o Friday, February 29, 2008
BONUS DAY
  Make it count! It is an extraordinary day – -  don’t live ordinarily today. Take a Leap of Faith (or Hope or Love) today!

GREAT MOMENTS IN CATHOLIC YOUTH MINISTRY
  We continue with NCCYM YouTube mother load (see Lessons Learn in Youth Ministry yesterday) Do begin your planning to join us all at the 2008 NCCYM in Cleveland in December! It is a place to learn, network, pray and laugh!
  Come back tomorrow for more! And pass the word to friends: www.catholicYMblog.com has got the hook-up on these great YouTubes!
TOP TEN YOUTH MINISTRY COMMITMENTS
  We continue Meanwhile, it absolutly is the middle of winter – - always a difficult time to keep our priorities straight! Here is list worth consider from Doug Fields’ book Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry
> I will move slowly 
> I will regularly check my motives and evaluate my heart
> I will steer clear of the numbers game
> I will not criticize my past
> I will avoid the comparison trap
> I will focus on priorities
> I will pace my self
> I will serve
> I will be a learner
> I will pursue contentment.
There is some commentary on these commitments here

o Thursday, February 28, 2008
CATHOLIC YOUTH MINISTRY YOU-TUBE MOTHER LOAD

  What make it easier to blog on a daily basis is to set up a "tickler file" of postings ready to go . . . Yet, most of the postings this week responded to the news of the day: Pope, Pew . . . and now in my inbox from a good friend comes the mother-load! Over the next three days, we’ll be sharing pieces from the 2006 National Conference on Catholic Youth Ministry comedy club.  There is some great, funny, sad but all-too-true stuff to be found in these.  Please enjoy!  And do begin your planning to join us all at the 2008 NCCYM in Cleveland in December!
  Come back tomorrow for more! And pass to word to friends: www.catholicYMblog.com has got the hook-up on these great YouTubes!
WHAT DEFINES A GENERATION?
  This quote is from an insightful article in The Santa Barbara Independent about how growing up with school shootings has become a defining generational characteristic:  ". . .what is fairly new and somewhat specific to our generation is the extent to which pop culture builds bonds across national and even international boundaries. Since we were seven or eight years old, we’ve been watching the worldwide web grow into a globe-spanning network of collective cultural consciousness and shared social space.
    When someone blogs about the Backstreet Boys in Boise, the twentysomething reading it in Britain gets it immediately. When someone mentions slap bracelets or creates a Facebook group devoted to the bygone computer game Oregon Trail, every Generation Y-er with internet access gets to reminiscing right away. When The Spice Girls come on in the car, you can guarantee that any girl within earshot will start singing along.
    And, when someone talks about leaving his iPod behind as he fled a lecture hall under siege in yet another school shooting, it resonates. It is a sad truth that the phenomenon of school shootings is something else our generation shares with one another.

o Wednesday, February 27, 2008
DR. EDWARD HAHNENBERG IS
INSIDE THE YOUTH LAY MINISTERS’ STUDIO
(Enter the studio here.) We used to be able to get along by a sense of command.  The Community was able to compel with a "you don’t do something, you’re in trouble" sensibility; it was beliefs holding believers. Now, it seems to be more a sense of choice, reliant upon the individual. It’s our responsibility to construct our own synthesis; it is believers holding beliefs. As we can see from yesterday, choice might not be working for us. In today’s podcast, Dr. Edward Hahnenberg suggests that there is a middle ground between command and choice to be found in the language of call – a recognition that my life fits into something bigger.  This is important stuff, folks!  Does our ministry work focus on command, choice, or call? Give it a listen.

o Tuesday, February 26, 2008
THE RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE
  The news is all over the place:
> Boston Globe: A sweeping new study of religious affiliation in the United States finds a country in which Protestants are becoming a minority, Catholicism is becoming heavily Hispanic, and the number of people who say they are not affiliated with any religion is growing.
> CNN: The U.S. religious marketplace is extremely volatile, with nearly half of American adults leaving the faith tradition of their upbringing to either switch allegiances or abandon religious affiliation altogether, a new survey finds.
> TIME: A major new survey presents perhaps the most detailed picture we’ve yet had of which religious groups Americans belong to. And its big message is: blink and they’ll change. For the first time, a large-scale study has quantified what many experts suspect: there is a constant membership turnover among most American faiths.
> USA Today: A new map of faith in the USA shows a nation constantly shifting amid religious choices, unaware or unconcerned with doctrinal distinctions. Unbelief is on the rise. And immigration is introducing new faces in the pews, new cultural concerns, new forces in the public square.
> New York Times: More than a quarter of adult Americans have left the faith of their childhood to join another religion or no religion, according to a new survey of religious affiliation by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
> US News and World Report: The first American colonists were Protestant, and for roughly four centuries their descendents, along with successive waves of Protestant immigrants, have been the country’s dominant religious group. But now Protestants are on the verge of becoming a statistical minority in the U.S., according a study released today.
> Los Angeles Times: America remains an overwhelmingly Christian country, but the nation’s religious life also shows great fluidity, with many adults switching religious affiliations or abandoning ties to organized denominations altogether, according to a new survey released today.
   BUT. . . Catholic News Agency reports that "Though converts have offset some of the numbers of Catholics who have left the Church, the disproportionately high number of Catholics among immigrants is most responsible for keeping the Catholic population stable.  Latinos now account for 45 percent of American Catholics aged 18-29."  The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life can be found here.  Meanwhile, here’s a link to 241 more related articles.

