Conventions | Schools | Church Mission | Seminars | Retreats

Youth

During a convention, Jerry can provide an eclectic combination of interactive music, keynotes, workshops, and a concert. He can bring in his own band or work with your house band (if they are high-quality musicians). The style of music would range from contemporary Christian praise, to rock, country blues, gospel, and Latin rhythms. Jerry also likes to offer a track for adults during the workshop sessions.

Brief Topic Overview for Adult Conventions and Seminars

·         Parent, Mentoring, and Advocacy Topics

Significant Conversations; Examining a culture that is hostile towards youth and how adults can respond in a way the empowers young people to build both faith and community: Motivating teens to live a fulfilling and faith-filled life.

·         Teachers Topics (see also the School Section)

Advocating for youth in a hostile culture; Significant Conversations; Character-Based Mentoring; Reaching the at-risk youth; Servant leadership for youth; Values and goal development for at-risk youth

·         Youth Ministers

New roles of youth ministry and moving from programs to relationships; Significant conversations; Encouraging family involvement; Collaborative ministries (with other public agencies, school districts, juvenile services, parents); Confronting the “Consumer-Jesus” cult and presenting the Gospel of Community Salvation (not just “personal salvation”)

·         Volunteers

How to reach the disempowered; Significant Volunteering—making a life long impact; The Bible and justice; Character-based mentoring skills

·         Community Networking

A community that embraces youth; Youth issues in our culture; Recruiting volunteers; Community change from the inside-out.

·         Community Development

Issues of juvenile crime: expulsion; gang involvement, addiction; The effective recruitment and training of volunteers; Developing effective volunteer programs that will have a positive impact on the entire community.

Assemblies:

This is a very effective way to kick off a week in your school with music, humor, and a powerful message. 40 – 50 minutes is most effective for this setting. It is better in an auditorium but can also be done in a gym as long as there is a quality sound system and a good backdrop for the presentation.

In-Service for Teachers:

·       The Deepest Longing of Youth; Loved Without Conditions: My new book with Saint Mary’s Press deals with the deepest longing of this generation and how the message of Christ (and our consistent presence) can reach young people today—no matter how “cool” they seem.

·         Four dangerous trends in contemporary culture and how those trends affect education, family, and youth. How can you use your influence to help youth deal with those trends? 1) Individual as victim and system as unassailable, 2) Consumerism, the more you have the happier you are, the more you have or do the more important you are, 3) Comfort as a goal and chaos as an enemy, 4) The growing socioeconomic gap and our acquiescence to it.

·      Changing the culture of your school: Historian and Theologian, Robert Bellah, Ph.D., tells us; “Two percent of a culture—with a common vision—can change an entire culture.” Who are the two percent in your hallways and classrooms that could change the culture of your school and how do you empower them to create a compassionate culture of safety and respect?

·       Significant Teaching and the critical tasks that will prepare youth for a “filled-full” life: What key attitudes and characteristics does a person need to develop to allow them to “Self-Initiate Community,” and “Self-Initiate Joy,” no matter where they wind up in life? How do we empower ourselves and others to develop those attitudes

·         Jesus In My School? Would I invite the prophetic Jesus—who cleared the temple with a belt—into the hallways and classrooms of my school? Jesus as Master Teacher; what can we learn from the way he taught? How do I call Jesus out of my students?

·         Involving Adults in Character-Based Mentoring for At-Risk Youth: Develop an ongoing outreach to the kids at greatest risk in your school. Jerry can work with a core group of staff or volunteers to develop this program and also speak to parents to recruit and inspire them to consider volunteering. On an ongoing basis, ONEFamily also provides curriculum for this program and stays in contact with its leaders through our web resources, continuing training, and e-mail.

Parent evening:

·         The Deepest Longing of Youth; Loved Without Conditions (see above)

·       Significant Conversations: The most significant conversations you can have with your child before he/she graduates (and how to make it a meaningful experience for your child and you).

·         A Culture of Manipulation: What is a parent’s role in a manipulative consumer-based culture that seeks to steal the integrity, faith, and joy of your children. How can your home be a “well-watered garden” in the wilderness?

Retreats:

·        Confirmation: Examine the role of the Holy Spirit in empowering people to radically change their lives and the lives of those around them. From the anointing of kings and prophets to the commissioning of the disciples, all of God’s followers are “sent out” to impact their world. What is God’s call in your life? It may be far less complex than you think and it doesn’t start only after you “grow up.” It starts when you make a choice to make a difference and ask God for help.

·         Reconciliation and Eucharist: At the last supper, Jesus gave thanks (eucharisteo is the Greek term) that he could be broken and blessed for God’s people. Through the eyes of reconciliation, let’s look at how we can be freed from the anger and sin that binds us (reconciliation), and blessed to serve others with gratitude (Eucharist).

