{"id":235,"date":"2010-10-11T00:00:22","date_gmt":"2010-10-11T06:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/?p=235"},"modified":"2010-10-11T09:33:42","modified_gmt":"2010-10-11T15:33:42","slug":"the-youth-minister-i-am-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/11\/the-youth-minister-i-am-not\/","title":{"rendered":"The Youth Minister I Am…Not!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I am the most unlikely youth minister ever. That’s why I take great comfort in this video. I’m not hip (but I do use Twitter), I’m kind of old (though not out of it), I don’t have a “perfectly sculpted soulpatch” and I don’t write songs or play the guitar. I’m just a DRE that sees a need and is willing to step into the breach to fill it. This small group of teens is asking me to be with them and lead them, so I guess I can be the youth minister they actually have.<\/p>\n

I don’t know much about youth ministry but I do know how to teach people to pray and grow in relationship with Christ. I’m taking a chance that the kids will respond and this will carry me. The latest youth ministry books are pointing to the end of the non-stop fun, plan your social calendar, all the activities you can handle youth ministry model. They say it’s just not working. Youth ministers are frittering their lives away planning fun activities, keeping the kids engaged and active and they aren’t changing. And, everyone agrees that life-change is why they’re in youth ministry. They report seeing more positive results from prayerful youth ministry models that concentrate on developing the spiritual life of teens instead of their social lives. Of course, I know, there has to be fun in there as well. I like to have fun too!<\/p>\n

I want to quote a passage from a book that has become the basis of my ministry philosophy, The Soul of the Apostolate <\/em>by Jean-Baptiste Chautard. It was first published around World War I and the language is a bit old, but the message is still vital today. On establishing youth groups, Chautard writes:<\/em><\/p>\n

“Take my advice, do not be afraid to aim as high as you possibly can, and you will be astonished at the results. Let me explain: do not merely have, as your ideal, to give the youth a selection of clean amusements that will turn them aside from illicit pleasures and dangerous associations, not simply to give them a Christian varnish, through routine attendance at Mass, or the reception of the Sacraments…Launch out into the deep. Let your ambition be, first of all, the noble one of making a certain number of them, at any cost, take the firm resolution of living as fervent Christians; that is, of making their mental prayer every morning, going to Mass every day, if they can, and doing a little spiritual reading, besides going frequently to Communion and fervently too. Put all your efforts into giving this select group a great love for Jesus Christ…And then stir up in these young men to act upon their companions.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The heart of any apostolate is to form and grow the inner life in it’s members. There can be no other goal. This is what I aim to do.<\/p>\n

I think I’ll blog about my thoughts and my efforts as I go along with this youth ministry thing. Perhaps this will help someone else out there like me who’s struggling to get a youth group going. I hope so. If there’s anyone out there that can help and would like to follow along on this journey, you are welcome. I would appreciate the company of someone who knows the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am the most unlikely youth minister ever. That’s why I take great comfort in this video. I’m not hip (but I do use Twitter), I’m kind of old (though not out of it), I don’t have a “perfectly sculpted soulpatch” and I don’t write songs or play the guitar. I’m just a DRE that saw a need and is willing to step into the breach and fill it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-youth-ministry","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Youth Minister I Am...Not! - Marc Cardaronella<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/11\/the-youth-minister-i-am-not\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Youth Minister I Am...Not! - Marc Cardaronella\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am the most unlikely youth minister ever. 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