June 21, 2008
Engaging young people in faith is director’s mission
By Denise MacLachlan
Herald staff
Kevin Staszkow, the diocese’s new director of youth and young adult ministry, says that the youth minister’s task is to help young people see that the Holy Spirit is working in their lives. Cathy Joyce/Herald photo
“Young people are not the church of the future,” asserts Kevin Staszkow, the Sacramento Diocese’s new director of youth and young adult ministry. “Young people are the church now.”
Staszkow discussed his calling to youth ministry and his work as director of youth ministers in the diocese during a recent interview.
He says that the church tends to ignore the young and his mission is to turn the church over to young people.
“We often ignore the Jesus in front of us right now,” he said. “We are the body of Christ. Some of us are old, some are young, but the people with us at Mass — this cantor, this choir, these kids in the pews text messaging — this is the body of Christ right now. We need to figure out how to engage our young people in their faith and in the life of their parish.”
As Staszkow sees it, the church’s job and the youth minister’s task is to help young people see that the Holy Spirit is working in their lives already.
“God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are alive in their lives every minute of the day,” he said. “We can help them become aware of that, and from that awareness they can move to deeper discipleship.”
Staszkow, 40, holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from UC Berkeley and master’s degree in pastoral ministries from Holy Names University in Oakland. He is a past member of the board of directors for Holy Names’ master’s program in pastoral ministry and currently serves on the advocacy committee for the National Association of Lay Ministry.
He is also an experienced theater director.
“My first jobs out of college were in both youth ministry and theater,” he said. Staszkow was the director of youth ministry at the Newman Catholic Center in Berkeley and at the same time the managing director of the Children’s Theater Workshop in Pleasanton. He continued to direct plays for more than a decade.
“My skills as a director lie in bringing artists together and getting them to agree on a vision of what the play will be,” he noted. “It’s community building.”
Staszkow takes a similar approach with youth ministers, gathering them together as peers to support one another and share ideas, encouraging them in furthering their training.
With 16 years of experience in youth ministry, Staszkow understands the impact that youth ministers can have in young people’s lives.
“I tell (youth ministers) that the time we have with these kids is like a Super Bowl commercial in their lives,” he noted. “You only have 30 seconds, but it’s worth five million dollars and everybody remembers it. What are you going to do with your 30 seconds?”
