Angels We Have Heard on High
In 1984, on a cold December night as I drove passed empty cornfields on Interstate 57 heading towards a Happening in Christianity weekend at Saint Therese Church in Kankakee, God spoke to me in a quiet whisper."You are going to give the Holy Spirit talk." I put my life into God's hands that night. I have never looked back.
For the next six years, I worked full time in various jobs in the business world including sales, banking, and retail management while volunteering with Jan in the Happening weekends in Kankakee. I took on several leadership positions within the Happening. One weekend. I was chapel Head. We took a classroom and transformed it into a holy prayer space. Then the Chapel team had at least one person in the chapel night and day for the whole weekend. Because the weekend was covered in prayer, we saw God change the hearts of many people. On a another weekend I was kitchen head. I know some of you are thinking "Mark in charge of the cooking?! Did anyone get sick!?" Another weekend I was Over all Director of the weekend. Another weekend I was table leader (small groups). It was pretty great to see first hand lives being changed. Most of the time I was on one team in Kankakee and while working another weekend in DuPage County. Later, I was added to the Happening Service Team (Overall leadership).
After Jan and I were married we bowed out of the Happening weekends and volunteered at St Thomas Church in Naperville. We led a small group of teens in our home for three years. We helped with high school retreats. We were helping with an adult bible studies and retreats. We helped engaged couples go over their "test" results. It was during these years that I learned about parish youth and adult ministry.
I love reading. I read in spurts. I will read several books then I need to stop and live it. I love books about someone who had mystical experiences of God. I was reading this book written by a protestant pastor who would wake up in the middle of night and his room would have Angels in it . So I loved this book because I know he was telling the truth. How do I know? Because he wrote about one night where the Angels took him on tour heaven. There was a place in heaven that the Catholic Church calls purgatory. Suddenly, I was thinking about angels all the time. A couple of weeks later, my good friend Bob called me about a youth ministry opening at Holy Angels Parish in Aurora .
In 1990, I was hired by Msgr Kobbeman to not only lead the high school youth ministry effort, but to be in charge of the Religious Education (Preschool - 12th grade) and sacrament preparation of communion and confirmation programs. I was in way over my head! I had no experience doing any of that programming. So, I was able to meet with my predecessor. She graciously agreed to meet with me even though the pastor did not rehire her. She also left me detailed notes. I also relied upon my administrative assistant Cindy. Over the twelve years, she kept me organized. I couldn't have done the job without her help. My inexperience also drove me to my knees in prayer.
One of the first things I noticed was the 7th and 8th graders were bored even though they had two excellent teachers in Ed and Greg. I tried changing textbooks. Bored. I tried changing to a mini-course model where they changed topics every six weeks. Bored. Finally, I gave them a choice: two hour youth group model or one hour mini course. Which one do you think they chose? First year, 75% chose the youth group model. I called it Lighthouse. I have found it important to give youth ministry programs a name. For high school, we used Antioch, Second Sunday, Lifeteen, Dead Theologians Society, and Forum. Year to year we used themes for emphasis on a scripture passage. At Holy Angels parish we had a theme for the whole parish for the whole year. We might used a theme from the Holy Father. We used these themes for summer camp to retreats to youth group meetings. I think it is important to have a room set aside for the teens and give that room a name. At Holy Angels we called it the "Oasis" from all the world has to offer and focus on God.
I stole an idea from a friend of mine, Rob, who was a youth pastor of a protestant church. He put his high school youth group to a point system. If the teens reached a certain point goal, they won a free trip to Six Flags Over Mid America in St Louis. I did not have that big of a budget. But, we did take a trip to Great America every summer. So, we had twenty seven RE sessions every school year. So, I decided to make the goal outrageous = 5,000,000. I gave them 100,000 points just for showing up which means that they would have to do more than show up to reach the goal. I set up point sheet. I gave them points for everything that I wanted them to do. It also was able to take points away if they did something wrong. I gave them points for bringing friends, attending the retreat, doing service like being involved in the liturgy as an altar server. There were additional opportunities to win points during the meeting. Nothing like making a game or an activity more exciting by adding points for the winning team! The record for bringing the most friends to a meeting was nine people by Annie H.. Remember this was my RE program for middle school. My last year at Holy Angels half of teens coming were from Holy Angels School.
