{"id":2670,"date":"2008-10-23T07:14:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-23T07:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/the-young-and-the-restless-we-have-to-meet-them-where-theyre-at.html"},"modified":"2008-10-23T07:14:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-23T07:14:00","slug":"the-young-and-the-restless-we-have-to-meet-them-where-theyre-at","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/the-young-and-the-restless-we-have-to-meet-them-where-theyre-at.html","title":{"rendered":"The young and the restless: “We have to meet them where they’re at”"},"content":{"rendered":"

How can you get young people involved in the Church? A recent gathering in Arlington, Virginia gave a tantalizing answer<\/a>: <\/p>\n

<\/a>At a youth rally this weekend at Bishop O\u2019Connell High School in Arlington, Catholic teenagers came together to celebrate their faith and meet Catholic teens outside their own parishes.<\/p>\n

As Bishop Paul Loverde celebrated the mass held in the school\u2019s auditorium, a rock band, complete with keyboards, bongos and electric guitars, began to play. The band continued as Loverde, a man with decades of experience in the church, distributed the Eucharist to a coterie of priests and deacons who joined him on the stage.<\/p>\n

After the hundreds of t-shirt and jeans-clad teenagers received communion, they ran excitedly across the hall to the school\u2019s gymnasium where Catholic pop-metal band Superchick played a punishingly loud set. Instead of a reception with coffee and doughnuts, the worshipping teens snacked on Papa John\u2019s pizza and Coca Cola.<\/p>\n

“Kids have to pray hard but they play hard too,” Deacon Matthew DeForest said. “We have to meet them where they\u2019re at.”<\/p>\n

The Catholic youth rally is an annual event held by the Arlington Diocese, which covers all of Northern Virginia. Each year, the region\u2019s Catholic teenagers gather to meet fellow Catholics and to re-energize their faith. The theme for this year\u2019s rally was “Get Your Faith On.”<\/p>\n

“The main purpose of this is to bring all the youth together at the beginning of the [school] year,” said Kevin Bohli, the head of youth ministry for the Arlington Diocese. “We want them to think of the church as more than just their parish.”<\/p>\n

In addition to the rock music, the teens were treated to a motivational speaker, a performance from an improv comedy troupe and a seminar on appropriate dress called “Modest Is Hottest.”<\/p>\n

DeForest is a 26-year-old deacon who gives his young parishioners fist bumps. He said that today\u2019s teens are looking to the Catholic Church “to learn how to be a leader. \u2026 These kids are pumped to be involved in any way.”<\/p>\n

Other Christian teenagers may be turning more towards Evangelism for their spiritual needs. But Northern Virginia has a large and vibrant cohort of Catholic teens, DeForest said. During the Mass, Loverde asked anyone who is considering the priesthood to rise. Much to the delight of DeForest and the other clergy in the room, nearly a dozen young boys stood up.<\/p>\n

Jim Schuster, a youth minister from Leesburg, said that the key to getting young people involved in the church is to simply be honest with them. “They want to see people living an authentic Christian life,” he said. “Kids can tell [if you\u2019re authentic]. They can smell out a phony from a mile away.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Check out the link<\/a> for more, including additional pictures. <\/p>\n

Photo by Louise Kraft, Arlington Connection<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How can you get young people involved in the Church? A recent gathering in Arlington, Virginia gave a tantalizing answer: At a youth rally this weekend at Bishop O\u2019Connell High School in Arlington, Catholic teenagers came together to celebrate their faith and meet Catholic teens outside their own parishes. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}