Last week I attended the National Conference on Catholic
Youth Ministry in Orlando, Florida along with thousands of other youth
ministers, priests, publishers, deacons, missionaries and religious educators. I spoke to many people, from Texas to
Alaska, Seattle to DC.
Invariably, I got two different reactions when I was
introduced as a representative of Young Life. One reaction involved a spontaneous smile, a flicker in the
eyes and some variation of, “Oh, I love Young Life!” I met Catholics who were Young Life kids, Young Life
leaders, even a few former Young Life staff. Those who had been on the “inside” of Young Life’s ministry
were deeply touched by the dynamic and palpable presence of Christ in the YL
community. Without exception, each
one of them carried the vision and passion of Young Life’s incarnational model
of evangelization into their current Catholic ministries.
The second type of reaction was quite different. I could see it in their eyes the moment
they heard the word, “Young Life.”
They were clearly caught off guard, trying to remain pleasant while
cautiously sharing their negative experiences of Young Life. I encouraged them to be honest and a
few shared with me that Young Life staff in their areas were particularly
unfriendly to Catholics. Some,
particularly in the South, noted a consistent anti-Catholic tone from Young
Life. None of the Catholics
working in youth ministry ever had a Young Life staff come to them and say,
“Hey, I’ve got a Catholic kid I’ve been working with and I wanted to try to
connect him/her with what you’re doing.”
This tells me two things:
1)
We need to open the doors of Young Life wide and
invite our Catholic brothers and sisters to experience what we’ve experienced
in this mission. Not to convert
them, not to show off our incredible camps, but to welcome them into the unique
Young Life spirituality that is neither Protestant or Catholic, but simply and
passionately Christian. We have an
enormous opportunity to bless our Catholic friends and encourage them in their
ministry.
2)
We must be exceedingly intentional about
building bridges with local Catholic parishes and youth ministers. If it is true that “we are not the
church,” if our ultimate goal is to set kids on fire for Christ and integrate
them into a local church community where they can continue to grow in their
faith, then we need to establish real relationships with Catholic churches and
let them know that we are serious about collaborating with them in the great
work of evangelization. It is not
enough to say, “Oh I don’t have anything against the Catholic Church.” We must, as St. Francis of Assisi is
believed to have said, “Preach the gospel to all people and if necessary, use
words.”[1]
Bridges, not bombs.
Our God is calling us together to lift up the name of Jesus, to bring
comfort to the afflicted and hope to the downtrodden. Start building today.
We are one body.
[1] As
a matter of intellectual integrity, there is no scholarly evidence to suggest
that Francis of Assisi ever said those words. Another exceedingly overlooked point is that St. Francis was
a man of many words and he
unabashedly proclaimed the gospel, both in word and deed, at every turn.
I love that you were at that conference, Michael. Wonder if a few other staff could join you at the next one, as we seek to "earn the right to be heard" in that community? Clearly we have some work to do...
ReplyDeleteThanks for leading the way. Praying for God to do what only He can do among us!
Thanks Rebekah. YES, we absolutely need to bring a team to the next NCCYM conference! Young Life staff can learn that they beat with the same heart as their Catholic colleagues in youth ministry. They can meet Catholics who are alive and on fire for Jesus and who are passionate about reaching kids with the gospel. Catholics can meet Young Lifers who love the Catholic Church (even those who are non-Catholic) and are excited about working together. And we can have real conversations about what it would look like on the ground to partner together in the great work of evangelization.
ReplyDeleteYou in?
Great thoughts, Michael.
ReplyDeleteFYI, I have noticed that sometimes Protestant youth ministers have the same "second type" of reaction that you described above. It can be a problem for BOTH Catholics and Protestants.
I have known few youth ministers who haven't had some sort of beef with what they believe to be Young Life taking their kids and not working together with them. Often these beefs are well founded. And I have known many Young Life leaders who have been wounded by a church leader or youth pastor, unjustly accused of "stealing kids" that the particlar pastor never had to begin with. A lot of hurt feelings on both sides.
The bottom line is that God likes bridges, because He likes unity, because unity shows His love. Building bridges usually require humility, and God likes humility, too! If I am not part of bridge building, at best I am missing out on what God has for me, and, at worst, I am being flat disobedient.
So..., your call to unity in this blog is admirable and godly. If hurt feelings stand in our(my) way, then we(I) need to deal with them and get over it. :)
In His love,
Chris Patterson
Thanks Chris. You've identified something really important in this discussion - humility. It is so easy for us to give into the natural temptation to draw back from "the other," to point fingers and project blame. Grounded or not, the question is, are we willing to turn the other cheek, to walk the extra mile towards unity, and to heroically stand by the cross of Christ who uttered, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." I'm not saying to ignore missteps here. We need to share honestly at the common table of our woundedness. If Young Life staff are being insensitive to Catholics, we need to address it. If Catholics are unjustly accusing YL of "stealing kids" then we need to talk about it. But we need to walk towards solutions TOGETHER and tackle the issue that we all can agree on - lost, hurting kids who don't know the first thing about the truth and love of Christ.
