Ministry Vision 2008

When I was a freshman in High School, I can remember talking to a friend of mine. They said that sometimes the things I said made them think that I was like Jesus talking directly to them. I told them that I was definitely not Jesus, but who knows, maybe a prophet. This hopeful and yet youthfully arrogant statement may have been the first time that I considered a call to ministry. My freshman year in High School was spent in south Florida; my father had been the youth director and facilities manager for our church for the previous 5 years. I had been a troublemaker in Jr. High, as most seventh grade boys can be. I was jealous of the attention that other people’s children were receiving from my father. I decided that one of the ways I could get more attention would be to make sure I was involved in whatever I could be, at the church. I was a part of a less than remarkable Jr. High program and attended the first ever “Spirit Day” retreat for seventh graders. In eighth grade I went on my Confirmation retreat. I had a wonderfully spiritual couple as my Confirmation catechists. They told us about miracles and visions in Medjugorjie. They helped me to understand that God is truly active in our world, not only in the supernatural, but also in our daily interactions with others. The retreat was led by peer ministers, High School students who had been empowered to lead small groups and give witnesses that were easily relatable. My small group leaders were Chris Olenik and Ernesto Cividanes. I will never forget them. The summer before High School I attended World Youth Day in Denver, Colorado. Ernesto was there as well. I was able to see a gathering of the young Church that I could never have imagined. I struggled through my first year of High School; the only thing that kept me from going off the behavioral “deep end” was the relationship with the support group I had developed through youth ministry. My grades were poor and my behavior was still “at-risk.” Being the youth minister’s son, I was privy to some of the dark side of ministry. I knew that a pastor was a human like everyone else, and could be a really horrible boss. Yet, through all of the difficulties, my peers were the ones constantly pushing, searching, and sharing their faith. In 1994 my family moved to Texas. It was the best thing that could have happened to me. I helped bring the Cursillo based Confirmation retreat to Mary Immaculate. I was able to be a leader. I was able to share a vision. I was empowered in ministry.
I graduated High School in 1997 and all I knew was that I was finally done with school. I didn’t know where I was going to go, or what I was going to do until someone told me about The Pines. All I knew was that The Pines was a place where people helped run and design different retreats all year long. I turned in an application and prayed that God would do the rest. I moved to East Texas that fall as the youngest person ever on Ministry Staff. After that year I struggled with trying to go to community college, working all kinds of different jobs and living different lifestyles. The only times I felt complete, were those times in which I knew I was actively serving God.

I believe that the mission of the Church is to bring the message of Christ to the world. Throughout the years I have spent in various ministries, and having grown up as the son of a professional minister, I have seen the joy and the despair that the church can bring. I believe that the message of Christ is a message of freedom and salvation, love and hope, forgiveness and redemption. Yet, I have seen good people turned away, strong Catholics hurt and disillusioned by the acts of people who claim to be representatives of Christ’s Church. I have seen people so stuck on the perceived rules that they forget that Christ’s greatest commandment was to love. I feel like my personal sense of call leads me to help others remember that the Church only exists because of God’s overwhelming, self-sacrificing love for the people of this world.

I have struggled with people that have challenged my ideas of faith; I have been called a heretic because I shared my struggles with the reality of life in the church. I have struggled with finding balance between who I was when I was doing ministry, and who I was when I was on my own time. I have had to examine whether my whole faith and ministry were based on genuine religious experiences, or fake miracles and emotional manipulation. I have seen the strong brought low, and the lowly exalted. I have lived the story of the prodigal son. In high school I worked with a young man who gave a powerful witness on his overcoming addiction through the power of God, only to fall back into drugs two weeks later. I have seen a young man about to be denied Confirmation, because he had behavioral issues, become one of the strongest leaders within the youth community when given the chance to lead. I have had some of the most compelling religious conversations, in bars, with disillusioned Christians who need nothing more than to have someone say that they are valued by God.

I have the ability to see a vision of ministry within the Church that is larger than my personal sphere of influence. I can speak the languages of young people, of Church politics, of youth ministry professionals, and of the alienated Christian. Most importantly, the greatest gift I bring to the table is the understanding and acceptance of a love that I cannot understand and do not deserve.

Within the next 10 years I hope to have developed a team of people who are actively sharing God’s message of love with the people of the Catholic Church. Since the active implementation of the document, “Renewing the Vision,” young people, especially within the Diocese of Dallas, have been inspired to use their gifts and talents for the growth of professional ministry within the Catholic Church. Many of these young men and women have started their ministerial formation in Youth Ministry. However, these young people have developed a greater vision for what ministry can be. They see that the needs of youth in the Church are a direct reflection of the needs of all people in the Church. They see that people need to understand that God has created every individual for greatness, that God’s love, by the simple fact of Christ’s sacrifice, breaks all the rules. God loves them unconditionally, and that their participation in the life of the Church should not be a blind observance of the rules, but rather, a joyful response to God’s ultimate gift to us. I would like to see a team of ministers, whether as an organization, or a network, dedicated to this message. A team with the knowledge and skills to work within the system to remind the Church what the kingdom of God on earth can, and should, look like.