Every session of Lighthouse had fun but I tried to give the activity tied into the theme of the night. I always gave them a hour of teaching on the same topics of the books in a way that they could understand. For example, I would do an activity where I would hide a ten dollar bill in plain site if the light were on but the room would be pitch black. I would let teens into the room one at a time. I would give some two minutes and some a couple of seconds. If they find it, they get to keep it. In twenty plus years of doing it only one time did a teen find it. What do you think was the topic of night? What was the teaching did I give off of the activity?
For the rest of the grades I still used books. The hard part was finding people to teach. I was able to recruit more than just parents to teach. My best teachers I assigned to second grade since that was the year to prepare them for sacraments. I also tried to put good teachers in sixth grade since they can get rambunctious. Jill was my best teacher and she loved teaching sixth grade. Jill was a professional teacher so she used a lot of creative techniques to keep the teens engaged. The more volunteers that I could find like Jill would make the program even better. I was able to add a small fee to the registration form which allowed me to stipend Jill to run the program sessions with out me having to be there. I was able to get more creative with the junior high and high school program. For example, we were able to get involved in an over night retreat for middle school. It was organized by a group of youth ministers that I met with every month. We called ourselves Fox River Youth Ministers.
I want to stop and talk about Jill's husband Steve who was an awesome man. He died of cancer at forty two. He was a principal of a local grade school. Jill gave me one of his ties and I proudly wore it for many years and it still hangs in my closet. They have two sons Phil and Chris who are the good people .
For the grade school Religious Education program, I was able to add an Advent and Lent Reconciliation Services. I used our high school puppet ministry using christian theme plays. I hired a christian magician who used christian messages in his show. Our RE program was on Sundays in the morning. We found that the children were being picked up and not going to Mass. We scheduled classes to end at 10:45am so that they still had time to walk across the parking lot for the 11 o'clock mass. Eventually, we moved the classes to Wednesdays in the evening. Hebrews 10:25- "not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near". The early years of the church, they appeared to have the same problem of people missing Mass so I don't feel so bad.
The church doesn't have enough people who love God and love children and teens. Every year every parish struggles to find them. So, we are stuck with using parents who don't attend Mass and don't know the faith. While our Religious Education programs are filled with faith filled people, we don't have enough. Too many members don't think they need to or are afraid to witness their faith. Yet, every year I witness adults change the lives of young people. They will keep coming to church if there are people there that know their name and know their story. We don't have all the answers, but we know Jesus. Every young person has a story and they were made by God to be in a personal intimate relationship with Him. You need to make it your life calling. You can be involved in three ways. First, pray for the conversion of all children and teens. Second, put more more money in the collection basket. Ask the pastor to hire a full time children minister and a full time youth and young adult minister. Third, get involved
I learned while working for each parish. The people from Holy Angels Parish taught me to love the vulnerable. They had a fully stocked food pantry which took up a whole house. It was open four mornings a week. They had a full time person who job it was to reach out to the people who needed help with gas or electric bills or paying the rent. She developed relationships with them so she knew their story. They had a special ministry program to reach out to special need adults. They had a Rainbow for all God's Children Program which was reaching out to children who lost parents from death or divorce. They had a member who ran a program for special need children who needed sacraments or religious education.
They worked with other agencies in Aurora to develop one place to go to receive Christmas gifts for needy families. It was called Holiday Hopes. I am really proud of Jan who at the time was working part time as the Outreach director. The program won a Governor Hometown award. Another program she did on the fly was to reach out to families that were affected by flooding in 1996. 17 inches of rain poured out on Aurora in twenty four hours! Within two days she created a list of people with needs and another list of people with skills and the people who loved just to help clean out houses. Picture a ranch house with water six or seven feet high. Every thing in the house is thrown out!
