Over the past few years, our ministry and lives as youth ministry leaders on the diocesan or national levels has been dominated by the threats of economic downturn, sexual abuse, and institutional restructuring. For us, the ancient Chinese curse has come front and center: “May you live in a time of transition.” Our challenge in this condition is to respond in a way that guides us through the transition to a new situation in God’s grace. As evangelizers of the Gospel, we cannot afford to become victims of these societal forces by taking on the attitude of passivity.
As we deal with changing societal realities and shifting institutional structures, we might keep in mind the pervasive nature of these changes. Catholic youth ministry leaders are not the only executives in this country who are dealing with shifting realities in terms of economic downturn, scandal, and corporate restructuring. Corporate leaders in all phases of our globalization era are dealing with the same challenges of transition. Perhaps leaders in Catholic youth ministry would benefit from the experience of other corporate entities in dealing effectively with the same societal and economic realities.
The experience of General Electric (G.E.) in struggling with the problems of the airline industry is a case in point. Last summer, The New York Times featured an article that struck me as offering a very helpful outlook for the Catholic youth ministry community in this country (i.e., Claudia H. Deutch, “Nothing but Friendly Skies for G.E.,” The New York Times, [July 16, 2004], p. C 1).
Clearly, the past three years have been very challenging for the airline industry. Because of its major role in developing and building jet engines, G.E. found itself in the midst of those challenges. “The economic downturn that began in March 2000, followed by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, combined to diminish drastically the sales of airline tickets, and thus the need of planes” (Deutch, p. C 1). The overproduction of new airplanes in the late 1990s magnified the effects of these reversals rather dramatically.
Faced with these three negative forces in the marketplace, G.E. could have followed the path of many companies in downsizing, seeking relief in bankruptcy, or quitting the airline industry altogether. Instead, G.E. chose to remain true to its mission of serving the airline industry. However, it would be creative in responding to the multi-faceted crisis. In effect, G.E. recreated itself to fit a new marketplace situation. Three principles gave form to this reshaping: 1) seek new customers; 2) stick with what sells; 3) seek new sources of support.
In a relatively short time, G.E. became a very different player in the airline industry. Instead of merely providing jet engines for airliners, G.E. created a new way of serving the airline industry and molded itself to meet the demands of that new product. G.E. reached out to new customers by purchasing unused airplanes and selling them to foreign airlines. It stuck with what sells by dealing directly with low cost airlines (e.g., Southwest) that were growing quickly in this free market economy. G.E. sought new sources of support by purchasing planes from struggling established airlines and renting them to the growing ranks of start-up airline companies (e.g., Jet Blue).
The conclusion to this chapter in corporate history in the United States will likely refer to G.E. as a company that grew as a corporation and contributed to the vitality of the airline industry in a time of economic crisis and national threat.
This story of G.E. is rich with implications for us in Catholic youth ministry at this time. Struggling with many of the same challenges, we are called to be creative in meeting our mission in very effective and pastorally fruitful ways. We remain faithful to our mission of proclaiming the Gospel to all young people to live as disciples of Jesus and draw them to responsible participation in the life, mission, and work of the Catholic faith community.
However, within the scope of that general mission falls a wide range of possibilities for implementation on the local, regional, and national levels. This difficult age of transition makes it ever more essential that we fulfill our task on behalf of young Catholics. The example of G.E. in the corporate world gives us a template for reacting effectively in our own sphere of faith-filled service. We may or may not be able to recreate our ministries with a literal application of G.E.’s strategy of seeking new customers, sticking with what sells, and seeking new sources of support. However, the story of this resurgence can certainly inspire us to seek a strengthening of our enterprise by reaching new audiences to evangelize, by going with those areas of our ministry in which there is significant energy, and by working with new ways of supporting the services that we offer.
When faced with the challenges of these days, we may be tempted to “lay low” and wait until the storm blows over. That option would be a denial of who are as Christians and ministers of God’s word. Instead, we need to live out the words of the Holy Father Pope John Paul II to the World Youth Day pilgrims in 1996:
“How does Jesus send you? He promises neither sword, nor money, nor any of the things which the means of social communications make attractive to people today. He gives you instead grace and truth. He sends you out with the powerful message of his paschal mystery, with the truth of the cross and resurrection. That is all he gives you, and that is all you need.”
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