I recently tripped across these Journeys Project pictures that place the parables and stories of Jesus into modern stories and images.  You should check them all out.  As much for the accompanying story based on “the mustard seed” as for the picture, I’m seriously considering purchasing this one:

A traveler, hiking through the wilderness, comes to the edge of a canyon. Seeking a way to the other side, he discovers a big rope stretched over the canyon. As his eyes follow the rope toward the other side, he is surprised to see a man coming toward him, confidently pushing a wheelbarrow. Arriving on his side of the canyon, the traveler exclaims, “That was truly amazing!”

The man with the wheelbarrow asks, “Do you believe that I can do it again?”

“Oh, of course,” the traveler replies. “You walked across with such confidence.”

“Do you really believe I can do it again?” asks the man with the wheelbarrow.

“Definitely,” replies the traveler.

“Very good, then,” says the man with the wheelbarrow. “Hop in and I will take you across.”

CAFFEINE Part 5 (What’s going on here?)

And sooo, we need a patron for our cause.   Steve Case, many years back, made the case with his brilliant Short History of St. Caffeine, the Father of Modern Youth Ministry:

Youth ministry has always been around. Some believe Jesus himself was a youth minister working with a group of teen disciples. Paul worked with a young man named Timothy. As long as there’ve been churches, there’ve been people who’ve been assigned to work with the young people.

Modern youth ministry as we know it began back in the late 1400s (modern youth ministry being defined as meeting with teens on Wednesdays and Sundays and showing up for early 15th century soccer games). The earliest known records indicate that a man called Matthias was the first to implement many of the practices we now call youth ministry.

Born in 1412 in Constantinople, Matthias discovered at an early age the joys of coffee. His father owned a fishing business, and the two would often spend long nights together out on the boat. Matthias would consume generous amounts of coffee and tell stories to keep his father and the other fishermen awake. (This began the long-held practice of youth talks for people who aren’t really listening and always seem on the verge of falling asleep.)

It was in his 18th year that Matthias had his heavenly vision. God told Matthias to go and preach the gospel but to preach it really fast. Armed with a change of socks, a septem/ undecim travel mug and a large bag of coffee beans, Matthias set out and was soon able to preach sermons in four minutes flat. Noticing that his sermons tended to attract a younger crowd, he began to work teen slang into his sermons—ceterum concitare, puer (Latin for “what up, dude”).

In seminary Matthias was excused from many of the normal studies after his teachers learned of his desire to work with youth. Knowing that Matthias wasn’t destined for “real” ministry, his teachers assigned him to “individual studies” (i.e. working to keeping “those kids” out of the sacramental wine).

Matthias began many of what we now consider to be common youth ministry practices—such as taking teens to other towns without permission parchments, use of unapproved language while driving the fifteen-passenger horse and cart, and spilling coffee on the Fassbinder memorial dirt floor.

It was during a winter retreat in 1434 that Matthias left the coffee too close to the fire and burned his tongue. Matthias attempted to cool the drink down with fresh cream and snow. Since Matthias was unable to speak clearly because of his burned tongue, his students could only call the drink what they thought they’d heard their leader call it. “ Frapp-a- Cino”—which at the time was Latin for “Wow, this coffee is hot.” Upon sharing this drink with the youth, his group was able to accomplish ten times as much work on the summer mission project and thus was considered to have performed his first miracle.

A second miracle that was reported but never documented stated that Matthias once took some dough, tomatoes, and goat cheese and fed more than 100 teenagers. This miracle wasn’t considered during the canonization process, not because his faith was questioned, but because of the sheer amount that teenagers eat, the miracle was deemed improbable.

The people of the towns were so grateful for Matthias’ chemically induced enthusiasm and brevity that they kept him supplied with enough coffee beans and fresh cream to warrant him staying in each town for about 18 months. This attracted the attention of Pope Starbuck the Fourth who dispatched a group of cardinals to “calm the boy down.” The cardinals met in committee and offered to help Matthias plan out his five-year goals and maintain his office hours, but the young priest refused.

Long respected by young people who eventually became older people, Matthias was eventually canonized Saint Caffeine after his death in 1512, after which he was promptly ignored. He was buried in 1514 when his corpse finally stopped vibrating.

Thanks, Steve! Have there been any other miracles we can attribute to Saint Caffeine?

