This was born as a service to my own youth/young adult ministry here locally, and I just wanted to invite you all into the conversation.

My good brother, Edwin stopped by a while back and vlogged the experience as we explored St. Michael-St. Malachy in East New York, Brooklyn.  Check it out.

This past Monday, was at Holy Trinity Church in Passaic, NJ once again for their annual "Youth Week" to kick it off.

It was a blessed night in many ways... It was a much more 'unscripted' message that seemed to resonate more with the teens. It honestly took me back to that first fire I had when I began doing this years ago.... It was very testimonial, and just a simple Gospel message with he love of Jesus and his church. The main message of encouragement was this statement I honestly think I will coin from here on out... "Your life's stressors, can either turn you into a sad statistic or a symbolic story"(And I will probably add from here on out 'of God's grace')

Please pray for these young people and this community as they continue throughout this week spending more time in Jesus' presence, and receiving more messages to learn about their faith.

- The Symbol
- All is Love

Here’s a short conversation I had with my 11 year old son about Manhood... something devalued in our current culture, and in many ways just has been lost.

- The Symbol
- All is Love

The above photo was taken at a youth group night 2 weeks ago....

This new season has been going by quick, as you may know I started working in some parishes out in Brooklyn and it has been a very fruitful season in so many areas.
1 - Simply being able to provide for my family and focus on one area in ministry
2 - The history of youth ministry here in this community and being able to build upon that.
3 - The priests, staff, and just community as a whole being super supportive.

In this time however, I have really been praying about being a 'good steward'. God has given me these young people to raise up in the faith, and has provided for my family at home in the process and I don't want to take that lightly in any way.  I have also been praying about leadership, structure, and foundations.

A term brought to my attention in this past year is something called "personality driven ministry", where people come to a church, or event, etc simply because the person in charge has something charismatic that draws people to themselves.  This can be good where it can help in 'casting the net wide' but sometimes it doesn't allow as much to go deeper with a smaller few who will further multiply.  What I have arrived at, is how there needs to be a healthy balance of both.

With this in mind, I have been taking my time in building up a small few leaders(teens, and young adults) who I am able to pour into a little more with other focused time aside that is outside of the regular youth group meeting times, etc.  In many ways, it has helped me to reflect on the heart of Jesus a little more in his choosing/building up of the disciples(particularly the apostles).

I can't say I have complete answers or concrete strategies just yet, but there are some things I have been implementing I hope we will begin to see the fruits from in these months to come.

Please pray with me and for me as we work to build up the young church here in Brooklyn.
(Videos below from the two new youth ministries I began this year)

- The Symbol
​- All is Love