Continuity of Spiritual Care: Military Chapels "What's Life Teen Got to Do with It?"

If you are new and catching this series here, I encourage you to go back to the other sections and check 'em out, if you are short on time feel free to jump right it. In all, let's explore what the standard for excellence in Continuity of Care can look like but you may be wondering...what's Life Teen got to do with it?

CONTINUITY OF SPIRITUAL CARE: MILITARY CHAPELS

The Six Part Series

INTRO: What the What?

Part 1: PCS Permanent Change of Station

Part 2: Arrival

Part 3: What’s Life Teen got to do with it?

Part 4: Mission and Miracles

Part 5: Many Parts, Many Hats

Part 6: Bid Farewell, Not Goodbye

CONCLUSION: Don’t let the sun set

A message for widespread awareness of service member and military family needs from Military Chapels called:

“Continuity of Spiritual Care”

What’s Life Teen Got To Do With It? Life Teen TDY

At the time that I am drafting this article, we are suspended in the pregnant pause I spoke about the last blog. We are approaching our time to leave this duty station and I will again find myself inquiring and praying about what God has in store for us. I want to share how much of a labor of love this time here has been and encourage us all to be out loud in our needs and desires from our communities and resolve to welcome the individual and the family with a heart of serving Christ through them. 

Arriving in Hawaii we sought youth ministry as a priority for both myself as a volunteer or perhaps contracted Catholic Youth Minister and my son who would soon be approaching high school. Finding that the Chapel representing our service had a youth program we were excited to participate, then we discovered that this program...amazing and wonderful and loved into being by good Christian people as it was, would not fulfill our needs as Catholic individuals. It brings opportunity for fellowship and Christ filled engagement but it is without key pillars of our faith. 

As I mentioned before this is an area that, if lacking, will send a family with teens to other parishes or they will settle for what they can get. This becomes a double-edged sword. Leadership will say, you aren't demonstrating a need because you don't have the numbers and we will say we don't have the numbers because you aren't fulfilling the need. We are finding that teens who settle for lackluster faith experiences are likely to continue that into adulthood or worse find themselves among the 80% of college students, who by Sophomore year stop practicing their Catholic faith altogether. *See a list of interesting places to find these kinds of statistics at the bottom. 

I believe this happens because they feel they don’t have a personal connection to the faith, in part, because they are not seen as viable members of the church NOW. I am an avid advocate for ecumenical resources...these togetherness engagements help us to know and love each other so much better. Every Community should have this opportunity to be open and together at various and often intervals. I advocate for an AND attitude as it pertains to faith provision, not an OR attitude. There is no competition, and for Chapel leadership to reject one in favor of another is active negligence of their Service Member and their family's spiritual health component. I challenge all Chapel leadership to not only encourage both Catholic and Non-denominational Christian worship but take responsibility for their vibrancy ESPECIALLY for youth.

Our chapels need both, the non-denominational (all Christian other than Catholic), AND Catholic youth ministry. I must implore those who manage these resources in military communities to recognize the inextricable foundation of Catholic ministry being the Eucharist and solidarity with the Saints and various dogma that must be lived out...these things are essential and this is why many of us joined together with youth crying out for a deeper encounter with Christ grounded in their Catholic identity. We all agree that the openness to enable ALL (this is our duty in answering the call to evangelize); to participate also with the good of the ecumenical programming led us to search for a location that allowed us to encourage teens to have access and experience both ministries in their fullness while respecting the inherent and unique experience as a military family. 

We surprisingly met a number of obstacles along the way but eventually, we were welcomed with a home at JBPHH and began our programming at Hickam Chapel. In deep prayer and with resolve the adult volunteers and teens came together from all military service communities and our Life Teen TDY program was born.   For 6 months prior to our official launch we prayed and used the personal Life Teen resources from those of us who had experience coordinating or volunteering at previous duty stations. We also prayed fervently and intentionally for our priest, our community, our teens, and for the Holy Spirit to reveal His mission for our year. In case you are curious...it was Vocations to Religious Life and dedication of our every effort to the Blessed Mother.

Our group here (and the dream is that every military chapel worldwide would claim this identity too) eventually came to be known as Life Teen TDY.

TDY is a Holy Spirit inspired Acronym (because, well...that is how we speak in the services) that represents both the Christian and the military experience as we are all on temporary duty. Temporary Duty as Christians because Heaven is the mission, goal and final PCS. Temporary Duty as military because we experience so much transition and TDY because it means Totally Devoted Youth.

Our TDY Life Teen is a JBPHH Catholic ministry that serves the Church and leads high school teens closer to Christ through vibrant Eucharistic celebrations, music, fellowship, food, community service and fun. I feel Youth Ministry is a critical component in providing Continuity of Spiritual Care.

Continuity of Spiritual Care for teens is critical. So much about being a young person is transitional and transformational. Add a deployment, an 8th PCS, a second or third high school, and the challenges that come with all that and you can see why knowing that you have a place that is set aside for you where you are supported and surrounded by others who share that experience with you no matter where in the world you will be is necessary for a healthy move. When you take in the added knowledge that 1/3 of military brats become service members themselves, leadership can no longer afford to assume that meeting the immediate needs of our active duty service members alone is enough. The high school sophomore in your youth ministry may be taking the sober oath to protect and defend this great nation before you finish packing to head to your next duty station, we would all do well to honor and serve them now. Simply because they are worth it. They are worth the time, the commitment, the budget, and the prayer. If you don't currently have a paid Catholic Youth Minister that should be rectified, your minister is worth the wage and the training that you will provide for them to adequately serve your community in this way. 

Your volunteers are worth their weight in gold and your prayer over, for and WITH your ministry is essential. Show up, be present, recognize the value, use the resources that are available to you, and be sure you are meeting the standards..those I humbly beg of you to invest in and those that are already outlined in Archbishop Timothy Broglio's memorandum for Curriculum Standards for 9-12th graders. Find that here: http://www.milarch.org/life-teen/

And if you still don't know what Life Teen is...check out this snippet of what your Chapel Ministry could look like with amazing resources.

I am NOT suggesting that for Continuity of Spiritual Care in Military Chapels, using Life Teen only resources should be the requirement. Meeting AMS Curriculum Standards and ensuring a deeply personal Encounter with Christ is. I have my hat in the ring with Life Teen because the people who make up the Life Teen Community; Mark Hart, Tricia Tembreull, Kristen, Marlo Dowdy, Professor Bob Rice, the priests and sisters, the Camp Missionaries like Molly Clavenna and so many more, these individuals are seeking personal holiness first, holding each other accountaible, invested in training and support, commited to sharing the Traditions of our amazing faith and honoring and serving God's youth. They are beholden to Jesus in the Real Presence, the infinite Mercy of His love and from that place springs forth all that we have at our fingertips to then share with our youth. THAT my friends is why I suggest Life Teen Resources. THAT is why Archbishop identifies Life Teen for parishes to use to fill the needs of our young men and women. It is why it is worth every penny to send your ministers to conference, teens to Camp and use the resources provided. I almost want to ask...why don't you? Well, I guess I did...

Sources:

*Christian Smith Youth and Religion Studies http://youthandreligion.nd.edu
*Dr. Taylor Marshall http://taylormarshall.com/2013/09/80-catholic-youth-leave-the-church.html
*Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus

Book by Editor Sherry a Weddell