o Monday, February 25, 2008
UNATTRACTIVE
There was a middle school "lock-in" for the local parishes scheduled over this weekend.  It just may have not happen due to the weather cancellations.  Nonetheless, I still hold the memories of this annual event deep in my heart (actually the memories are located somewhere deep in my lower intestine.)  Anyway, I’m sending out this little piece of YouTubed love to my peeps in Howard County.
ATTRACTIVE
Life Teen has released their 2008 Calendar of Events.  From the cover, pictured here, throughout the whole book, they have put together a professional, attractive multi-page booklet.  Time, effort, intention, and money was all invested in it… and why not, our kids are worth it1!!  (Note: This is not meant to be attactional to kids, but attractive to you and I)
ATTRACTIONAL
  There has been an on-going discussion in youth ministry regarding if attractional is the way to go. A report on the attractional efforts of libraries can be found here.  Key snip: Libraries in southeastern Michigan are turning the page on peace and quiet. "Getting teens to come to the library is right up there with getting them to go to church: It’s not exactly the first place they want to go," Christine Lind Hage, library director, told the Detroit Free Press for a story Sunday.

o Sunday, February 24, 2008
CHOOSE GOD
  The following interaction is from a question-and-answer dialogue that the Pope recently held on February 7th with his diocesan priest in Rome. This question comes from a young priest and deals with concerns of youth ministry.
Fr Graziano Bonfitto: Holy Father, I come from San Marco in Lamis, a village in the Province of Foggia. I am a Religious of Don Orione and have been a priest for a year and a half. I am currently parochial vicar in Ognisanti…. My priestly apostolate takes place among young people in particular. It is precisely on their behalf that I wish to thank you today. My holy Founder, St Luigi Orione, said that young people are the sunshine or the storm of the future. I believe that at this moment in history young people are as much the sunshine as the storm, and not of tomorrow but of today, of this moment. Today, we young people feel a more pressing need than ever for certainties. We long for sincerity, freedom, justice and peace. We want beside us people who walk with us, who listen to us, just like Jesus with the disciples of Emmaus. Youth long for people who can point out the way to freedom, responsibility, love and truth. In other words, today’s young people have an unquenchable thirst for Christ. It is the thirst of joyful witnesses who have encountered Jesus and have staked their whole life on him. Young people want a Church that is ever alert, ever closer to their needs. They want her to be present in the decisions of life, even if they feel a lingering sense of detachment from the Church herself…. Holy Father, – may I call you "father"? – how difficult it is to live in God, with God and for God. Young people feel threatened on many sides…. So what should be done? How should one act? Is it effectively worthwhile continuing to stake one’s life on Christ? Are life, the family, love, joy, justice, respect for the opinions of others, freedom, prayer and charity still values we should defend? Is the blessed life based on the Beatitudes a life suited to human beings, to the young person of the third millennium?… Thank you.
Pope Benedict XVI: Thank you for this beautiful witness of a young priest who works with young people, who accompanies them, as you said, and helps them walk with Christ, with Jesus.
    What can be said? We all know how difficult it is for a young person today to live as a Christian. The cultural and media context offers very different paths than the one that leads to Christ. It even seems to make it impossible to see Christ as the centre of life and to live life as Jesus showed us. However, it also seems to me that many are becoming more and more aware of the inadequacy of all that is offered, of this way of life that in the end leaves one empty.
    In this regard I think that the readings of today’s liturgy, that of Deuteronomy (30: 15-20) and the Gospel passage from Luke (9: 22-25), correspond substantially with what we must say to young people and over and over again to ourselves. As you said, sincerity is fundamental. Young people must feel that we are not saying words we ourselves have not lived, but that we speak because we have found and seek to find anew every day the truth, as a truth for my own life. Only if we have set out in this direction, if we ourselves seek to interiorize this life and to make our lives resemble that of the Lord can our words be credible and have a visible and convincing logic. I repeat: today this is the great fundamental rule, not only for Lent but for the whole of Christian life: choose life. You have before you death and life: choose life. And I think that the answer is natural. There are only a few who in their innermost selves harbour a desire for destruction, for death, for desiring to no longer live because everything has gone wrong for them. Unfortunately, however, this phenomenon is growing. With all the contradictions and false promises, life in the end appears contradictory, no longer as a gift but a condemnation, so there are some who choose death rather than life. But usually, the human being responds: Yes, I choose life.
     Yet the question as to how to find life, what to choose, how to choose life remains. And we know what is usually offered: to visit a discothèque, to take as much as possible, to see freedom as doing everything one likes, everything that springs to mind at any given moment. We know instead – and can prove it – that this road is a road of falsehood, for in the end it does not lead to finding life but indeed to the abyss of nothingness. Choose life. The same reading says: God is your life, you have chosen life and have made your choice: God. This seems to me to be fundamental. Only in this way is our horizon sufficiently broad and only in this way are we at the source of life, which is stronger than death, stronger than all death threats. Thus, the fundamental choice is the one pointed out here: choose God. It is essential to understand that those who travel on the road without God find themselves ultimately in darkness, even if there can be moments where they seem to have found life.
     Then, a further step is how to find God, how to choose God. Here we come to the Gospel: God is not an unknown Person, a hypothesis perhaps of the very beginning of the cosmos. God is flesh and blood. He is one of us. We know him by his Face, by his Name. He is Jesus Christ who speaks to us in the Gospel. He is both man and God. And being God, he chose man to enable us to choose God. Thus, we must enter into the knowledge of Jesus and then friendship with him in order to walk with him.
      I think that this is the fundamental point of our pastoral care for young people, for everyone but especially for the young: to draw attention to the choice of God who is life, to the fact that God exists – and he exists very concretely – and also to teach friendship with Jesus Christ.
     There is also a third step. This friendship with Jesus is not a friendship with an unreal person, with someone who belongs to the past or who is distant from human beings, seated at God’s right hand. Jesus is present in his Body, which is still a body of flesh and blood: he is the Church, the communion of the Church. We must build and make more accessible communities that reflect, that are the mirror of the great community of the vital Church. She is a whole complex of things: the vital experience of the community with all its human weaknesses but nonetheless real, with a clear path and a solid sacramental life where we can touch even what may seem so remote to us: the Lord’s presence. In this way we can also learn the commandments – to return to Deuteronomy, my starting point. For the reading says: choosing God means choosing according to his words, living according to the Word. For a moment this appears almost positivistic: they are imperatives. But the first thing is the gift, it is his friendship. Then we can understand that the road signs are explanations of the reality of our friendship.
     This, we can say, is a general vision in which contact with Sacred Scripture and the Church’s daily life originates. It is then translated step by step into real encounters with young people: to guide them to dialogue with Jesus in prayer, in reading Sacred Scripture – especially in groups but also on their own – and in sacramental life. All these steps serve to make these experiences present in professional life, even if the context is often marked by the total absence of God and the apparent impossibility of seeing him present. However, it is precisely then, through our lives and our experience of God, that we must also seek to make Christ’s presence enter this world far-removed from God.
     There is a thirst for God. A short time ago I received the ad limina visit from some Bishops from a country where more than 50 percent of the people declare themselves to be atheists or agnostics. But they said to me: in fact, all are thirsting for God. This hidden thirst exists. Therefore, let us begin first with the young people available. Let us form communities in which the Church is reflected, let us learn friendship with Jesus. In this way, full of this joy and this experience, we can still make God present today in this world of ours.

