The evolving face of Catholic youth formation in NW Arkansas

Rogers parish leaders found previous models of faith formation were outdated

Published: October 6, 2012

By Alesia Schaefer
Rogers Correspondent

Alesia Schaefer

Mary Beth Rohr, a graduate of the University of Arkansas and past graduate of St. Vincent de Paul Parish's Life Teen program, speaks to the students Sept. 23. Rohr serves as a teacher and catechist for the program.

Alesia Schaefer

ROGERS -- Cars snake their way through the parking lot, winding around orange pylons and following the hand motions of the adults as they direct traffic and speak into their walkie-talkies.

Sound like a football game or parking for the craft fairs? It is actually neither.

This scene plays itself out every Sunday evening at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Rogers as more than 730 Life Teen and Edge students are dismissed from the school gymnasium and the old church into the parking lots.

Judene Kuszak, the parish's director of religious education, remembers a time when it wasn't this way.

"Twenty years ago, there was no religious education, like Life Teen and Edge, it was more of a social time," Kuszak said.

She remembers when there were maybe 60 young people in all of the parish programs. But times have changed and so have the numbers. Now the parish serves more than 1,400 students in its various programs ranging from the kindergarten through 12th grade parish religious education children and family classes to the Edge and Life Teen programs. Debbie Dufford, director of children's ministry, is quick to point out that these numbers don't even include the students who attend the parish school.

"We have seen our numbers in the PSR (Parish School Religion) program increase from around 150 students in 2002 to about 730 in 2012," Dufford said.

Edge, for middle school students, and Life Teen, for high school students, have experienced tremendous growth as well. From 2002 to now, the numbers have swelled from around 400 to 734 students.

Several factors have contributed to the growth and change.

"In the mid to late 1990s, parents saw a need for more formation for their children," Kuszak said. "The Protestant churches were offering youth programs that kept children involved and growing in their faith and parents at St. Vincent de Paul wanted to have the same for their children. Meanwhile, northwest Arkansas began to explode."

So after attending Cursillo and learning about the Life Teen program, Kuszak began a personal campaign to bring Life Teen to Rogers. It took some convincing, but after a four-day trip to Phoenix to visit the original program, Msgr. Richard Oswald, then pastor of St. Vincent de Paul, came on board.

The undeniable game changer occurred in early 2000 as more Hispanic families began moving to the area seeking jobs and a better way of life. A new culture, a new language and more people became the force of change for the program.

Kuszak acknowledges it was a transitional time for the area, but credits Msgr. Oswald with the vision of remaining one community.

"In the early 90s, we offered classes in Spanish, but in seeking to unite the community we began offering the resources in Spanish and the classes in English so that both cultures could learn together," Kuszak said. "Our purpose, still, is to teach the faith to every child, not to separate out. There are so many different students, but every story is unique and we have to figure out how to best serve that student," she said.

Each year the programs have been tweaked to be inclusive and to unite religious education students of both cultures.

"On any given Life night," said Tony Hoyt, director of Life Teen ministry and music, "we have about half Hispanic and half Anglo students."

Hoyt, who attended the Edge and Life Teen programs at the parish as a student, is acutely aware of the differences the years have made. Life Teen at St. Vincent de Paul is now one of the largest programs in the nation. But, he said, if people are thinking of how religious education was taught when they were kids, it is outdated.

"There is no longer a norm," Hoyt said, "There are different families with different sacramental, physical and spiritual needs. We work to minister to those students who are continuing to build their faith life and those who are being introduced to the Church for the first time."

To that end, the parish programs don't just offer the "old school" catechetical classes.

"Back in the day, all catechesis was in the classroom, but as the dynamics started changing we needed to start thinking outside of the box," Kuszak said.

Now Sunday evening programs offer concessions for the students, live music and child care for the teachers, security and, of course, a crew of individuals directing traffic in the parking lot.

Yet, all of this growth is not without its challenges, admits Kalisa Newton, coordinator for the Edge program at the church.

"We are very similar to a missionary church," she said. "We have had to learn to reach people where they are."

One instance, said Newton, is the number of students that arrive in the United States who have not been baptized.

"That model of being baptized as an infant and receiving the sacraments at certain ages isn't always the norm in other cultures," she said.

The staff created bilingual material that meets the needs of the older students and the unchurched. Resources have not always been available and finding enough teachers to minister to this many students has and continues to be a challenge. The four religious education staff members for the parish also have two Spanish speakers on staff, Soledad Hernandez, who works as ministry secretary, and Leticia Lopez, who serves as an assistant to youth ministry.

Kuszak said they look to the Creed for direction.

"It says we are one holy, apostolic church," she said. "When it comes to serving two cultures, we don't see race, we see kids. We strive to be one Church but still respect one another's culture. The more we can come together to pray, the better we will be as a community."

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