Being a Creator Through Our Work

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him” – Genesis 1:27

Being made in the image and likeness of God we participate in one of His greatest qualities: the act of creating. This is most beautifully seen through marriage and creating a family. We are also creators in our work and in youth ministry. We need to have creativity in how we present the Gospel to the youth we minister to.

I recently read an article on Relevantmagazine.com. In it, Donald Miller gives advice on being the best creators we can. I thought I would pass it along to you and share some of my thoughts on how some of these tips apply to a youth ministry setting.

I suggest you read the article before reading my points:

Donald Miller on Being a Creator

Our Work is a Reflection of Us

We need to take ownership of our work. As youth ministers we create programs, events, talks, skits, etc. Our work is a reflection of ourselves. If we see our work as an extension of ourselves we will have more pride in our ministry and will not be happy with the mediocre but seek to always make it better.

St. Jose Maria often talks about our need to glorify God in our work. As Christians we should strive to be the best in our fields to the glory of God.

As Reflections of ourselves, our ministries, to a degree, should take on some of our qualities. If we are passionate about the faith our ministry should reflect that passion.

What do you want your ministry to say about you?

A Creator Doesn't Just Talk About Their Work

I love "talking shop." I get pumped up and excited when I talk with others about my vision for, and trends in youth ministry (that is part of the reason for me starting this blog.) However, if I just talk without DOING, I am just a bunch of hot air without any power behind my words.

A good example of people who spoke eloquently about ministry and the faith but didn’t follow it up with practice would be the Pharisees. Don't be a Pharisee - they weren't cool.

“Pray as though everything depends on God. Work as though everything depends on you.” – St. Augustine

Youth ministers do not have good reputations for their work ethic. However, we need to strive to create a work ethic where we build up the disciplines necessary to create a good ministry. Once we establish good habits within our work we give God the opportunity to move through us, and our work.

I know many youth ministry oriented people who do not like to plan talks to far ahead because they would rather plan minimally in order to allow the Holy Spirit to give them the words to speak at the moment. Planning a talk or youth night in advance (more than the night before or day of) does not stifle the Spirit. I would argue it actually allows more room for the Spirit. In my experience, the more familiar I am with my talk the more comfortable I am with going ‘off script’ because I know what the message is that I want to convey to my audience and how certain tangents can compliment that message. Those are the moments when I feel the Holy Spirit is at work through my talk.

“…And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” – Genesis 1:5

Even at the beginning of Creation there was a rhythm. The days, the seasons, even our very lives have rhythm. I am pretty sure, even though He was anticipating man, God did not look forward to the completion of each of his creations – at least not in the sense of relief upon completion: “Finally, I am so glad I am done with Earth. Now I can rest.” God was in love with the act of creating – its who He is.

It would serve us well to find a rhythm within our work. Sometimes we can lose sight of the beauty of the work because we are anticipating being done with a certain talk, program, retreat, etc. I am not saying this is an easy thing but it is something I will definitely be striving for. I will let Donald Miller put it better than I can: “If you have a rhythm, if you get up every morning and work for a few hours, and you like the getting up and the work, and you don’t think about how great it will be when it’s done, but rather how great it is every day that you get to get up and do the work, your creation will be tremendous.”

Find a rhythm to your work – love your work.

Take Courage

It is easy to give in to the fear of failure. Fearing the hypothetical situations in which your program bombs. Surround yourself with a community where you can vent your ideas and concerns and hear the honest feedback from others. Find people who can affirm your ideas or help you amend them. Also ask friends to give you honest feedback after a talk or event. Many times you will find that you did not fail as badly as you perceive. Many times we are our own harshest critic – we only see what we did wrong and lose sight of where we succeeded. We need an outside perspective to gain an honest view of how we did. I work with another youth minister and it is great because we are able to bounce ideas off each other and give each feedback after events. If you are the only youth minister at your parish find someone within the ministry that will commit to giving you honest feedback. Build up an atmosphere where your volunteers feel comfortable giving you feedback.

Many times we need to just step out with courage. If we fail then we learn from it and the damage done probably is not that bad. The phrase “Be not afraid” appears 365 times in the Bible. Our God is a God of encouragement, He waits with the eager, encouraging anticipation that only a Father can have, awaiting our decision to step out into the unknown – especially when it is in His name.

