We are in the midst of a unique time in our world and in our Church - at Life Teen we are dedicated in supporting you with innovative tools to help you accompany teenagers through it all.
A Message from our President Regarding COVID-19.
We understand how important your ministry is in the lives of your teenagers and how passionate you are about leading them closer to Christ. We share that passion. We believe that when a teenager encounters Jesus through the beauty of our Catholic faith and becomes a disciple they transform their parishes, community, and even our culture.
We believe that can happen in any time and under any circumstnaces, including this time and these circumstances.
Our teenagers are in need of hope, healing, and belonging. You are part of a movement, the Life Teen movement, that can help them find what they are seeking.
Your weekly ministry looks different than it did last month, so ours will, too. Over the coming weeks, we are going to provide you with tools and opportunities for relational ministry online so you can continue to strengthen your local community digitally while connecting with our global movement.
We are immensely grateful for your fiat in ministry - especially when our lives are shifted. We encourage you to continue sustaining ministry with your teens as they walk through this challenging season and have developed resources to support your parish.
The Global Life Night Experience Beginning next Sunday, March 29th, we will be hosting a series of global Life Night experiences on YouTube.
These 30 minute sessions will feature speakers, musicians, and a live host to engage with the online community. We will begin our first series looking at the theological virtues - beginning with hope. These weekly meetings will happen live at 5:00 PM ET and will remain live on our YouTube channel for viewing afterward.
After the global Life Night, we encourage you to meet with your teens in small groups via Zoom, Google Hangouts, or another platform that is approved for your use and within safe environment guidelines. To help facilitate a recommended 30-45 minute block of time, you will receive leader materials the Monday prior to the global Life Night. These materials will include a leader guide for the session with opening prayers for your small group, an activity, discussion questions, and a closing prayer. We will also include parent materials for you to send, as well, so you can continue to build relationships with parents during this time.
Your first batch of leader materials will arrive on Monday, March 23rd to prepare for the upcoming Sunday!
Resources from Life Teen for Your Family and Church During COVID-19
The Summit Movement We are launching a website dedicated to bringing you, your families, and your teens resources to engage in the liturgy when we are not able to attend public Mass. This website is our gift to the Church - anyone can access it, so share the link with everyone - summit.lifeteen.com. These resources are designed to help us dive into God’s Word and include two new modifications to our Summit lectionary based discipleship group.
Summit for Families These weekly sessions are designed to be done as a family and are written to be facilitated by parents for teenagers and include adaptions for younger children, as well.
Teen-led Summit We want to form teenagers to be disciples and evangelists, and this version of Summit is written for teens to do facilitate with their peers. Empower your teens to gather their friends digitally to reflect on God’s word every week.
Summit Small Groups Our traditional, mainstay Summit guide for adult leaders and youth ministers with activities and questions for small group discussions and ministry will help you build and sustain community, even when you can’t meet in person.
The Summit Movement website also includes links to Mark Hart’s “Sunday, Sunday, Sunday” podcast, excerpts from our “Ascend: A Companion to the Sunday Readings,” a link to the Summit weekly teaching video and our weekly live-streamed digital small group, walking and praying through the Mass readings, “Lectio Live” - which happens every Wednesday at 6:00 PM ET on YouTube.
Support for Youth Ministers Join us next week for a special series of webinars designed to get your group set up for online ministry and then every week after on Thursday at 4pm EST(with the exception of Holy Thursday) for a digital 2:42 gathering that features training, fellowship, and prayer to keep you encouraged and connected.
Our webinars next week are: Tuesday, March 24 - 4pm EST (Topic - Running a Digital Life Night) Wednesday, March 25 - 4pm EST (Topic - Teen Led Summit Groups) Thursday, March 26 - 4pm EST (Topic - Online Life Night Follow Up)
Finally, we want to give you early access to a resource that will be in your May Life Support box, “Unthinkable,” which is a guide to crisis response and pastoral care. Download your copy here.
Ongoing Digital Content for Teens Invite your teens to follow our social media accounts as we will be ramping up content with daily spiritual exercises on Instagram, notes of hope and encouragement, reflections, and spotlight on teen voices. Our YouTube channel will continue to feature great content weekly for teens to engage with and learn from, so make sure your teens subscribe to stay connected.
We’ve also published several blogs on the COVID-19 pandemic that we encourage you to share with your teens and your parish:
How to Stay Connected In the coming weeks, we want to keep parishes updated on the various resources we will be offering during this time. So, if you're a youth minister text LTOnline to 84576 to sign up for updates. (Para recibir actualizaciones en español, favor de llamar a 202-765-3441.)
Thank you for all you do - know of our continued prayers and support for you and if there is anything we can do to further serve you, we stand by via phone and Live Chat on LifeTeen.com, ready to help!