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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (July 23, 1987)
Page 2 • Faith Today Faith Today • Page 3 . ' : : “Young people all share a basic insecurity, an uncertainty even of their own identity....They are desperately in need of af fi-mation, of positive assurance that they are worthwhile, respected, Icved.” 'Wasting time' with youth By Debbie Landregan NC News Service T he night before their wedding, David and Mary McKenzie chaperoned a youth dance. Not your normal prewedding fare, to be sure, but all part of a youth minister's daily work. “Being available to youth means going where the kids are, where the action is,” said McKenzie, 36, an 11-year veteran of the youth department in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. As director of the community serv ice corps for 41 high schools in the archdiocese, McKenzie’s respon sibilities take up a chunk of a nor mal workday. But his work goes beyond planning activities, he said. His is also a ministry to be pre sent to youth in ways that defy time clocks. Spending time with youth, “being visible, being willing to waste time with kids,” is how McKenzie describes this. He also calls it “creative loafing.” That can mean staying late at the office to counsel youths after school, or casually dropping into senior week parties just to let the young people know some one cares about them. “Creative loafing” can wreak havoc in personal life without a supportive family, McKenzie said. “David is never on time for din ner,” Mrs. McKenzie said, adding, “Thank God for the microwave!” “My wife is really great,” McKenzie said. “We met through the youth department so this has kind of become a way of life for us." Mrs. McKenzie said the key is “being prepared” and flexible. Ted Porter, 26, thought he would have more time with his bride, Judy, when she left her grueling job as a restaurant manager two years ago to become a full-time parish youth minister. Not so. Sundays were youth meetings and special activities. Week nights brought Bible studies and various classes. On weekends, there were retreats and outings. “From the first, Ted came to everything just so he could be with me,” said Mrs. Porter, 26. “Now he’s involved as much as I am!” “I never thought we’d do something like this,” mused Porter. “You’ve got to make allowances in your homelife,” Mrs. Porter said of her responsibilities as youth minister at Holy Trinity Parish in Dallas. While the couple has adjusted to phone calls around dinner time, visitors who drop in and overnight guests, they soon realized the im portance of establishing ground rules to ensure some time alone. “We make it pretty obvious that Friday night is our date night,” Mrs. Porter said. While the young people respect this time, they also are willing to stay with the cou ple’s baby, usually at no charge. Youth ministers soon discover that being available to youth in volves more than open houses and passing out the home phone number. It means opening themselves to young people and their lives to public scrutiny. Mrs. Porter laughed as she recall ed the questions her pregnancy caused within the youth group. “I got some questions about get ting pregnant, about sex during pregnancy — the kinds of ques tions the kids couldn’t or wouldn't ask their parents,” she related. While her husband’s initial response to the questions was to blush, “I just answered them,” she added. “It embarrasses him if they ask him, but he always answers.” McKenzie says working with young people “keeps you honest.” One becomes a role model. But, he recalls, he “picked up a lot from the role models” in his own life. “Youth challenge you” to be an example, Mrs. Porter observed. “And they call you on inconsisten cies.” So it is important to be consis tent, she continued. Youth ministry is “not just fun and games. You have to live what you teach.” (Ms. Landregan is a free-lance author in the Philadelphia area.) Classroom in the kitchen By Katharine Bird NC News Service A key to the religious education of young peo ple lies in the availabili ty of adults to them, at home and in parishes. On the home front, much valuable religious education gets ac complished between parent and child during what religious educator Laura Meagher calls ‘ planned hanging-out-in-the-kitchen time.” During such informal occasions children are likely to raise ques tions they are struggling with and issues that bother them, she said. Ms. Meagher is the director of religious education at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Hockessin, Del. Of course, irt a parish setting, especially during the teen years, the availability of a minister who relates easily to youths can make a big difference. A young Midwesterner I’ll call Pamela Scott has fond memories of what she learned while serving on a parish youth committee as a teen ager. Its priest-moderator asked her to help him inject some life into the committee. Though already enrolled in a Catholic high school, she agreed, partly because she liked the young priest's manner and part ly because she thought it would be a valuable supplement to her for mal religion classes. To illustrate how parents can discuss religious topics with youths at home, Ms. Meagher tells a story about a college-age youth who was running into difficulties finding a summer job. Irritably, he complained to his mother that “illegal aliens were get ting all the jobs.” He added that they “were not entitled to the jobs because they were not born here.” His mother responded by asking, “Did you ever hear that the earth belongs to all the world’s people — not just to you?” The exchange that ensued led mother and son into an extensive discussion of the needs of im migrants and the U.S. immigration bill, about God’s design for the world and our responsibility toward others less fortunate. “The conversation didn’t change the son’s mind but it set him think ing and it might have broadened his view,” Ms. Meagher said. For Ms. Scott, working on the youth committee gave the teen agers as well as the priest an op portunity to get to know each other in a new, more relaxed way. Their meetings became “time out” from the highly structured and competitive life of school and home where roles were clearly defined between leaders and followers, between adults and youths. The committee met to talk about the Bible and how it might relate to life, for liturgies and to plan “fun-type activities,” she reported. These included an afternoon canoe trip, an overnight retreat and a weekend camping trip on the shores of Lake Michigan. Group activities stressed coopera tion, not competition, she recalled. For instance, in