Youth Ministry

 At World Youth Day in Denver, 1993, Pope John Paul II borrowed an image from Luke 24, the Emmaus story, to articulate the urgency of young people’s mission in our world today. He said, “Young Pilgrims, Christ needs you to enlighten the world and to show it the ‘path of life.’ The challenge is to make the Church’s Yes to life concrete and effective. The struggle will be long, and it needs each one of you. Place your intelligence, your talents, your enthusiasm, your compassion, and your fortitude at the service of life.”

We who are involved in youth ministry at St. Joseph Parish realize that we are called to be servants to, with, by, and for youth. There are three main goals of youth ministry:
1. To empower young people to live as disciples of Jesus Christ in our world today.
2. To draw young people to responsible participation in the life, mission, and work of the faith community.
3. To foster the total personal and spiritual growth of each youth.

There are five major ways of meeting these goals which fall under the umbrella of youth ministry. They are:

• Leadership: Leadership is developed and encouraged in Catalyst, the high school youth group. They plan and carry out activities in three main categories: social, service, and worship. Catalyst members are also encouraged to be a part of a retreat team and take part in the Christian Leadership Institute, a week-long retreat further developing leadership skills.  Members of Alliance, the middle school youth group, are encouraged to grow as leaders and follow the example of their older peers in Catalyst. 
• Catechesis: St. Joseph Parish has a comprehensive religious education program, preschool through grade 12, to compliment the opportunity for religious study found at the Catholic high school.
• Community Building: Youth at St. Joseph are offered many opportunities to meet new people and build strong relationships in a Christian atmosphere. Some activities which are offered are: lock-ins, retreats, ski trips, youth group meetings, and amusement park trips. Before we can evangelize (spread the Good News of Christ) the youth, they need to feel welcomed and comfortable.
• Worship & Prayer: This happens in a variety of settings and at virtually all of the activities we offer. The Confirmation process also strives to assist the teens in learning to express their relationship with God and the parish in new ways.
• Advocacy: We have a responsibility to give voice to the needs of our youth. Through newsletters, and other mediums such as Facebook, we keep the activities and concerns of our young people in the parish’s mind.
• Service/Justice & Peace: Service is a constitutive part of the Christian life, and we attempt to teach this to our youth through experiences of service. In the past, we have taken work groups to inner-city Davenport and Omaha on Urban Plunges and to Oaxaca, Mexico and our sister mission there. We have also involved several dozen of our parishioners in the 30-Hour Famine and local outreach programs such as the Catholic Worker House and Green Square Meals. We have had numerous parishioners involved in the 30-Hour Fast for World Vision and numerous other projects through the Confirmation process.

Pastoral care and evangelization are both inter-relational aspects of ministry that are constant and endless. We do not specifically program for these components, but all activities offer opportunities for this kind of interaction as youth build trusting relationships with adults and each other. The very fact that a coordinator of youth ministry staff position exists in the parish indicates that these are important facets of the parish’s life and hope. This person does not only serve as a pastoral care giver and evangelizer, but also enables other parish members to exercise their baptismal call to do the same.

If you have questions concerning youth ministry, contact Megan Gan at gan.megan@gmail.com or 377-4869.