?' And I said: 'Oh, I'm dying.'"

Absurd. And again, hilarious.

People are laughing, and crying, and laughing while crying, and are awkward, and silent, and can't seem to get enough of it. She went through treatment for her cancer, got out and a week later her mother died, then to top it all off she went through a rough breakup. And she's explaining all of these experiences just as you can imagine yourself experiencing them - laughingly realizing how absurd everything becomes when you are constantly thinking about very near impending death.

And during her set, I think the magic of it all is that for thirty minutes, we all have cancer. We all are able to put on the cancer goggles and view the world for a bit with the veil of time and the lie of immortality torn back to reveal the weak, frail, shallow experiences that take up most of our day.

"What if I just transitioned right now into silly jokes?"

"No!" the crowd screams.

"This is f***ing amazing." one guy yells.

That is exactly how you feel once you've put on the cancer goggles, listening to this set. You don't want it to end.

Tig transported all of us to a space where the veil is suddenly torn back and life is seen for what it really is: a letdown that doesn't ever really live up to our aspirations for it, and foolishness when seen in light of the assurance of death. Our death.

At the end she tries to tell one of her jokes from the material she actually wrote for the night. Every word is seen through the lens of the assurance of death and the horribleness of cancer. Every word is seen for the absurdity that it is.

She successfully brought the entire audience to a place where everything about life seems absurd and small and inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, especially with death looming over every daily boring situation.

"I was driving here. Ugh, lotta traffic."

The crowd is doing the crying/laughing thing.

"My car hadn't moved in several minutes."

I'm laughing at myself at this point. I think everyone is.

"And a bee, flew past me. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is when a bee passes you in 5 o'clock traffic?"

Cancer looms over every word. The more Tig feigns frustration with traffic after just processing her cancer diagnosis, the more absurd rush hour traffic seems, and the funnier it is.

Life is absurd if it lacks any way to make sense of death. I think this common human suspicion that all of life is a little absurd is one of the most powerful starting points for the conversation with modern man about God.

There is a reason the Catechism of the Catholic Church begins with man's desire for God before getting into the Creed. To talk to modern man about his need for God requires and implies that we start with common human experience - man's own language. This is God's method of revealing Himself. This was Pope St. John Paul II's method in his writings (I'm thinking right now most especially of Love and Responsibility).

This is what every good spouse knows, especially when you hear "You're not understanding what I'm saying! You're not listening to me!" If you want to have a better marriage, be sure your spouse feels like you understand their perspective completely before trying to explain your side of the story.

When you're in this space and can feel the absurdity of life, you can strip away things like school and careers and sports and "I'm too busy" and whatever is right in front of your eyes that stops you from considering the idea of God or purpose or meaning. You're forced to be honest about the insignificance of all of life's bells and whistles.

And in that space, there is room to talk candidly about the meaning of it all. And that is a special space to be able to bring people into that is not easy to accomplish.

We ought to think hard about ways we can be more honest and create spaces where people can see life for what it really is.

We should also work a lot harder at explaining the human condition to modern man better than he can explain it himself (like Jesus did) using our own words.

Tig did it by sharing her cancer with us.

And she invited us to realize for thirty minutes that, in a way, we all have cancer.

Memento Mori.

**Side note: You can listen to the whole 30 minutes here on iTunes or find it on Spotify but just be warned that the cover of this album is Tig shirtless holding her hands on her (double mastectomy-ed) chest . Its not extremely inappropriate but isn't the most modest cover either. Just wanted to give you fair warning so you don't write me email about modesty and the evils of "the culture" and etc.

**Also: Tig is brilliant and I never thought someone could make me and an entire audience laugh by pushing a stool around a stage for four minutes straight.

**And: Here's a great NPR's Fresh Air interview of Tig about this performance.

do u wanna b happy?

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hh-gGb0Mvk[/embed] REVERB CULTURE IS BACK! Check out a ranty little article I wrote after listening to J. Cole's Intro to 2014 Forest Hills Drive album and reflecting on the section of the catechism dealing with our desire for God and happiness. Make sure you listen to the song. Let me know what you think and get pumped that Reverb Culture is back. Lots more to come.

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Press play and stick it on repeat like a gentleman. Close the blinds, turn down the lights, and grab a seat. I'm drinking some coffee, want some? I know its late. But its a warm night and I'm feeling introspectively awake.

I think about death a lot since becoming a 26 year old home owner and father.

Heavy, I know. But bear with me.

You don't think about death? You don't visit your parents now and hug Dad just a little longer and realize he got another year older this year and that isn't something that can keep happening forever? You don't look at your wife, girlfriend, or loved one and wonder what they'll look like when and if they're 60, 70, - God willing - 80? Will they get those wrinkles in the corners of their eyes? Will their head shake ever so slightly like grandma's did? When your kids talk to them will they trail off mid sentence, smile, and turn around with no warning? What will the hospital be like the first time they stay longer than a day?

I just want to be happy. Some days I wonder what I really want though.

Read the rest at Reverb Culture

First Communion Parent Workshop

I gave a workshop today for parents of children receiving First Communion. It was part of a two hour workshop where the kids were taken out for catechesis on the Eucharist and the parents stayed for a brief session put on by me. We ended the workshop with a few minutes of adoration in the Church. [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/189988038" params="color=1b595f&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

I focused a great deal on initial evangelization and invitation to a personal relationship with Jesus and less on the actual content of the Eucharist and Confession (which I did cover for the last 25 minutes of the workshop after the prayer when the recording stops) because often sacramental preparation is an opportunity to reach out to people who may not have ever been invited to a relationship with Jesus or experienced a profound conversion experience that gives meaning to everything we do as Catholics.

This was my attempt at a proclamation of the kerygma centered on communion with Jesus in the Eucharist.

"He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in Him." John 6:56

This talk was influenced a great deal by the book Forming Intentional Disciples and statistics from the book (which I totally botched at the beginning of the talk) as well as focusing on an explicit invitation to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

To say this talk was heavily influenced by Michael Gormley's talk (here) would be a huge understatement. I borrowed a great deal from him and owe him a big, pandering, groveling thanks.

If you are interested in more on the Jewish and Old Testament roots of the Eucharist (like the Temple, Passover, and Bread of the Presence) I highly reccomend this book by Dr. Brant Pitre: Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist.

This talk was published on The Frank Show, the podcast of St. Francis of Assisi in Grapevine, TX. You can checkout the podcast on Soundcloud, iTunes, or the podcast app. 

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. :)

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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?