I have never been a fan of youth ministry as it is conceived within the Catholic Church. We have 2,000 years of doctrine, liturgy, art, and music upon which to draw in order to bolster the faith and Catholic identity of our youth and we give them watered down doctrine, bad music, bad liturgy, and felt banners. Our youth deserve more.
So it is that I am amenable to drawing the same conclusion that many pastors are now forumlating. That “Modern Youth Ministry a ’50-Year Failed Experiment.‘
The film is produced by the National Center for Family Integrated Churches in association with LeClerc Brothers Motion Pictures. The producers released the documentary earlier this month online, and have made it available for free until Sept. 15.
“Divided” follows “edgy twenty-something” Christian filmmaker Philip LeClerc on a quest to find answers to why his generation is increasingly turning away from attending church. Recent surveys have shown that as many as 85 percent of young people will leave the church and many never return.
NCFIC Director Scott T. Brown told The Christian Post that today’s modern concept of youth ministry is a “50-year failed experiment.” Brown said that when he was a church leader in the ’70s and ’80s he could have been the “poster boy” for the youth ministry movement in California. However, he said he now feels that dividing children from adults at church is an unbiblical concept borrowed from humanistic philosophies.
“The church has become divided generationally,” Brown said. “It’s not doing what Scripture prescribes and is actually doing something foreign to Scripture by dividing people by age or by life stage.”
As Catholics, we should be teaching our young about the glories and difficulties of our faith, about our rich history, about the music created by masters for God’s own purpose. We hide our riches from the young and as a result they go looking elsewhere for it.
I grew up with this garbage and I always knew it was garbage. Kids are not stupid. We should teach them good doctrine, good liturgy, and good music. If we teach them, if we pass it on, they will stay.
ht β @amywelborn2
May 8, 2012 at 4:57 pm
anonymous at 11:51- YES! There needs to be adults right there- not one 20-something 'leading' a large group of teens.
a suggestion to parents- do NOT allow your children to be taken out of Mass for the Liturgy of the Word and the homily
May 8, 2012 at 5:13 pm
We had a youth group of about 15 kids (sponsored by a co-habitating couple)that would meet every Sunday for about 2 hours. These kids really loved being there. The problem is they never went to Mass and were not encouraged to go! Most of the time, these groups are more focused of fellowship than actually learning the teachings of the Church π
May 8, 2012 at 5:44 pm
Pat, it's a big project, but go give a read to the 2010 Apostolic Exhortation "Verbum Domini"–it lays out goals for Catholic formation centered on Scripture: in the liturgy, in EVERY family and home,in every pastoral activity, etc. It's a very, very ambitious set of directions for a change in Catholic formation and spiritual habits. Oh, and if you haven't heard anything much about it because "that's the long one for bible nerds", you're not alone. Implementing it is the work of at least a generation. But I think talk of reforming (rebuilding) our catechesis really has to include the specifics of "Verbum Domini".
Cecilia Lopez
May 8, 2012 at 6:07 pm
I will go so far as to say that the touchy-feely sessions, sitting on shaggy carpet squares (orange or avocado in color) helped to push me away from the Church. I was searching for Meaning and Answers and Truth. Catholic programs for youth in the 70s and 80s did not provide this and I went looking for it in very secular places. There might have been an element of Truth in some of these secular things, but it wasn't the complete Truth. By the grace of God, the search for Truth did bring me home again, eventually.
It is frustrating for me that youth today still must endure touchy-feely retreats and felt banners in order to 'earn' their sacraments of initiation. Stop the madness!!
Elodie
May 8, 2012 at 6:23 pm
This is true. Generally it has been led by an anti-doctrine liberal faction. Generally, it has produced feel-good believers who do not know the faith or understand the basis of morality. I know of many who spent years involved in youth groups but who will not support the prolife or promarriage or defence of faith and conscience battles in the real world.
May 8, 2012 at 6:35 pm
Pat:
Spot on.
Thanks for pulling no punches.
May 8, 2012 at 6:48 pm
As a person who has worked in campus ministry for many years I can tell you that if a college student went to a Catholic High School and was involved in a "Life Teen" type ministry, there is a 98% chance they will NOT practice their faith in college. This is not just my experience, but the experience of dozens of Catholic campus ministers. Teen ministry may bear fruit, but it does not "bear fruit that will last." The focus of the ministry is not on God but rather on the teens. It is similar to the worship of the Golden Calf, the worship of the worshiping community.
