New Year. It involves resolutions, anticipation of change.  Over at YouthMinistry.com, Kurt and Josh looked to the future and suggested

Three Things that Are Changing in Youth Ministry

> There are now many, many voices.  It used to be there were just a few leaders in the field. Now, via blogs, podcasts, etc there is almost a riotous noise of shared wisdom and experience from countless youth workers (Ahem, including this one!) There is room for your voice, too!
> Emphasis on parent ministry  We are finally beginning to sweat that parents are the primary discipler of their teenager.
> Team-based ministry  Youth ministry was never meant to be done alone!
> a bonus fourth: Church together Youth ministry is no longer an island to itself.

and Three Things that Aren’t Changing in Youth Ministry

> Caring Adult Leaders -Great volunteers have been a part of youth ministry for a long time – and they will continue to be in the future.
> 1-on-1 Time with Students Relational ministry is still most highly valued.  Our churches can do more of it with more Caring Adult Leaders
> Curriculum and Teaching – Scripture and (in our Catholic faith) Tradition at at the center of what we are passing along in youth ministry.
> another bonus fourth: A devoted follower of Jesus leading the group Leadership and gizmos make a difference, but discipleship matters.

As you look towards our shared future, be on of the many voices and comment of what’s changing and what ain’t changing in youth ministry . <image source>

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone spoke of behalf of Pope Benedict to the Plenary Assembly of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE). The Pope asked bishops of Europe to "identify new ways of evangelization with missionary audacity," and he particularly stressed the need that young people have of the Gospel.

In a statement from the meeting, the European bishop identified evangelization as “the manifestation of the Church’s life and vitality. It should not be understood simply as a pastoral activity, but as the manifestation of its very nature and mission." They identified the "new evangelization" as not just for fallen-away Christians, but for everyone.  "It seeks to proclaim Christ, true God and true man, crucified to bear every human grief, raised from the dead that we might have life," they stated. "Through their baptism, all believers are called to take part in the new evangelization: families; young people who are generally the most open to being missionaries; but also parishes, the movements, and new communities.” (You can read more from the Zenit article)

Meanwhile, a Presbyterian elder and writer for the daily  Kansas City Star’s Faith Matters blog, Bill Tammeus recently advocated that we evolve our thinking from church as not a "place where" but a "people who."

The line oft-accredited to Saint Francis of Assisi is “preach the Gospel at all times… if necessary use words.”  When we are using words we are most often using words within a place where WE feel comfortable.

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There’s a place for us, somewhere a place for us. Peace and quiet and open air wait for us somewhere.

Over half a century ago in West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim offered a ballad for star-crossed lovers seeking their place in a complicated world. This song, now sung in local high school productions, still reflects the mood of a younger generation. Yet, it no longer seems as harmonic and lovely as it once did.

This February, the cover of Time Magazine profiled “The Generation Changing the World.” Reporting on what we have come to know as the Arab Spring, they profiled the young men and women who were leading Days of Rage. Many of them were novices at political activism and used social-networking and texting to organize and communicate about their protests.

In August, days of rioting broke out in London following the shooting of a black twenty-nine-year-old and the initial protest that followed. Some blamed the riots on a "sense of entitlement" which has been seen among Britain’s youth.

Meanwhile, back here in the United States, our own young adults find much about which they can be frustrated.

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Today’s YouTube for You will have an impact on next Tuesday’s YouTube to Use.

Years back, at a Youth Contact Meeting in the ArchBalt, then director Mark Pacione discussed the role of youth ministers as a conductor of talents within the parish.

There is a real beauty to the development of Eric Whitacre’s virtual choir here and I would contend that this is truly the gift of the WORLD wide web and the possibility for us.  How can we, as Church, engage social networking in such as manner as to convey the “you are not alone” in discipleship, that faith can be viral, and that one voce can make a difference and can be overwhelming when joined with others.  This sort of connection will never replace face-to-face incarnational relationships… But, WOW, what a hint towards connection as choir, as Church, as humanity.

  Watched Moneyball over the weekend.  It’s a great baseball movie that’s very accessible to all with good performances by Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill.

A true-life story, it talks about changing the game of tradition laden baseball, especially how talent was evaluated and utilized… not much of the action is on the field  Scouts used to be always on the lookout for a “five-tool player,” one who observably excelled at hitting for average, hitting for power, baserunning skills and speed, throwing ability, and fielding abilities. The movie suggested that scouts looked at other intangibles such as the hotness of the girlfriend as an indication of a player’s confidence. Scout were happy to find a player with two or three tools. It was high praise to find a five-tool player.

Well, the movie tells the story of what happened to the near–successful (as in short of making the World Series) under-paying Oakland Athletics after the 2001 American League Division Series. The A’s were up two games on the New York Yankees, a team with three times the payroll, before losing it all. In the post season, they could not keep Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon, and Jason Isringhausen, free-agents who went to higher paying teams.

