A Civilized And Focused Discussion On Life Teen

[tinytherese]

I know that a major complain I hear about Life Teen is that a lot of teenagers never advance beyond the program spiritually once they've graduated and moved on to college. How can that be remedied?

[MissScripture]

[quote name='tinytherese' timestamp='1310184198' post='2264833']
I know that a major complain I hear about Life Teen is that a lot of teenagers never advance beyond the program spiritually once they've graduated and moved on to college. How can that be remedied?
[/quote]
That can go for any teen program, really, and isn't unique to Life Teen. I mean, we all know or know of the people who were goody-two-shoes growing up and even through high school and just went nuts when they got to college. That being said, it's a problem and something that should be addressed, but I'm not really sure how much it can be addressed preemptively and how much just needs to be a continuation of ministry so that college age kids know there is still a place for them in the Church.

[Brother Adam]

[quote name='tinytherese' timestamp='1310184198' post='2264833']
I know that a major complain I hear about Life Teen is that a lot of teenagers never advance beyond the program spiritually once they've graduated and moved on to college. How can that be remedied?
[/quote]

Not the problem of life teen, but those running the program.

[Brother Adam]

[quote name='add' timestamp='1310083249' post='2264196']
LifeTeen as it is now, is the same as it started ,[s] no [/s] very good
[/quote]

[color="#FF0000"]Fixed it for you.[/color]

[homeschoolmom]

[quote name='Luigi' timestamp='1310100463' post='2264310']
Look, any program that involves teens is going to be a hot mess. It always has been, and it always will be. That applies to Catholic high schools - male, female, or co-ed - sports programs, social programs, retreat programs, and anything else you can think of.

Teens are in a phase of life when they're not yet mature, but they're reaching for it. Many are not yet fully responsible, but they can drive & they have money in their pockets, all of which is a dangerous combination. They're trying to decide - more or less consciously - whether they believe what their folks have been teaching them, whether they want to become people like their folks, and what they want to be when they grow up. They're experimenting with life - sex, drugs, rock & roll, new crowds of friends, majors in college... every element of their lives. You experiment with life, and somebody's bound to get hurt somewhere along the way.

As far as Life Teen - or any other youth program - goes, God love 'em. And God love the ministers who run 'em. And God bless 'em, too! They're trying. They're trying to preach, teach, shepherd these guys, keep 'em from straying too far off the straight & narrow during their experimental phase, provide some alternatives to the much worse non-Church stuff that's out there.

Will there be excesses? Yes - teenagers are involved. Will every program succeed? No - there are teenagers involved. Will they produce fruit? Probably - and pobably more in the future than you can see right now.

[b]AL[/b]L ministry - preaching, teaching, catechesis, sacraments, prayer, the whole lot of it - is an attempt to sow good seed. But it's not a salvation kit that comes with a money-back guarantee. Even very good seed takes some time to grow & bear fruit.
[/quote]
Good post.

Another issue to consider: Evangelical groups would LOVE to have Catholic teens come to their programs. There needs to be something to compete. I know I will get blasted for saying it, but it's true. Teens want to be in a worship experience where there is joy. They can and do find joy in Adoration, but they do need high-energy. They are high-energy people.

[Brother Adam]

Yes, without our youth ministry program our recent graduating seniors posted how they are all highly involved in the Protestant youth group on our graduation board. Many of them have now left the Catholic Church.

[add]

[quote name='Brother Adam' timestamp='1310217744' post='2264931']
[color="#FF0000"]Fixed it for you.[/color]
[/quote]

[quote]LifeTeen (as it is now, not as it started) is the best thing that is happening to the church in the next 30 years. Period. When this generation gets older and is in charge, the lion of the church will be awake again, and the flabby, flacid, apathetic, watered-down modernist evil that has infected the church the last 30 years will finally be driven out.[/quote]

referring to some of my fellow church-going Catholic parishioners as flabby, flacid, apathetic, watered-down modernist evil infection and LifeTeen (as it is now, not as it started) is the best thing that is happening to the church in the next 30 years...

I'm sorry but this mentality really Scares me, that is why i feel this (lifeteen) cult is [b]no good.[/b]
again, LifeTeen as it is now, is the same as it started , [s]very good[/s] NO GOOD[s]

[/s] This misdirected condemnation of the faith of, directed towards their some parents and encouraged the lifeteen cult is disgraceful. It also goes against the 5[sup]th[/sup] (commandment)


thank you very much[s]
[/s]

Edited July 9, 2011 by add

[Seven77]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' timestamp='1310093054' post='2264255']
I think that Summorum Pontificum and Anglicanorum Coetibus each on their own are more valuable to the Church than LifeTeen.
[/quote]

Yes. And yet, the good from LifeTeen (sanctification of even a few souls) is valuable.

