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Franciscan at Home

Forming those who form others

Youth & Young Adult Ministry— Silence, Simplicity, and Slowing Down

Black and white image of family praying together“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few” (Mt 9:37). As youth ministers, there is so much to do. Youth group is on Wednesday, parent meeting on Thursday, parish festival this weekend, the website needs an update, the copier is jammed, the admin needs help with Canva, volunteer formation night next week, and the liability forms for the retreat need to go out. Collections are low, someone burned out and quit, and we don’t have the finances to hire this year, so the staff will need to work together to cover their responsibilities. Might this sound familiar?

We need Saints!

But what is our primary call? To know and love the Lord. What is the best thing we can do for our youth and our parish? Know and love the Lord. And yes, serve the Lord, but note: that does come third.

We need saints in our parishes and on our parish staff. We need authentic witnesses much more than we need great speakers, organizers, or teachers. Yes, these skills are important, but a holy disciple will usually be more effective than a skilled disciple—and far more effective than a burned-out disciple or a purely bureaucratic disciple. But effective at what?

What is our purpose at the parish? To balance the budget? To get a teacher for every class? To get the schedule completed? Those tasks are necessary. They need to be done. However, they are a means to an end. Our real purpose is to be authentic witnesses as holy, healthy, joyful disciples of Christ and to invite others to “come and see” as Jesus did.

But do we feel like disciples of Christ, or do we feel more like ecclesiastical bureaucrats? Do we really believe that by working more hours or more industriously or more efficiently that we’ll really get “everything done”? How much did Jesus cram into his work week? Did he meet all his deadlines?

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Bill Dill is originally from St. Louis, Missouri. He is married to his wife, Tiffany. They have four children, are part of the Community of Christ the Redeemer, and reside in St. Paul, Minnesota. Bill graduated with an MPS from the University of Dallas in 2000. He has served two years with NET Ministries, four years in high school campus ministry, a year with St. Paul’s Outreach, three years as a dorm chaplain, taught theology at both the high school and university level, and then served twenty-two years at the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis in both marriage preparation and youth ministry.

Notes

[1] St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 26.

[2] See, for example, 1 Kgs 19:12, Ex 3:2, Dt 4:11, Jb 4:16, Ez 1:4.

[3] Fr. Jacques Philippe, Searching for and Maintaining Peace: A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart, trans. George Driscoll and Jannic Driscoll (Staten Island, NY: Society of St. Paul, 2002), 82.

This article originally appeared on pages 8-14 of the print edition.

Art Credit: Adobe Stock.

This article is from The Catechetical Review (Online Edition ISSN 2379-6324) and may be copied for catechetical purposes only. It may not be reprinted in another published work without the permission of The Catechetical Review by contacting [email protected]

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