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YOUTH FORMATION

Course teaches how to serve rural youth

Catholics who want to minister to youth living outside of cities may benefit from Beth Carlin's presentation, "Working with teens in rural and small town settings." 

The workshop will be held during the 36th annual Spring Enrichment, held May 11-14 at The College of Saint Rose in Albany. Mrs. Carlin is a parishioner of St. Mary's in Clinton Heights and is co-founder of Living Hope Ministries, a retreat ministry.

One challenge facing youth ministers in rural areas is that many of the materials offered by publishers don't work with smaller groups of teens, Mrs. Carlin said.

"The main difference is size," she said. "Many of the materials are written for groups of 20 or 30 kids. In a rural setting, you may have five."

Not too big
An ice-breaking activity that can be used with 20 teens may fall flat when there are fewer than a dozen.

"So many of the resources are for larger parishes," she said.

Another challenge is that the youth minister often is a long-time member of the community and may be a friend of students' parents. Youth may not feel comfortable confiding in that person on issues of faith. 

"The kids in the community can feel frustrated by this," Mrs. Carlin said.

Or too small
Challenges aside, Mrs. Carlin said there are benefits to this type of ministry. She said each small town has its own charisma and culture. Joining that can enrich the teacher. 

She also noted that those involved in small-town youth ministry may have more opportunity to be creative with programs.

"In a small town, you may have a high school graduating class with 48 young people," Mrs. Carlin said. "If only one-third are Catholic, you have to be creative."

Mrs. Carlin said those who participate in her Spring Enrichment course will walk away with ideas for enriching their current programming.

(04/30/09) [[In-content Ad]]

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