As a follow up to my spending June 11-13 at the three first full days of 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, I am writing a series of reflections on the different talks, addresses, and workshops I attended on the theme of The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with One Another. I took notes (including some quotes, hopefully nearly verbatim, that will appear within quotation marks) during the speeches based on different things that struck me personally, and what I offer here on the blog is simply a distillation of how the speeches affected me. They are not meant to be comprehensive summaries but rather the reactions of one pilgrim from a subjective perspective.
Part 6
Where is the Young Adult Church Today?
Mr. Gerard Gallagher, Office of Evangelization, Archdiocese of Dublin
Tuesday, June 12 - 10am
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| Mr. Gallagher's talk |
Mr. Gallagher founded his talk on an unfortunate reality in the Church today: the Church loves to talk about young people, but it doesn't talk to them (or with them, I'd add) or carry out good mission to them. His remedy - his mission statement, if you will - is to provide young people the means and the methods to begin searching for purpose and meaning in their life with the foundation being a relationship with God through Christ.
Mr. Gallagher feels that we need young people to be apostles to one another. In ministering to their peers, young people can utilize their unique perspective of modern culture as they minister to one another.
He explained that the mission of the Church in pastoral youth ministry should be founded on three main pillars:
- evangelization
- development
- service
It's easy to say this from what was a comfortable seat in the crowd, but I'd offer a different strategy... Service needs to be at the heart of a teenager's faith development, but my two complementary pillars to it would be catechesis and social life. Ideally, the three can be working together almost all the time. I think youth ministry is futile if it's not fun. Fun is the catalyst to get them interested, the momentum to keep them interested, and the attraction to stay interested as faith takes root and grows. When they're having fun, and doing it socially - with other people their age, with peers, not just adult leaders and priests - then they are more amenable to catechesis (teaching moments) and can find a comfort zone in learning and living their faith. It takes YouTube videos, silly dances, and using popular culture (new music, TV shows) to hook them, and good youth ministry successfully uses the content of what's already in their lives to show them the entry point for faith.
Mr. Gallagher suggested those who still come to mass can loosely fit three categories: (1) committed people from families that transmit the faith generationally, (2) conservative people that are more inclined toward clericalism (a priest-centered view of Church), orthodoxy, and formalism/ritualism/devotionals, and (3) confused people who come out of habit but without really knowing what draws them.
He says that sacramental preparation is actually a form of family ministry that overlaps with youth formation. Without comprehensive, extensive, sturdy pastoral programming, young people don't stand much of a chance. Mr. Gallagher believes the key for youth ministry is responding to young people's desire for "authenticity and simplicity." Beyond just statements and speeches, there should be a preferential option for the young to make some real youth ministry happen.
When youth are active in the Church, Mr. Gallagher feels it can be a big source of hope for adults' faith. However, he encourages interaction between all ages. Young people can't be an exhibit, on display in a religious fish bowl. The members of the community must have shared, communal experience. This is the point that I felt to be most resonant.
Personally, I'm averse to youth groups forged in the model of LifeTeen or the Irish programme Youth 2000. I'm ignorant because I've never really been involved in either, but I'm not wild about situations where the youth are (almost) always segregated from the wider community. There needs to be special programming for young people - movie watches, social outings (bowling, mini-golf, sports games, etc.), faith-sharing situations - but when it comes to prayer and worship, they should be in the main flow of the parish and local community. Young people should be able to be singers/cantors, musicians, lectors, EM's, altar servers, ushers/ministers of hospitality at all/any/every mass and service at the Church. I'm not against age-specific choirs forming, but I am against quarantining the visible youth presence and involvement in the liturgy to a specific mass. They need to grow into a place in the community that can be sustained as they gain adult independence and grow into making lives for themselves.
In a nice, slightly pointed moment, Mr. Gallagher asked, what about starting youth ministry not just with ice-breakers but with the Gospel? It's a nice ideal we can keep working toward.
During the Q&A follow-up, a veteran of Net Ministries (an int'l volunteer ministry organization working in Ireland) shed some nice light on things for us. Mr. Gallagher's speech fell short in terms of practical, specific suggestions, of which he really offered none. This young lady stepped up and offered two nice insights that I'll leave you with:
He says that sacramental preparation is actually a form of family ministry that overlaps with youth formation. Without comprehensive, extensive, sturdy pastoral programming, young people don't stand much of a chance. Mr. Gallagher believes the key for youth ministry is responding to young people's desire for "authenticity and simplicity." Beyond just statements and speeches, there should be a preferential option for the young to make some real youth ministry happen.
When youth are active in the Church, Mr. Gallagher feels it can be a big source of hope for adults' faith. However, he encourages interaction between all ages. Young people can't be an exhibit, on display in a religious fish bowl. The members of the community must have shared, communal experience. This is the point that I felt to be most resonant.
Personally, I'm averse to youth groups forged in the model of LifeTeen or the Irish programme Youth 2000. I'm ignorant because I've never really been involved in either, but I'm not wild about situations where the youth are (almost) always segregated from the wider community. There needs to be special programming for young people - movie watches, social outings (bowling, mini-golf, sports games, etc.), faith-sharing situations - but when it comes to prayer and worship, they should be in the main flow of the parish and local community. Young people should be able to be singers/cantors, musicians, lectors, EM's, altar servers, ushers/ministers of hospitality at all/any/every mass and service at the Church. I'm not against age-specific choirs forming, but I am against quarantining the visible youth presence and involvement in the liturgy to a specific mass. They need to grow into a place in the community that can be sustained as they gain adult independence and grow into making lives for themselves.
In a nice, slightly pointed moment, Mr. Gallagher asked, what about starting youth ministry not just with ice-breakers but with the Gospel? It's a nice ideal we can keep working toward.
During the Q&A follow-up, a veteran of Net Ministries (an int'l volunteer ministry organization working in Ireland) shed some nice light on things for us. Mr. Gallagher's speech fell short in terms of practical, specific suggestions, of which he really offered none. This young lady stepped up and offered two nice insights that I'll leave you with:
- Meet youth where they are: allow them to freely talk about temptations and vices, and work with them as they come.
- Use their ideas to nurture their creativity: let them put suggestions into action (my comment: within reason, especially remaining respectful to liturgy), and help them own it so they can learn from the process and grow personally and as ministers.
At the NPM convention, the mantra was, "Youth are the PRESENT of the Church." I guess people have been saying, "Youth are the future of the Church" for too long. But we're all the present of the Church!
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