SP=bringing people into the Church. AC=bringing people into the Church. LT=bringing people into the Church. And if the LT crowd is liturgically deficient (they are usually NOT doctrinally, nor spiritually deficient), SP and AC will no doubt help to remedy this.

We're all in this together, wouldn't you agree?

[Brother Adam]

[quote name='add' timestamp='1310230516' post='2264977']
referring to some of my fellow church-going Catholic parishioners as flabby, flacid, apathetic, watered-down modernist evil infection and LifeTeen (as it is now, not as it started) is the best thing that is happening to the church in the next 30 years...

I'm sorry but this mentality really Scares me, that is why i feel this (lifeteen) cult is [b]no good.[/b]
again, LifeTeen as it is now, is the same as it started , [s]very good[/s] NO GOOD[s]

[/s] This misdirected condemnation of the faith of, directed towards their some parents and encouraged the lifeteen cult is disgraceful. It also goes against the 5[sup]th[/sup] (commandment)


thank you very much[s]
[/s]
[/quote]

Calling Life Teen "no good" is slanderous and should be dealt with in confession with a priest who can offer you spiritual direction. You have offered no justification for your condemnation. Calling life teen a cult is absurd. If you know of a particular parish where the staff using life teen materials has turned into a cult, you should contact your curia as well as the Life Teen staff. The LT staff will likely pull support from the group. The person was referring to the modernist heresy which has ruined the faith of millions of Catholics setting ex-Catholics up as the second largest religious group in the US. Regarding Life Teen as the best thing to happen to the Church in 30 years, I would disagree, however that does not make Life Teen a cult or justify your slander (libel, whatever).

Once again, Life Teen is a program that can be purchased with a staff who are on call to personally help youth ministry groups who are building their youth ministry. The program has a liturgical guide, a curriculum guide, and a core team training guide that is shipped 3 times a year. It takes a parish group to run the program, who can use it however they best see fit. It is rooted in a Eucharistic catechesis and is totally faithful and Catholic. There is nothing keeping a Life Teen group from attending the Extraordinary Form and our group does when they can.

So again, either justify your claims or stop slandering the staff and life teen youth ministries.

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='Seven77' timestamp='1310235229' post='2265000']
Yes. And yet, the good from LifeTeen (sanctification of even a few souls) is valuable.

SP=bringing people into the Church. AC=bringing people into the Church. LT=bringing people into the Church. And if the LT crowd is liturgically deficient (they are usually NOT doctrinally, nor spiritually deficient), SP and AC will no doubt help to remedy this.

We're all in this together, wouldn't you agree?
[/quote]
I agree that we all have our roles to play. I'm sure that LifeTeen is addressing a legitimate need. I'm not convinced that the program does so in the most effective way, and I'm not sure about all their methods or even the soundness of all aspects of its basis, but I am sure that it has many good elements and that it can be perfected to serve the Church better.
However, as I mentioned elsewhere, it's not for me. Summorum Pontificum and Universae Ecclesiae help my faith far more, and once I see the fruits of Anglicanorum Coetibus in Calgary (we've got two parishes converting), then I'm willing to bet that I'll be quite impressed with that too. LifeTeen just isn't my thing. Never was, and never will be. Their role addresses people besides myself.

[add]

[quote name='Brother Adam' timestamp='1310241272' post='2265031']
Calling Life Teen "no good" is slanderous and should be dealt with in confession with a priest who can offer you spiritual direction. You have offered no justification for your condemnation. Calling life teen a cult is absurd. If you know of a particular parish where the staff using life teen materials has turned into a cult, you should contact your curia as well as the Life Teen staff. The LT staff will likely pull support from the group. The person was referring to the modernist heresy which has ruined the faith of millions of Catholics setting ex-Catholics up as the second largest religious group in the US. Regarding Life Teen as the best thing to happen to the Church in 30 years, I would disagree, however that does not make Life Teen a cult or justify your slander (libel, whatever).

Once again, Life Teen is a program that can be purchased with a staff who are on call to personally help youth ministry groups who are building their youth ministry. The program has a liturgical guide, a curriculum guide, and a core team training guide that is shipped 3 times a year. It takes a parish group to run the program, who can use it however they best see fit. It is rooted in a Eucharistic catechesis and is totally faithful and Catholic. There is nothing keeping a Life Teen group from attending the Extraordinary Form and our group does when they can.

