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By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer
ATLANTA—When Linda Koerner became the youth minister last
fall at St. John Neumann Church in Lilburn, she asked the Lord to show her how
to reach the unreachable teens including those who’ve crossed the border
into the land of licentious living.
Her answer was simply to welcome them home and offer them a
nutritious Gospel meal of love and acceptance while directing them down the
road to reconciliation.
“How do you reach the kids that seem so unreachable? In my
discernment it was just love them. You just love them for who they are.
That’s all anybody wants, to be loved and appreciated and I think at St.
John Neumann they can be loved and appreciated for who they are and they
don’t have to fit into any little mold,” Koerner said. “I think
you give those who have crossed the line a way home through reconciliation ...
These teens can turn their lives around just as Jesus turned lives around many
years ago. He’s still doing it today. Nothing has changed.”
Through Scripture study, pizza and prayer nights, discussion
groups and catechesis, a number of teens have found a home in the Life Teen
program at St. John Neumann. About 85 youth attend, but the challenge remains
as the parish has over 600 registered teens.
The archdiocesan director of youth ministry, Matthew
Robaszkiewicz, said that the mountain all youth ministers have to climb to
reach inactive youth is high, but that they’re in good shape and on the
right trails. He estimates that a fourth of the Catholic youth in the
archdiocese are actively involved in youth ministry. “We are blessed with
phenomenal leaders who work with kids and programs that are progressive
and—not like it’s a competition—I know a lot of other dioceses
that aren’t as fortunate.”
The director said the best way to draw a teen back is a personal
invitation from a peer and it doesn’t have to take place in a church.
“It’s important for other teenagers to seek them out in
the community where they’re at. If (faith) is supposed to be present in
all parts of our lives, we can witness just as well in a high school soccer
game or wherever kids are. That’s an opportunity to evangelize because
that’s what generally brings kids to church, those relationships.”
From his 10 years in youth ministry, Robaszkiewicz described why
some youth drop off the church roll books after the sacrament of confirmation.
Some programs teach dogma, but don’t foster a personal relationship with
Christ.
“A lot of (teens) don’t feel there’s any relevance.
They may not feel that they are needed as active parts of the church or their
parents aren’t coming. I think a lot of times it’s out of ignorance
because ... we may not have done a good job in presenting the church to
them,” he said. “We need to look at ways (of) reaching out to the
people, to the kids especially.”
Parents, the primary faith educators, strongly influence their
children’s attitudes towards church by word and example. It is a harder
topic for parents to tackle with teens than the list of weekly chores, he said,
but “if it’s something that’s important and valued in your life,
you’re gonna make a point of bringing it up and passing it on.”
Catholic school does not replace the need for church, he said, which should be
the primary faith community.
Joyce Guris, youth minister of the ChrisTeen program at
Transfiguration Church, Marietta, confirmed that the number one reason kids
quit attending youth ministry is because it’s not important to their
parents, who often view confirmation as “graduation” from religious
education. Following confirmation, “we’ve asked parents to sign a
pledge that they will make youth ministry a priority in their child’s
life. Some still drop out, but I call these families. We really try to teach
the kids that it’s not graduation, but a time to step out and grow in
Jesus’ love.”
Guris offered a response to the quintessential church complaint:
Mass is boring. “We, as Catholics, need to continue to educate the faith
community (that) Mass is a community prayer. It’s what are you bringing to
the table? It’s your opportunity to be nourished by the Eucharist and to
praise God for all the gifts in your life. We have an obligation to challenge
people when they say Mass is boring.”
Robaszkiewicz said that all youth ministries should follow
“Renewing the Vision,” the U.S. bishops’ document that outlines
needed components of a comprehensive youth ministry. They are community life,
catechesis, evangelization, justice and service, leadership development,
pastoral care and praise, liturgy and worship. Since the church was once viewed
as an “adult church,” it is important, he said, to give youth
ministries the support, resources and recognition they deserve, not putting
their needs on a back burner.
