Then Jesus approached and said to the disciples, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20

Renewing the Vision

Definition of Catholic Youth Ministry

The definition of youth ministry offered by the Bishops is formed by our love for and our commitment to youth: youth have needs we care for and gifts to share. “Youth ministry is the response of the Christian community to the needs of young people and the sharing of the unique gifts of youth with the larger community.” (RTV 1)

Three Goals of Catholic Youth Ministry

In Renewing the Vision, three goals serve as directions for ministry with youth.

Goal 1: Empowerment

To empower young people to live as disciples of Jesus Christ in our world today. (RTV 9)

Goal 2: Participation

To draw young people to responsible participation in the life, mission, and work of the Catholic faith community. (RTV 11)

Goal 3: Growth

To foster the total personal and spiritual growth of each young person.
(RTV 15)

Seven Themes of Comprehensive Youth Ministry

The themes of a comprehensive vision presented in Renewing the Vision provide a guide for ministry development that helps us to use all of our resources and to be inclusive and responsive in our ministry efforts.

Developmentally Appropriate

Effective ministry responds to the developmental growth of young and older adolescents by developing programs and strategies that are age-appropriate and strategically focused to contribute to the positive development of youth.

Family Friendly

Effective ministry recognizes the family as an important setting for ministry and provides links between the programs of youth ministry and the family home through the sharing of information, inclusive programs and resources.

Intergenerational

Effective ministry utilizes the intergenerational parish community by developing shared programs and by connecting youth to adults in the community.

Multicultural

Effective ministry provides ministry to youth in the context of their culture and ethnic heritage. Effective ministry also promotes cross-cultural understanding and appreciation.

Community-wide Collaboration

Effective ministry promotes collaboration with leaders, agencies and congregations in the wider community. This collaboration includes sharing information, sponsoring programs and developing advocacy efforts.

Leadership

Effective ministry mobilizes the people of the faith community to become involved in youth ministry efforts by providing for diverse roles and commitments for adults and youth.

Flexible and Adaptable Programming

Effective ministry provides flexible and adaptable program structures and ministry responses to address the variety of youth and families in our communities.

Eight Components of Comprehensive Youth Ministry

The components describe specific areas of the mission of the Church that work together to provide ministry with adolescents. These components provide a framework for the Catholic community to respond to the needs of young people and to involve young people in sharing their unique gifts with the larger community. (RTV 26)

Advocacy

The ministry of advocacy engages the Church to examine its priorities and practices to determine how well young people are integrated into the life, mission, and work of the Catholic community. It places adolescents and families first by analyzing every policy and program – diocesan, parish, domestic, and international – for its impact on adolescents and families.

Catechesis

The ministry of catechesis helps adolescents develop a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and the Christian community, and increase their knowledge of the core content of the Catholic faith. The ministry of catechesis also helps young people enrich and expand their understanding of the Scriptures and the sacred Tradition and their application to life today and live more faithfully as disciples of Jesus Christ in their daily lives, especially through a life of prayer, justice and loving service.

Community Life

The ministry of community life builds an environment of love, support, appreciation for diversity, and judicious acceptance which models Catholic principles; develops meaningful relationships; and nurtures Catholic faith.

… The ministry of Community Life is not only what we do (activity), but who we are (identity) and how we interact (relationships).

Evangelization

The ministry of evangelization shares the good news of the reign of God and invites young people to hear about the Word Made Flesh. The starting point for the ministry of Evangelization “is our recognition of the presence of God already in young people, their experiences, their families, and their culture. Evangelization, therefore, enables young people to uncover and name the experience of God already active and present in their lives. This provides an openness to the gift of the Good News of Jesus Christ.” (Challenge of Catholic Youth Evangelization 7-8) … The ministry of Evangelization incorporates several essential elements: witness, outreach, proclamation, invitation, conversion, and discipleship.

Justice and Service

The ministry of justice and service nurtures in young people a social consciousness and a commitment to a life of justice and service rooted in their faith in Jesus Christ, in the Scriptures, and in Catholic social teaching; empowers young people to work for justice by concrete efforts to address the causes of human suffering, to serve those in need, to pursue peace, and to defend the life, dignity, and rights of all people; infuses the concepts of justice, peace, and human dignity into all ministry efforts.