For the next six years, I worked full time in various jobs in the business world including sales, banking, and retail management while volunteering with Jan in the Happening weekends in Kankakee. I took on several leadership positions within the Happening. One weekend. I was chapel Head. We took a classroom and transformed it into a holy prayer space. Then the Chapel team had at least one person in the chapel night and day for the whole weekend. Because the weekend was covered in prayer, we saw God change the hearts of many people. On a another weekend I was kitchen head. I know some of you are thinking "Mark in charge of the cooking?! Did anyone get sick!?" Another weekend I was Over all Director of the weekend. Another weekend I was table leader (small groups). It was pretty great to see first hand lives being changed. Most of the time I was on one team in Kankakee and while working another weekend in DuPage County. Later, I was added to the Happening Service Team (Overall leadership).
After Jan and I were married we bowed out of the Happening weekends and volunteered at St Thomas Church in Naperville. We led a small group of teens in our home for three years. We helped with high school retreats. We were helping with an adult bible studies and retreats. We helped engaged couples go over their "test" results. It was during these years that I learned about parish youth and adult ministry.
I love reading. I read in spurts. I will read several books then I need to stop and live it. I love books about someone who had mystical experiences of God. I was reading this book written by a protestant pastor who would wake up in the middle of night and his room would have Angels in it . So I loved this book because I know he was telling the truth. How do I know? Because he wrote about one night where the Angels took him on tour heaven. There was a place in heaven that the Catholic Church calls purgatory. Suddenly, I was thinking about angels all the time. A couple of weeks later, my good friend Bob called me about a youth ministry opening at Holy Angels Parish in Aurora .
In 1990, I was hired by Msgr Kobbeman to not only lead the high school youth ministry effort, but to be in charge of the Religious Education (Preschool - 12th grade) and sacrament preparation of communion and confirmation programs. I was in way over my head! I had no experience doing any of that programming. So, I was able to meet with my predecessor. She graciously agreed to meet with me even though the pastor did not rehire her. She also left me detailed notes. I also relied upon my administrative assistant Cindy. Over the twelve years, she kept me organized. I couldn't have done the job without her help. My inexperience also drove me to my knees in prayer.
One of the first things I noticed was the 7th and 8th graders were bored even though they had two excellent teachers in Ed and Greg. I tried changing textbooks. Bored. I tried changing to a mini-course model where they changed topics every six weeks. Bored. Finally, I gave them a choice: two hour youth group model or one hour mini course. Which one do you think they chose? First year, 75% chose the youth group model. I called it Lighthouse. I have found it important to give youth ministry programs a name. For high school, we used Antioch, Second Sunday, Lifeteen, Dead Theologians Society, and Forum. Year to year we used themes for emphasis on a scripture passage. At Holy Angels parish we had a theme for the whole parish for the whole year. We might used a theme from the Holy Father. We used these themes for summer camp to retreats to youth group meetings. I think it is important to have a room set aside for the teens and give that room a name. At Holy Angels we called it the "Oasis" from all the world has to offer and focus on God.
I stole an idea from a friend of mine, Rob, who was a youth pastor of a protestant church. He put his high school youth group to a point system. If the teens reached a certain point goal, they won a free trip to Six Flags Over Mid America in St Louis. I did not have that big of a budget. But, we did take a trip to Great America every summer. So, we had twenty seven RE sessions every school year. So, I decided to make the goal outrageous = 5,000,000. I gave them 100,000 points just for showing up which means that they would have to do more than show up to reach the goal. I set up point sheet. I gave them points for everything that I wanted them to do. It also was able to take points away if they did something wrong. I gave them points for bringing friends, attending the retreat, doing service like being involved in the liturgy as an altar server. There were additional opportunities to win points during the meeting. Nothing like making a game or an activity more exciting by adding points for the winning team! The record for bringing the most friends to a meeting was nine people by Annie H.. Remember this was my RE program for middle school. My last year at Holy Angels half of teens coming were from Holy Angels School.
