Planning the Confirmation Retreats with Youth Council

Today, January 10, we had our monthly Youth Council meetings. We planned for the upcoming confirmation retreats that we will be leading in February and March for parishes that do not have youth groups to lead the retreats. We discussed the theme song, "Son of Man" by Phil Collins, and how it connected to our faith. From this, we derived a theme for the retreat. I came up with the theme "Journey with Faith", which discusses that even after confirmation it is a constant struggle to maintain our faith and sometimes we forget that God is always walking with us. The group agreed with this theme and chose it as our retreat theme. Next, we talked about the different roles us, as leaders, will play in the retreat. We will be leading a group of 100 8th graders in 2 different parishes. Some leaders will give testimonials about their journey with faith and others will lead prayer services and activities to further help the retreatants understand their own faith. I will be leading a quilt activity where they draw a picture of their faith then after we sow the pieces into a big cross, signifying that they are not alone in their journey with faith. In the next retreat, I will be explaining the song and theme for the retreatants and how it applies to our lives. Lastly, we split into 3 groups and did a simulation on leading a smaller group. For the retreat, each leader will be in charge of hosting discussions with about 10 retreatants about various topics. In the simulation, there was one leader and the rest of the Youth Council acted as 8th grade retreantants. Our goal was to practice leading a smaller group and getting them to discuss topics of the retreat. After, the group would give the leader feedback about their ability to facilitate a group. The feedback I got back was that I was very supportive of the group and gave them great encouragement to share about their ideas. The Youth Council and I completed a lot of planning for the upcoming confirmation retreats.


Hours logged: 2.30 hours

The Work of a Youth Minister

On January 8, I attended a Youth Minister meeting with 10 youth ministers from different parishes in the San Francisco Archdiocese. The purpose of this meeting was to check in with different youth groups to share new ideas and create solutions for problems that one youth minister might be facing. First, we discussed whether the confirmation program should be two years or one year. The ministers came to a consensus that the youth should be in the program for two years to experience and learn more about their faith to hopefully have them continue their faith journey after they are confirmed. I also inputted that, through my experience, having confirmation in 7th and 8th grade gave me more years to be involved in youth group after I was confirmed. Next, one of the minster said she was struggling with growing her youth group. The group and I came up with a number of solutions, such as having an involved support group of adults to help the youth minister nurture the talents of the youth, encourage the parents to continue their faith to guide their children to do the same, and empower the youth that are willing to join youth group so that they can invite other youth to join. The main message the group discussed was having the support of people in the church, such as the pastor, parents, and other adults to nurture and encourage the youth. Finally, we talked about different activities and ideas to teach the youth about the Catholic faith. They talked about how interactive activities that connect to religion work the best to get youth out of their comfort and learn about faith in unexpected ways. This meeting gave me great information on the work of a youth minister. 

  

Hours logged: 3 hours