Breaking Into Youth Ministry?

[Lil Red]

Lina - I'm not directing this at you, but it did remind me of something. I honestly don't think that anyone under 21 should be a youth minister or a volunteer (excepting peer-to-peer ministry).

[Jaime]

The pizza parties will kill you!

[Lil Red]

the youth ministry diet is a bad one. or a good one. depending on your perspective

[LinaSt.Cecilia2772]

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1342924844' post='2457723']
Lina - I'm not directing this at you, but it did remind me of something. I honestly don't think that anyone under 21 should be a youth minister or a volunteer (excepting peer-to-peer ministry).
[/quote]

Of course, I know. I wasn't planning on discerning anytime soon. I want to go to college and all that jazz first before I discern anything, I need some growth physically, mentally, and spiritually.

And I agree with you. Some pretty nasty confrontations have happened between youth and ministers because of the closeness in age.

Edited July 22, 2012 by LinaSt.Cecilia2772

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

If your parish doesn't have a youth team than you can talk to the parish priest and ask him if you can start meeting once a week, friday nights worked well at an old parish i attended, from like 6pm till 8pm and they had some nibblies there too and occasional guest speakers from the parish. Possibly you also have youth ministry for your diocease, unsure if u.s. has that but in oz we do. And you can do stuff for the youth through that. Even if it's just a gathering for the youth at first a get to know other youth in your parish and not much happening except for chat after an opening prayer, and possibly a prayer at the end of the gathering and that should be a good foundation to begin with. I don't know this is just an idea, unsure whether it is productive idea or stupid idea.

[Amppax]

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1342924844' post='2457723']
Lina - I'm not directing this at you, but it did remind me of something. I honestly don't think that anyone under 21 should be a youth minister or a volunteer (excepting peer-to-peer ministry).
[/quote]

Respectfully disagree, at least about the volunteer part. I would agree that being a full time youth minister under 21 is probably not good. That being said, someone does need to have a certain level of maturity before going into youth ministry. In my experience the sort of maturity that leads to doing well in youth ministry has less to do with age, but that's just based on my own personal experience.

[Lil Red]

It also has to do with appropriate behavior. People volunteering that are under 21 are simply too close in age to junior high/high school-ers.

[Jaime]

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1342926962' post='2457738']
It also has to do with appropriate behavior. People volunteering that are under 21 are simply too close in age to junior high/high school-ers.
[/quote]

If you are young enough to date'em you're too young to supervise them

[Lil Red]

Pretty much!

[MissyP89]

I've been thinking a lot about everything said on this thread. I've come to the conclusion that I must really have a call because reading the bad side of it only made me want to do it more.

That said, God's been showing me a lot of the things I need to work on. Unfortunately, I'm not currently in a place where I am spiritually healthy enough to minister to others (not necessary "I'm not good enough," but rather, "I have spiritual issues that would make me a bad minister."

So step one will be to take care of my own heart and soul.

I'm in a position right now that makes it very difficult for me to meet with a priest for more than 10 minutes a month. Please pray for me.

[Jaime]

[quote name='MissyP89' timestamp='1342930399' post='2457781']
I've been thinking a lot about everything said on this thread. I've come to the conclusion that I must really have a call because reading the bad side of it only made me want to do it more.

That said, God's been showing me a lot of the things I need to work on. Unfortunately, I'm not currently in a place where I am spiritually healthy enough to minister to others (not necessary "I'm not good enough," but rather, "I have spiritual issues that would make me a bad minister."

So step one will be to take care of my own heart and soul.

I'm in a position right now that makes it very difficult for me to meet with a priest for more than 10 minutes a month. Please pray for me.
[/quote]

Missy you are in the best position to decide if you're ready or not. If you don't mind me sharing a bit more advice. I doubt there was a day that I worked in ministry where I didn't have spiritual issues. But I made a rule that kept me safe (and the students as well) I never shared a topic that I was struggling with or hadn't resolved. If I had worked through an issue, I was happy to share my struggles with the students because I could share the resolution of the struggle. Any issue that hadn't got there yet, I didn't deal with it directly. If it was important enough, I had someone else direct it. If not, there was plenty to talk about!

For example, I struggled for a while in my 20s with the concept of the Eucharist. So when the topic was broached, I had one of the brothers talk about it. When I finally resolved my struggle and could honestly say I believed it was the Body and Blood of Christ, I was happy to share that experience.

[Papist]

[quote name='MissyP89' timestamp='1342412853' post='2455975']
So I've decided I want to tell you guys a secret that's been growing in my heart for a while.

*deep breath*

I think I want to be a youth minister.
[/quote]
[img]http://www.pic4ever.com/images/connie_mini_bump.gif[/img]

How you do'n?

[HopefulBride]

I am lazy and so I stopped reading after th3 4th post so it's possible someone said this already. Try joining a Core team in your parish or a nearby parish. You can even begin by serving as a chaperone for some events. I started in Youth Ministry by being a chaperone to a trip to EWTN about 3 years ago. This was when I had just began discerning with my community and was contemplating a cloister among an active apostolate. Being with the youth group for that long weekend helped me a lot in my discernment.

You also want to try and take the opportunity (if it is presented) to volunteer with middle school and youth group. They are both very different beasts and some folks loove one while hating the other. To tell you the truth, I love both of them and I've had the chance to help with both (though I'm a Core team member for middle school) You will find that as you progress in your involvement, you grow so much and gain so much confidence in your ability to help the kids. That was my issue in the beginning, I felt like I didn't have much to offer. 3 years later I've found that it is not the case at all. I can learn lots from them and vice versa.

This is such an awe-some thing that you want to do!!! Youth Ministry is very close to my heart and I shall keep you in prayers as you discern how to go about serving in this manner.

Pax!