Strengthening Youth Ministry: Recent Episodes
The Office of Youth Ministry
A podcast that offers youth leaders resources from ministry veterans on how to pursue healthy and meaningful ministry. This podcast is brought to you by the Office of Youth Ministry from the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Be sure to keep in touch with us online at stlyouth.org.
1. Complacency in Our Personal Lives; Rule Zero
Revelations 2:2-5
Relevant questions to reject complacency in our personal life:
- Do I do in my life what I encourage teens to do in their life?
- Do I practice what I preach?
- What was the last resolution I made to be a better Christian?
- What happened with that resolution?
- Does my free time make me stronger for ministry, or weaker?
- What is my next step in discipleship?
- Lord, what do you think about how I’m living?
How we can help ourselves have more awareness and improvement?
- Examen prayer
- Regular confession
- Spiritual direction
- Retreat days / Days of recollection
2. Complacency in Ministry; What is a 10?
Luke 7:36-47
Relevant questions to reject complacency in ministry
- Are teen in my parish growing spiritually?
- Are my core YM activities drawing more teens than 6 mo ago?
- If there isn’t growth, what is keeping us from growing?
- If there is growth, what is my succession plan for next year of teens? For when my best volunteers move on to next stage in life? For when my pastor move on to next stage in life? For when God calls me to what’s next?
- Who does this better than we do and what I can learn from them?
- Who is succeeding right now in YM and what’s the story of how they got there?
- What is the vision for YM in my parish, that possible and better future that God is leading us towards 2-5 years from now?
How we can have more awareness and improvement?
- New YM: write down all the stuff that is lame, bad, or broke
- Be real about what’s not working; write it or better, find someone to talk it through.
- Get off the tracks! Freight train of activities, events, crises. You need time out of office and routine to look at big relevant Q.
- Find God’s vision for your ministry in your parish.
3. Complacency in Teams; What's Not Working
1 Samuel 2:12-13a, 22-24, 29, 31; 3:11-14, 18; 4:10-11, 17-18.
Relevant questions to reject complacency in teams
- What matters most in my parish right now?
- How much do I trust my team? How real can they be with me?
- If I asked for help or said I was struggling, what would happen?
- When was the last time we had a conflict about something that mattered and came to a relevant, wise resolution?
- If the Holy Spirit inspired someone on my team with a fantastic idea for our parish, and idea that would make a huge difference for us, what’s the probability that we would notice, get excited, and actually execute that idea?
- What would make us work better as a team?
- What would make us more receptive to the Holy Spirit’s direction and help?
How can you help your team have awareness and improvement?
- This really is hard, esp. if not in charge.
- Ask relevant questions
For more resources, visit us at stlyouth.org
For more counseling resources, check out St Louis Counseling from Catholic Charities – STL Archdiocese.
Suicide Prevention Hotline: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-8255
For more resources, visit us at stlyouth.org
For more counseling resources, check out St Louis Counseling from Catholic Charities – STL Archdiocese.
Suicide Prevention Hotline: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-8255
For more resources, visit us at stlyouth.org
Do’s and Don’ts of Evangelization Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMLYBvmMbPE
For more resources, visit us at stlyouth.org
For more counseling resources, check out St Louis Counseling from Catholic Charities – STL Archdiocese.
Suicide Prevention Hotline: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-8255
10 commandments of the art of accompaniment:
- Foster a closeness that awakens trust
- Pay attention to your intuition to discover veiled expectation and requests for help, often not clearly expressed
- Be a credible witness through your own coherence of life, joy, and self-giving
- Be flexible with time and always be available to listen
- Respect him in who the Grace of an Almighty God manifests itself and from who a free response is expected
- Clarity in exposing the demands of a vocation without ambiguities
- Patience in order not to pressure or hurry the other in his process which may be slow
- To go out and search to facilitate encounter without harassing
- To console him in challenging moments
- Pray to obtain His favor the Grace of the vocation and enlighten his discernment
For more resources, visit us at stlyouth.org