Every session of Lighthouse had fun but I tried to give the activity tied into the theme of the night. I always gave them a hour of teaching on the same topics of the books in a way that they could understand. For example, I would do an activity where I would hide a ten dollar bill in plain site if the light were on but the room would be pitch black. I would let teens into the room one at a time. I would give some two minutes and some a couple of seconds. If they find it, they get to keep it. In twenty plus years of doing it only one time did a teen find it. What do you think was the topic of night? What was the teaching did I give off of the activity?
For the rest of the grades I still used books. The hard part was finding people to teach. I was able to recruit more than just parents to teach. My best teachers I assigned to second grade since that was the year to prepare them for sacraments. I also tried to put good teachers in sixth grade since they can get rambunctious. Jill was my best teacher and she loved teaching sixth grade. Jill was a professional teacher so she used a lot of creative techniques to keep the teens engaged. The more volunteers that I could find like Jill would make the program even better. I was able to add a small fee to the registration form which allowed me to stipend Jill to run the program sessions with out me having to be there. I was able to get more creative with the junior high and high school program. For example, we were able to get involved in an over night retreat for middle school. It was organized by a group of youth ministers that I met with every month. We called ourselves Fox River Youth Ministers.
I want to stop and talk about Jill's husband Steve who was an awesome man. He died of cancer at forty two. He was a principal of a local grade school. Jill gave me one of his ties and I proudly wore it for many years and it still hangs in my closet. They have two sons Phil and Chris who are the good people .
For the grade school Religious Education program, I was able to add an Advent and Lent Reconciliation Services. I used our high school puppet ministry using christian theme plays. I hired a christian magician who used christian messages in his show. Our RE program was on Sundays in the morning. We found that the children were being picked up and not going to Mass. We scheduled classes to end at 10:45am so that they still had time to walk across the parking lot for the 11 o'clock mass. Eventually, we moved the classes to Wednesdays in the evening. Hebrews 10:25- "not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near". The early years of the church, they appeared to have the same problem of people missing Mass so I don't feel so bad.
The church doesn't have enough people who love God and love children and teens. Every year every parish struggles to find them. So, we are stuck with using parents who don't attend Mass and don't know the faith. While our Religious Education programs are filled with faith filled people, we don't have enough. Too many members don't think they need to or are afraid to witness their faith. Yet, every year I witness adults change the lives of young people. They will keep coming to church if there are people there that know their name and know their story. We don't have all the answers, but we know Jesus. Every young person has a story and they were made by God to be in a personal intimate relationship with Him. You need to make it your life calling. You can be involved in three ways. First, pray for the conversion of all children and teens. Second, put more more money in the collection basket. Ask the pastor to hire a full time children minister and a full time youth and young adult minister. Third, get involved
I learned while working for each parish. The people from Holy Angels Parish taught me to love the vulnerable. They had a fully stocked food pantry which took up a whole house. It was open four mornings a week. They had a full time person who job it was to reach out to the people who needed help with gas or electric bills or paying the rent. She developed relationships with them so she knew their story. They had a special ministry program to reach out to special need adults. They had a Rainbow for all God's Children Program which was reaching out to children who lost parents from death or divorce. They had a member who ran a program for special need children who needed sacraments or religious education.
They worked with other agencies in Aurora to develop one place to go to receive Christmas gifts for needy families. It was called Holiday Hopes. I am really proud of Jan who at the time was working part time as the Outreach director. The program won a Governor Hometown award. Another program she did on the fly was to reach out to families that were affected by flooding in 1996. 17 inches of rain poured out on Aurora in twenty four hours! Within two days she created a list of people with needs and another list of people with skills and the people who loved just to help clean out houses. Picture a ranch house with water six or seven feet high. Every thing in the house is thrown out!
Mark, you continue to inspire! Despite your health situation, you and Jan are ministering to so many! Many blessings and prayers for your both!
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