One of his top priorities is finding ways to enable youth
ministers to better serve the growing Hispanic and other ethnic groups of North
Georgia. “It is a big need. Each of those communities is growing in
numbers and the reality is that right now we have not prepared.”
To implement the pastoral plan, Robaszkiewicz said youth leaders,
who should be trained, knowledgeable and have a heart for teens, should offer a
variety of activities, like retreats, lock-ins and service projects.
“All of these are relevant to the teen culture. It’s
through these things they identify with, that you’re going to reach out to
them. They may not see any relevance in Mass, Eucharist, sacraments, but they
certainly do see relevance in socializing with their friends. A retreat is a
great place to hang out, but in the context of this we talk about the Mass, the
sacraments.”
And all must be done in a loving, nurturing environment. “You
need to walk with them. They don’t care how much we know or how much the
church has to offer. They need to know how much we care and (that) they are
loved.”
That means making an environment open for discussion within
programs where leaders really listen to what teens say, even if it’s
heresy.
“That’s our first mistake when we think we have nothing
to learn and they can’t show us anything. If we discredit them, not
listening to them, that’s a huge mistake ... They have a lot of things on
their minds, a lot of trials and a lot of ideas and they’re just eager to
share these ideas with someone who will truly listen.”
Randy Raus, national director of the booming Life Teen program
which has grown from about 20,000 to over 61,000 youth participants in two
years, noted that keeping an open mind doesn’t equal diluting the Gospel
message.
“Sometimes we think that if we give it to them straight, they
won’t be there, but I find it to be the very opposite ... We need to keep
our message straight up and they really respond to that,” he said.
He said Life Teen’s focus on the Eucharist helps fire teens
up about their faith. After Mass the Life Teen program offers Life Nights,
which are educational, social or issue-oriented, and include eucharistic
adoration and time for confession.
“There’s a relationship building which just really
carries them to the Eucharist, the Lord, the sacraments. We’re sharing
with them the richness of the church and letting them experience it.
They’re responding to that because they are making the intimate contact
with Jesus in all the sacraments.”
Life Teen has modeled some of its outreach, Raus continued, after
the highly effective Protestant Young Life program. One of its best means to
sign teens on is by sharing a meal with them at their high schools to invite
them to an activity. “We’re not afraid to go out to the trenches and
bring them in and know that no matter how far from God they feel, God still
loves them.”
He added that Life Teen Core members, young adults who plan
certain programs, set an example. Teens see a young adult who
“doesn’t have to drink every weekend and isn’t having premarital
sex. Teens need to see an example of people who’ve gone down the road and
made it and Core members are that.”
Core member Kevin McCarron, 23, who returned to serve after
participating as a teen, said he found his faith through Life Teen.
“The environment within the Life Teen group is really to just
let go and kind of forget all the tribulations of life and just focus on
God,” he said.
He said the biggest issues teens want addressed are alcohol,
drugs, family problems and relationship issues. “...We’re just there
to support them. Obviously we’re not psychiatrists or counselors. At least
we’re showing them that there are people that do care about them,” he
said.
Koerner, who has worked in teen ministry for 22 years, agreed the
Eucharist is the hook. Life Teen “is really Eucharist-centered and it all
centers around Mass and the invitation at Mass. It just opens their hearts to
develop a personal relationship with the Lord.”
While many teens find identity through their peers, Koerner said
that her program helps them find identity in Christ. “For any Christian
teen, it’s a constant decision to choose life ... It gives them an
opportunity to decide to be different and you give them the tools to help
prevent them from walking down (the wrong) path. They’re all human and
their hormones are the same as every other teenager...”
Guris said her teens are a devoted bunch. “There’s a
large percentage of them that are just so committed to Christ. That’s
awesome.”
So with teens like those, why the frequent drop off from church
when they hit college? Robaszkiewicz believes that this rite of passage may be
healthy for them to really claim their faith. The best thing youth ministers
can do is aim to give them a strong and personal foundation “so that they
know they are always welcome and they can always come back ... If they leave
high school and haven’t had that, there’s nothing to go back
to.” |