So again, either justify your claims or stop slandering the staff and life teen youth ministries.
[/quote]

referring to some of my fellow church-going Catholic parishioners as flabby, flacid, apathetic, watered-down modernist evil infection and LifeTeen (as it is now, not as it started) is the best thing that is happening to the church in the next 30 years... is something a lifeteen'er stated, in this tread!
Calling[s] Life Teen "no good[/s] your fellow church-going Catholic parishioners (the above) is slanderous and should be dealt with in confession with a priest who can offer you spiritual direction.

[vee]

From what I saw of Life Teen at my parish, it was implemented a couple years after I was too old, was a heavy focus on changing the Mass to fit the teens and not the teens to fit the Mass. It also seemed to involve idolizing the program and making it the next greatest thing since sliced bread instead of focusing on oh I dont know.... Jesus? This program will bring kids back to Church, this program will do this, this program will do that and the focus was always on the program and not what Jesus Himself started. Life Teen will not save the Latin Rite Church. The Holy Spirit will, and kids will go when they are taught by their families the faith.

[add]

[quote name='Brother Adam' timestamp='1310241272' post='2265031']
. Calling life teen a cult is absurd.
[/quote]

life teen a cult (see definition)
[b][size="5"]Cult[/size][/b] –noun

[size="3"]1. [/size]A particular system of religious worship, especially with reference to its rites and ceremonies.
[size="3"]2.[/size] An instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, especially as manifested by a body of admirers: the physical fitness cult. [size="3"]
3.[/size] The object of such devotion. [size="3"]
4.[/size] A group or sect bound together by veneration of the[u] [/u]same thing, person, ideal, etc.
[size="3"]5.[/size] Sociology . a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols.

[size="3"]6.[/size] a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.

[size="3"]7.[/size] The members of such a religion or sect.

[size="3"]8.[/size][size="3"] Any system for treating human sickness that originated by a person usually claiming to have [i]sole[/i] insight into the nature of disease, and that employs methods regarded as unorthodox or unscientific. [/size]

brother Adam
a cult is not necessarily a bad thing, and i do not see the need to apologize or go to confession for stating a simple fact.
the lifeteen program isolates itself from the church community with a special mass for teens, parents can attend, but have been or are politely ostracized from participating, in my opinion.
the founder and mentor of the lifeteen program has been tried and convicted of heinous crimes, and has been ( rightly so) excommunicated and defrocked.
With all its good intentions and virtues the lifeteen program is flawed, in my opinion, Sunday Mass worship participation is for and about family and community - [b]being all together [/b]- in remembrance of Jesus.
my apologies to whomever i may have offended,
JMJ

[Lisa]

To the question of teens never advancing in their faith after LifeTeen: like a few others have mentioned, this may be the case with Life Teen and any other youth ministry or thing that deals with teens. Personally, I had never been to Eucharistic adoration until I went to a conference sponsored by them. It provided me a second look at my faith, and in college I started to live it out my Catholic faith every day. I go to daily Mass, now can't wait to go to my first Latin Mass (I finally found one in our diocese- yay!), and have a much deeper prayer life than ever before.

Those weren't things that happened directly in Life Teen, but what I learned there nurtured the desire to be truly holy- to be a Saint! Clearly, it's not perfect, but there are undeniably good elements to it.

[BG45]

[quote name='add' timestamp='1310301432' post='2265275']
life teen a cult (see definition)
[b][size="5"]Cult[/size][/b] –noun

[size="3"]1. [/size]A particular system of religious worship, especially with reference to its rites and ceremonies.
[size="3"]2.[/size] An instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, especially as manifested by a body of admirers: the physical fitness cult. [size="3"]
3.[/size] The object of such devotion. [size="3"]
4.[/size] A group or sect bound together by veneration of the[u] [/u]same thing, person, ideal, etc.
[size="3"]5.[/size] Sociology . a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols.

[size="3"]6.[/size] a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.

[size="3"]7.[/size] The members of such a religion or sect.

[size="3"]8.[/size][size="3"] Any system for treating human sickness that originated by a person usually claiming to have [i]sole[/i] insight into the nature of disease, and that employs methods regarded as unorthodox or unscientific. [/size]


[/quote]

Technically if you take 1-5 of your definition of cult, you could apply it to Catholicism. I know that's not the intent, just saying things aren't always black and white.