o Saturday, February 23, 2008
CHURCH FAMILY DAY
  Thursday, the Archdiocese sponsored their second Co-Workers in the Vineyard gathering.  Dr. Edward Hahnenberg and ValLimar Jensen were the presenters and they did a fine job inspiring and informing.  Archbishop O’Brien closed up the day.  Most importantly, we gathered the professional staff family of Baltimore – -  always a good day.
SNOW DAY
  Friday, the Catholic Center, as was all of the region, was shut down due to an ice storm that hit overnight.  Awesome- – - an unscheduled three-day weekend. 
LENT DAY BY DAY
Brad Farmer, of APeX Ministries and assistant youth minister for Our Lady of Loreto Youth Group (archdiocese of Denver), kindly shares a Lenten Prayer Calendar created for his parish’s high school youth. The calendar was the idea of youth minister Bob Rickard. It encourages teens to try out different prayers forms, including traditional prayers, novenas, lectio divina, journaling, and more using The Catholic Youth Prayer Book. You can find the calendar here

o Friday, February 22, 2008
WHAT YOUNG PEOPLE WANT
   The Diocese of Cheyenne and Bishop Ricken just conducted a Wyoming Catholic Youth Catechesis Symposium.  As a prelude to the National Symposium, the national office players in the Partnership on Adolescent Catechesis traveled to Casper to discern  How do we evangelize and catechize young people in Wyoming so that they develop a lifelong relationship with Christ and the Church?  Part of their work was to examine the following statement- the Wyoming Catholic Youth Charter, which claim:
   We want:
  > To learn our Catholic faith;
> To live among emotionally mature, spiritually healthy adults;
> The Church and our families to talk about what is important;
> Parents who live their Catholic faith and teach it to us;
> To see adults who commit to working through difficult issues and problems;
> To claim our Catholic identity and we need faithful adults to help us feel brave enough to wear it every day;
FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE

   I have actually once in my life had the privilege of seeing Mr. Tony Bennett at Baltimore’s Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Truly, he is one of the reasons God created singing. In one month’s time, it will happen all over again. "For once, I can go, unafraid, where life leads me and somehow I know I’ll be strong.  For once I can touch what my heart used to dream of long before I knew." On the YouTube, Bennett, Carrie Underwood, Josh Groban, and Michael Buble.