Yesterday, we had our New Youth Ministers’ Orientation for the ArchBalt.  We had nine newbies in attendance, a slightly smaller crowd than usual.  (We think that due to the economy folks stayed in place a little more than usual this year.)  We also had a representatives of our Association of Professional Youth Ministers represented as well as older, ahh., more seasoned, umm, experienced, (yea, that’s the ticket!) experienced youth ministers who will be serving as mentors throughout the year.

In an impromptu ice-breaker, everyone was asked to introduce themselves and identify their parish… Then came a difference.  The newbies were invited to talk about why they might be enthusiastic about their new roles.  The contrasting question for the experienced folks was an interesting last minute choice – What keeps you humble about your role?  It suggests that there is a balance between enthusiasm and humility need for our ministry, and that works for me.

What keeps you enthusiastic about Catholic Youth Ministry?

What keeps you humble about Catholic Youth Ministry?

CAFFEINE Part 4 (What’s going on here?)

There have been some concerns expressed regarding the church’s ability to authentically communicate faith and tradition through catholic youth ministry and adolescent catechesis. It has been suggested that there is a certain sense of malaise in the catechetical world.

Are many of the faithful, especially young people, inadequately prepared to have an adult faith? Our malaise seems evidenced by our dissatisfied uncertainty if we, the faithful, “get it” in what the call to follow Jesus entails, “get it” in understanding the Eucharist, or “get it” about the mission of the Church in the world today.

There has been questioning regarding that catechesis has possibly limited itself providing the “warm glow” of attendance, but lacking an engaged presence. Should catechesis push beyond a “Glad you are all here” mentality? That next step might be the more complex “got some Good News for you; it may not seem like good news right away because a change or a conversion is required, but it really is Good News!” (Sorry, but the Good News requires you up and off that damn couch!) Has malaise eroded the confidence necessary to make this demand of one another?

Malaise is an odd little word. It describes a feeling of illness or depression. The use of the word “malaise” evoked memories of the end of Jimmy Carter’s presidency. It was the 1970’s- gas lines were long; sweaters were worn in the Oval Office as the thermostats were turned down for energy conservation; and yellow ribbons were wrapped around trees anticipating the return of Americans held hostage in the Mideast. The nation was depressed and gloom permeated the collective consciousness.

And then, the national numbness was roused awake. The conservative optimism of Ronald Reagan’s political campaigns were able to rekindle the hopes of a nation with promise of a new dawn: “It’s morning in America.”

Similarly, the malaise in the catechetical world finds not a campaign slogan but a statement of vision. “It is a new morning in catechesis.” The National Directory of Catechesis identifies the fundamental task of catechesis as being “to form disciples of Christ and send them forth on mission.” For those of us who claim to be believers, there is an urgent need to share faith. This has been the process for over two millennia now: We pass along the faith as part of the mission and ministry of the living presence of the Risen Christ. We experience His living presence as we form the Body of our Church. If we believe this, how could there possibly be a sense of malaise?

My friend Cassandra recently facebooked this video, and I thought it great video both to start the year as well as a soundtrack to close a slideshow for a leadership weekend/ camp,  Join me in prayer for those who might be “out there.”

If you hear this message, wherever you stand
I’m calling every woman, calling every man
We’re the generation
We can’t afford to wait
The future started yesterday
And we’re already late

If you’re out there, sing along with me
If you’re out there, I’m dying to believe that you’re out there
Stand up and say it loud
If you’re out there, tomorrow’s startin’ now.

CAFFEINE Part 3 (What’s going on here?)

Stimulate? Is that the right word for these times?  I’ve got to tell you… the times concern me.

I worry that the economy is not bouncing back quickly and this is going to be a long haul.  Unemployment and a recessionary mind-set will have impact on church-giving, leading to tightening church budgets impacting the field.

I worry that, as a field, we have settled into a defensive posture of maintenance of the status quo and are not being proactively inventive enough.  This at a time when we are not not being evaluated kindly by such studies as the National Study on Youth and Religion.

I worry that we are not having deep and wide ranging conversations regarding the look and feel and values what the future of youth ministry might be.

