|
|
CULTURE OF EVALUATION
It has been a big year in the life of the Catholic Church in Australia. Beginning at the Australian Catholic Youth Festival 2017 in Sydney, we began a journey of listening, exploring our faith and taking risks in our own local faith communities. This sparked new initiatives and programs in schools and parishes and invited more young people into a deeper relationship with God and others. We asked ourselves challenging questions that allowed us to reflect on how we serve others and live out our faith. In this Year of Youth, how did you open new horizons for spreading joy?
This month, as we call to mind the past year and reflect on the key experiences, encounters and messages God has revealed to us. We hope that these reflections will help you start thinking about how to carry on the spirit of the Year of Youth beyond 2018. Here are resources we hope will assist you.
DEVELOPING A CULTURE OF EVALUATION
In youth ministry, we should be prepared to make changes to our practices or strategies if it is no longer effective. For example, Facebook may have been a successful tool to use to invite people to events in the past. However, today, youth are less engaged with Facebook and so direct messages or phone calls should be revisited. Evaluating the key areas of our ministry will allow us to identify what works well, what doesn't work well and what we can improve. This is only possible if we create a culture of evaluation. By doing this, we remind ourselves of our mission and ensure that we remain intentional and purposeful in our ministry. Here are a few ideas to help you get started.
Anointed and Sent: there is a guide provided to us by the Office for Youth. It may be useful to review this guiding document when evaluating your ministry for the year to come: http://youth.catholic.org.au/anointed-and-sent/how-to-use-this-document
PMI Method: this tool allows you to list down the positives, negatives and areas of improvements of an event, meeting or strategy. Here is an explanation: http://ergo.slv.vic.gov.au/learn-skills/research-skills/evaluate-your-work/ways-evaluate
Other Options: You may find other methods useful. Here rae some options: http://www.evaluationsupportscotland.org.uk/resources/evaluation-methods/
DISCERNING WAYS FORWARD
Once you have evaluated your event, program or ministry as a whole, your next steps and strategies should be explored. Listening to key stakeholders, creative brainstorming and prayerful discernment are needed as new practices, priorities and goals are discussed and implemented. Here are some ideas about how to discern with others.
Discerning the right direction: the process of making the right decision can be tricky. Here are a few resources that may help you and your team decide.
Mentoring: A culture of mentoring helps to create spaces for growth in leadership. It can be helpful in a time of discernment. We encourage you to seek wisdom from those who have served before you. We also have our parish priests, members of the parish council or lay men and women who authentically live our their faith. Also, as existing leaders outgrow ministry, we must be intentional in building and training new leaders for the future. An explanation can be found here: http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/vocations/educators-and-youth-leaders/best-practices/how-to-mentor.cfm
At the end of the day, we refine our practices to ensure that we continue to be led and inspired by the Holy Spirit in our ministries. The Year of Youth was a significant year for us. Let's continue to build upon a great year and persevere in mission together!
Our team also is happy to visit you and your team to facilitate evaluation meetings and help you plan for the new year. Contact us and let's have a chat! Emali qwayne.guevara@parracatholic.org
|
|
|
|
|
Holy Role Models
Saint Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez was a prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador who served as the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador. He spoke out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations, and torture. He was canonized on 14 October 2018.
|
|
|
|
Join Us!
LIFTED Sports Day for the Diocese of Parramatta is on this coming Sunday! The day involves a round robin competition between 16 parishes in touch football, basketball, soccer and volleyball. Feel free to come and cheer!
|
|
|
|
|
Prayer
Prayer is an essential part of your meetings. In this section we suggest a prayer or a creative way to engage in prayer to encourage young people to deepen their prayer lives. This may include songs, guided prayers or meditations. This month we share a traditional prayer practice that involves praying with scripture. We hope this will allow you to listen what the Spirit is saying.
|
|
|
|
World Youth Day
We are only 2 months away from World Youth Day in Panama 2019. As the excitement builds, we ask that you please pray for the 170 pilgrims preparing to leave for Mexico and Panama. You can pray with us by learning the WYD Song! Perfect to start off a youth night!
|
|
|
|
|
