Evolution hurts!!

At the Institute, I spoke with a fellow Youth Minister from Iowa. I asked him what he thought was the future of the youth ministry- something I’ve been thinking about so much lately. I’ve been predicting the end of YM as we know it, even more dead than it is now, if that’s possible, because of the end of Diocesan leadership all over the country and the dwindling number of parishes who are willing to pay anyone to do anything but religious ed.
I think maybe we’ll be “faith formation leaders” or “catechetical leaders” hired to specialize in the adolescent years… not a bad thing, necessarily, but I do worry that the Church will, in their focus on catechesis, neglect the other components of comprehensive YM and let them slide. I do to my very core believe that all 8 components are necessary, vital, to do church right for young people.
I asked him, “do you think YM is dying?” and his answer was a challenge and encouragement to me. He said “I think YM is evolving. And it’s going to be painful.” What a great way to look at it (I’m such a doomsayer!)! Of course, he’s right- things are changing because they have to change. I know God has a plan for what will happen in the Church for young people in the future, and although I don’t know what that plan is (I do have some suggestions, as usual) and it’s pretty scary being at this point in history, knowing what it was like in the past and looking at the great unknown of the future for my own vocation.
Did you catch any of that series last year, Invasion? It was sci-fi, about a bunch of alien-lights that come to earth in a hurricane to take over people’s bodies, etc. etc. etc… (what sci-fi show isn’t about that?) But what was interesting to me about it was that they weren’t taking over the people’s bodies/world out of hate, but because they were the next step in evolution. They had better functioning bodies (including being able to breathe underwater and heal fast!) and so, when you were taken over by this alien thing, you became yourself, only more advanced.
Maybe this is Youth Min’s future. A painful bite and transfer of our DNA to enable us to become Youth Ministry, only better. Oh, and there’s that Biblical thing too, “dying to self” (http://www.clarion-call.org/extras/die/die.htm )… maybe that’s involved here too…?