o Thursday, February 21, 2008
WE MUST SING
What does singing have to do with our lives? Everything! Rev. J. Glenn Murray preaches for a bit here.  Like Ansel yesterday, he talks of home.  "We are going home and until we get home, we must sing."
EMPOWERED BY THE SPIRIT
The Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio is offering a Bi-lingual Youth Ministry Symposium in April. As I examined the flyer.  I marveled as to how much the slate of presenters represented a seismic shift in the landscape of American Catholic youth ministry. It  truly must be Empowered by the Spirit.
LENTEN SACRIFICE
Instead of going without meat or sweets for Lent, some young Christians are suppressing their appetite for the Internet, forgoing social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace and instant-messaging programs for 40 days and 40 nights. Read more here.  (Please note that I AM NOT encouraging you to drop visiting at least one site on the web.  We can both make justifications based on professional reasons, right? Right? Anyone still out there????)

o Wednesday, February 20, 2008
ANSEL AUGUSTINE  IS INSIDE THE YOUTH MINISTERS’ STUDIO
(Enter the studio here.) There was a moment at NCYC in Columbus this past fall.  Young people and youth ministers from the Gulf Coast joined Father Tony Richard in blessing those young people who had gathered.  Those who had been prayed for, supported, and blessed by the post-Katrina solidarity of the youngchurch were now boldly, proudly blessing the very same youngchurch.  Hear, now, the story of youth ministry "after the storm".  Hear, now, what has been learned and discovered. Here, now, is a  podcast which should demand your attention.

o Tuesday, February 19, 2008
STUFF THAT MATTERS
David Fitch weighs in on the goal of youth ministry here He is "convinced the challenge of youth ministry to keep ‘making disciples’ as the main game. Its easy to get into event mode & ‘pumped’ mode, but the stuff that lasts is the stuff that matters. Its not to say there is no place for fun stuff – not at all – we need to have fun – but sometimes the priorities in youth ministry get misplaced." An then, he throws in, for good measure, Mike Yaconelli’s opinion that we might need to examine The Failure of Youth Ministry.    Meanwhile, Joe Troyer is also frustrated with the state of youth ministry: Yet, he asks: So what is keeping me from change? Two things: Fear and Uncertainty. What I fear are the repercussions of change in my congregation. Now what? It’s time for change, but what? It isn’t working. Let’s deal with it. It isn’t a fad or a season. It is reality. We are doing youth ministry just like the 1970’s. Same old stuff in new shoes. It is time to be honest and embrace change. But where to start? Read the whole rant here

THE LUCIFER EFFECT
Phillip Zimbardo, author of the Lucifer Effect, goes up against Catholic catechist Stephen Colbert on the nature of evil, the power of social situations, disobeying authority, and rejecting the concept of God being wrong.  Beyond the swearing, wouldn’t it be great if more catechists could proudly claim, like Colbert,  "I teach Sunday School!"
MAKE READY THE WAY
We are two months out . . .Popes don’t visit Washington every day, which is why the Washington Times is hosting a Papal Visit blog to keep tabs on every detail about Pope Benedict XVI’s April 15-20.  Check the blog here

o Monday, February 18, 2008
BIGGEST CATHOLIC YOUTH MINISTRY LOSER
    Two weeks into the YS Biggest Loser competition and I’m down seven pounds, which is a third of what might be my  underachieving goal.  Meanwhile, a local priest and youth minister have gone public with their own weight-loss competition.  Check it out here.
WHO REALLY WINS?
Gene has returned from a mission trip to Peru and shares these Henri Nouwen reflections: Ever since that time, I have become aware that wherever God’s Spirit is present there is a reverse mission. This "reversal" is the sign of God’s Spirit. The poor have a mission to the rich, the blacks have a mission to the whites, the handicapped have a mission to the "normal," the gay people have a mission to the straight, the dying have a mission to the living. Those whom the world has made into victims God has chosen to be bearers of good news.  Read the whole piece here and see if you are aware of the reverse mission young people have with you.
TAKING ACCOUNTABILITY
    Seth Godin reminds us that when we point a finger, four others are often pointing back at us: If you buy my product but don’t read the instructions, that’s not your fault, it’s mine. If you read a blog post and misinterpret what I said, that’s my choice, not your error. If you attend my presentation and you’re bored, that’s my failure. If you are a student in my class and you don’t learn what I’m teaching, I’ve let you down. The whole post is here

o Sunday, February 17, 2008
HERO ARCHETYPE
  Joshua Griffin from Saddleback offered this recent blog posting, which is of interest to those of us who seek to offer young people a worthy adventure: Jeff McGuire from Mariner’s Church came over to the Saddleback intern meeting today to teach some principles of sermon preparation. He used Joseph Campbell’s classic mythology and hero archetype as a possible model to follow. It was brilliant stuff – and not just because I’m a Star Wars geek, too. Here’s a quick overview of the content applied to a student ministry:
> Start in the ordinary world – what are the questions/thoughts students share?
> Make a call to adventure – what if there was another way to live?
> Refusal – give students a way out
> Threshold – a guide to walk down the path
> Belly of the whale – better to continue the journey, harder to turn back
> Road of trials – the ideal pathway to escape danger
> Boon – benefits of making a change, sermon in a sentence
> The Return – return students to the ordinary world changed.
B’MORE
  Sherman’s Travels has named their most underrated cities that you should add to your "must-see" list.  See it here.  If you visit #1, call ahead and we’ll get you a tour of America’s First Cathedral.

