1. Youth and the Church Today’s Challenge, Tomorrow’s Promise

2. Past Assumptions Meet A Changed Context “Children Inherit the Faith of Their Parents”  A Culture of Choice “Teen and Young Adult Withdrawal From Church Ultimately Gives Way to Active Involvement in Adulthood”  Only for Some—A Minority Return “Teens Are Preoccupied with Other Things, Faith and Practice Will Come Later”  The Hunger for Spirit, Service, and Community Is Ravenous!

3. Young Catholics: Religion In A Culture of Choice (Catholic Univ) Loose and Tangential Affiliation (Occasional) Indifference (Fringe vs. Belonging) Not Enough Depth Understanding of Catholicism’s Core Sufficient Superficial Knowledge  Want to Distance Themselves From It

4. Freedom, Choices, Decisions Context: Expansion of Choice, Diversity and Pluralism Self-Determinism and Authenticity  From Imperatives to Free Choices  From “Ethics Leads to Salvation” to “Salvation Leads to Ethics” From After-Life to a Resource for Living

5. More About Context Self-Determinism and Authenticity  Choice = Inventing Ourselves  Authenticity = Choice Awareness, Taking Responsibility For Our Choices  From Obedience to Discernment and Authenticity  Inviting and Sharing Our Faith  Attractive Faith Communities As Authentic

6. The Task: Evangelizing Youth in a Culture of Choice The Work of Evangelization  Focus is Experience (Then and Now)  Dialogical—Requires Listening First  Emphasizes Invitation—And Support  Teach Practice More Than Theory  Centered on the Basics, the Core  Plants Seeds—The Harvest Comes Later

7. Focus on Experience Learning Reflective Modes  Journaling, Story Telling/Active Listening, Contemplative Practices (Meditation, Prayer, Silence, Solitude) Retrieving the Experience Embodied in the Tradition  Revelation and Experience  Metaphor and Symbol in Scripture and Sacrament  The Experiential Foundations of Doctrine, Ethics

8. Listening and Dialogue Youth Ministry Requires Ears—and Patient Empathy  How Well We Listen More Important Than What We Say Dialogue Begins with Respect and Openness  The Assertions and Sufferings of Youth Understanding Emerges From Candor and Honesty  Being Ourselves: Neither Naïve nor Conned, Phony nor Condescending

9. Invitation and Support Culture of Choice Requires Invitation  Evangelization—An Institutional Commitment  Making Religion Credible  Catholicism = A Trustworthy Spiritual Path Support = Continuous Inviting  Not Nagging, but Personal Inviting

10. Exploring Spiritual Practice Experience As Greatest Teacher Learn More By Doing than Hearing About the Doing Intentional, Consciously Aware Practice—Orientation and Effective Transformation Effective Pastoral Plan: Focus on Practice

11. 5 Pillars of Catholic Spiritual Practice Baptism—And Its Annual Renewal at Easter Eucharist As Community Action and Transforming Experience Service and Working For Justice Private Prayer and Reflection Marriage and Friendship (Relationships as Sacred)

12. Without Practice Catholicism Yields No Transformative Results  No healing, no reconciliation, no liberation We Are Sucked Into the Flat Emptiness of Conventional Culture  Into an imprisoning fundamaterialism Disciplined Practice = Key to Conversion and Reconversion

13. Catechesis What Is Central, Put Simply Catholicism Is About One Thing: Intimacy With God The Four Noble Truths:  We are loved (Grace)  We deny/flee that love (Sin)  Jesus turns from sin to grace (Redemption)  We become redeemed in following him (Discipleship)

14. Pastoral Strategies Catholicism As Spiritual Path  A Joseph Campbell Approach Catholicism As Transforming Process  Distinct From Catholicism as Rules and Bureaucracy—Shame-Based Catholicism Grounded in Fear & Guilt Focused on the End (Intimacy with God)  Not the Means (The Whole Tradition)

15. Insights From Other Traditions Buddhism > From Ignorance to Buddha Consciousness (Enlightenment) Hinduism’s Ahisma > Changing Our Hearts from Hostility to Peace Islam’s Hay’a > Surrender in Grateful Reverence Our Stance: Sharing Our Path As Transforming Process

16. Community, Community, Community Retreats and Trips Community Service—and Reflection Attentive Selection of Peer Leaders Solidarity—The Breakthrough to Honesty Music—and More Music Working with Pop Culture (Movies, TV, and Celebrities)

17. Tomorrow’s Promise

18. Their Faith and Their Love Can Change the World tj

19. The Church They Become Will Serve the World

20. And Be Christ Present In and For One Another