Introduction

One afternoon, I was sitting at my desk, planning and preparing for an upcoming series of Sunday-night youth-group meetings. I had been working in parish youth ministry for nearly six years. I had a good number of teens participating in my group; I was doing consulting for several national youth-ministry organizations; and I was working at a large parish with a lot of resources at my disposal. I had everything that I believed I needed for a large, successful youth ministry.

Great worship band? Check.

Dynamic young adults trained as a core team? Check.

Dedicated youth space in the parish? Check.

Best youth-ministry resources and parish strategy that money can buy? Check.

Multiple full-time youth ministers on staff? Check.

Large budget? Check.

The youth ministry had grown exponentially since I had taken over as the director of the program. I was proud of what I had been blessed to accomplish in the Church. From the outside, youth ministry at the parish looked very successful.

That afternoon, however, my ideas about youth ministry began to change. I looked at a picture on my desk of a group of seventy-five teens I had taken to a big Catholic youth conference three years earlier. The conference had been a powerful experience for all the teens: they had had an encounter with Jesus Christ. I had stayed in contact with most of them because most of them had remained involved in my parish’s youth group.