o Saturday, February 16, 2008
AN AFFLUENZA EPIDEMIC
A report from the suburbs has some surprising news about children growing up in the culture of affluence. It’s a longitudinal study and the interesting finding is that the kids have a multitude of adjustment problems. The surprise is that they often have more problems than age-matched kids growing up in the inner city—and their problems persist despite the mental health services presumably available to them. Read more here
WILL POWERPOINT FOR FOOD
If you are just joining us today, we have listed five potential workshops for you to host in your own area. Please review the previous days. As you begin your planning for next year, consider booking any of these workshops.

o Friday, February 15, 2008
STATUES
   From the Ironic Catholic: I’ve searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees. –G.K. Chesterton
C IS FOR COOKIES, THAT’S GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME
  It’s an on-line bake sale – you donate, and cookies get baked and delivered to a local homeless shelter.  Check out one young person’s inventive concept here. This a;; come form the home of this Inside the Youth Minister’s studio guest.
WILL POWERPOINT FOR FOOD
(Option 5 of 5) Something Positive to Offer: Teaching About Chaste Living We were never meant to be a church preoccupied with NO’s.   As a Church blessed with John Paul’s gift of the Theology of the Body, we have something positive to offer young people.  As a result of this workshop, participants will have learned
  > that often there is a dissonance between what they are presently teaching about love and physical intimacy and their own experience.
  > about the centrality of the Genesis creation stories towards the Church’s teaching regarding sex.
  > to be able to identify the sacramental nature of physical intimacy and be able to translate the same to young people.
Participants will have also reviewed the US Bishops’ document, “Catechetical Formation in Chaste Living: Guidelines for Curriculum and Publication Design.”
      As you begin your planning for next year, consider booking this workshop

o Thursday, February 14, 2008
START SPREADING THE NEWS
  There is a newsletter going out today! And the Brian Johnson podcast is now up.

UPON A STAR
  Today is all about celebration of Love.  We who believe in God (who is love) remain ever optimistic about love. . . we are absolute softies for the Disney-esque romance of it all.  Why?  Because we are aware that the love we experience between each other is only a hint of the love of God for us. And, so, we hear the words of the song and remember that:
   Like a bolt out of the blue
   Fate steps in and sees you through
   When you wish upon a star
   Your dreams come true.
Our prayer for you this Valentine’s Day is that your dreams of love do come true.
WILL POWERPOINT FOR FOOD
     (Option 4 of 5) Adolescent Catechesis: A Good Work in You “The one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)   The Evangelization and Catechesis of adolescents is not only about the content of our faith and the challenge of discipleship. . . It is a work that begins within the good work of passing along the Good News of Jesus from generation to generation. As a result of this workshop, participants will have learned about
  > their role in the formation of young disciples.
  > ways to appropriately witness to the worthy adventure of ministry in their own lives as well as to the conspiracy of our faith.
  > the dynamics necessary to ensure young people’s participation in the church throughout their adult lives.
      As you begin your planning for next year, consider booking this workshop

o Wednesday, February 13, 2008
BRIAN JOHNSON IS
INSIDE THE YOUTH MINISTERS’ STUDIO
(Enter the studio here.) The posting is up! Brian Johnson was a keynote presenter at the 1995 NCYC in Minneapolis. It was a smaller event back in the day, only about 12,000.  He opened with these words: "I come to you as a Methodist – because there is a method to my madness. I come to you as an Apostolic – because I have been called to go forth like the apostles. I come to you as Baptist – because I have been baptized as John the Baptist baptized. I come to you as a Pentecostal – because I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. I come to you as a Catholic – because my message is universal." This short but powerful statement makes us quickly realize what it means to be Catholic and the powerful message we have to share with others. Give the podcast a listen!
WILL POWERPOINT FOR FOOD
(Option 3 of 5) Confirmation:  Graduation or Commencement Does the celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation mark the end of our time together or is it the starting point where one commences their life of discipleship?  This session will examine how we often communicate the language of graduation and offer suggestions for the future.  Further, we will examine the role parents and sponsors can play in the faith lives of our young people. As a result of this workshop, participants will have learned
> about the language of commencement and how they may or may not be communicating it within their programming choices.
> the call towards discipleship that must be presents throughout all the venues of confirmation preparation.
> practical ways to engage parents and adult sponsors throughout the process of Confirmation.
     As you begin your planning for next year, consider booking this workshop.

