No Meeting Required

Every parish leader—not just youth ministers—should read this book! It is absolutely eye-opening in its approach to ministry with young people. We are challenged to be seed scatterers (just like God is), rather than the kind of ministers who count how many chairs are filled at a planned event and measure success by attendance. Everyone who reads this book will find many strategies they can use to reach out to all parish youth and to involve youth who want to be active in the parish. The strategies in this collection are practical, doable, youth-friendly, and adult-minister-friendly. There are strategies for any size parish and any size program. Just reading them is energizing! Doing any of them will energize youth ministry in a parish.

Chris Semmel has hit a grand slam with this book. Each chapter offers dozens of suggestions to improve outreach and contact with every teen in the parish community. This book not only provides the reader with tons of great ideas, but also challenges you to think outside of the proverbial box. As a religious educator, I was especially impressed with the chapter on nongathered catechetical activities. I highly recommend this book to every parish leader who is serious about ministry to young people.

As a diocesan staff member in a rural mission diocese, I found the tools and ideas in No Meeting Required to be exciting, practical, and user-friendly. In this day when many youth ministry programs are called to be creative in minimizing costs while maximizing efficiency, this book will provide parishes with tools to capture the attention of those young and older adolescents who may not feel comfortable being involved in regular parish-based youth group activities. I am thrilled about this resource, which will definitely help parish youth ministry leaders think outside of the group structure to embrace the nongathered youth ministry concept. Thank you for helping ministry leaders remember that all parish youth deserve our attention, our affirmation, and an opportunity to be embraced by the faith community through the ideas and activities expressed in this book!

With the hectic schedules most teenagers live, gathering them for youth ministry meetings can be a huge challenge. Christina J. Semmel responds to this challenge with her well-organized slim book of strategies. Designed to reach all youth in a community—those who attend church and parish programs, as well as those who don't.