COMMISSION ON YOUTH
NATURE AND SCOPE OF YOUTH MINISTRY
1. Youth Ministry (YM) is centered on Jesus Christ: his life and person, his words and deeds, his death and resurrection. Christ is the raison’d’etre’, the heart and soul of the ministry. YM to be effective and meaningful, it must always look at Jesus and the mystery of his Incarnation as its point of departure and reference. YM must be a real
encounter between Jesus and the Youth.
2. The best model of YM is the Emmaus story in Luke 24: 13-35. The gospel account presents the Risen Christ journeying with the two disciples. The story captures vividly the dynamics of Youth Ministry and the main characters involved: Christ in the story is today’s Youth Minister, and the disciples are today’s young people. And Youth Ministry is becoming “Christ to the Young” and journeying with them.
3. YM is a comprehensive effort on the part of the church to serve a broad range of the needs of youth (students, out-of-school-youth, and young professionals who are single and within the age bracket of 13-39).
4. Youth Ministry is the action, program activity carried out by the church on behalf of young people. Thus, it is youth-focused and is concerned with the growth of the total person. It focuses on the unique concerns and issues of the youth by reaching out to them. They are the protagonist, the priority and the preference. However, the young are not simply the objects of ministry; they too are active and responsible subjects and agents of the continuing mission of Christ.
5. The church is the locus, the focal point of YM. It is where the ministry originates and based on, where it is being carried out, and more importantly it is the source of the YM’s mandate from Jesus. Thus, it can never be separated from the church and its mission.
6. YM is journeying with the youth as one community. From this simple definition, three important who are part of the life and formation of the youth. Second, it is a process of growth, it is not a single moment of activity, or a cluster of sporadic activities but involves an educative process that enables the young to grow. Third, it moves gradually along the stages of growth. It takes every person where he is, adapts to his pace of development, and progressively leads him to Jesus Christ, the Perfect Man.
7. A diocesan body that is responsible and committed to the holistic formation of the youth in the diocese. Its purpose of existence is to design and promote an on-going, holistic and effective diocesan formation program that envisions the youth as subjects of Evangelization and future witnessing Christian Leaders.
