Uprising: The Rebuilt Student Podcast

The Catholic capital "T" Tradition would seem to limit innovation in church world, but Allie and Daniel explain how they're striving to honor the steady traditions of our faith while progressing in approach, technology, and creativity.

Joseph, Sage, and Daniel sort through how to achieve depth and breadth in content without sacrificing relationship building in ministry.

John 1 tells us Jesus was the fullness of both GRACE and TRUTH. How do we show both of these in Next Gen Ministry? Daniel, Maryann, and Allie share some ideas.

Our series "What We're Doing Now" wraps up with Daniel, Allie, and Maryann talking high school youth ministry. At Nativity, that means Uprising, our Sunday afternoon program for 9th-12th graders.

We love middle schoolers! Maryann and Daniel lead Resurrection, our ministry for 5th-8th graders and try to answer the question: What keeps them coming back?

Daniel and Allie talk about their experience with the Sacrament of Confirmation and the opportunities it presents with teens.

First Communion and Reconciliation is a great opportunity to engage families coming back to church. Sage and Meghan talk to Daniel about Nativity's current sacramental strategy.

Sammy and Sage return to tell Daniel about Quest, the first chance kids have at Nativity to take part in a small group.

Next Gen Team Members Meghan and Sage talk to Allie about Time Travelers, the Kids Liturgy of the Word program at Nativity.

Daniel talks to fellow team members Kerry and Sammy about Nativity's preschool program called All Stars.

Allie and Daniel welcome Joseph, a new coworker from Nativity, as they cap the season by discussing how relational ministry can be enhanced by celebrating milestones in the lives of our students.

Most adults who are trying to pour into young people do it in one of two ways: Expertise or relationships. That means you either are giving them advice and teaching them as an expert or experienced person in a certain field (sports, medicine, prayer, cooking, car care). Or you are just hanging out with them to build the friendship and be a part of their life. But the five elements are opportunities to build what the study from Springtide Research calls Relational Authority: (1) Listening, (2) Transparency, (3) Integrity, (4) Care, and (5) Expertise.

Teens are becoming adults, but they aren't there yet. We want to help them. We see in young people the potential that's there, but there's a gap between who they are now and who they want to be. They don't see that gap for the most part. It's not just a teen gap either. We all have a gap between who we are and who we want to be. None of us are finished products. So what's in that gap?

The power of one-on-one moments. We are big advocates of small groups, but there are moments that are even more personal. We need to leverage those moments. Some one-on-one moments happen naturally. Others you create. They are all important. As much as you try to personalize the group and use everyone's name and remember things about each teen, it's these one-on-one moments that they will remember most.

Have you noticed a difference in teens and preteens since the pandemic Interpersonal relationships and communication was challenging before, and it's even more so now. Relationships are at the heart of what we do, so how do we continue to build them?

In the last episode of our current series we will talk about leading better conversation for our last age and gender group - teenage girls. 

In this episode of our series: The Art of Group Talk, we will be tackling leading conversations for one of the most difficult, but important group - teenage boys. 

In episode 3 of our current series: The Art of Group Talk, Daniel and Allie will discuss leading better conversations for preteen girls. 

In week 2 of our series: The Art of Group Talk we will be discussing how to facilitate better conversation, specifically for Preteen Boys. 

Join Allie and Daniel for the first week of our new series: The Art of Group Talk where we will deep dive into strategic ways to have better conversations with kids and students of all ages. 

For the final episode in our series LGBTQ+ we talk about managing tension with written policies and priorities. 

In this episode of Uprising, Daniel and Allie dive into the theology around LGBTQ+ for this series.    Books Referenced in Episode:  People to Be Loved by Preston Sprinkle  Made for Love by Fr. Mike Schmitz  Accompanying Those with SSA by David Prosen  Building a Bridge by Fr. James Martin 

Episode 3 of our series LGBTQ+ will discuss supporting not only the student, but the family of those in the LGBTQ+ community.     