o Tuesday, February 12, 2008
YOUTH MINISTRY EMBEDDED IN THEOLOGY
   Andrew Root takes a long, hard look at Is Theologically Rigorous Youth Ministry an Oxymoron? See it here.  First, In it he suggests that seeing youth ministry as a theological task moves youth ministry beyond utilitarianism and demands of us real reflection on the practice of ministry and the young people to and with whom we minister. We must see ourselves as theologians helps us move past much of the fragmentation in today’s church ministries. To embed youth ministry in theology, we must recognize that the persons to whom we minister exist in multiple contexts and are impacted by multiple forces. Finally, by seeing youth ministry as a theological task, theory and practice are held together.
HOW TO NOT BE A YOUTH MINISTER
    Margmor, a catholic youth ministry blogger from up around Boston, reflects on How to NOT be a youth minister here.  "I’m going on a Sophomore retreat this weekend. But this year, I’m a mere adult team member, rather than the Director. It’s a weird feeling. . . . So, for me, this weekend will be yet another exercise in how to not be a Youth Minister, the very thing that I am at heart, the thing I’m most qualified to be, the place where I am most comfortable.
WILL POWERPOINT FOR FOOD
(Option 2 of 5) No Place Like Home: Passing Along Catholic Identity There’s a general feeling that we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto! Is it enough anymore to address the brains, hearts, and the courageous hands of young people or is there still more to the stories of our faith?  Where should young people go looking for their soul’s desires? As a result of this workshop, participants will have learned about
> recent statistics regarding the challenges of spiritual homelessness in a “spiritual but not religious” culture.
> the patterns of our historical “great awakenings” and what they portend for the future of our ministry and Church.
> practical steps to assist parishes and families in transmitting Catholic identity.
     As you begin your planning for next year, consider booking this workshop

o Monday, February 11, 2008
SCRAMBLING TO RUSH AID
Up to 12,000 "terrified" refugees from Sudan’s Darfur region have fled across the border to neighboring Chad after the latest air strikes by the Sudanese military and thousands more may be on their way, the U.N. refugee agency said Sunday.  More here. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said it was scrambling to rush aid to Darfur refugees who are escaping bombings Friday of the West Darfur towns of Sirba, Sileia and Abu Suruj. As always, Catholic Relief Services is on the scene.
CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG

  Who really invented Mike Huckabee?  This is a question that has been keeping people up late at night. . . and causing disruption amongst America’s great talk-show hosts.  I love cross-over synergy!
WILL POWERPOINT FOR FOOD
(Option 1 of 5) Refocusing the Vision.  Much has appeared our our screens since Renewing the Vision: The National Study on Youth and Religion, a framework for adolescent catechesis, and more.  The Church has continued to speak regarding young people and Catholic youth ministry.  What additions, corrections and renovations have been built upon our framework? As a workshop, participants will have learned about:
> the vision of the Popes for the discipleship of young people.
> the foundational role that the core components of evangelization and catechesis will play in our futures.
>  the continuing evolution of their role as Catholic youth ministry leaders.
     As you begin your planning for next year, consider booking this workshop

o Sunday, February 10, 2008
MOUNT 2008
  (Settle in – -  it’s a long posting)
  I attended a portion of Mount 2008 this weekend.  This was "the 13th annual retreat hosted by Mount St. Mary’s University". It is a "Eucharistic centered" retreat that is designed for high school and college age Catholics. With the theme "Seek the Face of Christ," Mount 2008 is intended to encourage participants to come to know Jesus as a friend, and to encounter His love and mercy in prayer, the Word of God, and the Holy Sacraments of the Catholic Church. Attendance numbers were reported to be 1,600.
   So, I went to "see," to "seek."  Mostly, I wanted to see and pray in evening’s closing Eucharistic adoration.  I had not seen large scale event Eucharistic Adoration done to the proportion of the what I perceive (another "sight" word) to be the scale of the Mount’s or Steubenville’s efforts
   First, a caveat:  The Holy Land ruined my "sight" regarding objects of faith.  I once traveled to Jerusalem and the West Bank with Catholic Relief Services.  Very quickly, seeing and touching the religious objects of faith (Bethlehem, the Holy Sepulture, the Via Dolorosa, the Mount of the Beatitudes) lost my focus upon the plight of the Palestinian people, the challenges of being a Catholic in the Holy Land, and the pain and ravages of war and hatred within the "holy" land. Months later, I was at WYD in Rome and passed on a tour of the Vatican to visit with young Catholics from US military bases.
   So, following last night’s presentations on religious vocations and marriage, the end of the evening comes.  The lights dim and scripture is read and broken open.  The Eucharist is placed in the monstrance. All reverently kneel in a gymnasium built for sports but not assuming a position of reverence – - hard floors!  Seminarians are singing Latin verses, a spotlight highlights the procession of candles, incense, and Eucharist negotiating their way through the slim aisleways and stairs.  And I feel blocked: the music, the length of maintaining this prayer position, my own difficulty to focus were distracting me.
And then I saw it: the face of Christ.  The spotlight focused on the monstrance but spilled over onto a young teenage girl readjusting her position to follow the procession.  The monstrance had been cleaned enough to catch the light as it shone upon it, but it reflected that same light onto a tired chaperone whose eyes were closed but lips were subtly moving in intentional but peaceful prayer. And look, over there, that guy with the bad haircut and biker-style shirt just blessed himself as the procession passed by.
   The Body of Christ was present in the room!  And, of course, I found that cause for adoration.  I found my prayer.  I had seen the face(s) of Christ!
FIGHT THE POWER
  It is Black History Month, and Time magazine has a listing of the 25 most important films on race. I was surprised that I had seen a fair amount of the more recent films on the list. Soldier’s Story and Do the Right Thing are both great movies if you haven’s seen them yet!
SELF-ABSORBED TEENS
  The popular view that young people are more self-absorbed than ever thanks to their parents’ fixation on self-esteem stands challenged by two large new studies.  Read more here
TECH-ED UP ADULTS
   Increasingly,  young people are feeling uncomfortable about their elders encroaching on what many young adults and teens consider their technological turf. Long gone are the days when the average, middle-aged adult did well to simply work a computer. Now those same adults have Gmail, upload videos on YouTube, and sport the latest high-tech gadgets. Read more here
WILL POWERPOINT FOR FOOD
   All right, folks, here is the deal.  I established this web-site primarily as a service to the field, as a spiritual practice of writing and attentiveness, and as a site to hock my wares as a trainer and writer.  For the next few days, you will find workshops available for you to book.
> Refocusing the Vision
> No Place Like Home: Passing Along Catholic Identity
> Confirmation: Graduation or Commencement
> Adolescent Catechesis: A Good Work in You
> Something Positive to Offer: Teaching About Chaste Living