Leadership Development

The ministry of leadership development calls forth, affirms, and empowers the diverse gifts, talents, and abilities of adults and young people in our faith communities for comprehensive ministry with adolescents. Leadership roles in adolescent ministry are key. Leaders must be trained and encouraged. This approach involves a wide diversity of adult and youth leaders in a variety of roles.

Pastoral Care

The ministry of pastoral care is a compassionate presence in imitation of Jesus’ care of people, especially those who are hurting and in need. The ministry of pastoral care involves promoting positive adolescent and family development through a variety of positive (preventive) strategies; caring for adolescents and families in crisis through support, counseling, and referral to appropriate community agencies; providing guidance as young people face life decisions and make moral choices; and challenging systems that are obstacles to positive development (advocacy). Pastoral care is most fundamentally a relationship – a ministry of compassionate presence. Pastoral care enables healing and growth to take place within individuals and their relationships.

Prayer and Worship

The ministry of prayer and worship celebrates and deepens young people’s relationship with Jesus Christ through the bestowal of grace, communal prayer and liturgical experiences; it awakens their awareness of the spirit at work in their lives; it incorporates young people more fully into the sacramental life of the Church, especially eucharist; it nurtures the personal prayer life of young people; and it fosters family rituals and prayer.

Ministry Settings for Comprehensive Youth Ministry

To open up opportunities, we look to all of our resources. Four settings for youth ministry create possibilities and inspire our shared creativity.

Youth

We most commonly associate this first setting with youth ministry: ministry to and with youth. This includes the variety of ways that we gather young people for shared ministry. Youth group meetings, socials, sporting events, youth retreats, youth service events and special youth prayer services are examples of gathered ministries in the youth setting. Sometimes we provide specialized programs for small groups of young people. Often times we do not gather youth together to minister to them. We provide them with resources. Many parishes develop a card that fits in a young person’s wallet or purse. This card includes hot-line support telephone numbers for their area. Other parishes organize teams of adults and youth to be present at high school football games, concerts, plays and other events where young people are present.

Family

Ministry in the family setting includes the variety of ways that we support families as they share faith together in the home. This includes programs designed to help parents communicate with their adolescent. Resources that help families to pray and share together are also part of this setting. An important process in the family setting is building bridges between youth programs and the home. With strategies as simple as developing information packets for parents when youth attend a program, parents will know what their children are experiencing; they are better prepared to support these efforts.

Parish

The parish setting includes the many ways that youth experience ministry through the life of the parish itself. How do we include the gifts of youth and respond to their needs through our parish liturgies? What can we do to help youth join the central prayer of our faith? Some communities prepare liturgies that include youth in the liturgical ministries and youth examples in the prayers and homilies. The parish’s community life becomes a place to minister to youth when we pay attention to their needs and their gifts. For example, when planning a parish mission or a parish-wide service event, parishes consider its young members. Parishes link youth to the variety of service, ministry and leadership roles in the community.

Wider Community

Ministry to youth in the wider community connects youth and families to programs and resources beyond our parish. Examples are participation in inter-parish, inter-church and diocesan events, and ways that we connect youth and families to programs, resources and events in the civic community. Connecting youth to service in hospitals, soup kitchens and homeless shelters is a wonderful way for youth to develop their gifts. We take advantage of our shared strength when we come together with other people and agencies in the wider community as advocates for youth.

Putting the Framework Together

Together, the definition, the goals, the themes, the components and settings provide a framework for developing our unique response as a parish community. This framework provides a guide for developing comprehensive ministry and is designed to…

- utilize each of the Church’s ministries – advocacy, catechesis, community life, evangelization, justice and service, leadership development, pastoral care, prayer and worship – in an integrated approach to achieving the three goals for ministry with adolescents;
- provide developmentally-appropriate programs and activities that promote personal and spiritual growth for young and older adolescents;
- enrich family life and promote the faith growth of families of adolescents;
- incorporate young people fully into all aspects of church life and engage them in ministry and leadership in the faith community;
- create partnerships among families, schools, churches, and community organizations in a common effort to promote positive youth development. (RTV 20)

Key Features of Comprehensive Programming

A Diversity of Program Settings

Comprehensive ministry with adolescents uses all four ministry settings – youth, family, church community, and civic community to respond to the needs of young people and to involve young people more fully in the life of the faith community. The four ministry settings are a distinctive feature of comprehensive youth ministry.

