Especially for a 20something youth ministry type, it can be somewhat intimidating to partner with a parent. After all, they remind us so much of our own!

Neil Young recently suggested a few notes regarding being a childless or single youth worker. They included spending time getting to know parents, asking a lot of questions, being humble enough to being an expert in what you are an expert in and not needing to know-all, finding others who can help you, providing resources to parents, and remember to start with what you have in common – all parents used to not have kids. 

John Rinaldo called attention and provided a good list regarding partnering with parents as well.  Some of the suggestions he provided included: Have an evening committed to prayer for families and the ministry, distribute a list of helpful parenting websites/podcasts, have a retreat just for parents, take parents out to coffee and connect with them, and (my favorite) at parent meetings, don’t serve normal youth ministry food (i.e. pizza). Go all out and offer some good stuff, like chocolate covered strawberries. UPDATED:  Christopher Wesley also has some great tips regarding parent meetings!  <image source>

During the season of Lent, we are going to “outsource” our reflections on the Sunday readings.

St. Paul’s College seminarians’ down in DC are offering their reflections of the Gospels for the Sundays of Lent, including today’s readings.

Bonus points to them for tagging them with James Bond-ian themes; today’s is You Only Live Twice.

Today’s reflection is offered by Rich Andre, CSP who is is in his fourth year of theological studies at the Washington Theological Union.  He will be spending the summer in Guatemala in an intensive Spanish program.  On his return at the end of the summer, he is on track to make his Final Promise of lifetime commitment to the Paulist Fathers,  He is a graduate of the University of Rochester. 

Let us continue our prayers for all those who are in (or in studies preparing to be in) The Father’s Secret Service.

New reflections for each Sunday will be posted here.  You can get an advanced look each Wednesday on their YouTube page.

From Pearls Before Swine (with a h/t to the Ironic Catholic)

"I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand,

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Saw the story below recently told.  It, of course, harkens “back in the day” of the civil rights movement.

There was a Southern Protestant minister who was working in his church during the racial desegregation of the schools, culture, and to his parishioners’ horror, churches.

Church lady: I don’t see why things can’t stay the way they have been–whites go to our church, and blacks have theirs.   I mean, it doesn’t harm anyone.  It’s the way it’s always been, separate but equal.  This is our special space–I just don’t want to be that close to them, you know?  I just don’t understand why you want to invite blacks to our church.
Pastor: Well, ma’am, I just want to keep some folks from going to hell.
Church lady:  Oh, well, I don’t want them to go to hell!
Pastor: I wasn’t talking about them.

Now, revisit the story and consider those who may be on the margins of the church- Hispanics… Gays…  Youth and Young Adults.  We still have a way to go…

I do not often repeat blog postings, although I was caught repeating use of a video on Ash Wednesday this year..

but, in searching for something else, I tripped across this May 27, 2009 entry and considered it worth repeating.

This is from the late, great Harry Chapin and it speaks about critics, which seem to sprout up in springtime like weeds. (Let the video load for a bit to skip ahead, the first 1:50 is band intros.)

“Unfortunately, his presentation was not up to contemporary professional standards. His voice lacks the range of tonal color necessary to make it consistently interesting.”

It is the Mr. Tanners that are worth noting not the critics.  Theodore Roosevelt said: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Sing it, Harry: Music was his life, it was not his livelihood, and it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good. And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul. He did not know how well he sang; It just made him whole.

  Brian at Rethinking Youth Ministry recently commented about a survey that he received that asked this question: Imagine that you were tasked with ruining (yes, ruining) a vibrant youth ministry within 12 months, all while appearing to be trying to keep it afloat. How do you tactically dismantle it? (Tricky one. Think backwards.)

His response:  “I would focus most of our efforts on offering high energy, technology centered, entertainment-fueled programs that attracted lots of teens, but give only passing nods to things like Bible study, issues related to justice, or talk of servanthood. I’d make a point of always talking up the number of teens we had at our gatherings without ever talking about the substance of our programs (because there wouldn’t be any). Then, when I had the program built up with big attendance numbers,

(more…)

During the season of Lent, we are going to “outsource” our reflections on the Sunday readings.

St. Paul’s College seminarians’ down in DC are offering their reflections of the Gospels for the Sundays of Lent, including today’s readings.

Bonus points to them for tagging them with James Bond-ian themes; today’s is Goldeneye.

Today’s reflection is offered by Jay Duller, CSP who is completing his first year of theological studies at the Catholic University of America.  Jay was born in the Philippines, raised in California and lived in New York City when he joined the Paulists.  He is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles.

Let us continue our prayers for all those who are in (or in studies preparing to be in) The Father’s Secret Service.

New reflections for each Sunday will be posted here.  You can get an advanced look each Wednesday on their YouTube page.

It is the first Saturday of the month so it must be time for a “CaptionThis” contest.

This one just seemed to be appropriate (or is it inappropriate) enough for our consideration this month

If’n you could write a caption for this picture…. What would it be?  Comment below.

UPDATE: Still got time to play along. We’ll close up entries at work day’s end Wednesday, and then select a winner and award a “CYM no prize.” What’s a “CYM no prize?”  You’ve got to play to find out!

Meanwhile, we do have contenders…

> Michael Flatley returns in… Lord of the Dance: Resurrection!

> Crowd Surfing is inevitable at World Youth Day!

> This Lent, it’s “Stations of the Cross” the Musical, starring Mike Patin.

and the winner is… Popple Kyle with: Get a whiff of these holy armpits! Congratulations, Kyle!

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