o Saturday, February 9, 2008
SINS THEY NEVER COMMITTED
  Great start to this article: "This Lent, some Portland Catholics are repenting for horrific sins they never committed."  It seems that to show their personal remorse, Ann and Quenton Czubaretirees have pinned 2-by-2-inch patches of burlap on their clothes, because they, too, bear responsibility for the sin of abuse.
FANTA-STIC
The Pope has been revealed as a secret Fanta drinker after a trip to the Vatican by Archbishop of York John Sentamu. . . . He prefers Fanta. I’m not really sure why, perhaps because it was originally created in Germany. "But he goes through at least three or four cans a day and always has it with his evening meal." Read more here

o Friday, February 8, 2008
WHAT LUTHERAN YM’S
ARE TALKING ABOUT
  This weekend, the ECLA Youth Ministers Network is gathering for a conference. See here.  Their theme is "Fresh" connecting scripturally to “The mercies of God are fresh everyday.” Lamentations 3: 22-23. Workshop options include: Tending to the Quiet in a

Noisy World; Confirmation: Let’s Stop the Exodus; Spiritual Faith Practices of Children and Youth; On Being a Theologian of the Cross in a Theology of Glory World, and Youth Ministry of the Future
NOT SO "FRESH"
  Twenty-five years ago today, this is what made MTV into music television: Michael Jackson’s Thriller!

o Thursday, February 7, 2008
AN INCRIMINATING PIC
   (Click picture to enlarge)
   Just a week after the blessed 50th anniversary of my birth, there has been some shocking photographic evidence of the night in question.  While we have yet to unearth the much feared YouTube video of my “PeeWee Herman dance” at the dueling piano bar in Little Rock (Am I the only one who finds Little Rock and dueling piano bar to be a contradiction in terms?)  Anyway, the lovely Lisa Bagladi, from WLP , sent me this photographic evidence after I sent here the following love poem:
      There once was a girl from Chicago
      How she did make my heart go and go
      She now has an incriminating pic
      Which is causing me a nervous tic
      And for which she wants a lot of dough
   This, of course, was not the only picture, see more here. Meanwhile, if you check out this picture, you can see that someone out there probably does have YouTube video.  If you know who, let me know.

o Wednesday, February 6, 2008
CHRIS WEBER IS INSIDE THE YOUTH MINISTERS’ STUDIO
(Enter the studio here.) In today’s podcast, we hear of a memory of a tough week with kids.  Just at the moment when Chris writes off his own efforts with a group of young people, he is asked, "Chris do you really believe all this stuff" about faith, about God? What a proper reflection for us to kick off Lent. . . hey folks, do you really believe all this stuff?  When was the last time you were asked that question?  Give the podcast a listen!
ASH WEDNESDAY
  From Deacon Greg: Ash Wednesday is, ultimately, all about loss. Losing part of ourselves for God. The part that’s hard, or selfish, or petty. We want to burn it off, and bear the remnant, to show the world our desire to change. The Catholic Encyclopedia tells us that Christians have been marking Ash Wednesday—and marking our foreheads—for over a thousand years now. The “day of ashes” (dies cinerum) harkens back to the eighth century. So many things have changed in the Church over the last twelve hundred years, but this ritual has remained virtually the same. Perhaps it is one reason so many of us are here today. It’s not an obligation, the church doesn’t demand it. But we can’t help ourselves. It’s in our theological DNA. Read more here

o Tuesday, February 5, 2008

HEY, PASTOR DOUG
Coors Light has a great series of commercials where they have taken old press conferences of football coaches and inserted their own questions for great humorous effect. Here is a youth group repeating the same devise to promote Souper Bowl of Caring. While this video is from a Methodist group, Catholics do play a significant role in this effort.  Last week, the membership of the NFCYM added Souper Bowl to its roster of collaborating members.
LENT
Yes, we are all agreed.  Lent is coming waaaaay too early this year.  Nonetheless, the USCCB has resources available.