A Balanced Mix

Comprehensive ministry with adolescents balances and integrates the eight ministry components, four program settings, and program approaches so that youth ministry can reach all the young people and their families, and the resources of the community can be wisely used. A distinctive feature of comprehensive youth ministry is responding to the needs of young people through the eight ministry components.

A Variety of Approaches

Comprehensive ministry with adolescents can be designed using three different program approaches: gathered programs, small group programs, or individualized programs, multiplying your programming options and reducing the reliance on gathered programs as the primary approach to ministry programming. Mixing and balancing the three program approaches ensures that comprehensive youth ministry is flexible and adaptable in responding to young people’s needs.

- Gathered Programs

Gathered programs focus on participation in organized, assembled programs in youth-only settings, in family settings, parish community settings, or in civic community settings. Examples of gathered programs include youth meetings, social events, trips, retreats, liturgical experiences, parish events, family programs, intergenerational programs. The gathered approach to programming is probably the most common, but it is also the most overused and the least flexible in responding to the complexity of people’s schedules and the diversity of adolescent needs.

- Non-Gathered Programs
  - Small Group Programs focus on designing programming using a small group setting of youth, families, or intergenerational groupings. Small groups provide great flexibility in addressing a wide variety of needs because of the variety of scheduling and site options (e.g., homes for learning programs, social service centers for service projects) that are available. Small group programming provides adolescents who cannot attend gathered programs because of school, work, or family schedules another alternative. Small groups can be utilized for evangelization programming, catechetical courses, prayer groups, self-help support groups, and bible study, to name a few. Small group settings allow easy use of video-based, on-line learning, or video-assisted programs.
  - Individualized Programs focus on design programming for individual or family use. Individualized programs provide great flexibility in responding to a wide variety of needs and removing scheduling and site requirements. They also provide adolescents who cannot attend gathered programs because of school, work, or family schedules another alternative. Individualized programs include home-based activities and resources, spiritual direction, mentoring, independent learning projects, peer ministry, on-line learning, and newsletters.

A Variety of Scheduling and Setting Options

Comprehensive ministry with adolescents is best implemented using a variety of program offerings organized in time formats and settings designed to meet the needs, schedules, and interests of youth and families. There is so much diversity in needs and so much competition for young people’s time that a youth ministry program must be very creative in offering formats, settings and schedules that respond to the real-life situations of young people.

A variety of program schedules – weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, extended time, full day, overnight, weekend, weeklong, 3-6 p.m. weekdays, summer intensive
A variety of environments for programming – parish facility, homes, retreat centers, community centers, and on line.

Adapted from

Center for Ministry Development, Planning a Comprehensive Youth Ministry

Sticky Faith

Findings from Sticky Faith research provide surprising insights into instilling lasting faith in young people.

Parents and church youth leaders often see big changes in youth group graduates as they transition to college, but one change that can catch them off guard is a vastly diminished commitment to faith. To give parents, leaders, and churches the practical tools needed to instill long-term faith in young people, the Fuller Youth Institute (FYI) at Fuller Seminary has just completed six years of what they call Sticky Faith research through the College Transition Project.

For many Christian church youth group graduates, the transition to college is rocky at best in terms of faith retention. Previous studies indicate that 40 percent to 50 percent of all youth group graduates fail to stick with their faith or connect with a faith community after high school.

To unearth why that is and what can be done to help students develop a faith that doesn’t just survive but thrives over the long haul, FYI paired interviews of youth group graduates with a longitudinal study of approximately 500 youth group graduates during their first three years in college. Based on this research, FYI has unveiled three surprising and counterintuitive findings with enormous ramifications for the long-term faith development of teenagers and young adults in the United States:

While churches across the U.S. have tended to allocate financial and personnel resources toward building strong and dynamic youth groups, teenagers also need to rub shoulders and build relationships with adults of all ages.

