As a youth minister, much of my ongoing work involves building relationships with young people, helping to set up for them encounters with Jesus, and walking with them as they discover their giftedness and place in this Church. Because of the enormity of this task, I often look to what opportunities might be available to help this work be more fruitful. I’d like to share with you one such opportunity that is close to my heart.
While there are many resources for helping teens navigate their lives of faith, few are as unique as Youth Sing Praise. Founded in 1983, YSP is a week-long Catholic camp for high school students who have an interest in and gifts for music and theatre. The goal of the camp is twofold, preparing for and performing a full-length Christian-based musical, and journeying through a retreat experience based on that musical. The results are incredible. The teens enter the week knowing which musical they will be performing, but not knowing their individual part or any of the choreography. They conclude the week by performing that musical for an audience numbering over one thousand. Along the way, the participants will have a chance to grow in their Christian faith through deep small group discussions, meaningful prayer, sacrament and liturgical experiences, and the presence of competent and amazing youth ministry and theatrical staff. Incidentally, for the past over twenty years, Orin, his wife Erin, and many of our ministry friends have been an integral part of the engine making YSP go.
This Saturday, June 22nd, Youth Sing Praise will perform Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The show, which begins at 7pm, will be preceded by a song performed by the middle school-aged participants of Youth Sing Praise, Jr., which include my own Madeleine and Noah! The show is free, but a free-will offering will be taken up at intermission. The performance will take place at the Shrine Ampitheater in Belleville, IL, part of the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows.
So, please GO check out youthsingpraise.com and discover the amazing ministry being done for and with these talented teens.
GO see the performance this Saturday night…or at least encourage others to go.
GO find the teens in your own community who are attracted to musical theatre and tell them about YSP, reminding them that their gifts are valued and needed in this Church!
-Shannon
Click here to see last year’s YSP performance of Rory Cooney‘s Lost and Found.