o Monday, February 4, 2008
THE NEW DEFINITION OF "PERFECT"
Eli Manning throws a 13-yard go ahead touchdown to Plaxico Burress with 35 seconds remaining in the game, completing a 12-play, 83-yard drive, including this amazing catch, in which the Giants converted three third downs.
BIGGEST YOUTH MINISTRY LOSER
   I have entered myself into Youth Specialties’ Biggest Loser competition.  Keep me, my diet, and exercise in your thoughts and prayers as I attempt to prove that I am truly the biggest youth ministry loser in the Catholic Church. How is the game played?  It responds to the question: Who can be a Bigger Loser than (Youth Specialties Youth Specialties president and previous Inside the Youth Ministers’s Studio guest Mark Oestreicher?  The man AND the woman who lose the most percentage of weight will be declared the winners of the contest.  Anyone who loses a greater percentage of weight than Marko will take home second place prizes. (which, since the response to the contest has exceeded YS expectations by a ten-fold, could be a considerable loss if Marko doesn’t have his game on!!!!

o Sunday, February 3 ,2008
NFCYM ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
(UPDATED: 2:30pm) Whew! Back home, in plenty of time to catch the Super Bowl. It should have been easier getting back, we went out last night for an intentionally light dinner after Mass, anticipating calling it quits early.  Yet, upon our return to the hotel lobby, we discovered a jazz duo and very quickly a dance party broke out involving all the returning meeting attendees and quite a few local characters.   Somewhere in this world exists video footage of raucously dancing Salesian nuns – which could only be good for an increase in vocations.  What a great trip!!!!

o Saturday, February 2, 2008
NFCYM ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
(3:30pm) Attendance was light enough this afternoon that one presented suspected that the Sacrament of Confirmation was conferred during lunch.  There were sales-pitches for Newport for the next annual meeting as well as for the next National Conference on Catholic Youth Ministry in Cleveland.  A series of reports and then we’ll be closing up with liturgy, of course.  We are packing for home!
(11:05am) Buzzword Bingo has just been hit in a collaborative effort by Region 5.  Berger Cookies will be winging their way to Alexandria in anticipation of their May regional meting.
(10:00am) The NFCYM membership, after nuance-ing the document over three sessions, has just passed a Code of Conduct for Youth Ministry Leaders. When it is posted on-line, I’ll make sure you get the hyperlink.  Meanwhile, we are about to enter into a discussion following up on the implications of  National Symposium on Working in the Vineyard of the Lord Finally, I promised some friends that I would call attention to LifeTeen’s recent web-initiative of intentional outreach to   Diocesan Directors.
(8:00am) Our region (4) went out to dinner last night and found ourselves sharing a restaurant with Region 3 (NJ/PA) and Region 11 (CA/NV/HI).  The primary California crod was in a private room and so our group invaded their space and questioned if they had lost that loving feeling. Harcourt hosted a wonderful reception promoting www.calltodiscipleship.com and allowing every ne to drive through an actual demo.  This morning, I joined the lads for "morning madness" basketball. It wasn’t pretty. I wore a Mike Patin t-shirt and badly juggled most on my passes in honor of missing friends. 

o Friday, February 1, 2008
NFCYM ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
(4:30pm) The group is getting a little dippy after the much hard work, deliberation, committee consultation, etc., etc., etc.  There has been a subversively fun little game being played throughout the general sessions, Buzzword_Bingo, which today led to interventions like "our work flows a river. Market yourselves accordingly." which covered a mention of River Market, the downtown entertainment district in Little Rock. A collaborating member applicant was required to sing before we voted.
    Meanwhile, amidst all this, Harcourt premiered their new adolescent catechetical resource, www.calltodiscipleship.com. It’s a great new development (and one in which I have been and continue to be fortunate to be involved.)
(10:30am) Last night the Adolescent Catechesis Task Group conducted a discussion with publishers who are NFCYM collaborating members regarding the Doctrinal Elements of a Curriculum Framework For the Development of Catechetical Materials For Young People of High School Age which can be found here. It was an engaging and exciting and conversation. What was revelatory was the "can-do" spirit of the group, bypassing any resentment or frustration and claiming a willingness to follow the lead of our bishops.  And, why not, after all, the document begins by reclaiming "The definitive aim of catechesis is to put people not only in touch but in communion, in intimacy, with Jesus Christ." (Catechesi Tradendae, 5)