one “game” — a treasure hunt — the teens cooperated with each other and the priest in pursuing a number of religiously oriented clues. There were no winners and the aim of the game, she said, was to reinforce the Christian belief that “we help each other to reach our goals.” (Ms. Bird is associate editor of Faith Today.) Drop everything! By John J. Castelot NC News Service W hen you stop to think about it, the , concern shown in the Gospel by the centurion who drop ped everything in order to find * Jesus and obtain help for a sick servant is quite remarkable (Luke 7:2). After all, the centurion might, have simply brought the servant’s illness to the attention of his unit’s medics — if there were any — and then looked around for a * replacement. Jesus, upon hearing the cen turion’s story, also “dropped everything” and said: “I shall come and cure him” (Matthew 8:7). „ Here are two busy people, each rather prominent in his field, mak ing themselves immediately and unselfishly available to a servant. Matthew calls the servant a “serv ing boy,” someone, perhaps, who might have been ordered around. .The incident reveals a great deal about Jesus and the officer. But it is interesting to reflect on what their attention meant to the - stricken young man. In all likelihood, he did not have a very good self-image. But imagine how the unexpected attention improved that. Now he was not just a tool to be used; he was a person for whom important people inconvenienced themselves! Young people, whatever their strengths and weaknesses, all share a basic insecurity, an uncertainty even of their own identity. In this crucial transition from childhood to adulthood, they are desperately in need of affirmation, of positive assurance that they are worth while, respected, loved. They have to know that people really care and are available to them whenever they need help, assurance or just a sympathetic 1 ear. It is a mistake to presume that youths realize there are people available to support and help them. A major factor in their in security is precisely not knowing this. It has to be demonstrated. That is why Jesus consistently took the initiative in reaching out to people — to those who were uncertain or disadvantaged. Because Jesus did, people felt con fident, in turn, that they could ap proach him without fear of being ignored or rebuffed. When officious disciples tried to stop little children from “pester ing” Jesus, he “called for the children” (Luke 18:16), thus delighting them and letting them know that they were important people. Such availability always has been a hallmark of Jesus’ followers. Christians take the initiative in reaching out to others, whatever the inconvenience to themselves. There is no need to rehearse here all the tiring travels, hard ships, heartbreaks that St. Paul en dured to bring Christ’s love into human lives. His converts must have found his selfless devotion to them very encouraging. It must have made them feel very worth while indeed. When Paul was away from his people, he longed for them, not just as a group but as individuals. Thus we hear him say: “God himself can testify how much I long for each of you” (Philippians 1:8). And as a visible reminder of his concern, Paul sent a personal representative to the people. He wrote: “I hope, in the Lord, to send Timothy to you very soon. ..I have no one quite like him for ge nuine interest in whatever con cerns you” (Philippians 2:19-20). We help people to live worth while lives by convincing them that they are personally worth while, lovable and really loved. This is a Christian and a human enterprise which outweighs all considerations of personal sacrifice on our part. (Father Castelot is a professor of Scripture at St. John’s Seminary, Plymouth, Mich.) FOOD FOR THOUGHT Father Lawrence Mick talks about his “secret formula” for relation ships between youth ministers and other adults and the youth they serve. What is his formula? What is the article? creative loafing” discussed in Debbie Landregan’s Debbie Landregan, Katharine Bird and Father John Castelot talk about the importance of being available to youths. What does this availability accomplish? What are some ways it occurs? In Father John Castelot’s article, what valuable lesson did the cen turion’s sick servant pick up from the way his master treated him? What lesson is there in this story for people today? Second Helpings. Everyone who nurtures teen-agers — parents, teachers, ministers, friends and even adolescents themselves — can feel push ed to their limit and in need of help, writes Richard Parsons in Adolescents in Turmoil. Parents Under Stress: A Pastoral Ministry Primer. “It is within this helping context that everyone involved formally and informally as youth ministers plays such an essential role,” Parsons says. Anyone who cares for teen-agers needs both knowledge and skills, he says. Drawing on stories from his counseling practice, he provides parents and youth ministers with prac tical information about adolescents and tips for working with them. The teen years should be seen neither through rose-colored glasses nor through the eyes of despair and hopelessness, he says. Instead adolescence should be seen as “a challenge to be understood and assertively met.” Some of his topics: sexuality, drugs and drug abuse, communications, loneliness, school and suicide. (Paulist Press, 997 Macarthur Blvd., Mahwah, N.J. 07430. 1987. Paperback, $7.95 ) A town so poor, the Peace Corps uses it for “practice” Peace Corps volunteers train in San Luis, Colorado, then go on to assign ments in the Third World, It’s a good place to see poverty. Nobody knows this better than Father Patrick Valdez, pastor to the 800 residents of San Luis. With financial assistance from the Extension Society, he helps provide for the spiritual and economic needs of this country’s poorest of the poor. But he needs your help. With an Extension Charitable Gift Annuity you participate in the work of missionaries like Father Valdez and ensure a guaranteed income for the rest of your life. Besides an initial charitable con tribution deduction, a portion of your annual income is tax free. And the older you are, the higher the rate. Please return the coupon today for details. Help Father Valdez continue to bring the message of Jesus Christ to the hidden poor in our country. The Catholic Church EXTENSION Society 35 East Wacker Drive • Chicago. Illinois BOB01 FT 0926 □ Please send me a FREE Extension Annuity Kit with no obligtion. □ Send me information on how Extension is spreading the Faith across America. Rev./Sr./Br. Mr./Mrs./Miss/Ms. Birth Address -State This information will be kept strictly confidential
