Graphic courtesy Office of Faith Formation and Missionary Discipleship
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When I was in high school, I attended my parish's youth ministry programming with some friends once -- and only once. I didn't know who most of the people were, I don't recall anyone I didn't know speaking to me, and I do recall that they were doing arts and crafts that evening -- which are fine but were not for me. I never went to anything related to youth ministry between that time and when I started working in youth ministry at a parish.
At the same time, I was an usher at my parish, mostly at a particular Mass time, for most of high school. I spent time before and after Mass most every week with Larry, Kenny, Mario, and Gerry. Mario's wife Jackie went to high school with my mom. I remember when Gerry's wife died. I remember when Larry and his wife had their first child. After my family, godparents, and Catholic elementary school community, the Saturday evening Mass ushers may have been the adult Catholics with whom I spent the most time before I went to college.
I mention it because one of our team's goals is to expand and enhance our understanding of what constitutes youth ministry in the life of a parish. It can include a paid or volunteer youth ministry staff person or some sort of regular large group meeting -- but it shouldn't only be that. Youth ministry can and should be a ministry of all the adults of the parish -- because one person or a small team alone cannot get to know and accompany all the young people in the life of the parish.
Parents are the first youth ministers and there are many ways other adults can engage in ministry to young people to assist and support the efforts of those parents to raise their children as disciples of Jesus Christ. I mentioned the ushers I knew in high school above -- but I could just have easily mentioned my Catholic little league baseball coach (though it wasn't a Catholic league), my Catholic YMCA basketball coach (also not a Catholic league), and even some of my Catholic public high school teachers. They were all mentors to me beyond my family in sportsmanship, manhood, leadership, and faith as a young person. And I encountered them mostly out in the world and not in the life of the parish!
In some cases, that mentorship was probably something my parents and these people in my life were intentionally cultivating. In other cases, it was likely not intentional. I don't think I experienced mentoring in Catholic discipleship until I went to college. I became friends with the lay Catholic chaplain and his wife, as did my wife, and they remain important friends and mentors to us to this day.
I am incredibly grateful for the network of relationships that formed me as a person in my youth. At the same time, I cannot help but notice that my formation as a disciple began in earnest when I was a young adult. I am left wondering what might have been if my relationships in and out of the parish as a young person had included a focus on growth in discipleship and personal holiness.
That's what we're hoping to help foster in the parishes of the Archdiocese of Boston now. Youth ministry, properly understood, involves a network of adult disciples who care about and invest time in getting to know young people while accompanying them on their journeys through life and their journeys of faith. We hope that young people can come to know how much Christ loves them through their relationships with adults in and beyond our parishes who love them on behalf of Christ. We hope that they can encounter Christ through the parishes and parishioners which are faithful to Him and truly share what Pope Francis calls "the joy of the Gospel."
We hope you'll join us. Learn more at evangelizeboston.com/youth-ministry.
PATRICK KRISAK IS THE DIRECTOR OF FAITH FORMATION AND MISSIONARY DISCIPLESHIP FOR THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON. HE HAS WORKED IN EVANGELIZATION AND FAITH FORMATION FOR OVER 14 YEARS.