by John Sorce
Special to The Leaven
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A new approach to youth ministry will soon be coming to the archdiocese — one that will focus on listening first.
Dr. Josh Packard, who is the co-founder of Future of Faith and a former professor specializing in sociology and religion, will be presenting Sacred Listening workshops in the coming weeks.
His message is simple: In general, today’s young people have a lack of trust in institutions and their leaders, and adults seeking to guide them will have a greater success rate if they start out by listening.
That starts with building one-on-one relationships.
“We used to live in a world that trusted institutions and their leaders implicitly,” Packard said. “For about five decades now, we have been losing a little bit of that trust every year, and it is at an all-time low. For those of us working in ministry, we need to approach things a little differently, and the most effective first step in this low-trust world is [to build] relationships.”
“There’s a low level of trust for institutions and their leaders, and high levels of trust for people that they know individually,” he explained. “So, that means we have to be known to the young people we are trying to serve, and we have to know them.”
Youth ministry consultant Kyle Kuckelman first heard Packard speak back in March, and he considered it to be “the best hour of professional development I had ever gone through.”
It was then that he realized he wanted more people to hear Packard’s message.
“The way he presents the data and how to respond to what is being presented is very compelling,” Kuckelman said. “I was blown away at how good he was and immediately wanted more of this community to know about this after listening to him.”
Packard’s presentation here in the archdiocese will focus on three main points: understanding the roots of distrust — what the data says and why it matters; moving beyond transactional ministry — shifting from authority figures to trusted guides; and creating cultures of listening, where young people feel heard, not just instructed.
Kuckelman feels the church is at a crossroads. And he believes that Packard’s presentation can teach adults to better understand where youth are and how they got there.
By learning that, he thinks, youth ministers and pastors will be better able to approach young people — to accompany them in their faith journey — moving them away from a posture of directing or dictating how to go about things.
“As an organization, the church is still in a method of ‘come to the church, let me talk at you and then go out and do something about it,’” Kuckelman said.
In this new model, he said, instead of authority figures expecting to be listened to, a youth leader or pastor becomes “a person that you can walk with and be a guide in your story.
“It’s relational ministry at its core.”
Packard feels strongly about the message and while he doesn’t feel like he has all the answers, he does feel that his message can help ministry leaders be more effective.
“We think the message is really that important,” he said. “As I’ve had the opportunity to go around and listen to the pain points of youth ministers, adult pastors and priests, it kept coming back to us working harder than ever for less results.
“I don’t think what we have is the answer. But I think it can be part of an answer and if we at Future of Faith can in any way be a part of helping people do their work more effectively, then we want to do it.”
Kuckelman said these presentations are not just for those in professional youth ministry. All those who care about young people staying in relationship with Christ and his church are welcome.
Packard will first be visiting rural communities at the end of September. He will speak on Sept. 28 at St. Joseph in Nortonville from 1-3 p.m. and St. Dominic in Holton from 5:30-7:30 p.m. before heading to St. Francis Xavier in Burlington on Sept. 29 from 6-8 p.m.
Registration is not required for these sessions and Angie Bittner, rural youth ministry outreach coordinator, encourages people to just show up.
He will return to speak in the Johnson County area in mid-October, with engagements scheduled at Church of the Ascension in Overland Park on Oct. 20 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. and Holy Trinity in Lenexa on Oct. 21 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. and again on Oct. 22 from 9-11 a.m.
To learn more and to register for the Johnson County sessions, visit the website at: archkck.org/sacred-listening-young-people-arent-rejecting-faith.
