Sanctus in Seattle

What do you get when you take the Young Life model, tailor it for Catholics and plop it down in one of the most secularized parts of the country?[1]  In a word, Sanctus.  Last week I met with Catholic youth ministers, priests, parishioners and Young Life staff in Seattle, Washington.  What drew me there was a powerful movement of Catholics who have taken up the call to go where kids are, build authentic relationships, and “earn the right to be heard” about the greatest love story ever told. 

Sound familiar?  You bet.  The vision for Sanctus was inspired by the tried and true methods of incarnational evangelization honed by Young Life to reach “every kid, everywhere, for eternity.”  For over 70 years, Young Life leaders have cared enough about teenagers to show up in their world, engage them on their turf, and develop enduring relationships which convey the presence and compassion of Jesus.  Our founder, Jim Rayburn, was completely sold out for these labor-intensive methods because he was convinced that they are the only way to reach disinterested teens.

Amy Nash is equally convinced.  “What Young Life does in reaching teens for Christ is miraculous!  The young people of the Catholic Church are in dire need for relational evangelism.  There is such a great harvest, but the workers are too few!  We are training up college-aged students to be a living witness of Jesus to kids – especially those in the Catholic schooling system.”

Nash is the architect and director of Sanctus, an approach to reaching and retaining the more than 80% of Catholic teens who are leaving the Church every year.  As a committed Catholic, youth minister and mother of two, Amy isn’t satisfied with those statistics.  “I want this cycle of loosing kids to change before my kids are teens.  I need to know that someone – other than me – is going to come after them.  It’s so exciting how God’s Spirit is stirring in Seattle to reach the lost… we’re praying He brings others around this mission so it’ll spread across the nation.”  

Nash knows that spending time with young people and building real relationships is the centerpiece of evangelization, not simply because it was the way Jesus did it (if that wasn’t enough), but because she’s seen it work in the lives of thousands of teens.  Where?  Young Life.  Amy loves Young Life because she has experienced it first hand – as a Young Life kid, a Young Life leader, and a Young Life staff person.  And she believes those same methods can be effective in reanimating the core of Catholic faith in Seattle teens.  “Jesus is revealing his relentless heart for Catholic teens, and our teens are desperate for a personal and real encounter with Christ.  They need authentic, Christ-centered relationships.  They need to be pursued.”

And now, Nash is putting those methods to work in the heart of Seattle.  Drawing the collaboration of Catholic parishes, Catholic high schools, and local Young Life staff, Nash hopes to develop a culture of discipleship where young people are awakened in their faith, inspired by the love of Jesus and committed to serving their church and world.   In Catholic terms, it is about presenting anew the heart of the Catholic tradition and the foundation of the “new evangelization” exhorted by Pope John Paul II.  And what is that heart and foundation of Catholicism?  A dynamic and personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Ministry models like Sanctus represent an important step in the relationship between Young Life and the Catholic Church. Youth workers like Nash are showing that partnership and collaboration create the best environment for kids to encounter Jesus Christ and grow in their faith.

If you’re inspired by Nash’s work and want to learn more about Sanctus, please feel free to contact her at:

     Amy Nash – Director of Sanctus Ministries

     amyn@stlukecp.org

     206-372-8371

Amy Nash (center) investing in college students by hiking in the Cascades.
Both students, now graduated, are in full-time ministry.

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            [1]  Seattle is the third least religious city in the United States, according to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies.  And what city takes the “top” prize?  Portland, Oregon, the other major hub of the Pacific Northwest. 

The "Missional Moment": Young Life & The Catholic Church

Last week I was able to speak to Young Life area directors from across the country about the exciting “missional moment” that we’re currently experiencing.  More than ever, Young Life is dedicated to a strategy of evangelization that is sensitive to Catholics.  We need to help Catholic kids be the best Catholics they can be, calling them into the highest ideals of Catholicism (see my last post on “Evangelical Catholicism”) and welcoming the manifold gifts the Catholic tradition offers.  In addition, we need to partner with Catholic parishes, parents, priests, schools, colleges and social service agencies to ensure that “even kid, everywhere” has the opportunity to know Jesus Christ and follow him.

On the other side of the coin, this “missional moment” is seeing an incredible openness of the Catholic Church to embrace the very things that Young Life is so good at.  The “new evangelization” has been proclaimed as the central strategy of the Catholic Church for engaging the world in the 21^st century and beyond.  Going where people are, earning the right to be heard, proclaiming the truth in love, new methods, a new ardor – these are all things that the Catholic Church is talking about right now, with great fervor. 

Cardinal Donald Wuerl of the archdiocese of Washington, D.C. recently noted that the Catholic Church is in a position similar to that of the early church.  The rise of secularism means that modern disciples “bring the experience of the risen Lord to a world that simply doesn’t know what they are talking about. . . It’s introducing the experience of a relationship with God to people who are so absorbed in this secular culture that their horizon doesn’t reach that high.”[1]

What prelates like Wuerl and practitioners like Sherry Weddell have been calling for is a return to what is called the kerygma.  Kerygma is a Greek term that refers to the primary proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The kerygma is sharing Christ and inviting people to respond.  The first disciples preached the kerygma and the world is in need of the kerygma again.  Cardinal Wuerl continues:

Engaging secularism is going to be the major challenge. I think that is going to mean a return to a very basic kerygma. We sometimes get so caught up in one or another aspect of the teaching, we forget that if a person hasn’t been introduced to Christ, if a person hasn’t embraced the risen Lord and the church that’s an expression of that experience, what we’re saying just sounds like a bunch of rules or negative statements limiting their personal freedom. We have to get back to that core kerygma.[2]

The wonder of this “missional moment” is that the stated needs of the Catholic Church are precisely what Young Life is doing every day.  With great success around the world, Young Life leaders are proclaiming the kerygma of Jesus Christ in ways that counter the secularism of our age and transform lives, one relationship at a time.  This is simply what we do.  We’re good at it and we are primed to share it with the Church and the world over.  Just imagine the impact of 1.2 billion Catholics on earth, energized by the “new evangelization” and a fresh kerygmatic proclamation of Jesus Christ!  The impact would be colossal, world-changing, kingdom-building. 

