Encountering the Nones

                The first two posts in this series have been on the trend of atheism and losing religion among Christians in America. Last time, I talked specifically about what people in general could do to keep young people in their churches. This time, I’ll talk about what I think a youth ministry program should look like in order to reach these young people.

                First off, “young people” is a term that is FAR too broad for any sort of specific details. Middle schoolers are now being referred to as young people. I disagree with this classification. Likewise, young adult ministries are reaching out to people over the age of 35. To my mind, young people are those in high school and college. This is the demographic “youth ministry” should be concerned with. Middle school may not be “children’s ministry,” but a 12-year-old should not be treated the same as an 18-year-old. Likewise, a senior in college is nowhere near the same person as a 35-year-old married person with four children. They are VASTLY different demographics.

                Instead, “youth ministry” should stretch from age ranges of about 15, or a freshman in high school, to about 25, an older senior undergraduate student. Many of the problems youth ministry programs deal with would be resolved with this small change. The problem of how to reach both 35-year-olds and 12-year-olds with the same content is completely dissolved. Instead, it’s a simple window of approximately 10 years, where people are having similar experiences at similar points in their lives. While a freshman in high school will not have the same sort of struggles as a senior undergrad, it will be much easier for the senior to relate to that freshman.

                What to do with those ends of the demographic that have been lopped off? Middle school should still be counted with the “children’s” ministry. (Maybe change that name to “grade school” ministry or something. No, it’s not a pretty name, but nobody gets offended by being grouped with younger kids). Meanwhile, those adults outside of their undergraduate programs? They’re considered full-fledged adults by the US government, the parishes in the US should probably recognize that and treat them accordingly. After all, many of them will be starting families very soon, if they haven’t already. They should be welcomed into the adult ministry programs.

                Meanwhile, what should the youth ministers look like in an ideal program? There should be a variety of them. Some young, fresh out of college, some old, ready to retire. Some should be able to quote the catechism at the drop of a hat, some should be ready to launch into prayer with any soul that looks even remotely sad. However, all of them, ALL of them, should be authentic witnesses to the Gospel. No matter where they are on their faith journey, they MUST be good role models for the students to look up to and emulate. This was how the faith was first spread. People were told the basics of the Gospel, then had examples to look up to on how that faith was lived out.

                Now, what should these youth ministry programs do? They should, first off, lose the gimmicks. I understand icebreaker games at the beginning of the year. That’s fine. But when April and May roll around and an hour of the hour and a half program is spent playing games and socializing, something is wrong in the priority list. Content is incredibly important. These young people can go anywhere in the world to socialize and play icebreaker games. The most important part of this whole thing is offering something that the rest of the world doesn’t offer. That’s the ONLY thing Christianity has to offer over anything else in the world.

                And that’s what these youth ministry programs need to emphasize. They don’t need a gimmick to draw these young people in. They don’t need to propose everything in the world to the students. They have the infinite God of the universe. That’s what students need to truly encounter. They need to be given opportunities to encounter Christ, our very God. This doesn’t require

retreats, though those are generally pretty good options. This means explaining to students how to best take the most from the Mass, how to make the most out of prayer, or how to best live the faith they hold in small things.

                But the most important thing for these programs to realize is that in the end, the most important and most effective way to get through to these young people is through the example of each other. It doesn’t matter how “cool” or “relatable” the youth ministers are, the example of each other is most important.