ReplyDeleteHi Michael, great to meet you at NCCYM. I look forward to connecting in the future. I'm curious as to if YL does any training in moving youth back into churches, regardless of denomination. My New Staff and internship experiences did not include this training. While I'm thankful for the work YL is doing specifically w/ Catholics in this arena, I'm wondering if it's more of a systemic issue, especially reflecting upon what Chris said above.
ReplyDeleteblessings,
Craig Gould
Great question Craig. For the first time in its history, Young Life will be providing training on ministering to and with Catholics this winter. In January I have the opportunity to speak at New Staff Training, a gathering of 200+ who are entering into their first year of full-time ministry with Young Life. I have also been asked to write training materials that will be used in the ongoing formation of Young Life staff. This is an exciting development, one that I hope will grow and bear much ecumenical fruit in the future!
ReplyDeleteyep, i remember that being part of the conversation. my ? is if YL does this on a larger scope w/ teaching their staff how to cooperate with churches (of whatever denomination) and provide avenues back into those churches.
Deleteblessings,
Craig
Craig,
ReplyDeleteIn fairness, there are plenty of youth pastors who value Young Life folks, and vice versa. It comes down to relationships. When we are in relationship, we can communicate our ministry philosophies, approaches and methods. We can clear up misconceptions. We can share our hearts for kids.
I certainly agree we can and should have systemic training. Ultimately we can help each other. But we need to know each other first.
Craig and Michael,
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, there are plenty of Young Life staff and leaders who have great relationships with youth ministers. With relationship comes communication. Communication allows Young Lifers and youth ministers to share their philosophies, approaches and methods of ministry. It also allows them to get to the bottom of particular issues relating to particular kids.
Don’t get me wrong. I agree that systemic training is helpful and important for Young Life staff and leaders. But, to my way of thinking, building relationship is more important than training. The challenge for both Young Life staff/leaders and youth ministers is that we are all so busy (doing the Lord’s work), and relationships take time, and lots of it! That’s why I like your blog, Michael. You present the passionate message that building relationships (bridges, as it were) between YL and the Catholic Church is worth it!
But the main point I was trying to make is that there are two dynamics at work as we work on building those YL/Catholic bridges. One relates to the relationship between Young Life (an ecumenical-but-predominately-Protestant organization) and the Catholic Church (Catholic, with a call to ecumenism). The other relates to the relationships between Young Lifers and youth ministers in general.
In His love,
Chris Patterson
Craig,
ReplyDeleteAlso, regarding your last question, from my volunteer team leader experience, I don't remember specific training on cooperating with churches or providing avenues for kids to those churches. That training may be out there. However, general teaching provided that our ultimate goal was to help a kid transition to a church community. Young Life folks truly want kids to get "plugged in" to church. But doing that is very challenging.
I think one of the reasons for the challenge is that in Young Life we spend A LOT of time building relationship with kids. Because we spend this time, kids listen to us. But that doesn't mean that they go where we suggest that they go. It is much more effective to "bring" a kid to church than to tell a kid to go to church. This can be a great challenge if a leader is Protestant and the kid is Catholic. I have known of some Protestant leaders in our region who actually go to mass and bring Catholic kids with them. And, of course, bringing kids to mass can be even more effectively done if there are Catholic leaders doing the bringing.
Either way, YL teaches us to get kids to church, but that is easier said than done. (And, I guess from a Catholic perspective, this challenge is part of what the New Evangelization is all about.)
Chris
Beautiful point Chris. I always like to say that this battle is going to be won through an "ecumenism in the trenches" - not so much formal dialogues between world communions but real relationships on the ground between Young Lifers and Catholics who are willing to get to know each other, to share their stories and listen to their common passion for Christ and kids. Christ's prayer "that they may be one" begins to be fulfilled when we lay down our wounds and our weapons and we're willing to forgive, reconcile and work together in our common mission and service to the world. The fact is, we ARE united on so many levels but so few know it. Many seem eager to drum up old grievances which have already been settled (see my post "On Justification").
ReplyDeleteWhen we come together "perfectly united in mind and thought"(1 Cor 1:10) we offer credible witness to a world that is weary of the church's war of words. They will know we are Christians by our love. And it all starts on the ground, with you and me, with the next Protestant or Catholic you talk to, with the next kid. Build bridges, not bombs. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God"(Mt 5:9).