My first experience with a Catholic youth group.
It was startlingly similar to a Protestant youth group. There was a service. It was Mass, which made it Catholic, but like so many other youth services, they had seven praise and worship songs, which were played in a kind of helter-skelter fashion throughout the service. If Sunday morning Mass is one hour long, this one was an hour and a half because the musicians had no clue when to stop playing the songs.
The part after that was better--the part I consider real youth ministry. The kids queued up outside the youth room and were allowed in in groups of 10. They were greeted as a group by one of the volunteers and were asked a trivia question about something in Scripture. Mercifully, they asked a question relating to what was read at Mass. Then they were allowed to fall upon the table of food like locusts on a harvest. We ran out of cake.
Once the litter was fed, the youth minister discussed the Bible as itself. He touched on how many books of the Bible there were, how Catholic Bibles differed from Protestant Bibles, why there was a difference between Catholic and Protestant Bibles, and gave a series of doctrinal statements about the Bibles.
Then it was small group time. Each group did a sort of mini-Bible study where a Scripture passage was read aloud (ours was 2 Corinthians 1:1-9). Then the leader asked one question. The kids discussed the question for about 20 minutes or so. I forgot how bull-headed high school seniors could be. We sailed off topic several times. Ah, memories.
After the mini-session was over, the group re-convened and students were asked to mention something they learned in their particular mini-study. Once that was finished there was prayer (Our Father, Hail Mary, and a few lines sung from Ave Maria). The priest blessed the kids and everyone went home.
I'm slated to assist the youth minister in Bible study on Wednesday at 7:30pm.
Now rather than being pissed about not getting hired for not having experience, I'm wondering why the parishes I applied to thought I needed to have time to earn additional experience in the first place.
The part after that was better--the part I consider real youth ministry. The kids queued up outside the youth room and were allowed in in groups of 10. They were greeted as a group by one of the volunteers and were asked a trivia question about something in Scripture. Mercifully, they asked a question relating to what was read at Mass. Then they were allowed to fall upon the table of food like locusts on a harvest. We ran out of cake.
Once the litter was fed, the youth minister discussed the Bible as itself. He touched on how many books of the Bible there were, how Catholic Bibles differed from Protestant Bibles, why there was a difference between Catholic and Protestant Bibles, and gave a series of doctrinal statements about the Bibles.
Then it was small group time. Each group did a sort of mini-Bible study where a Scripture passage was read aloud (ours was 2 Corinthians 1:1-9). Then the leader asked one question. The kids discussed the question for about 20 minutes or so. I forgot how bull-headed high school seniors could be. We sailed off topic several times. Ah, memories.
After the mini-session was over, the group re-convened and students were asked to mention something they learned in their particular mini-study. Once that was finished there was prayer (Our Father, Hail Mary, and a few lines sung from Ave Maria). The priest blessed the kids and everyone went home.
I'm slated to assist the youth minister in Bible study on Wednesday at 7:30pm.
Now rather than being pissed about not getting hired for not having experience, I'm wondering why the parishes I applied to thought I needed to have time to earn additional experience in the first place.
posted by Justin | 1:11 PM
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