Most publications run a year-end series not unlike a “Top Posts of 2009.” Turns out that we are not above that sort of thing.  (Review #10-5 here.) 

The #4 posting of the year was published on September 16 and was part of the entire Caffeine series

Hysteresis

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?