Transformational Ministry:

Results of the Research

Research was done with young people to determine the impact of the project on their self-perception as church leaders.

Participants:

180 youth attended youth forums from Catholic schools and churches.

68 youth were part of the 3 leadership teams who presented 45 workshops.

A group of 12 students and 10 adults randomly selected from each of the youth forums and leadership teams were interviewed to provide qualitative data (impressions, thoughts and ideas “in their own words”).

35 students from the 8 leadership teams filled out questionnaires to provide quantitative data (hard numbers).

Qualitative Data:

The interviews indicated that young people were transformed because of the integration of four core experiences of Learning, Prayer/Reflection, Leadership, and Service/Action and the importance of Support.

The same twelve major themes were surfaced by both youth and adults; they were categorized this way:

Leadership themes

The need for youth to be in leadership roles

Leadership self-perception of youth

Learning themes

New confidence, skills and knowledge

Youth learning best with interactive methods

Service themes

Interest in future ministry

Youth wanting to contribute and make a difference

Prayer and reflection

The overall importance of prayer and spirituality

Support themes

Positive comments about Tomorrow’s Present

How youth thrive with caring mentors

How people get involved when invited

Time and scheduling

Learning communities

Quantitative Data:

The questionnaires identified the role of both peers and mentors in providing support. Questions were grouped into 18 areas to assess general interest in future church involvement, willingness to serve, readiness for present and future leadership, perception of how adults value the talents of youth, general confidence level and the impact of the Tomorrow’s Present programming on their knowledge as well as leadership skills.

 Youth in the 3 leadership teams who presented workshops were recruited from 8 groups including schools, parishes, parish clusters, and one community center. Only 3 of those groups had a consistent adult mentor and a consistent peer group (in addition to their Tomorrow’s Present involvement) for all three years. (One group had a consistent adult mentor, but no consistent peer group, one group had a consistent peer group, but no consistent adult mentor, and the other three groups had neither a consistent peer group nor a consistent mentor.)

When the data from the questionnaires were analyzed, the results could be put into a matrix, using this question: How many times did the young people from a particular group score above the median for the whole? The 3 groups who had both a consistent peer group and a consistent mentor outscored the whole in 11 areas out of 18. The remaining groups outscored the median only 2 or 3 times.

 This matrix demonstrates the importance of having both a consistent mentor and a consistent peer group.

For More Information on Transformational Ministry:

The slide show available on this website demonstrates:

The graphic depiction of the integration of learning, prayer/reflection, leadership and service/action

The graphic depiction of the role of both mentor and peer group support

The corroboration of business and education research showing the importance of effective leadership, learning, prayer/reflection, support and service.

More details are provided in the articles and book published about Transformational Ministry and the research of Tomorrow’s Present.