Kudos to orthodox youth ministers!

[KCT]

My 18 yr old daughter just returned from work camp. The camp was organized by a Protestant organization (Youth Works) and our group was the only Catholic group there. All the participants went to the local Baptist church for Wednesday evening service. The pastor took one scripture verse and picked it all apart and explained it. Well, when they returned home for the evening, our youth minister gathered our little Catholic group, opened her Bible and read not only the verse the pastor chose, but the verses before and after. She then proceeded to explain how the pastor had taken the verse out of context and interpreted it to suit his purposes. Way to go!

I’m hoping that next year we can organize Catholic missions work. I’m not against working w/ other faiths, but if we don’t patronize the Catholic organizations, how will they stay in existence? KCT

 

[dhgray]

KCT:

I’m hoping that next year we can organize Catholic missions work. I’m not against working w/ other faiths, but if we don’t patronize the Catholic organizations, how will they stay in existence? KCT

Dear KTC, There is a Catholic Based, Vatican Approved Family Ministry sweeping across the United States and aroundt he world called Couples For Christ (CFC) The CFC has minstries for all aspects of the family.
CFC-Kids For Christ (KFC) 4-12 years old
CFC-Youth For Christ (YFC) 13 - 21 years old (now in all 50 states)
CFC-Singles for Christ (SFC) 22 - 40ish for single professionals (and amateurs)
Couples for Christ (CFC) Valid married couples growing in the faith.
CFC-Handmaids of the Lord (HOLD) Mature single women, divorced or widowed or separated or whose spouse is unable to attend.
CFC-Servants of the Lord (SOLD) Mature single men, divorced or separated or widowed or whose spouse is unable to attend.

Currently the CFC is 1.4 million members strong in 117 countries.

If you would like to know more or find a CFC group in your area, please contact me.

 

[Princess_Abby]

Interesting that you mention YouthWorks! (they do that lovely little exclamation point at the end, so i had to include it )

Anyway, I’m 24 now, but I went on a mission trip my senior year of high school to an Appalachian community in West Hamlin, WVA, spearheaded by a YouthWorks! group. I was with fourteen other Catholic youths, a Catholic youth minister and a Catholic priest. We were paired with seventy-two fundamentalists of the Unitarian, Methodist and Congregationalist denominations (with their various chaperones).

Our “missions” involved several sites, and the fourteen of us were divided up amongst the other, much larger, “groups” of protestants. We went to a Baptist “revival” mid-week to “congregate” with the families we were working with. It was very interesting–altar call and all, with us Catholic kids being SPECIFICALLY invited to “accept Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior” into our hearts. Very uncomfortable.

The week was marked, though, by a lot of (what they called) witnessing. Despite the fact that most of us Catholic schoolkids were semi-uncatechized, our chaplain held nightly meetings with us kids and the youth minister and they had us ask THEM the theology questions we were being forced to debate during the day, with the fundamentalists–sort of a mini-apologetics crash course.

To this day, YEARS later, I am still very good friends with a congregationalist guy I met on that mission trip–one who was really willing to listen and learn about our faith–and not believe the myths he’d been told by his “elders.”

I am also grateful that our chaplain and the youth minister took the time to make sure we were all completely clarified on the attacks we received concerning our Catholic faith–the whole week we spent there was one battle after another!

 

[KCT]

Princess_Abby:

I am also grateful that our chaplain and the youth minister took the time to make sure we were all completely clarified on the attacks we received concerning our Catholic faith–the whole week we spent there was one battle after another!

My dd knew going into it that she might have an experience like yours. She says no one cared that they were Catholic and no one gave them a hard time. Did your parish continue to attend work camps organized by Youth Works? If the same thing happened to our group, I doubt our youth minister would go again. —KCT

 

[Princess_Abby]

Hmm…well, my trip was school-sponsored, since my siblings and I went to a Catholic prep school. During and after college, though, I worked as a youth/outreach minister for high school and college-age students (two different positions), each one requring me to organize various mission trips. I did NOT use YouthWorks! for the ones I planned.

My youngest sister is now a senior in high school, and she’ll be going on the mission trip next spring break. I’ve kept in touch with the campus minister at my old high school, and he told me very specifically that he would never use YouthWorks! again, either.

I’m glad your daughter wasn’t tormented by the fundies!

I will say, however, that during my work in ministry, I did try to promote a spirit of ecumenism among the teenagers and college students. The reality is that we can’t live in a Catholic bubble, and the more educated we make our fellow Catholics, the better equipped they are to defend and LOVE their faith. We often had non-Catholics participating in events, and there were MANY youth group nights that “fun and games” were tossed aside to have serious discussions about “Why do we believe that?” I was continually amazed at how hungry these kids were to know the truth. The most beautiful thing was watching teenagers take the knowledge they acquired and “witnessing” (to use a favorite fundy term) to their protestant friends. We had a few conversions take place that way.

It was really amazing. I miss it!

 

[La_Chiara]

KCT–Thanks for starting this thread. It is important to share these “non-denominational Christian” youth ministry experiences to educate Catholics. I am not opposed to Catholics going to “non-denominational Christian” youth ministries. The problem is when the Catholic kids are not well-formed in our faith and when there is no Catholic adult who is well-formed in the Catholic faith to explain the differences that the kids observe.

Unfortunately, these youth ministries are almost always Protestant and don’t seem eager to point out the differences in a positive way. Many claim to be “non-denominational Christian” but are just plain old evangelical, fundamentalist Protestant. They are non-denominational only in that they are not associated with a particular Protestant denomination–such as Lutheranl, Episcopalian, Baptist, Presbyterian, or similar. But these youth ministries almost never call themselves Protestant though they are. It is wonderful when the Catholic kids actually learn about their faith through such experiences rather than just getting confused by the differences they see.

Thanks for sharing and making us aware.

 

[Exalt]

heartworkcamp.com/heart-new.htm

HEART Workcamp is a catholic organization that holds workcamps around the southern region of the United States. You might want to check it out.

As far as good catholic youth ministry goes, a few different movements are sweeping the country. CFC, LifeTeen, Phatmass, the Stuebenville Conferences, and Catholic HEART come to mind. All of these programs and resources are competely and totally orthodox. Thier attitude is: We are catholic, and every single doctrine is important in making up a solid faithful man or woman of God. They teach Catholicism as not an arbitrary set of rules, but God’s divine plan for your life for the purpose of bringing you closer to Him. The rules of Catholicism are the keys to your soul. When you break God’s rules, you break yourself.

If you are looking to help start a youth ministry program, the US Bishops published a document titled Renewing the Vision. There are also countless resources out there. The LifeTeen resource has worked for our parish.

 

[KCT]

heartworkcamp.com/heart-new.htm

HEART Workcamp is a catholic organization that holds workcamps around the southern region of the United States. You might want to check it out.

Thanks for the link. I’ll direct our YM to the organization. I’d love for our participants to have Mass rather than just devotions! KCT