Eight Days 09-09-14

The Beatles had a little song called Eight Days a Week, a reference that they were working so hard, they were working eight days a week. Always seemed like a potential theme song for youth ministers to me. We are continuing a weekly series to serve you over your next eight days with eight notes and sets of links for your information and formation. Feel free to pass these along in your e-newsletter (and offer Project YM a little love in the process, please.) Here goes

Here at Project YM, we are inviting you to a Blueprints discussion regarding answering tough questions TODAY at noon pacific time. ReBuildMyChurch will broadcast Oct. 2.
Today is the feast day of St. Peter Claver. We offer a poster meme to celebrate his day and call your attention to his story as another example of saintly missionary imperative.
“You get what you are.” This is a message that research assures us we can pass along to parents, but, perhaps, we might consider as Church, too!
Along those lines, I am always intrigued by “we’re losing the kids” arguments. You know… to evangelicals, so apologetics; to gangs, so community. Now, supposedly, we are losing young people to ISIS because we have failed in “injecting a spiritual dimension to motivate young people who are seeking for an idea.”
On Friday, Pope Francis met with “Scholas Occurrentes” and held a video conference with youth. He said young people today can be one of two opposite things: someone who “builds bridges” or someone who “raises walls.” “Walls separate, they divide” said the Pope. “Bridges draw closer.” What young people can do today, said the Pope, is communicate “so that others can be inspired; and listen to what others tell you.” “Communicating is giving; communicating is generosity; communicating is respect; communicating is avoiding every kind of discrimination.”
A recent study confirms what we have already suspected:There is no one “typical” family. The breadwinner-homemaker family, the norm since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the 19^th century, is being replaced by a new norm of diversity.
Speaking of family, due to scheduling, we held a great Thanksgiving celebration last Saturday. The above cover picture is youngest daughter Meghan, long absent from a blog post. So, with Thanksgiving having passed, Christmas must be next! Please help media maven Sr. Rose with a Christmas movie post.
Always remember, that both we and God are thankful for your service as a youth minister and Ain’t got nothing but love, babe, eight days a week.

D. Scott Miller

D. Scott Miller is the dean of Catholic Youth Ministry bloggers which is a polite way of either saying that he is just plain old or has been blogging for a long time (since 2004.)

Scott recently married the lovely Anne and together they have five adult young people and also grandparent three delightful kids (so, maybe he is just plain old!) Scott presently serves at Saint John the Evangelist in Columbia, MD as the director of youth and young adult ministry.

He has previously served on the parish, regional, diocesan, and national levels as well as having taught within a catholic high school. He is one of the founders of RebuildMyChurch and has returned to posting regularly (keeping regular is important to old guys) at ProjectYM.