Mishawaka Catholic Youth Ministry
Five parishes, one ministry: walking alongside the teens and young adults of Mishawaka as they encounter Christ and discover who they're called to be.
Get InvolvedOur Mission
By age eighteen, the vast majority of young people have either made a lasting commitment to Christ or decided to walk away. That reality makes the years from middle school through young adulthood — roughly eleven to twenty-five — the most critical window for evangelization and formation the Church has.
The St. John Bosco Commission exists to provide governance and support for a shared youth and young adult ministry across five Mishawaka parishes: St. Joseph, St. Monica, St. Bavo, St. Anthony, and Queen of Peace. We're the structure that stands behind the new full-time Director of Youth & Young Adult Ministry — the lay team that carries the logistical, administrative, and operational weight so the Director can focus entirely on being with teens and young adults.
Named for the patron saint of the young, this commission carries forward Don Bosco's conviction that young people deserve dedicated, professional attention and a real community of adults standing behind them.
"It is not enough to love the young. They must know they are loved."
— St. John Bosco
Why We're Changing
Parents, parishioners, and young people across our five parishes have told us, over and over, what this ministry needs to be. This is what acting on what we heard looks like.
The window between eleven and twenty-five is the single most formative season in a young Catholic's life. We have been approaching it with a part-time plan. That needed to change — not because anyone did anything wrong, but because the stakes are too high to staff this ministry as anyone's second job.
Someone dynamic. Someone relatable. Someone faithfully Catholic. Not two out of three. A minister who can hold a room full of middle-schoolers on a Wednesday night, sit with a high-schooler asking hard questions about the faith on Thursday, and lead a young adult study on Friday — and do all three as a whole person.
Our parishes have not been serving the years between high school and marriage well. The new role explicitly carries young adult ministry alongside Antioch (high school) and Emmaus (middle school) — one shared discipleship across three stages of life, not a cliff after confirmation.
This is not one parish's hire. St. Joseph, St. Monica, St. Bavo, St. Anthony, and Queen of Peace are together funding one full-time Director, supported by one lay commission, serving all of our young people as one community — because we are stronger together than apart.
How It Works — The Commission
The Commission is a standing team of at least seven lay men and women drawn from across the five parishes. Our job is to make the Director's ministry possible — to carry the weight of everything that is not ministry, so the Director can give themselves entirely to the young.
We set the ministry's priorities in alignment with the pastors' vision, so the work of discipling teens and young adults stays focused and faithful to the mission of each of our five parishes.
One lay representative from each parish, plus commission members serving in specific roles. Together, we hire, support, and hold accountable the Director of Youth & Young Adult Ministry — so five busy pastors do not have to manage the ministry day-to-day.
Event logistics, communications, budgets, volunteer coordination, safe-environment compliance, family outreach. Commission members carry the operational work so the Director can focus entirely on what matters: being with teens and young adults.
The Role
One full-time minister. One line of accountability. Built to last.
A dynamic, relatable, faithfully Catholic leader — called and trained to walk with young people. This person's week is ordered around teens and young adults, not divided across other responsibilities.
A team of at least seven lay leaders from the five parishes. Everything that is not ministry belongs here — the logistical weight that has historically crushed youth ministers is carried by a real team.
One supervisor, not a committee. The Director reports to the Chair of the Commission — a single person, a single line of accountability. The full Commission governs and supports; the Chair supervises. The pastors of the five parishes oversee the Commission. This is deliberate. The Director's job is to be in the field with young people; shielding that work from management-by-committee is how we protect it.
Our Parishes
Each parish brings its own identity and charism to the table. Together, we form a network of support for the teens and young adults of Mishawaka.
It is enough to know that you are young for me to love you very much.
— St. John Bosco, Patron of Youth
Get Involved
Whether you're a parent, a young person, or someone called to serve — we'd love to hear from you.
The Commission is building something that matters: a sustained, professional youth and young adult ministry that walks alongside every young person in our five Mishawaka parishes during the years when it counts most.
If you want to volunteer, learn more about the ministry, sense a call to serve on the Commission, or connect your teen or young adult with what we're doing — reach out. We'll get back to you.