Growing ministry connects young adults to parishes, one another

The seed of an effort to attract young adults to the Church and its parishes was planted in 2017 with MSP Catholic — an online hub listing Catholic events in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, particularly in the Twin Cities.

With its regular updates on the Catholic Softball Group, Vespers at Lourdes and Catholic Beer Club, MSP Catholic drew the attention of Frank Kiesner, a 76-year-old retired entrepreneur and member of St. Patrick in Edina, who has a heart for the Church, young adults and seeing both grow.

“It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the future of the Church, and the growth of the Church, is communicating with young people in the modern world,” Kiesner said.

On top of a desire to reach young adults online, Kiesner began talking with friends about ways to invite people ages 20 to 40 to become leaders and supporters of parishes in the archdiocese. Parishes are building blocks of the Church and vital to its health, he said.

The result is CEND, or the Center for Evangelization and Discipleship, founded in 2020, with an office and recording studio in St. Patrick’s parish center, said Kiesner, who also is chairman of CEND’s five-member board.

In addition to acquiring MSP Catholic, CEND has hired a part-time operations manager and digital marketing specialist, Annie Tracy, who is overseeing MSP Catholic, setting up in-person and online events, and is eager to help parishes bring more young adults and their families into parish communities, Kiesner said. CEND’s chaplain is Father Nels Gjengdahl, who is also chaplain of Holy Family Catholic School in Victoria and sacramental minister for Sts. Peter and Paul in Loretto and St. Thomas in Corcoran. The organization’s theological adviser is Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens, who will remain as an adviser even after being installed Dec. 6 as the bishop of Crookston, Kiesner said.

Father Allen Kuss, St. Patrick’s pastor, said Kiesner approached him about workspace at the parish, and he was happy to help.

“It’s so important to evangelize young people,” said Father Kuss, adding that he plans to draw on the group’s expertise to help “engage with young adults, (a group) which is always difficult to capture.”

CEND also has contacted the leadership team of the Archdiocesan Synod, Kiesner said, in hopes CEND can assist as the archdiocese works toward a Synod Assembly in June that will help flesh out three themes for the archdiocese’s immediate future, including forming “youth and young adults in and for a Church that is always young.”

“A lot of parishes are well-oiled, with a bulletin, people come to Mass. But with the demographics of young adults, we need to reach out to where they are,” Kiesner said. “They are on websites, social media.”

Through its program Making Parish Home, CEND hopes to help parishes integrate digital tools into their programs, respond to new parishioners’ needs, and get excited about their own potential for growth, Kiesner said.

Young adults and parents care deeply about “Christ’s preaching and healing,” he said. “(CEND) is just a new envelope to carry that message.”

Tracy, 26, is a 2016 marketing graduate from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul who was involved with St. Paul’s Outreach ministry as a student on campus. After graduating, she worked for about four years in Minneapolis as a digital marketing strategist with a large technology consulting company.

“I was pulled kicking and screaming into the corporate world, but I learned a lot,” said Tracy, who was more attracted to a small business environment and felt called to work closely with the Church.

Approached by the group forming CEND, Tracy, a member of Holy Cross in northeast Minneapolis, agreed to become its operations manager. Unlike Mendota Heights-based SPO, which runs a college campus ministry, and St. Paul-based NET Ministries, which offers retreats to high schoolers, CEND is striving to reach recent college graduates and tie them into parishes, as well as young parents and others up to age 40, Tracy said.

“We wanted to form an apostolate outside the archdiocese, but connected to it, with the archbishop (Archbishop Bernard Hebda) always informed,” she said.

CEND continues to learn the needs and wishes of parishes and young adults, Tracy said. It advertised an online survey at the end of March through April and received 73 responses from young adults in the archdiocese. The results indicated young adults are looking to feel invited into a parish, with some reflecting that it took a long time for people to introduce themselves, she said. Young adults also are looking for regularly available sacraments, including Mass and confession, and they seek out young adult groups and young married couples with whom they can relate, Tracy said.

CEND also learns from and shares ideas with its seven-member advisory committee of young adult ministers and others, including Tim Cahill of the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, the founder of MSP Catholic who now runs that site and CEND’s blog; Chris Kostelc, director of mission and faith formation at Holy Name of Jesus in Medina; and Jonathn Liedl, a writer for the National Catholic Register and columnist for The Catholic Spirit.

Their feedback has been instrumental in shaping how CEND hopes to help parishes increase young adult involvement in the Church, Tracy said.

Molly Schorr, 40, a member of CEND’s board who was in faith formation ministry in the archdiocese for 18 years, including 12 years as youth minister and director of parish life and evangelization at St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park, also is important in the parish involvement efforts, Tracy said. Now director of religious education at a parish in Sarasota, Florida, Schorr is in regular contact with CEND and returns to the Twin Cities to help. She also wrote and promotes a program titled “Return” designed to help parents have fruitful conversations with adult children who have left the Church.

“The archdiocese has a lot of great young adult opportunities and communities,” Schorr said. “But how do you draw young people into the life of a parish? I mean, that’s what Christ calls us to do.”

Many parishes want to offer young adult ministry, “but they don’t know what that looks like,” Schorr said. “CEND is a gift because it can help bridge that gap.”

CEND has not entered into the work of a parish yet, but it hopes to meet with parish leaders, staff and parishioners of parishes that hire the organization to help determine strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and challenges in young adult ministry, Tracy said. It will seek to learn about young adults in each parish, what they are looking for and what they need. If necessary, CEND will help a parish build a young adult mission team with an introductory retreat, practical steps to take and a year of back-up support, she said.

“The parish is the community and the space where we come to understand our role in the body of the Church,” Schorr said. “It offers the sacraments, celebrates the Eucharist, shares the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is the truest form of the essential Church that Christ built with his disciples at the Last Supper.”

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CEND EVENTS

The Center for Evangelization and Discipleship, housed at St. Patrick in Edina, is taking a three-pronged approach to involving young adults in the Church: Events and speakers, social media hub MSP Catholic and a program called Making Parish Home.

CEND’s Joe Davis Speaker Series, named in memory of a St. Patrick parishioner who was a senior executive at General Mills, and funded in part by Davis’ family, kicks off with noted Catholic author and speaker Chris Stefanik, 7 p.m. Nov. 30 at St. Patrick church. Tickets $25, $15 for students at catholiccend.org.

On Oct. 6, CEND hosted an Evening with Matt Birk, active Catholic and Super Bowl champion, that also featured Bishop Andrew Cozzens. And on April 24, the organization held a one-day gathering with the GIVEN Institute, a leadership and faith formation organization for women of all ages. Both events were at St. Patrick.