Year #4
In most profession, success is measured by quantity. In sales, it’s about how much money you’ve made the company. In law enforcement, success is measured by the crime rate. Education is evaluated by test scores. Having spent the better part of eleven years working with retreat teams, camps, and parish youth programs I can sometimes be tempted to measure my successes in the same way: how many people register for this event or the other, or how my youth group compares to others around town. The thing is, youth ministry has never been about numbers for me.
For me, I look back on the awkwardness of junior high and the crises of high school and remember how important my youth minister and youth group friends were (and in many ways, still are.) It is one of my greatest hopes to be able to provide the same opportunity to every teen who sets foot in my parish or in whose class I visit.
Maybe this is why I find year #4 so hard. In 2001-2002, my fourth year being involved in various ministries based in Radway, AB, I was working full-time for a retreat team which went from community to community trying to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. Although my responsibilities were mostly behind the scenes, what I saw on the road was frustrating: in some cases, our three hour, one day, or weekend retreat was the only youth ministry some teens would ever see. Sure, we were scattering seed- but nobody was there to water it, care for it, or help it to grow. So I took a job at Holy Family Parish in St. Albert, which I began in 2002.
Year four at Holy Family, 2005-06 was equally hard: not only adjusting to a new pastor, but what was hardest was watching teens and core team members alike – some of whom had been involved in our ministry from day 1 – set aside or give up on their faith entirely. It was disheartening on many levels. As I answered God’s call to leave Holy Family at the end of that year and move to Spruce Grove, I prayed (and still do) fervently that my successor(s) can succeed where I feel I’ve failed.
This year, 2009-10, is my fourth year at Holy Trinity Parish. True to form, it has been very hard. When I started here, I was succeeding two very good friends – and fantastic youth ministers – who had worked very hard to build up a strong program. There were some incredible teens already very involved, and I was given an incredible opportunity to continue what Patrick and Shawn had done over the previous 4 years. My fourth year here has proven to be one of the most difficult and sometimes heartbreaking year of work I’ve ever had. There have been personal situations outside my control which have taken my energy and my focus away. I’ve had a hard time – the hardest in a long time – keeping my life of prayer consistent. There have been a string of incidents where teens and young adults alike seem to have given up on the Church or have felt as though the Church has given up on them (which couldn’t be further from the truth.) Some of these teens and young adults are struggling mightily. While on one hand, our overall numbers are up, too many familiar faces – regulars at LIFE TEEN over the last three years – seem to have disappeared from our regular events. I read with sadness some comments online of a friend – and former seminarian- who seems to have given up his faith. It is definitely year #4 once again.
I don’t write this because I want you to feel sorry for me, or if you are one of those I am blessed to serve, to make you feel bad… I write this because in the midst of all of it, God is present. He is present in my own personal situations. He is present in my prayer, no matter how dry it is (or how unmotivated I am some days to sit down and pray.) He is present in every crisis any of us have faced this year, and He is present in the heart of every teen and young adult who is looking for Him or running away from Him. This fourth year of youth ministry is, in fact, a year of grace: an opportunity for each and every one of us (starting with yours truly) to have the kind of life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Crucified Lord, the Good Shepherd – the God who is love. While year 4 will eventually make way for year 5 (something I’ve never before been around to see), there remains still a lot to do. To anyone who is willing to listen, to anyone who is willing to be challenged to grow, to anyone who wants to discover what life’s all about: I intend to spend the next 5 months falling in love with Jesus Christ all over again- and I hope you are ready and willing to do the same. This is, in the end, the only measure of success that matters.
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P.S. Glad to see the blog up and running again – I was really missing it there for awhile.
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