Upgrade to Immanuelization
Frank Mercadante, "Engaging a New Generation: A vision for reaching Catholic teens"
Youth ministry fails to connect with millennials because "youth, more often than not, reflect the religious commitment of their parents ... we do not have a teenage problem as much as we have an ecclesial or entire church problem."
"Immanuelization
... involves shifting our efforts from an individualistic and cognitive approach to faith to an authentically communal and experiential expression of faith.
... means rediscovering an embodied expression of the gospel, where our faith communities are an authentic Sacramental experience.
... means focusing upon building a powerful experience of affiliative faith as an essential foundation for successfully navigating searching faith and eventually landing upon owned faith.
... means attracting young people to Jesus because they experience his genuine presence in our community."
"We need to deeply understand that the gateway to young people's hearts and minds is their experience of us as a community and force in the world. We are our best or worst apologetic for the faith . We need to rediscover what it means to be a community of disciples, who humbly love and serve one another and the surrounding world. We need to rediscover, on some meaningful level, how to relate to one another as a Christian community."