A’s General Manager Billy Beane has to rebuild the smaller market/ smaller budget team to again be competitive. As a formerly described five-tool player, he well understood the flaws in that system of evaluation and, therefore, latches on to a new system, sabermetrics, which boils down statistics to evaluate players’ value rather the traditional scouting techniques of observation and intuition.

The “Sabermetric Evaluation” of Youth Ministry

Hmmmm, I thunk and thunk to myself after the movie.  In the past few years, we have had book after book of statistics that call for us in re-evaluation of our efforts in youth ministry… If we moved beyond our own observation and instinct, what would be the sabermetric effect for youth ministry?

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Catholic youth ministry is at an interesting point, I believe.

We say that we are about discipleship, which strikes me as a very hard question.

Yet, we have a profound slate of hard questions before us and, often, it seems we default to the easy answers of what’s worked for us before…  the significant challenge being, of course, is was it actually working for us before?  And, really, the hard questions weren’t something that has “to do with me, were they… or were they?

And because we allow that in ourselves, one wonders, do we also allow it therefore in those with whom we serve?

In the recent edition of Lifelong Faith, editor John Roberto reminded us all about Switch and Becoming a Change Leader.   (We visited these topics last September, you find the content among the postings on this page.)

Yet, I’m wondering if we (and I) have yet to really figure out how to “Motivate the Elephant” regarding change – - how do we motivate people’s emotional side towards change?

Here’s what is motivating me – - -

> The studies are saying that we have yet to do our very best work in youth ministry – - That kids and their faith are not sticking, that we have not engaged the full community into anything beyond pigeon-hole-ing youth ministry.
> If merged parishes have not yet come to your neighborhood… well, look down the road… It very well might be on it’s way.  An experienced youth minister recently shared with me that he regrets that we will lose many youth ministers in that process. I think it will be Darwinian in nature,  that the strong – those who are competent;  working, training, and leading teams; engaging the whole community –  will survive.  Those ministries that evolve towards the future will survive (yes, religious educators, I’m talking about you, but youth ministers, you are only a fatal step of the lemming march of same old, same old away from extinction.)
> Families are in real need.  Our ministry must expand beyond kid-centricity.

Yet, with many hard questions abounding, we have yet to discern what is the clarion call to action for us.  The John Paul II World Youth Day visit in Denver was “a moment for change” in Catholic Youth Ministry, at least, for us in the States.  I’ve often stated that we needed the next moment like that and needed it now.  Once, a workshop participant feared that is as likely to be church 9/11-ish moment as much as a JP2 moment.

Towards all of this, we must keep dreaming and scheming and be constant in our prayers to the Spirit for intervention.

What is motivating you towards change in youth ministry towards the future?

Tripped across a blog post from Terrace Crawford regarding his glimpses into the future of youth ministry and (while a pessimisstic view of the economic downturn and its impact on the church) does have an optimistic view of how we play it all out into the future:

TC thinks that:

>> A prolonged economic downturn forces churches “to solicit volunteers and let paid youth workers go.” We have to rethink engaging and training “passionate volunteers to reach today’s young people.”

>> The pigeon-holing of youth ministry diminishes, “silos will be abandoned” and we will continue to seeks was to  integrate young people into the full body of the church. Therefore, we will come to the realization that “my” calling is to help equip the church in “her” calling to reach today’s teenagers.

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There comes moments for each blogger, I think, to occasionally have the Jerry Maguire Manifesto moment. <advisory – video link has swear words and gestures.>

This started last Monday – I was at Franciscan University dialoguing on Professor Bob Rice’s youth ministry class about the future of the Church’s mission with young people. I discussed my own sense of a need of our field to have a tipping point, not unlike when John Paul II came to visit the world’s young people assembled in part in Denver, CO in 1993

And, it was noted there that it was entirely possible that such a tipping point could come as much from a negative experience/ a disaster as much as it could come from a positive incident…

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So, this morning, I find myself in Ohio, visiting Bob Rice’s youth ministry class at Franciscan University in Steubenville.

Usually, this class comes to visit Baltimore in the fall. That didn’t happen (really, it wasn’t changes in staffing in our office!)due to complication of schedules..

So, I jumped at the invitation to come and visit… and since the students were going to miss hearing from our ArchBalt youth ministers (who are truly the awesomest!), I gathered some FUS alumni for a lunch and a quick video shoot.

We talk about the FUS experience, the first months as a youth minister, and we make a recruitment pitch for the ArchBalt.

If you are thinking about moving, catch the last third of the video… we would love to have you. And, feel free, to  contact me about what is available!

Oh, and there is a bonus clip telling a Bob Rice story!

Brian Dodd has recently been looking at the protests in Egypt, Wisconsin,and Libya and wondering if, culturally, that the “groundwork has been laid that we could see similar things happen at local churches across America, albeit on a smaller scale.”  He suggests that many have become “so disenfranchised that (they) feel organized mass protests in public venues are the primary method for facilitating change.”

While he has suggestions as to how to avoid this in your local church (and cites good youth ministry as a preventative,) I’m wonder how the local church might better empower (and “franchise”) leaders to facilitate change…? <image source>