·        Social Justice: The greatest sin in the Bible was not anger; it was apathy (look closely at the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus). The people of God were most often condemned for forgetting the widows and orphans and for their indifference to the poor around them while claiming to be “God’s Chosen People.” How can we make sure that we aren’t “ignoring the vulnerable” even within the hallways of our own school? How can even just one person change a system of apathy? How can you really make a difference?

·       Leadership: The biblical concept of leadership is not about “getting ahead,” but instead, “did you leave anyone behind.” To Jesus, a great leader was the greatest servant. Find out how servant leadership can impact your life for the better and impact the lives of those around you with a new sense of meaningful relationships and purpose.

“In-Residence Teacher or Artist”

This is actually one of Jerry’s favorite ways to work with youth--taking a class (or two) and present a topic over the period of a week as an “Artist in Residence” or “Teacher in Residence.” He has done this in high schools as well as colleges like Princeton, Vanderbilt, Yale, Boston College, and Emory School of Theology and International Missions.

Topics can include servant leadership, personal empowerment, and/or character development, an overview of the “Character and Life of Jesus,” or to examine the “Heart of the Bible; the Compassion of God.”
 

Many of the events that work for schools also work for a church mission-week. Suggested additions would include daily talks after the morning masses and sessions with children in your school if one is attached to the parish. Jerry can offer daily staff reflections or an In-Service on “Empowering Relationships” or “Self-Initiating Joy.” Evening Sessions could include; Catechist Training, Volunteer development, meeting with a Men’s Group, Parent and Family Seminar, a teen night, young adult coffeehouse, and a Family concert night as a closure.

Sample Schedule

Wednesday

8:00-8:30         Attend Morning Mass

8:30-9:15         20-minute post mass reflection followed by coffee and discussion

10:00-10:30     Staff Reflection

10:30-12:00     Two classes at School

12:00-12:45     Open Soup Lunch on “Jesus in Our Community”

7:00-8:15         Evening for High School Youth

Thursday

Attend Morning Mass

20-minute post mass reflection

Staff Reflection

Two classes at School

Soup Lunch on “Jesus in Our Community”

Evening for Parents

Friday

Attend Morning Mass

20-minute post mass reflection

Staff Reflection

Two classes at School

Soup Lunch on “Jesus in Our Community”

Evening Concert/Coffeehouse for Young Adults

Saturday

8:00-9:00         Men’s Breakfast

10:00-12:00     Catechist In-Service

Sunday

3-minute Meditation song after Communion at Masses

Evening Family Concert

Other Events

Inspiration and Participative Concerts

·         For Schools (see school heading for more details)

Elementary schools, participative music, stories about values and living them out. 30 minutes for grades k-3, 40 minutes for grades 4-8, 50 minutes for high school in school setting. Jerry can lead school retreats, but also come in and work as an “in-residence” artist or teacher on issues of religion, leadership, social justice, or life/character development.

·         Youth Concerts

60 to 75 minutes, fast paced with a theme. Jerry will get the youth out of their chairs and participating. His major focus in concerts is for the youth to feel they have done the concert with him and not merely watched a performance by him. The primary sense Jerry seeks for participants is to walk away with a sense of “how it felt to be in celebration with other youth in an empowering Catholic atmosphere.” Messages in this format will come largely through the experience, but also through the music and stories. You can expect Jerry to deliver a few key points tied together by a lot of interactive fun.

·         Young Adults Concerts or Coffeehouses

Usually 90 minutes in length with more of an emphasis on the music and thought-provoking songs. Young Adult concerts are still very participative but more time is spent focusing on the music and the message.

·         Family Concerts

60 to 75 minutes, interactive events with something for all ages from participative rock to country-gospel and inspirational music. Lots of fun and interaction with humorous, meaningful, stories about what it means to be a healthy, Christ-centered family. The message empowers families to realize that they are the core unit of passing on faith and compassion to the next generation and to not give family time away to program time. No one can replace the family as the primary source of faith, values, and enduring strength in our children’s lives; however many groups in our culture are competing with the family for that position and parents often feel either helpless or  incompetent to say; “No, dinner with the family is a priority.”

While Jerry is in the community, he is happy to provide a free concert to a local detention center, jail or correctional institution. You can also speak with Jerry about options for leading an evening of sharing for your community, youth or young adult group at an area homeless shelter.
 

New Retreat/Seminar Topics for 2006

The Deepest Longing of Young People; Loved without Conditions

In the fall 0f 2006, Jerry will be releasing a new book with Saint Mary’s Press. The book takes a radical look at the alienation of many of today’s youth and how we can respond to them in significant, meaningful ways that were modeled in the life of Jesus Christ. A primary focus of the book is learning provide the same type of unconditional blessing to our young people that God, the Father, gave to Jesus, the Son, in the waters of the Jordan. God’s blessing—“You are my beloved son in whom I am well-pleased”—is distinctly different from the performance-based approval or acceptance that passes for love in our culture. God did not bless his son for what he achieved, possessed, or preached about in those waters. He blessed his son for choosing to be available as a servant.

