News

Creating Catholic disciples among our youth

By Brian Kohls
Compass Correspondent

GREEN BAY -- In order to try to create Catholic disciples of youth, more than 80 parishes in the Diocese of Green Bay have begun participating in Vital Youth Ministry.

"Vital (Youth Ministry) is a training program designed to help parishes effectively organize themselves, organizationally and systematically, to achieve the goals of 'Renewing the Vision,' the United States Bishops' document on comprehensive youth ministry," said Rich Curran, diocesan director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry.

The focus of Vital Youth Ministry is to train a group of parish leaders who will be able to develop a vibrant, sustainable, and spiritual youth ministry program at their parish.

"Unlike all the other training programs in existence for Catholic Youth Ministry, Vital does not train one individual, usually the youth minister," said Curran. "Vital trains teams of volunteers and staff at the parish level and works with them, for two years, to establish this organizational structure. The biggest shift is from a ministry that is events driven to one that is multifaceted, systemically constructed and the goal of the program is to form Catholic disciples."

Cultivation Ministries Ltd., a not-for-profit organization, began providing training sessions, consultation, and resources to youth ministers, parish staff, and volunteers, in the diocese, for Vital Youth Ministry, in January 2007.

Three sessions have been held so far in the diocese. There will be a total of eight large group sessions by the time the two-year process closes, with each parish team doing independent work learned at each session, Curran explained.

Approximately 300 individuals from parishes in the diocese are participating in the Vital Youth Ministry training, which teaches individuals how to create, plan, and run an effective youth ministry program.

"I believe this process will be effective because it is grounded in prayer and will be a relational ministry," said Susan Angoli, a co-coordinator of the youth ministry program at St. James Parish, Cooperstown; All Saints Parish, Denmark; Holy Trinity Parish, New Denmark; and St. Joseph Parish, Kellnersville. "We have learned in our training process that effective youth ministries have underlying meaningful and purposeful relationships with youth."

Amy Koehler, Coordinator of Middle School Faith Formation & Youth Ministry, at Sacred Heart Parish, Shawano, says that the focus of Vital Youth Ministry training is much different than planning and running a parish youth group.

"The overall goal is to build lifelong disciples who can go forth as leaders confident in their Catholic identity and spirituality," she said. "There is so much more to youth ministry than just a youth group.

"A comprehensive youth ministry has a variety of spiritual needs being met through a large range of opportunities, such as prayer and worship, justice and service, faith development, etc. The opportunities connect to one another and to the mission of the ministry," she added. "As a result, more teens ... are involved and growing in their faith; teens feel like they're a vital part of the parish life and community; and teens are becoming confident Catholic leaders."

Angoli sees youth ministry in terms of disciples and relationships, not social time or youth work projects.

"Many youth groups are only a social outlet for those already connected to the church and are program driven," she said. "We will build our ministry with the purpose of making disciples of Jesus and will work to meet the spiritual needs of our youth. While we will certainly have activities, they will always serve the purpose of building disciples. We will work to incorporate the eight components of Youth Ministry: Advocacy, Catechesis, Community Life, Evangelization, Justice and Service, Leadership Development, Pastoral Care, and Prayer and Worship, as outlined in 'Renewing the Vision.'"

While the components of youth ministry will be part of each participating parish's future youth ministry program, part of Vital Youth Ministry training explains how to get to that point.

"They work on things such as building a good team that utilizes skills ..., how to build a quality team environment, and how to design, plan for and implement an intentional youth ministry plan that is disciple making and not based on a bunch of random activities ...," said Curran.

Bobbie Jo Pieschek, high school religious education administrator at Corpus Christi Parish, Sturgeon Bay, said participants in the training sessions have only begun to wade into the process.

"Amy (Alberts) and I also have monthly phone conversations with Frank Mercadante (who leads the training sessions)," she said. "We are still in the planning stages and are currently working on our mission statement and gathering data from our parish families. However, we do envision that our ministry will include outreach, evangelization, study, and more."

Angoli describes the training in agricultural terms.

"First we focus on 'Preparing the Soil' by building a spiritually contagious ministry team that shares a clear vision, plan, and spirituality for growing teen disciples," she said. "Secondly, we concentrate on 'Sowing,' or evangelizing. We learn how to effectively share the gospel with teens ... In the third phase 'Growing,' we build relationships, programs, activities and events that foster spiritual growth in teens. Finally, our youth ministry will become complete when young people begin bearing fruit by personally embracing the mission of Jesus and the Church. 'Reaping' involves training, empowering, and sending forth teens to live as disciples in their world today."

Curran says that individuals are fortunate to participate in this process.

"(T)he entire training cost for Cultivation Ministries services was provided by a grant from the Joseph and Sarah Van Drees Fund at the Catholic Foundation," he said, explaining that each participant had to pay $50 for books. "If we offer this training again, with the same conditions for costs per person, it is all dependent on us receiving another grant from the Catholic Foundation and that is not guaranteed. It would be my hope to repeat this training with another grant."

Curran, who has served the diocese for three years, is excited about the future of youth ministry in northeastern Wisconsin.

"I cannot wait for three to four years from now," he said. "The face of Catholic youth ministry in the diocese will look very different ... three or four years from now, as teams are fully trained and continue to work together, we will see some dynamic efforts at going after our youth, to evangelize them with passion and energy for the Gospel ... "

Koehler is excited about implementing what she has learned through Vital Youth Ministry training with the youth from Sacred Heart Parish in Shawano and the surrounding area. "Youth ministry doesn't work with numbers," she said. "It works with hearts, people, and most importantly for God!"