Youth Ministry offers new summer activities

BY BILL DOYLE
CFP CORRESPONDENT

What are you doing this summer? If you’re in middle school or high school, the Diocese of Worcester is offering new free programs that will be fun and help connect you to the Church at the same time.
Timothy Messenger, director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry, said for the first time he will conduct S’mores & Scripture, a Bible study program this summer for high school students. He has organized Bible studies for high schoolers before, but the only previous one during the summer was conducted via Zoom during the height of the pandemic in 2020.
During a Scripture session at one of the monthly meetings of the diocesan youth discipleship team, some of the high school students expressed interest in attending a Bible study. So, Messenger put this one together and he called it S’mores & Scripture.
The program’s four sessions are: Bible Basics, Science and Scripture, the Old Testament and Word Made Flesh. Bible Basics will explain how to approach and read Scripture. Science and Scripture will explore understanding the relationship between truth in science and Scripture. The Old Testament session will examine the violent, bizarre, and seemingly weird stories in the Old Testament. Word Made Flesh will discuss Jesus as the central figure in all of Scripture and how we are called to have a relationship with him.
The ministry has held many events for middle school students, but this will be the first “Middle School Hangout Nights” program.
The middle school students will eat pizza and play such games as capture the flag and dodgeball.
“We’ll do an opening and closing prayer,” Mr. Messenger said, “but this is focusing on the community aspect and trying to get kids to have fun and engage in community within the Church with the hope that if we can get them to be involved on this basic community level then further on down the line they’ll be more open to want to do spiritual deeper things and maybe a retreat or attend one of our Middle School Amplify nights during the school year.”
In S’mores & Scripture, Mr. Messenger hopes to address some misconceptions and hard to answer questions that teenagers might face when reading the Bible.
For example, he pointed out that according to the Book of Genesis, God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh.
“How does that mesh,” Mr. Messenger said, “with our scientific understanding that the universe is 13.6 billion years old and the earth 4.6 billion? Both are true, but what does truth look like?”
The Bible study will also discuss the fact that the Old Testament has several incidents of violence.
“So how do you reconcile that with a God filled with love?” Mr. Messenger asked.

TIMES AND PLACES

S’mores & Scripture is open to incoming freshmen through graduated seniors and will be held from 6:30-8 p.m. Thursdays, July 13, 20 and 27, and on a date in August to be announced, at Holy Family of Nazareth Parish in Leominster and from 6:30-8 p.m. Sundays, July 16, 23 and 30, and Aug. 6, at St. Ann Parish in North Oxford.
Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders are invited to attend Middle School Hangout Nights from 5-7 p.m. Wednesdays: July 12 at St. Bernadette Parish in Northborough; July 19 at Mary Queen of the Rosary Parish in Spencer; July 26 at St. Edward the Confessor Parish in Westminster; and Aug. 2 at St. Mary Parish in Uxbridge.
The summer programs are open to youth throughout the diocese. Students can attend any of the sessions or all of them. Eight students have already registered for S’mores & Scripture.
Students have more free time during the summer without school or religious education classes so Mr. Messenger hopes some take advantage of these programs. He said attending these programs is a good opportunity for “pre-evangelization.”
S’mores & Scriptures will also include s’mores. Mr. Messenger will bring the marshmallows, chocolate bars and graham crackers and the students will roast the marshmallows in fire pits.
Mr. Messenger tries to offer a wide variety of programs to interest youth. This summer, there’s a volleyball league, a white-water rafting trip and a high ropes and zip line course. S’mores & Scripture is more spiritual and there’s the discipleship team for those who want to dive deeper in their faith.
“Most of the teens that we’re trying to minister to,” he said, “they’re not quite at that high spiritual level so we have to engage them with the social stuff first. The majority of the teens who are in our diocese, probably a lot of them, aren’t at that point where they don’t want to do a Bible study so maybe you plug them into the volleyball league. Then you steer them toward Bible study.”
He’s trying to make religion fun.
“You want to show a young person,” he said, “that there’s some real beauty and truth within our Catholic faith, but oftentimes that starts with the fun stuff. All of our faith can be fun. It can be fun to go to adoration, it can be fun to go to Mass, but a different type of fun, I guess.”
Mr. Messenger does his best to relate to students and have them relate to him.
“Just being authentic,” he said. “Sometimes there’s the misconception that when you’re working with youth, you have to be ‘cool.’ Certainly, you have to have an understanding of their world, but you don’t have to have a Tik Tok. If an adult is trying to relate to a teen, don’t try to fake who they are. Being authentic and listening, not putting off the needs of the young person.”
Another key is to not be too preachy.
“How do we have a conversation,” he said, “a dialogue in a way that’s not going to automatically turn somebody off to our faith?”

– To register for Middle School Hangout Nights, visit https://www.neworcester.org/middle-school-hangouts.
To register for S’mores & Scripture, visit https://neworcester.org/summer-bible-study.
For more information, contact Mr. Messenger at tmessenger@worcesterdiocese.org or 508-929-4360.