Are you ready to embrace this “missional moment”? 

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[1]             John L. Allen, Dennis Coday and Joshua J. McElwee, “Wuerl: ‘Teach truth from the pulpit, then meet people where they are’,” The National Catholic Reporter, Feb 26, 2013 accessed 2/26/13 at: http://ncronline.org/node/46101.

[2]             Ibid.

Evangelical Catholicism: The New Face of the Catholic Church

Is the face of Catholicism changing?  The simple and exciting answer is, “YES”!  Several important shifts can be observed in the history of the Catholic Church – from the primitive Jesus movement of the New Testament to the patristic era to the medieval Church to the Counter-Reformation era  – and it seems that another definitive shift is happening right now, in our very lifetime.  And what are theologians and ecclesiastics calling it?  Evangelical Catholicism.

George Weigel of the Institute on Religion and Public Life suggests that the unique combination of postmodernity and the consistent call of the Great Commission have “impelled a new evolution in the Church’s self-understanding and self-expression.  The result of that evolution [is] Evangelical Catholicism.”[1]

The distinct marks of Evangelical Catholicism are particularly exhilarating for those of us who minister in Young Life, a ministry which necessarily calls for the cooperation of Christians from many different theological traditions.  So exactly what is Evangelical Catholicism?

·      Evangelical Catholicism is not about maintenance but mission.  As Catholics we are not “keepers of the aquarium” but fishers of men (and women). 

·      Evangelical Catholicism is not satisfied with church membership and Mass attendance.  It is in the business of disciple-making and everything falls under that essential mission. 

·      Evangelical Catholicism is about friendship with God.  There is a big difference between knowing about God and truly knowing God.  It is personal.  It is relational.  It is a true friendship and everyone is called into that friendship.

·      Evangelical Catholicism is about conversion and transformation.  Gone are the days of “pray, pay and obey.”  The new normal is a continual life-changing encounter with the living God.

·      Evangelical Catholicism is a friend of reason and a lover of mystery.  It sees the cooperation of faith and reason “are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.”[2]  Our God-given faculties of reason and the tools of science, combined with our faith, are complementary avenues for exploring and discovering the world and the ubiquitous presence of God in the cosmos.

·      Evangelical Catholicism is biblically-centered and finds its center of gravity in a return to the sources.  The Bible is the normative measure for Christian faith, always understood in continuity with the apostolic witness.

·      Evangelical Catholicism calls every person to holiness and participation in God’s great story of redemption.  Every member of the body of Christ plays a critical role!

·      Evangelical Catholicism does not hide from culture but engages it.  “You are the salt of the earth”(Mt. 5:13). The gospel both affirms and challenges the world to be the seat of God’s mercy, justice and love.

·      Evangelical Catholicism lifts up evangelization (or the New Evangelization) as her deepest identity and the overarching strategy for the Catholic Church for the twenty-first century and beyond.

Is the old, stingy, dogmatic, defensive, rule and ritual-laden, culture-fearing posture of the Catholic Church a thing of the past?  Of course, that’s not exactly a fair assessment of an era of Catholic Christianity spanning the greater part of the last 500 years but I think that gets to the heart of the way many outsiders perceive the Catholic Church today. Many will continue to cling to their bygone ways. This shift will not occur overnight. 

But behold, a new day is dawning and the birth of Evangelical Catholicism marks an exciting new development in the life of the Church and for the world it has been called to serve in the name of Jesus Christ.  Click on the video below and explore the new face of Catholicism.

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[1]             George Weigel, “Evangelical Catholicism,” First Things, No. 231 (March 2013), NY: Institute on Religion and Public Life, p.34.

[2]             Pope John Paul II, Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason), 1998.

Evangelization: A Hot Topic for the Church Worldwide

Something epic is happening as we speak.  Many around the world don’t know it but on the 50^th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, the Church has convened, for only the 13^th time in history, a general assembly of the Synod of Bishops.  Over the next three weeks, the global gathering of bishops will discus what it sees as the most pressing issue facing the Church today.  What is it?  Evangelization.

“The Church is essentially missionary, and offers a revelation of the face of God in Jesus Christ, who assumed a human face and loved us to the end,” declared the Lineamenta, a preparatory guide or outline for the synod.  “Yet we are living in a particularly significant, historic moment of change, of tension and of a loss of equilibrium . . . The situation is requiring the Church to consider, in an entirely new way, how she proclaims the faith.” 

This is the call of the new evangelization.  This is precisely what Young Life leaders are doing when they immerse themselves into the lives of kids and come up with fresh and innovative ways to celebrate the message and Person of Jesus Christ.  Always with an eye on their audience, always reading the “signs of the times,” Young Life leaders bring a revitalizing energy to the church’s universal mission to proclaim the gospel to all peoples. 

I eagerly await the apostolic exhortation that will follow the synod and shed light on the direction the Church is taking to fulfill its evangelizing mission amidst the complex demands of a postmodern world.  Young Life leaders may be blessed to follow the dialogue as it unfolds from the Vatican.  John Allen, acclaimed American journalist and senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, is often featured on CNN and NPR.  Check out his latest update from this historic event and the global discussion on a topic near and dear to all of our hearts – evangelization.

http://ncronline.org/node/36796