Finally, I worry that Catholic Youth Ministry might have achieved Hysteresis. When discussing the job market this week, TIME magazine defines Hysteresis as

… a word that you (and the rest of us) should hope we don’t hear too much of in the coming months. It comes from the Greek husteros, which means late. It refers to what happens when something snaps in such a way that it can never be put back together. Bend a plastic ruler too far, drop that lightbulb — that cracking sound you hear is the marker of hysteresis. There’s no way to restore what has just been smashed.

Am I right to be concerned regarding Catholic religious educators being in hysteresis as they might be possibly perceived as an aging field with minimal new incoming personnel and little new energy? Are Catholic Schools not that far behind? If Catholic youth ministry is not next, what is it that stimulates our field from survival mode into thriving?

Watching the signs of the times…? Not to add to the scare, but we should be mindful of kids’ safety!

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — Kwangju archdiocese decided to put off two youth festivals indefinitely for fear of swine flu that is spreading through South Korea. “The youth festival is quite an important event for middle and high school students and has been held for more than 25 years but we have to consider their health as top priority,” Father Simon Ki Young-ho said. Read more here.  San Jose has a great advisory on H1N1 here, and this can have an impact on our own conferences as it had recently with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) youth conference  this summer,

STEUBENVILLE, OH—Franciscan University of Steubenville will host its 10th annual Religious Vocations Awareness Day on Friday, September 18, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Finnegan Fieldhouse. The event, one of the largest vocation fairs in the country, is free of charge, and the public is encouraged to attend.

More than 70 religious communities and dioceses from across the United States will be present. At last year’s Vocations Awareness Day, more than 1,000 attendees strolled through aisles filled with videos, posters, religious music, and vocation directors willing to answer questions about their individual communities and their charisms. Read more here (Students in Bob Rice’s class should report that Scott says “hi” to Bob!)

CAFFEINE Part 2 (What’s going on here?)

Catholic Adolescent Faith Formation and Evangelization in a New Era (C.A.F.F.E.I.N.E.) has no business, ever, being boring.

It does, after all, represent the work of a

A Church for young people, which will know how to speak to their heart and enkindle, comfort, and inspire enthusiasm in it with the joy of the Gospel and the strength of the Eucharist; a Church which will know how to invite and to welcome the person who seeks a purpose for which to commit his whole existence; a Church which is not afraid to require much, after having given much; which does not fear asking from young people the effort of a noble and authentic adventure, such as that of the following of the Gospel (John Paul II, 1995 World Day of Prayer for Vocations).

And there is no way that the Eucharist, one’s whole existence, requiring much, and the noble and authentic adventure of following the Gospel can ever be considered boring.

No, mind you, I am not talking an attractional model of youth ministry  which attempts to stimulate a young person’s attention to get them through the church doors. Nope, we want to spend time discussing faith formation and evangelization here-  things that will stimulate the church in her ministry with youth and stuff which will stimulate the maturing faith of a young person.

If we are not doing that, are we living up to John Paul prophetic vision?

America Magazine recently offered this intriguing Brad Rothrock article, entitled God and the Teenage Mind.  A quote to note:

Too often both textbook and teacher simply assume that students understand what is meant by the term God. I have seen many student texts intended to be an introduction to Catholicism that use the word God from the first page to the last without once attempting to explain just who or what they are referring to. As John Haught states in his aptly named book, What Is God?, “Unless there is some common ground of reference when people speak of the divine…it seems pointless to speak to them of the divine at all.” Unfortunately, for many students God-talk is pointless.

Read the whole article here.

CAFFEINE Part 1 (What’s going on here?)

My present job title is Coordinator for Adolescent Faith Formation for the Division of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Archdiocese of Baltimore.  That’s a pretty decent job title and, every day, I am proud to have it and challenged to live up to it.

And, yet, if’n I had my druthers, I would change it… right away.

I would like to be the Coordinator of Adolescent Faith Formation and Evangelization in a New Era.  But, that’s a mouthful, so let’s just simply acronymize it into C.A.F.F.E.I.N.E.

That’s right, Caffeine. After a dependence upon the Holy Spirit and a trust in a well recruited, well trained core of (fellow) volunteers, this is “the” ingredient of all catholic youth ministry.  Caffeine is utilized in all its many forms from Starbucks to Mountain Dew.

Name your own form of caffeine.  And for those fortunate few that are caffeine-free – - What comes after God and “the folks of the church” as necessary for your ministry.