Why Catholic Youth Ministry Isn't Working (and What Is)

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"The Holy Spirit has not given up on the north of England."

After more than a decade in youth ministry, Jack Regan came to an uncomfortable conclusion: most of what he saw in Catholic youth ministry, including his own work, wasn't forming disciples "with any kind of volume and with any kind of consistency." Instead of making excuses, he went to the ministries that were bearing fruit and asked, with humility, what they were doing differently. Ten years later, the result is his new book, How to Start a Fire: A Blueprint for Catholic Youth Ministry.

Jack, director of youth services for the Diocese of Lancaster in England, talks with Christopher about naming what isn't working without beating anyone up, the mission-vision-strategy exercise most ministries skip, the shift from maintenance to mission, discipleship as a journey, what success in ministry really looks like, why your team needs fraternity, and why anyone can evangelize.

In This Episode

• 0:00 Cold open: "The Holy Spirit has not given up"
• 1:00 Welcome and introduction
• 3:36 Meet Jack Regan
• 6:01 Why he wrote How to Start a Fire
• 15:00 Successful ministries know why they exist
• 22:23 From maintenance to mission
• 32:10 Discipleship is a journey
• 38:15 What success in ministry looks like
• 44:10 Fraternity: a team that likes each other
• 50:33 Anyone can evangelize, and Jack's hope

Key Takeaways

• Learn from what's working. Stop explaining away the ministries that bear fruit. Ask them, with humility, what they do that you don't.
• Know why you exist. Lay out your mission, vision, strategy and initiatives, and test everything you run against evangelization. Many ministries run events only because "we've always done it."
• Challenge the customer-service mentality. Giving people what they ask for is not the same as offering what the Gospel calls them to.
• Decline is not inevitable. The Holy Spirit has not given up on any place or any person.
• Meet people where they are on the journey. Most people don't go from zero to 100 in a weekend. If a teen walks in wearing an atheist T-shirt to start a fight, ignore the T-shirt and get to know them.
• Stop cheating on the test. Drop the false positives and excuses, and show that serious discipleship is joyful: "The purpose of religion is to make us more human, not less human."
• Build fraternity. Teams that pray, serve and have fun together form communities young people want to join.

About Jack Regan

Jack Regan is director of youth services for the Diocese of Lancaster in the north of England, based at Castlerigg Manor, a retreat center in the Lake District that welcomes about 3,000 young people a year. He has worked in youth ministry since he was 21, in retreat centers, dioceses, parishes and a high school, and he holds a master's degree in catechesis. He lives in the north of England with his wife, Gillian, and their two children.

Resources Mentioned

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• Jack Regan, How to Start a Fire: A Blueprint for Catholic Youth Ministry (affiliate link)
• Castlerigg Manor, Diocese of Lancaster youth service
• The Ascent, one of the book's case studies
• NFCYM, including NCYC and Exchange

Connect with Jack

• Instagram: @jackreganuk
• LinkedIn: jackreganuk

Keep Growing with Marathon Youth Ministry

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The Church Podcast is produced by Marathon Youth Ministry and Stephen Herrera of Be Well Creative.

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