May 8, 2012 at 6:52 pm
My parish was starting a youth group last year, and some of the teenagers involved asked the priest if I would kick-off the first meeting by telling my conversion story. The priest kindly asked if I would, and I said "of course", and then I told him that part of my conversion from a secular academic to a orthodox Catholic involved a moment of clearly seeing demons before me (and no, I'm not crazy or feeble-minded). After that I was quietly dis-invited. Apparently, we are not to tell teenagers that demons and spiritual struggle are a feature of the faith life…
Scott
May 8, 2012 at 6:59 pm
I think a good apostolate to youth prepares youth to be adult Catholics with a firm and informed faith, and a reverence for the liturgy celebrated with a Catholic spirit. Bad youth ministry merely caters to their temporary, passing youth.
May 8, 2012 at 7:12 pm
Speaking as a youth minister and someone who has taking a serious interest in the scholarship of catechetics, catechesis, and youth ministry, I wonder if anyone bothered to watch this entire film, before actually ranting.
The film has strong points, but it also has some serious flaws, and utlizing it to have a conversation about Catholic Youth Ministry is quite problematic, when the resource that is explicitly Fundamentalist, Evangelical Protestant.
That being said, I want to echo that youth ministry is not the problem, event things like Life Teen that was previously mentioned. The problem is bad youth ministry. Youth ministry that eliminates the parents as primary educators is bad. Youth ministry that waters down doctrine or eliminates it all together in the name of relevance is bad. Youth ministry that does not embrace the Church's traditions in Liturgy, art and beauty, and philosophy, are bad. Youth ministry that separates youth from the community is bad. Youth ministry that is dumped off on youth ministers by the pastor, and that spiritual fatherhood removed is bad. Youth ministry rooted in the "spirit of V2" and not the teachings of V2 is bad.
May 8, 2012 at 7:13 pm
*excuse the couple of typos. My passion got ahead of my fingers π
May 8, 2012 at 7:48 pm
Our parish has used the Life Teen model for our youth ministry. The youth ministers through the years have been rock solid and orthodox as well as the core team members. One of our priests is present at every Life Night as well as our Wednesday's ministry hour. The fruit has been young people who continue to regularly receive the sacraments once entering college. We have 2 brothers (biological not religious) who were ordained together last year to the priesthood who had been active in Life Teen. One former core team member who will be ordained this month to the priesthood. One former Life Teen member who will be ordained to the transitional diaconate this Saturday and 3 other former members who are at different stages of the seminary. Our teens kneel on the hard floor every Sunday during the Eucharistic prayer. They joyfully kneel in adoration at XLT and sing those contemporary songs that don't hurt everyone's faith, as some would have us think.
I grew up with bad youth ministry so I know what you mean. What our parish has is bearing so much fruit and I am thankful to God for the gift our teens have in it.
May 8, 2012 at 8:21 pm
@JoshD:
I have watched the entire video. Because I have been to numerous Life Teen Masses and find them repugnant, I wanted to agree with the video's conclusions, but all the premises (youths in youth group don't believe in a "Young Earth creation," complete Sola Scriptura outlook, misreading of Plato/Socrates, distrust of tradition, etc.) made that impossible.
Thinking back to so many saints of the last few hundred years, not least of which is St. John Bosco, who educated children and youths for the good of all, having "age-segregated discipleship" cannot be all bad. The video would say that this is a secular mindset that (anachronistically) stems from the secular Sunday school movement. Silly. That being said, the Church quite wisely teaches that parents are the first educators in the Faith of their children.
As you have stated it, I would love to have been in your youth ministry. As it was, I was Protestant at the time and was a social pariah, so impossible on many counts. Keep up the good work as parents need good allies and support in raising their children in the Faith in this day and age! π
May 8, 2012 at 9:27 pm
Is that a plank I see in your eye?
This overgeneralization is over the top. There are plenty of faithful Catholics bringing teens to Christ by showing them the beauty of the Sacraments, Scripture, and the Church.