Churches and families commonly assume that involving teenagers in various youth group and peer activities is the key to vibrant spirituality. Testing this premise, FYI assessed the relationship between teenagers’ faith maturity and their participation in a number of church and youth group activities, including small groups, short-term missions, and Sunday School. Contrary to what is widely assumed, more than any other participation variable measured in the Sticky Faith study, students’ participation in all-church worship during high school was consistently linked with developing a mature faith in both high school and college.

Rather than only attending their own Sunday School classes, worship services, small groups, and service activities, young people appear to benefit from intergenerational activities and venues that remove the walls (whether literal or metaphorical) separating the generations. Churches and families wanting to instill deep faith in youth should help them build a web of relationships with committed and caring adults, some of whom may serve as intentional mentors.

Churches and families think youth group graduates are ready for the struggles ahead, despite the students themselves feeling unprepared and challenged by everything from loneliness to difficulty finding a new church.

Only one in seven high school seniors report feeling prepared to face the challenges of college life. Few students seem ready for the intensity of the college experience and the perfect storm of loneliness, the search for new friends, being completely on their own for the first time, and the sudden availability of a lot of partying. One pervasive struggle for college students is finding a new church, as evident by the 40 percent of college freshman who report difficulty doing so. Young believers’ need for greater preparation is heightened by the powerful influence of their initial post-high school decisions. Young people retrospectively report that the first two weeks of their college freshman year set the trajectory for their remaining years in school.

Given both the importance of those first days at college, as well as the widespread lack of preparation, parents and leaders should consider talking earlier and more frequently about college while students are still in high school. Comprehensive preparation should include helping new college students develop a plan for the first two weeks complete with church attendance, as well as an investigation of ministries and churches near the college setting that can offer a transitional lifeline.

While teaching young people the “dos” and “don’ts” of Christian living is important, an overemphasis on behaviors can sabotage their faith long-term.

When asked what it means to be Christian, one-third of subjects as college juniors (all of whom were youth group graduates) failed to mention “Jesus” or “Christ” but rather emphasized behaviors. This and a few related findings suggest that students tend to view the gospel as a “do” and “don’t” list of behaviors instead of a faith that also transforms interior lives and beliefs. “Jesus Jacket” is the phrase the FYI team coined to describe how student respondents frequently view their faith. In other words, they hold the perception that faith hasn’t changed them internally but is more like a jacket they wear when they feel like practicing certain behaviors. One of the dangers of reducing Christianity to this sort of external behavior is that when college students fail to live up to the activities they think define Christianity, their feelings of guilt can make them quick to toss the jacket aside and abandon their faith altogether.

Parents and leaders eager to build Sticky Faith in youth need to exemplify and explain that while particular behaviors and practices are part of the faith, the focus is on trusting (not just obeying) Christ along with explaining how he leads, guides, and changes us from the inside. In particular, young people better navigate their faith journey when adults share the challenges of their own spiritual paths—complete with past and present ups, downs, and turning points.

Commentary on the Findings

Dr. Kara Powell, executive director of the Fuller Youth Institute, expressed both concern over the faith trajectories of youth group graduates as well as optimism about the potential of the research findings to transform youth, families, and churches. “As many churches and denominations experience decline, and as anxious parents wonder about their children’s futures, this Sticky Faith research has the power to spark a movement that not only changes youth, but also families and churches. Throughout the research, we’ve been sharing preliminary results and are impressed with the powerful changes families and churches have already been able to make by incorporating the findings,” Dr. Powell says.

Brand New Sticky Faith Resources Expanded analyses of the groundbreaking Sticky Faith research and implications are fleshed out in two just-released books: Sticky Faith by Kara E. Powell and Chap Clark, and Sticky Faith: Youth Worker Edition by Kara E. Powell, Brad M. Griffin, and Cheryl A. Crawford (both of which are published by Zondervan Publishing). A pipeline of additional information and resources is also available at the recently launched stickyfaith.org, or by following @stickyfaith on twitter.

Resources:

Youth Ministry Grid

Comprehensive Youth Ministry PowerPoint

WordClouds: https://www.jasondavies.com/wordcloud/

Center for Ministry Development: https://www.cmdnet.org

Sticky Faith by Kara E. Powell and Chap Clark, and Sticky Faith: Youth Worker Edition by Kara E. Powell, Brad M. Griffin, and Cheryl A. Crawford (both of which are published by Zondervan Publishing)