Daniel and Allie are back for the second episode of the LGBTQ+ series. This week discussing the importance of reflecting on the question for you and your ministry: how welcoming are you?

Allie and Daniel begin the conversation about LGBTQ with a single quote: “Whether you are a priest, lay leader, church member, or family member, it's not your job to change or fix others. Your job is to love them. It's God's job to do the rest.” Accompanying Those with Same-Sex Attractions: A Guide for Catholics by David Prosen

Allie and Daniel conclude their series on student leadership by interviewing Sammy, a recent Nativity graduate, about how to move student leaders out so they take faith with them in their next steps of life.

Another one of Nativity's Student Leaders, Carson, comes on the show to talk about how he's grown and the right way to challenge student leaders with correction and wisdom. Join Allie and Daniel as they continue interviewing student leaders this series.

Allie and Daniel continue the series on student leaders with Filippo, one of the Student Leaders at Nativity. This episode, they talk about finding the right balance of commitment busy teens can make to student leadership at your church.

Nativity Student Leader Ryan joins Allie and Daniel to talk about his evolution as a student leader and the difference between giving menial tasks to student leaders and offering them responsibility that empowers them to take off and lead.

A student leadership team is on the wishlist for many youth ministers. Where do you start? How do you get students to sign up? Nativity Student Leader Lucy joins Allie and Daniel to share what they've learned in building a new student leader team the last couple years.

There are topics that terrify small group leaders. Perhaps just being in a room with a dozen teens is the terrifying part. How do we build the skills, knowledge, and faith of our leaders? That's the topic for Allie and Daniel in this episode.

Delegation and empowerment is key, but it's not common in ministry. Though they struggle with it themselves, Allie and Daniel talk about how they've built a team of over 100 ministers serving students each week at Nativity.

Inspiring, equipping, and retaining ministers is an ongoing challenge in Student Ministry. How do we prioritize our time with ministers? Allie and Daniel have some ideas to help.

Need new ministers on your team? Who doesn't?! Allie and Daniel share three recruitment strategies that have worked at Nativity. Here is the book we mentioned in this episode: Building Your Volunteer Team: A 30-Day Change Project for Youth Ministry

Uprising returns for Season 3 with Allie and Daniel talking about their volunteer teams and how to clarify their WHY. When we lose our WHY, we lose our way.

Even with the advent of digital discipleship and technology connecting in ways we didn't imagine, we believe in the power of sacramental, incarnational experiences to build and deepen our faith.

In post-COVID student ministry, some things will remain and some will change. We look forward to what we're keeping and retiring.

Whether we call the rising teens Generation Alpha, Screenagers, or something else, what will this generation be like and how will it change our ministry with them?

Whether we call the rising teens Generation Alpha, Screenagers, or something else, what will this generation be like and how will it change our ministry with them?

Hybrid youth ministry is mixing on campus, in-person experiences and virtual interaction, and while challenging, there have been advantage to it versus the old model. We discuss what parts of it we want to keep and why.

What will student ministry look like after COVID? We're increasingly convinced there isn't a distinct date that things will change, so we're integrating both incarnational ministry and digital discipleship into our future.

Those values we've been talking about need to translate to something practical in our students. We wrap up this message series talking about the basic truths we want our students to know at each stage of their development.

If your students walked away from each level of your ministry only learning one thing, what would you want it to be?

These are the seven values we live by as a team of volunteers and staff working with children and students from 6 weeks to 18 years old.

Every workplace has values, some named, others accidentally reinforced. We want to more strategically recognize and uphold our values so we go from being a rules-based working culture to a values-based one.

How do you get Milestone Ministry off and running? We'll share tips we've learned to help you accelerate this idea in your parish.

We share our milestone markers for grades 9-12, including serving like Jesus, the rosary, Tiny Saints, and Senior Survival Kits.

We share our milestone markers for grades 5-8, including fire paper, an escape room, Bibles, and adult mentors.