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Kerygma Teams: Discipleship for Catholic Young Adults

    Lindale Texas is a bed of coals for young adults on fire for Jesus. Back in the late 70’s, many Christian ministries moved into the area like David Wilkerson, Agape Force, Youth With a Mission (YWAM) and Last Days Ministries. Today there are remnants of all of these ministries in most of the churches in the area, as well as new organizations like Mercy Ships and Teen Mania.  This movement of the Holy Spirit has been perpetuated in the offspring of these missionaries through continual training and evangelization work. Local Protestant churches have a healthy mix of young and old all growing in the Lord.
    With all these youth mobilizing ministries in the area, we have not seen similar ministries for Catholics. Forty years ago, in 1967, Catholic youth experienced a great move of the Holy Spirit, when a powerful visitation of the Holy Spirit visited Duquesne University in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. At this retreat for college students the Catholic Charismatic Renewal began. The Charismatic experience soon moved beyond colleges and began to have an impact on regular parishes and other Catholic institutions.
    What have you done for me lately? We have met a lot of the people from that movement. Although they are genuinely on fire for Jesus, they do not seem to have duplicated themselves in the generations that followed.  As a result most Charismatic Catholics today are in their 60’s

    The Young Adult Ministry for the Archdiocese of Chicago says that back in the 70’s, “the backbone of parish life, the real active parishioners, were people in their 20's and 30's.” In many parishes today, it is those very same people, now 30 to 40 years older, who are still involved and bearing the responsibility for parish governance, committee leadership, parish and liturgical program.  
    Has the church failed to keep young adults participating in the life of the church?
Father John Cusick leads that Young Adult Ministry in Chicago. “If Catholic youth ministry is so good,” he says, “where are all the young adults? They're missing in action.”
     “I am looking to maybe get back into church...maybe,” says Claire, a liberal Catholic in her late twenties.  “So often church just doesn't speak to me: I find it hard to find a community there.“  
Mark Sayers is an author and speaker who specializes in interpreting popular culture from a Christian viewpoint. He feels Christian young adults are stuck with a never ending nagging feeling that they made the wrong decision about where to go to church.  Most seem to re-examine their commitment to communities of faith on a rolling 12-month basis, this contractual view of church attendance is based on a fear of ‘missing out’ on something better.

    Before I met my wife Lori in 1981, the Holy Spirit led us to experience a deeper relationship with Jesus through a Discipleship Training School (DTS). These schools are the core of Youth With A Mission. YWAM is an international movement of Christians from many denominations dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world. Our DTS laid the foundation for us to boldly take Jesus into the world.  Our own children are following in our footsteps.  Looking around our own small parish in Lindale, Texas, we too noticed the lack of young adults in the church.
Lori and I asked ourselves, “Is there a way to attract and retain Catholic young adults the same way God drew the two of us?  With all of the ministries out there, why isn’t there something powerful for Catholics?

We discovered YWAM already had what we were looking for, just not in America.
YWAM has been training young adults in their “language” for nearly 50 years.  Intensive classroom training relative to today’s youth empowers them to participate in short term lay mission trips all over the world.  Back in the early 90's, YWAM had noticed an ever-increasing amount of ministry in and with Catholic groups and a growing number of Catholics working on staff in some of the ministry centers.
    In 1992 an international group of 35 Catholic and Protestant YWAM leaders met in Dublin. They examined how YWAM could create space in this predominately Protestant mission for Catholics to participate in YWAM's calling, and at the same time remain rooted in their church and fully able to express their Catholic faith.
The result was YWAM Kerygma Teams (K-Teams). K-Teams train and mobilize Catholic young people for active Christian service. They support initiatives of reconciliation between the Christian churches. Working successfully in Austria, Ireland, Germany, India and Australia, these teams are ecumenical, but with a "Catholic ethos." Within YWAM they have also been given a large degree of freedom to develop new vision, a unique atmosphere and ways of doing things.

    A number of American Catholics have traveled overseas to participate with K-Teams. Ann Benage, an alumnus from Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, went to Austria in 2004 for her K-Teams DTS. "Honestly, I am seeing a breakthrough in the life of missions before my very eyes,” she said. “This organization was founded by Protestants who love the Catholic Church and have been called to stir Catholics to deepen their faith and evangelize. It is incredible!"
    Carole Brown, another 2004 student, said there was dialogue and understanding with their Protestant brothers and sisters.  “Most of my teachers at this time in K-teams are Protestant,” she said of her DTS, “but they understand Church teaching very well and are committed to teaching us everything they know, which is a lot, about helping Catholics to know and love Jesus.”
    Paul Rose, another Kerygma participant said, “ I received a steady diet of how God should affect my life. Speakers, daily Bible studies and one on one discussions all added to the teaching.”  “The DTS,” he said, “provided a strong push to step out and put my faith into action while providing a healthy balance of input, support and reflection."

    In the past K-Teams had not been established in our predominantly Protestant nation.  This obstacle is about to be overcome.  A door of opportunity is now wide open for Kerygma Teams in the United States. Here in East Texas, a YWAM center is welcoming these Catholic oriented YWAM training schools. Lori and I have joined the staff at YWAM-Woodcrest in Lindale to orchestrate the implementation of these new Catholic programs.
Leaders in the Diocese of Tyler agree with us about the potential to model these faith formation resources to other dioceses and the nation. “If you want to bring the message of Jesus Christ to the people of that age group, we have to find the ways and the means of doing it,” says Fr. Tim Kelly of Flint, Texas. “I honestly believe working with YWAM, (Youth With a Mission) and with their Catholic counterparts, Kerygma Ministries, is how we’re going to attract theses people to Jesus Christ.”

    In order to learn how Kerygma Teams has been successful globally, Lori and I will travel to Pune, India in January 2009 for an in-depth five-week training. It will be a practical, hands-on, five-week leadership-training course that will cover topics pertaining to Catholic Evangelization teams.
After meeting and training with all the international leaders of Kerygma Teams, Lori and I will return in March to share our experience with the Diocese of Tyler and all of the U.S.  We believe giving young adults a solid foundation in discipleship and evangelization will encourage them to take an active role in their own parishes.

    The Catholic Church wants to see their young adults back in the church. Pope As Benedict XVI said earlier this year, “There is a need for young people who will allow God’s love to burn within them and who will respond generously to his urgent call.” Training Catholic youth and young adults to be alive in the Holy Spirit and put their faith in action will keep them in the church and empower them to impact their world.
    Please pray about partnering with us! For more information please explore the rest of this website.