From that moment on, Jesus carries that blessing out to others who are beyond the “boundaries” of his religious contemporaries: To a Geresene man possessed by a legion of demons; to a Samaritan woman soliciting companionship at a dry well; to Greek Gentiles in the outer courtyard (the parking lot) of the Jerusalem temple. Where would these places be in your community? Would we go there to find the most excluded youth and include them or are we just satisfied with who comes to us?

The book (and this workshop) takes a look at how to develop an outreach to “those kids” that will eventually capture the heart of your church (and maybe even your city) and make inclusion the byword of their daily life. Soon, you will find yourself strengthened and surrounded by people who ask not only, “What would Jesus do?” But, also, “Where would Jesus be—in my town?”

Finally, the workshop examines the role of the Christ-Follower as advocate of the vulnerable. In a culture where over a third of our youth are medicated, dropping out, or in counseling, we have to quit “blaming the victim” and start “changing the system” that destroys the integrity of our youth. When so many young people are falling by the wayside, the problem is structural, not individual.

This is an exciting, practical, “how to” book about changing the system from the ground up or, as Jesus would say; “become leaven in bread” (change from the inside-out). This book is not about “being Christian,” it is about “bringing Christ” in the places where Christ would be.

Luke 4:18-19

[18] “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, [19] to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” NRSV

Timeline:                 The initial workshop is three hours in length. More extensive training is available by contacting our offices.

Requirements:         Digital Overhead Projector and screen is preferred but not essential. Participants should have note-paper, Bible, and pens and be willing to participate in discussion. For those interested in follow-up, Jerry has written a commentary on the entire gospels which are available on his web site or in print form upon request. He also has a weekly newsletter that follows the Gospel through the Lectionary Year

The “Heart of God”

This retreat focuses on the Heart of God through the Old and New Testament. One of the most frequently used words in all of scripture is compassion. For example, when Jesus saw the poor following him he felt compassion for them and responded by creating a community where everyone was fed (with leftovers to send home). When Jesus saw the demoniacs (the word means “the manipulated”), he felt compassion and liberated them from their manipulators (demons). When Jesus saw the faces of the poor following him, he felt compassion for them and beseeched God for laborers. The first commissioning of the disciples followed that event.

Compassion always results in action and that action is community, liberation, and forgiveness (letting go—cleansing). Compassion is in direct opposition to pity which does not result in action but often results in self-righteousness. Alternatively righteousness, in scripture, was almost always used in conjunction with justice. Justice was the concept and righteousness was the action. Righteousness literally translates into “make things right.” So, in scripture, the opposite of love is not hate; it is complacency in the face of injustice.

The word compassion in Greek actually means: “His bowels turned to water.” When Jesus saw the poor his bowels turned to water and he fed them, he healed them, he told them that they were a forgiven people (a people created for giving—not for taking).

It is summed up in Mark, chapter 1, when a leper says to Jesus; “If you are willing, I can be cleansed.” Jesus says, “I am willing, be cleansed.” However, the actual translation would be more like this: “I would find it a great joy (and God’s will) to liberate you and restore you to your true family.”

That is the heart of God. Or, as Micah says; “Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.”

Timeline:                 The initial workshop is three hours in length. More extensive training is available by contacting our offices.

Requirements:         Digital Overhead Projector and screen is preferred but not essential. Participants should have a Bible, note-paper, and pens and be willing to participate in discussion. For those interested in follow-up, Jerry has written a commentary on the entire gospels which are available on his web site or in print form upon request. He also has a weekly newsletter that follows the Gospel through the Lectionary Year

The Significance Cycle

Significance has been a term at the heart of Jerry’s work since he began working with the incarcerated (youth and adults) almost two decades ago. When we believe that we are significant then that belief leads to genuine humility. Humility leads to gratitude and gratitude leads to thankful service which becomes a self-reinforcing cycle. Alternatively, insignificance leads to pain (fear or anger), which leads to self-protection, which leads to unhealthy behaviors (compulsions and addictions). This becomes a self-degenerating cycle.

To truly empower people to lead fulfilling lives we need to focus on what will help them move from insignificance to significance. Significance is not something we can give to ourselves. We cannot stand in front of a mirror and repeat, “I am significant, I am significant,” and find that our lives have new meaning. Significance occurs when we are respected consistently—especially when we are behaving most inconsistently.

This seminar offers practical solutions to help people or groups pursue the transition from insignificance to significance in multiple scenarios: Law and justice, education, neighborhoods, communities, church, the work place, and the family.