The Glory of God is Man Fully Alive

If our work is a reflection of ourselves then our daily experiences will affect our ministry. We need to be aware of this fact and seek out those experiences that will enrich our faith and ministry. We cannot disengage from the world. We can’t simply sit in our rooms thinking about life and God. We need to go out and live life and encounter God in the world around us. We need to live! Only by the witness of a life lived will we draw others to Christ. Insert personal stories into your talks as much as possible. I have only recently been convicted of not telling enough stories in my talks. Now that I am sharing more of my life the youth are more interested and the more they want to hear. We need to present the Gospel lived out, otherwise it is all book knowledge with little power to move the heart. Finally, surround yourself with people and activities that enrich your life; in turn your ministry will be enriched.

Know that I am praying for you. Come Holy Spirit!

Sacrificium - A Youth Night on the Sacrifice of Lent

We changed up our schedule a lot this week. It did not follow the chronology of the ecclesial method exactly. However, I think it is good to change it up every once in a while so the youth don’t get too used to the night and get bored.

Scripture and Catechism:

John 20:28-30

Psalm 103:13-17; 119:103

Wisdom 3:6

Genesis 3:19; 18:27

CCC540

Preparation: We had the youth meet in the gym instead of the Catacombs. This allowed us more time for our closing prayer activity. In the gym the youth played a classic game of dodgeball. As more kids arrived we made sure to assign them to a team. Halfway through we stopped the game and reassigned teams because many of the youth who came after we started the game tended to stay on the sidelines rather than jump into the game.

I had a mentor read the Gospel for this coming Sunday as our opening prayer prior to my talk.

Proclamation: We are not called to sacrifice during Lent for the sake of sacrifice; we sacrifice out of our love for God.

Explanation: I told the story of how my mom quit her job when my brother and I were little. Her job wanted to transfer further south which would mean a longer commute and less time with us. She sacrificed so much in order to love my brother and I more. That is the same kind of sacrifice we are called to do during Lent. We sacrifice in order to love God more.

Application: We had small groups at the beginning of the night where our mentors discussed prayer, fasting and almsgiving and how the youth can practice these during Lent.  

Celebration: We had prayer stations after the talk. Some of the stations came from Lifeteen’s Life Night for Lent and included reading of scripture and prayer. The first station was the reading of Isaiah 40:3-5. The second station was an opportunity for the youth to taste vinegar, reflection on the bitterness of sin and honey, reflection on the sweetness of God’s promises. For the third station I burned paper in a metal bowl and reflected on how God refines us as gold in fire. The fourth station was a bowl of ashes and the youth were invited to come and feel the ashes in their fingers reflecting on our mortality and sinfulness. For the final station we had black wrist bands with the word “sacrificium.” They have commitment cards with them: one for the youth to keep to remind them of the ways they can sacrifice during Lent and the other one to sign as a promise to God and place at the food of the altar in a basket we provided. Once they did this they then lit a tea candle as a reminder that after the desert of Lent comes the new dawn of Easter.

Moment of Growth (I am a firm believer in the moments that we mess up are for learning not beating ourselves up so instead of naming this title ‘Ways I fail in life and youth ministry’ I instead named it ‘Moments of Growth’): For some reason it was very difficult for me to prepare this night in advance. I found myself throwing a lot of it together the day of. Because of this, the prayer stations were not completely thought out logistically. During our mentor meeting prior to youth group the high school mentors brought up a lot of questions concerning how it was going to work. Thanks to their input we were able to adjust it resulting in a great prayer experience.

Also, because I was rushed in planning I forgot to make sure we had prayerful music during the stations so as the youth were participating we had silence, which was nice on one hand but also a little awkward.

Thank you Lord for opportunities to grow in humility.

Favorite Moment: During small groups we asked each group to come up with a 30 second commercial for Lent. I am constantly amazed at the creativity and depth some of our youth go to.  They were really funny and everyone had a blast.

           I was also really thankful for how well the prayer stations went. I believe that most of the youth are not going to be called to conversion through my talks but through an encounter with God through prayer. I make it one of my goals to create opportunities for those encounters throughout our youth nights and retreats.


