By Robert Feduccia Jr.
When I was in graduate school for theology, one of my professors asked a question that left the class speechless: “What’s the mission of the Church?” Sometimes the most fundamental questions are the most difficult to answer.
In its simplest terms, the Church is to continue the ministry of Jesus. In the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 4 and 9, Jesus’s ministry is described in three ways: Preaching, teaching, and healing. Many of us in ministry are primarily teachers of the faith. Our theology is solid and rings true in the hearts of those who profess the Catholic and apostolic faith. Most of us in ministry love Church teaching: We love to read it, talk about it, and articulate it to a new generation. This love is what drives us.
The Church also is a great teacher and part of the ministry of Jesus. However, it is not the sum total of ministry and it seems that it misses the needs of today’s teens. Today’s teens are in need of healing. This is the first step and the essential work of evangelization.
The early Church took root in the Roman Empire because it proclaimed the good news to the poor. It was the widow, the orphan, and the slave that heard and received the Gospel. This led to Christianity becoming the religion of the empire. It was good news because these groups felt unseen, uncared for, and abandoned.
I wish I could explain this reaction, but when I talk with teens about isolation, loneliness, and despair, I see tears well up in their eyes. When I have asked young people about what is happening as I address these issues, the phrase I hear time and again is, “I feel seen.”
In the early 1990s, REM released the song Everybody Hurts, which spoke to the generation of the time. My experience tells me that the pain is more widely spread and more deeply felt throughout this generation. Today’s teens need the Church to lead with the healing ministry of Jesus rather than his teaching ministry.
Jesus preached the Kingdom of God. In Luke 4, he said that he came to bring good news to the poor. We are a prosperous society but our teens are feeling a poverty of isolation and loneliness. It’s been said that this is the most connected yet loneliest generation in human history. Evangelization is not going to be found in the effectiveness of our opening activity. The quality of our band and its video content is important, but it will not move hearts. The size and dynamism of our youth nights are proving to be ineffective for this generation. I meet countless youth ministers who tell me that what used to work isn’t working anymore and they don't know what’s on the horizon.
Our programming is not going to evangelize this generation. We can no longer rely on having a large, captive audience to hear the passion we have for Christ and his Church. Pope Francis uses the language of becoming a Church of encounter. If we want to be big, we have to be small. Don’t try to evangelize a generation. Instead, bring good news to the loneliest teen that you see. Let them feel seen by you—by Jesus himself.
Here are a few practical ways to reach teens today:
First, don’t be afraid of teens. Many people are intimidated by teens. For some reason, people revert to their high school selves when interacting with teens. Go to them in confidence and know that an adult paying attention to them is a memorable experience. If you do not know what to say, t-shirt evangelism works best. Many teens like to wear t-shirts with writing on them. Concert, bands, sports teams, goofy sayings, memes: teens advertise what they’re interested in or what they think is funny. Ask them about their t-shirt. For example, if it is a band, ask them what songs you should listen to to get a good feel of what they’re like. Healing happens in the context of a relationship. Build a relationship.
Second, know your memes. Teens communicate through memes and they circulate through memes. If you can use a meme in a presentation, you will forever have a friend.
Third, always be ready as St. Peter says. Actively look for the ways that God is active in their lives and be ready to tell them when you see it. Teens do not think they are holy. In fact, many of them think they are far from God, even the good kids. Our job as ministers is to walk with them, to accompany them. When we get to know them and see into their lives, we will recognize God’s movement in them and help them see it too.
Robert Feduccia Jr. is the vice president of Equipping the Saints, a division of Declan Weir Productions.