In our youth program we teach them about the transcendentals. We teach them how to use a catechism, we teach them how to read scripture.
we teach them about the saints, about the Eucharist, about how the most important thing in their life is their relationship with God. We teach them morality, theology.
but most importantly we love them with the Love of Christ, and they see this love and they see our love for the Church and they want to know how they can have this peace and hope, as well.
Proclaim the truth in love, BXVI taught us.
Introduce teens to the person of Christ and his love, and the doctrine will follow, JPII taught us.
Witness Christian charity in your life, and people will want to know WHY you have such joy, PVI taught us.
May 8, 2012 at 10:26 pm
Sorry to say, since this is my FAVE blog, this is one of the few times I utterly disagree with you. Had it not been for some of the trite, cheesy, at times misguided, but nevertheless usually fun youth ministry of my early youth…….
I would not be the orthodox evangelical Catholic female theologian I am today.
May 8, 2012 at 11:52 pm
We had a good youth group in Kansas, but since we moved to VA, the youth groups have been awful…the hour and a half of misery were what I described as "90 reasons to become protestant". The latest version of "youth group" was actually a very dry lecture series…I love lectures, but my 15 year old, not so much.
I encouraged our church to adopt the Lifeteen model, but they refused. I withdrew my kid lest I scare her away from church forever.
May 9, 2012 at 1:21 am
A couple notes that I see are missing in the conversation regarding youth ministry in the comments:
a) faith formation is the primary responsibility of the parents, not the paid or volunteer leaders in youth ministry at a parish. Let's put some responsibility back on the lack of good adult faith formation and community building to bring our adult community into contact with Christ as well
b) it would help if people were a little more informed about what the bishops have written regarding youth ministry (Renewing the Vision), and which the Certificate in Youth Ministry Studies (offered through the Center for Ministry Development, cmdnet.org) aptly sticks to and teaches those who become certified to be coordinators of youth ministry. I would say that if this certification were more supported in parishes that coordinators would be more informed regarding the importance not only of the need for our inter-generational Church, but also (among other things) the need for adults and parents to be involved in the faith formation of the community's youth. Really, if our church leaders knew this amazing document put out by the bishops existed and really tried to fulfill their dream, I don't think we'd be seeing these same problems.
May 9, 2012 at 2:48 am
The problem doesn't begin, or end with youth ministry. Youth ministry just tends to be the scapegoat. Faith Formation, CCD, Religious Education – all of these set up youth ministry to fail, and parents set up religious education to fail for the most part. And, when it comes down to it, we haven't really had much sound teaching and preaching from the pulpit for how many years? It is too simple to make such a statement Patrick. I think you are right that many youth ministry programs focus on the wrong things, and so do not bear much lasting fruit, but by the time young people get into the hands of the youth minister, the foundation has already been very firmly established, and it is very difficult to overcome, no matter how sound the catechesis. I haven't even begun to speak about liturgy yet, and you touch on it when speaking about music, but reality is shaped by how the liturgy is done, and for many, many years, we as Catholics have been formed in totally erroneous and damaging ways in regard to the liturgy. Anyhow, glad you brought the topic up, and I do agree that youth ministry needs to change, but we are already doing damage control, or triage, by the time we get most teens, because the total lack of formation from their parents, their priests, and their religious education teachers (who are often poorly catechized parents).
May 9, 2012 at 2:59 am
There are really dynamic youth ministry programs out there that are really solid in terms of what they are teaching, and modeling and mentoring the teen into, but in general, a very large number of teens, once they hit college, still drop out, or drift, or lose their faith. You can't build a house on sand. Sure, there are stories of vocations, and teens who are staying involved in their faith in college, and strong. But has anyone looked at who those teens are? Most often, in my experience, they are the teens that came from strong Catholic families, for whom youth ministry was a supplement to the firm foundation that they had already set for their teens.
May 9, 2012 at 4:16 am
All I know is I hated Life Teen when I was a teenager, and I basically avoided it like the plague during my entire youth. I was never cynical about the Faith: but you come to me with Christian rock top-40 and self-esteem bromides, and I will devour you alive. I've been that way since I was, oh, 12.
How about we show kids how full on badass this religion is? I had to find out about Aquinas and Bernard of Clairvaux and the Knights Templar on my own time. Life Teen was too busy being white-shoed Protestants who happen to be in union with Rome.