Timeline:                 The initial workshop is three hours in length. More extensive training is available by contacting our offices.

Requirements:         Digital Overhead Projector and screen is preferred but not essential. Participants should have note-paper and pens and be willing to participate in discussion.

Significant Conversations: Meaningful Conversations for a Meaning-Filled Life

This is a great workshop for parents or those who are interested in building an ongoing mentoring piece to their ministry. For over a decade, Jerry has worked at guiding significant conversations between youth and adults. In hundreds of sessions over a period of years, Jerry has distilled the most important conversations that a young person needs to have with an adult in order to live a meaningful and “filled-full” life.

The first conversations are about personal growth, then relational growth, and finally, becoming a leader in any environment. At the heart of the conversations is raising young men and women to name their own values and make their life choices (including their relationships) based upon those values.

The workshop not only focuses on “what” to say, but also “how” to say it in a way that will engage a young person and entice him/her to open up and become excited about life’s options.

Timeline:                 The initial workshop is six hours in length. More extensive training is available by contacting our offices.

Requirements:         Digital Overhead Projector and screen is preferred but not essential. Participants should have note-paper and pens and be willing to participate in discussion. The curriculum is available as part of the workshop (for an extra charge) or for purchase.

Character-Based Mentoring to At-Risk Youth

This seminar teaches professionals, volunteers, parents, or other caring adults how to start relationships with at-risk youth and—through those relationships—to help young people feel valued. Our values come from those who value us. Once we have a strong, internal sense of value we are far less likely to be manipulated by the culture or our peers.

In this seminar we focus on the “way to be with” troubled youth. Not just “what to do” to those kids.

Understanding adolescence and adulthood are prime factors in this seminar. Adolescence can be defined as when our peers interpret our self-esteem. By that definition, we can all think of middle-aged people who are still adolescing. Alternatively, adulthood begins when a person knows his/her values and makes major life choices (including friendships) based upon those values.

Attendees should expect to participate in lively conversations. In addition, we will use some of the worksheets from our 21-part character-based mentoring curriculum during the workshop. Those interested in purchasing this curriculum and having it available “on-site” need to let me know at least two weeks in advance.

Timeline:                 The initial workshop is three hours in length. More extensive training is available by contacting our offices.

Requirements:         Digital Overhead Projector and screen is preferred but not essential. Participants should have note-paper and pens and be willing to participate in discussion. A curriculum on character-based mentoring is also available upon request and updated worksheets are available to our members.

Participants will learn about prayer, scriptural study, servant leadership, participation in their church and community as well as focus on evangelizing and outreach. Youth will be equipped to plan their own confirmation outreach project during the event. Also, Jerry often closes these events with a youth music coffeehouse which is open to the community and in which retreat participants share in drama, story or music.
 

For the Youth Minister who seeks a fuller relationship with Christ, Jerry’s youth ministry retreats are a breath of fresh air. Jerry goes beyond programmatic approaches to authentic and transparent community. He can help you develop a ministry that will capture a people's hearts, vision and enthusiasm. This is exactly what he has been doing in street and detention ministries for years.

As with all of Jerry’s retreats, you will find yourself participating and contributing to the learning process while working on hands-on practical techniques. Plan to have fun and enjoy relationship-building activities and music throughout the event. Return to your program with a renewed vision and excitement for deeper ministry involvement.
 

Jerry can offer multi-day retreats in your area and has also led mission trips. Consider joining him for a week in service outreaches or asking him to help set up a retreat mission trip in Central Mexico (seven to ten days suggested). Jerry leads trips to orphanages, sites of cultural, historical and religious significance experiencing both the joy and tragedy of Central Mexico. The emphasis of the trip is to spend direct one-on-one relational time doing "afterschool programming" for children in an orphanage and with disabled elderly people.
 

Being an adult means choosing the values that you want to live by and seeking peers with similar values. One of the most significant opportunities that parents have to help form their children's peer support group is during childhood. That is when parents can seek relationships with families that hold similar values and begin to form lifelong relationships. One could argue that this might be considered one of the three primary goals of church (it was, in fact, the very definition of the word temple [Bayith] in early Hebrew texts).

Jerry’s family retreats focus on helping your family name their own critical values and build relational tools to apply those values in the areas of personal organization, motivation and relational skills.

As with all of Jerry’s programs, don’t expect to sit for too long. He will have you up and involved and working as a team in no time.

Use in a multi-evening format or as a weekend event.
 

In multi-generational events, Jerry uses scripture and the power of involvement to help diverse groups experience what they have in common and to celebrate the binding power of the Holy Spirit in our relationships.

Bring your church together for an afternoon and evening of fun and thought-provoking activity. Expect to close the event with a talent show emceed by Jerry in which everyone will take part (especially those who say they have no talent). Watch your group grow in commitment and relationship.