6. Interview with Janel Lewandowski (Part 1)

Janel Lewandowski, Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry
7/12/01 - 11am
Hal, Greg, AmyG
Hal led, Amy scribed

Hal gave the intro, we intro-ed ourselves, then started the tape recorder with Janel.

FF: Tell us a little about who you are where your life intersected the BSM?

Who I am…I graduated from St Benedict's University. I got connected here because of Father Michael who was my parish priest from 0-18 years of age - he served on the board at St Ben's and we would meet for lunch when he was up for board meetings and he would tell me all about what was going on at the BSM. My first year I went on an alternative spring break trip and wrote BSM asking for some $ - Father Michael sent me a check for the whole trip and said maybe you'll consider doing something with ministry here at the BSM sometime down the road. That was the beginning of our courtship.

He talked with George (Barrett) and set up an internship for me. It seemed weird at first because most of my friends were going off to do internship in the corporate world, but I came here and it was great. I did internship here for 3 summers. When I graduated an administrative person was leaving and they decided to replace that person with program staff - children's ministry- there's five of us now, I had done youth stuff in college but didn't think I would make a career out of it. I wasn't sure at first.

Started a master's at St Paul Seminary in pastoral ministry and that has cemented me in ministry. So I'm the coordinator for youth and young adult ministry - I'm the liaison to the Young Adult Ministry particularly for hospitality.

FF: Tell us about the youth ministry piece?

It's been a challenge - there's never been an established youth ministry in this parish. In the past 5 years 4 ministers. Since kids don't live in a neighborhood it makes it hard - they don't know each other, they don't have shared experience. We've built a strong junior high ministry by building on our children's ministry so that might blossom into senior high. Weekly faith formation groups with kids, trips and retreats with adults are other components.

FF: What kind of stuff?

Kids have opportunities and enough to do in their lives so we try to offer unique opportunities. Most of the people who help with the youth are young adults here, it would be nice to have a mix of ages but my job has been to form and support these young adults as they try to evangelize and share their faith with these young people. I enjoy youth ministry - always challenging. And now it seems like being involved with faith communities is not a normal part of life - we have to compete with sports, etc. It's not just a given that people will participate.

FF: So we need to be all the more intentional about why people would come, you need to work at telling people what makes church a unique and valuable part of their life. This setting is unique; you really don't have a neighborhood.

We did a parish survey and most families don't worship here four Sundays a month - maybe 2 or 3. So that makes it hard to build relationships, when you know people build relationships through consistently being together.

FF: Who are the youth that come?

Most come with their parents, but some come because they think its important - which I think is really cool. Most of them are not in parochial schools - so they think its important to be a part if a faith community.

FF: Is confirmation a big draw?

Yes - especially tenth grade - there's some we haven't seen since first communion. I'm looking forward to building up from the junior high ministry to convince those kids to stick around for the next two years. We do a good job with the kids once we get them here - it's getting them here that's the challenge.

FF: So they're here mostly because of their parents. What do you do with them?

We have a small group of 8-10 kids that they meet with - we're in the middle of changing. We've been doing a three-year cycle on who is God, who is Jesus - and about the Catholic Church. We have adults who serve as learning guides for the kids, and each group has one section of the topic for the year that they do in depth and then present to the rest of the group and thus teach the rest. We had a problem with that just because we didn't have the same kids week to week. So we're changing. The change is because of that and also because we are grounding ourselves in liturgical stuff more - so we'll do more biblical work with the texts from the lectionary.

Kids notice if their parents drop them off - the ones who participate in the community have the most impact on their kids - they see themselves as partners in the formation of faith.

FF: Diverse population must be frustration as far as locations where the kids live. Do you focus on weekends?

Yes. Just the past few years we tried out some stuff during the week, which worked, but youth stuff is still mostly on Sunday afternoon. It's tough to deal with all the transience - I haven't found a model that works with it yet. I don't want to just send them back to a local parish, because they've found something here that they connect with.

FF: How do you see this shift affecting your ministry?

It's a unique opportunity to reach people in the broader community. But people complain that they have so many separate communities and none of them are connected and so it's hard to balance all that. Since I don't have kids it's been hard for me to understand that parents don't make church a priority… I've been reading a book about it that's helped me understand that we need to help families make sane choices for their health not to just make our programs run.

FF: Sounds like the pre-eminent piece for you is how to gather kids here around faith.

If we stop thinking we need to keep trying new things to get consistent groups and change the way we go about it, it would look different.
What's the age range of the gap your looking at for the other study?

FF: 16-24. prior to people getting married. That group is remarkably absent from churches. A surge of youth programs in the 70s has gone straight down. Wondering about the older adolescents and the young adults… why have they left the church, and what's the church missing by not having them here - what are we not having shaped because they're not around and therefore have no voice

I think it's challenging to advocate for a group that other people can't see. I've been doing that here. You can advocate so much for people but then they need to advocate for themselves as well

FF: Sounds like you've tried a lot of strategies.

We did all retreats one year, weekly groups of mixed ages, now small groups which is frustrating because of the inconsistency, now we're moving out of the Sunday School model to Sunday afternoon with teenagers doing more praise and worship / activity based stuff.

FF: What do young people like about BSM?

Emphasis on service and justice - I was surprised by that. They like the diversity. A lot of them think the building is beautiful. We have one girl from Scandia that comes because she can have a separate group of friends who know her differently, more deeply.

Young adults are attracted by the building, the block party, the reputation as a place friendly to young adults, and a place to meet other young people. They tend to attend the 6:15 Sunday night service - they feel like they fit in because the community is diverse - they can look around and see more than just families with young kids. There's a place for them here.

FF: How long have you been here?

Continue to Janel Part 2