“My first
impression was WOW!” noted Al Forsythe, a Catholic diocesan official from
Knoxville, TN, as he stepped onto Young Life camp. “Being at Rockbridge was for
me a ‘taste of heaven,’” remarked Melinda Prunty, another diocesan director from
Kentucky. For these Catholic leaders, it was their first experience of Young Life and it left them energized
for a future where collaboration, not competition, marks the relationship between
Young Life and the Catholic Church. “We can begin to build relationships and
model to our young people that we are one body working together,” Forsythe reflected.
And the time is now. “Let’s do something big” he said, “together!”
A little history
was made last week when Catholic diocesan directors of youth ministry, Catholic
clergy and lay people gathered at Rockbridge (VA), one of Young Life’s
twenty-six camps in North America. These Catholic leaders celebrated Mass, conversed with Young Life leaders from around the country, and were immersed in all
the energy of Young Life camp. Translation: they were surrounded by five hundred rowdy teenagers, many
of whom had never shadowed the doorway of a church. This special adult guest
initiative gave Catholics an inside look at Young Life’s incarnational approach to these kids
– meeting teens where they are, earning the right to be heard, and sharing the
greatest love story every told, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The experience
made an immediate impact. “Jesus didn’t say to stay there in the upper room and
share the message with whoever comes by,” one diocesan official exclaimed. “We
need to go outside the walls of the church and bring Jesus to the streets!”
This is precisely the vision of the new
evangelization, the Catholic Church’s official and global strategy of
bringing the light of Christ to the nations in the twenty-first century. Pope
Francis exhorted:
We cannot
become starched Christians, those over-educated Christians who speak of
theological matters as they calmly sip their tea. No! We must become
courageous Christians and go in search of the people who are the very flesh of
Christ.[1]
For nearly 75
years, Young Life’s commitment to excellence in youth ministry has forged a
path for the evangelization of millions of unreached, disinterested and
disconnected youth. Considering the precipitous drop in religious participation
for each successive generation of Catholic youth today, the need has never been
greater for Young Life and the Catholic Church to join hands and labor together
in this important work. “We in the Catholic Church are, for the most part,
effective in teaching about our faith
[but] I believe Young Life can help us reach those who never come to us or who
might have been baptized without any real [conversion] or exposure to the Church,”
one Catholic leader said.
Whether a young
person has a church background or none at all, the effective collaboration
between Young Life and the Church is vital to the ambitious project of the new evangelization and the spiritual
future of all of us as the body of Christ. The time is now for Christ to renew and
unite his Church. Let the kingdom work begin!
