Youth Masses

Tonight I met with my Youth Mass committee. Our parish has a 6:00 Mass, and we plan all the high school faith formation classes to abut that Mass, and we have this group of adults who are interested in making it "youth-friendly". We trained a buncha kids last year to be lectors and Eucharistic ministers and greeters, and we have meetings to plan things like helpful homily ideas and decorations and whatnot. But there is only so much we can do, because three weeks of each month there is a "contemporary music group" who play their guitars and flute and sing.
But I'm not going to complain about the youth-Mass-ness of the youth Mass. What I want to talk about it LifeTeen.
Last year at this time I was just getting started at this parish, and this very group of people came to talk about instituting Life Teen Masses and Life Nights at our parish. I shared with them my views on the subject, which I think they mostly disagreed with, but let it go in hopes of pursuing it later.
And here are my views:
* I have a problem with putting a brand name on the Mass. I cringe when I ask kids where they go to church and they say "I belong to such and such Lifeteen". Wha?
* I hate how kids at Lifeteen Masses sit separately from their parents and the rest of the congregation. Okay, maybe it's just at the several parishes whose LT Masses I've visited.
*I think it's GREAT, but only for a small part of the community- not just that it's only great for teenagers, it's only great for a portion of the teenagers in a parish. When a hundred kids show up and do the hand motions to the songs at a Mass every week, it sure looks like great ministry is happening- and it is- but only for a small portion of the population. I think putting all our effort into one model in that way creates walls that do damage in a parish community.
* I think the Liturgy is enough, if done well, to reach young people. It doesn't need to have skits and jokes and silliness to reach kids and I think the theatrics of a Lifeteen Mass set up kids for serious disappointment when they graduate to the real world and Mass isn't as entertaining as it was in Lifeteen.
Sooooo, there it is. The arguments I've heard against my opinions mostly fall into the kids need Mass to be that way, for them< and >the Lifeteen organization doesn't really want parishes to do it that way, they just abuse the idea.<
I will grant ya that Lifeteen puts out some great resources for the Mass. BUT, you can't just buy what you need, you have to pay upwards of 600.00 to get a box every few months with a Liturgical planning guide (this is all I really want), Life Night planning guides (even if you don't do lifenights) a few cd's (nice, but not necessary) a couple of random books, and some silly thing like a blow-up-something-or-other, or a toy or a tchotchke. If I could, I'd buy the Lit. Planning guides at every opportunity, happily pay 20 bucks for the book, and let the rest go at a savings of around $520.00 or so.
I DO believe Masses should be youth- and youth-family friendly, but I think it takes only some effort on the part of the music group to make the music singable, some effort on the part of the ministers to create a friendly (to everyone) environment, and effort on the part of the presider to at least acknowledge the existence of young people. After that, God's got it covered.
But hey, that's just my opinion(s).