NET Ministries continues to inspire Catholic teens through in-person and virtual retreats

In a typical year, NET Ministries serves in 110 Catholic dioceses across the U.S., drawing over 100,000 youths to its retreats. But 2020 was anything but a typical year.

“When the pandemic became real last March, we made a tactical decision to bring all of our teams back, sending all our missionaries home and ending the retreat year,” said Mark Berchem, NET Ministries founder and president.

“God said we needed to do this, and I believe it was providential,” Berchem said. “If we had waited, they would have been stuck, as a week later, the entire country shut down.”

Founded in 1981 in the Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis and based in West St. Paul, NET Ministries invites young Catholics ages 18-28 to devote nine months (August through May) serving with the National Evangelization Teams (NET) and putting on youth retreats. In addition to the U.S., NET has been replicated in Canada, Ireland, Scotland, Australia and Uganda.

“The work of NET is relational evangelization,” Berchem said. “Our focus is on sharing the basic Gospel message with teenagers, to awaken faith and bring it alive in their hearts and minds.”

Last summer, as the COVID-19 pandemic continued, NET Ministries began making plans to resume travel in the fall to conduct retreats at Catholic parishes and schools.

“We were seeing churches across the country closing their doors, stopping Masses and youth programs,” Berchem said. “This was happening as today’s young people are suffering the highest level of anxiety, depression and loneliness that we’ve ever seen, some from COVID, but some even deeper than that.”

“And we had these young adult team members still wanting to serve, saying ‘I will go. I want to go now,’” he said. “That was inspiring to see.”

The format for NET Ministries retreats, designed for students in grades 6-12, rotates between large group sessions and small groups, using dramas to put the Gospel in visual form, prayer ministry and guided reflection time.

“We worked with three Twin Cities medical doctors to come up with COVID protocols to bring our missionaries and staff together safely in August,” Berchem said. “As we go throughout the country, we follow that guidance, which includes wearing face masks and practicing social distancing, as well as local protocols such as capacity limits in a church.”
Despite the extra safety precautions, retreatants are eager to participate in NET retreats.

“The majority of teens are doing online school and are used to being at home, so they are grateful to be there in person, with the gift of being face-to-face — even if it’s only half-face to half-face with masks,” said Collin Towns, 22, a team leader from Fenton, Michigan.

NET team members are typically young adults right out of high school or college with a desire to serve before completing their college education or beginning a career.

Team leader Lindsey Streeter, 24, from Okemos, Michigan, joined NET Ministries last August. Her team covers the Midwest but will soon head to the South and East Coast regions.

“I had moved to California to teach middle school band and choir,” Streeter said. “After the pandemic hit and I went from working 60 hours a week to 10, I started a consistent prayer life for the first time in my life. I felt the Lord calling me towards missionary work, which I thought was crazy because I had just settled in California with a dream job.”

Streeter has led 35 of the 69 retreats her team has directed since August. “Helping young people see the love and light from God — to remind them that they are always seen and loved by Jesus — has been one of the biggest gifts of my life,” she said.

In addition to in-person retreats, NET Ministries now offers a virtual retreat option. Berchem noted that of the nearly 300 retreats from September through December, 90 were virtual; they’ll double that number for spring, with at least 180 virtual retreats.

“With our virtual retreats, you’re engaging with real people in live time, and you’re still in a small group. Retreatants are engaging in relational conversations, not just a ‘push and play’ ministry,” Berchem said. “It’s a nice option; currently our L.A.-based team is doing only virtual retreats, as California is pretty locked down.”

Rachel Dolby, 20, of Stayton, Oregon, a NET team leader doing both in-person and virtual retreats, was a little apprehensive about a retreat via screen. Her concerns have proven to be moot.

“Sometimes, that’s the very first time they’ve prayed in their own room, outside of church or school, so that’s a really unique opportunity,” Dolby said. “And a virtual retreat also provides a snapshot into their personal life that you don’t get in person. We’ve seen their siblings and met a variety of pets — dogs, cats, guinea pigs, hedgehogs and fish.”

“Today’s youth need the message of hope, and Jesus is our hope; we share that Jesus wants a relationship with them, wherever they’re at in their faith journey,” Dolby said.
The retreats make an impact on teens, and responses teens share on the ministry’s experience forms are overwhelmingly positive.

“NET taught me how to have a better relationship with God,” said a 14-year-old retreatant from Missouri. And from a 14-year-old Minnesotan: “It was a good reminder that there is still good, not only around, but in me.”