A Great Challenge: Reaching Young Men

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I thought about what a youth night or small group looks like in many parishes. I recalled conversations with youth ministers about how hard it was to recruit male core members and encourage male teenagers to participate in youth ministry. Most of our youth groups don’t look like that picture of the 90s grunge scene in Seattle, but they could. We just need to adjust our thinking about how we reach young men.

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Mental Health Check: Ministering to Teens while Struggling with Anxiety

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In ministry, we have a wonderful opportunity to help teenagers know Jesus Christ and encounter him in all of their circumstances and challenges. Being aware of our emotional background and history can help us accompany teenagers in a healthy and holistic way. If anxiety and depression are a part of your story, you have a unique opportunity to understand and accompany young people, but only if you are in a healthy place.

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Arizona sunset

Love in the Desert

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The desert has always been a place of death and life. Perhaps this is why it figures so prominently into the narrative of God and humanity. God leads people into a harsh wilderness to wander, but not without purpose. In the wilderness, God and the people build a relationship.

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Statue of Mary

Mary, Ever-Virgin?

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Mary remains a sign of the Church as a spiritual mother to us as Christ’s family as Jesus is her only son. (CCC 507). Mary is more than a vessel, but herself a sign to all of us.

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ash Wednesday ashes on a woman's forehead

Not the Same Lent: Four Ways to Engage Teenagers in the Lenten Season

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We take for granted the gap between curiosity about these unique practices and understanding them, let alone incorporating them into our spirituality. For teenagers – especially this year – Lent is an important season.

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Microphone

Failure to Communicate: The Biggest Reason Teens Aren’t Listening to Your Teachings

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When we stand up to communicate to a group of teenagers (or anyone, for that matter), we need to understand two things: context and content. The context is the state of the audience receiving the message.

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Vegetables

Why You Can’t Form Community

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We need community, and the good news is you are already part of a few, now get to work in transforming them from something where you are just a frequent shopper number into a place where you are sustained and supported.

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American flag

Campaign Speech: Having Conversations with Teens About the Election

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The signs have been up for months and the ads keep interrupting your YouTube videos. The news is focused on it and social media is bursting with everyone’s opinion. The election is here.

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Speak Something New

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We can only speak in a way that makes us open to the wildly creative, incomprehensible, and wholly incredible Spirit of God that transforms us and our world, making all things new.

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Relentless Father

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Beyond our hurt, beyond our questioning, beyond our fear, there is still a God that is all-powerful, all-good, and all loving. He has not changed – God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

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