If you would like me to send you a detailed copy of this night email me at Patrick.Meleney@gmail.com

Lighting Your Friends On Fire: A Night on the Gospels

Scripture and Catechism: 

Isaiah 11:1-9

Matthew 16:13-20

Romans 8:22-25

CCC 124-127

CCC 2466

Preparation: For many of our nights we make sure to play a large group, high energy game at the beginning of the night. Tonight we played a game called Mission Possible. The youth were separated into two teams and placed on opposite sides of the gym. Random items from the game closet were scattered on the floor between the two teams. The object of the game is to get your whole team to the other end of the gym without touching the floor using only the items placed on the floor. This is usually a big hit for our kids and was tonight as well. The EDGE (7^th and 8^th Grade) had a hard time finishing on time so I paused the game then told the teams they could touch the floor, which resulted in a mad dash to either end of the gym.

            After the game a mentor read the Gospel this coming Sunday. We make sure we have the text of the Gospel on the projection screen so the youth can follow along as it is read. We also remind the youth to stand for the Gospel.

            After prayer our high school mentors performed a short skit I wrote called “The Waiting Room.” It highlighted the wait for Christ. Some people get impatient and leave, some are deceived and follow someone other than Christ, and some are disappointed because they expected something else. But if we persevere to the end we will be rewarded. This skit is based off of the experience of the Israelite people waiting for the coming Messiah.

Proclamation: 

Christ is just as present in the Scriptures as in the Eucharist. When we encounter Him we are set on fire, never to be the same.

Explanation: I started the message by asking why we stand for the Gospel? I quoted Dei Verbum, 21 where the Church says she “has always venerated the Divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord, since, especially in the sacred liturgy, she unceasingly receives and offers to the faithful the bread of life from the table of God’s word and of Christ’s body.” When we read Scripture, especially the Gospels, we encounter the person of Jesus Christ, just as if we were to sit in adoration.  We see in scripture countless examples of people encountering Christ and having their lives changed. When we encounter Christ, whether it be in the Sacraments or in the Scriptures we are changed. I used the analogy of fire to illustrate how we are changed. When a paper is lit on fire it burns and casts a light on the whole room, it catches other paper on fire if close enough, and it becomes ash, which can never be paper again. In the same way we must be caught on fire by Christ in order to shed light on our world, catch others on fire, and never go back to the way we were.

            I ended with the challenge of St. Jose Maria Escriva, “Don’t let your life be barren. Be useful. Make yourself felt. Shine forth with the torch of your faith and your love.  And set aflame all the ways of the earth with the fire of Christ that you bear in your heart.” – The Way, #1

Application: We split the youth into small groups and had our high school mentors lead them in discussion.

Celebration: We ended the night by bringing all the youth back to our main meeting room and I closed us in prayer thanking God for his presence to us in the Gospels and asking Him to help us catch our friends on fire (spiritually, not physically).

Moment of Growth (I am a firm believer in the moments that we mess up are for learning not beating ourselves up so instead of naming this title ‘Ways I fail in life and youth ministry’ I instead named it ‘Moments of Growth’): This week our Lifeteen curriculum gave us a night on the Gospels. They focused on how throughout the Old Testament the Israelites were waiting for their savior and he finally came in the Gospels as the person of Jesus Christ. In my talk I focused on how this appearance and encounter is life changing. However, I did not modify the rest of the night accordingly. The small group questions focused on waiting and how Christ is the culmination of our hopes. I should have done a better job making sure every aspect of the night was uniform; focusing on the same subject, instead the message came across as dislocated between skit, talk, and small groups.

Favorite Moment: We played a random video I found on Youtube to fill the time while the youth were getting water after the game and finding their seats. Playing the video, even if it has nothing to do with the theme of the night, adds an element of fun and encourages the youth to find their seats so they can watch the video. Once it is done we move into prayer and the talk.

            I also really enjoyed how smoothly the fire illustration went. I had a piece of newspaper in a metal bowl so that when I lit it I could drop it in the bowl where it was safe to burn without catching anything else on fire. (For Crossfire I used a piece of printer paper balled up. It did not burn well so for EDGE I used newspaper which burnt much better.)