Its been a few days since I posted, because I've had a few busy days....

On Friday, I attended a Youth Ministry Conference in my diocese.  It was wonderful!  I'm always inspired by the words of E.G. (our director of youth ministry for our diocese).  The keynote speaker for the day was Jim Beckman, a 20-year veteran of youth ministry. 

I left at the end of day feeling excited and motivated to do more for and with the youth of my parish.  The youth ARE the future of our church, after all.

So~ the overall message for the day was 
                        Discipleship is a way of life!! 
 

In order to effectively disciple our youth, we must be rooted in our own personal prayer life. The analogy he used was that rather than being a 'channel' in which water just runs through us to others, we need to be a 'reservoir', meaning that we need to fill ourselves and therefore will be better able to provide water for others without depleting our water supply.  Make sense? (water=our spiritual life)

Discipleship is all about building relationships.  In order to evangelize our youth, there needs to be a trusting relationship first.  Meeting the youth 'where they are' in their journey is also very important and how would you know 'where they are' if you don't take the time to get to know them first.  Some are actively searching for a deeper relationship with God, yet others might still be questioning whether there is a God.  When Jesus walked on the road to Emmaus, He talked to them and encouraged them to share their hearts.  He intentionally spoke to them without preaching but by trying to stir up their hunger and desire for truth.   

There was SO much more that I learned on Friday.... too much to share here.  One final thing, though, that Jim Beckman focused on was the great importance of parent involvement in the religious/ spiritual growth of the children.  Not just parents - but other adults in the community.  He said that it was found in a study that 'ideally' there would be a 4 to 1 ratio - that is 4 adults to 1 child!!!  That is a lofty goal... but perhaps we can strive for that goal and reach a 1 to 1 ratio.   I have some ideas on how we can work toward that goal at our parish.  Already this year, we have 11 wonderful and committed parents working with the  45 middle school youth at our parish every week.  (thank you to them!)