The Rev. Keith Romke, director of vocations for the Catholic Diocese of Rockford, shows Carpool Karaoke with Bishop Malloy, a feature at the Diocesan Youth Summit. (Photo by Lynne Conner /for Chronicle Meda)

What do lip-syncing priests, a 100-foot-long banana split and basketball have in common? The surprising answer is youth ministry.

In a digital world of Snapchat, Facetime and Instagram, engaging today’s teens in a religious faith is as elusive as the perfect selfie. Area youth ministers share what it takes to recruit and build a youth ministry program and how engaging youth in their faith has changed over the past 25 years.

With a winning smile and tons of youthful energy, the Rev. Keith Romke is a natural in his position as director of vocations for the Catholic Diocese of Rockford.

Romke recently teamed up with the Rev. Kyle Manno, a parochial vicar at St. Patrick Parish in St. Charles to spoof late night host James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke.

The video, produced by the Diocese of Rockford, features the two priests joking about sushi, ordering fast food and singing tunes by Justin Timberlake and Taylor Swift while driving to the Rockford Diocesan Youth Summit. Along the way, Romke and Manno make an unscheduled stop to pick up their boss, Bishop David Malloy. The priests ask Malloy about his vocation to the priesthood and even get the Wisconsin-born bishop to join in a chorus of “Go Cubs, Go”.

Since its premier at the Youth Summit, held at Rock

Carpool Karaoke with Bishop David Malloy screenshot, with the Rev. Keith Romke (left) and Father Kyle Manno (right). (courtesy of the Diocese of Rockford)

Valley College last October, “Carpool Karaoke            with Bishop Malloy” has gone viral, receiving well over 500,000 views on YouTube. The video has been featured on Huffington Post and was widely shared on Facebook.

“We did the video for the Youth Summit, as a way to introduce the segment with Bishop Malloy,” Romke said. “We decided that it would be a fun way to showcase Bishop Malloy’s talent, incredible personality and ability to truly reach out and connect with the youth. So, the Carpool Karaoke was, no pun intended; a vehicle to showcase who Bishop Malloy is and how invested he is in the youth of our diocese.”

The idea for “Carpool Karaoke with Bishop Malloy” came from Jennifer Collins, a Youth Summit organizer and director of the Life and Family Evangelization office for the Diocese of Rockford.

“She pitched the idea to us,” Romke said. “We thought it was wonderful and … the moment we pitched the idea to Bishop Malloy, he said, ‘Let’s do it.’ There wasn’t any hesitation, right away he thought it was a great idea and wanted to be a part of it.”

Romke added that there was no script for the production. The video’s humorous banter and ad-libbed jokes provided a way for the priests to talk about their faith from personal experience.

A balance between humor, fun and teaching is crucial for success in any youth ministry program.

“The No. 1 most important part for us in doing the Carpool Karaoke video was to teach the kids at the Youth Summit the truths about our Catholic faith. This video allowed us to have fun, be a little goofy and, in a back-door way, teach the kids about their faith,” Romke said. “If all you do is have fun and games in youth ministry, it brings kids in; but if you don’t use that as a vehicle to teach them about Christ, there’s no point to it. You are not reaching your goal. If all you do is just preach, preach, preach, while it’s all good stuff; the kids are not going to be interested, they’re not going to be engaged.”

“The whole idea for this video,” Romke said, “was almost a microcosm of what I think every youth ministry program should be: do things that are fun to draw the kids in and then be able to hit them with teaching once their hearts are open and engaged.”

Kristin Cordell, youth and recreation coodinator at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Rockford, checks on supplies for the Upward Sports program. (Photo by Lynne Conner /for Chronicle Meda)

Kristin Cordell, youth and recreation coordinator at Westminster Presbyterian church in Rockford oversees the Upward Sports program at the church, which offers a basketball camp and basketball, flad football and cheerleading leagues for youth in grades K-8. In addition to Upward Sports, Westminister offers both middle and high school youth programs. Cordell estimates the 80 to 90 percent of participants in the Upward Sports program are not members at Westminster. She see the program as a comunity outreach venture and as a way to evangelize the unchurched.

“I love the Upward program because it draws families in who might not be connected with a church, so this is considered their church. The cool thing about Upward is that we have that CHristian piece and at practice the players will go through a devotional and hear the Gospel message from their coaches,” Cordell said.

Upward Basketball Camp at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Rockford links the fundamentals of sports with Biblical lessons on faith. (Photo by Lynne Conner /for Chronicle Meda)

Following a profound conversion experience during a youth retreat, 17-year-old Frank Mercadante knew his calling was in the field of youth ministry. After earning degrees from Wheaton College and Loyola University, Mercadante worked as a parish youth minister at St. John Neumann Parish in St. Charles.

Under his direction, the St. John Neumann youth group’s kick-off event each fall was the construction and consumption of a 100-foot-long banana split. Adult leaders would assemble the ice cream, bananas and toppings in rain gutters lined with plastic wrap while the teens were sent out on a scavenger hunt. Once they returned to the church, the teens waged a feeding frenzy, attacking all 100 feet of the banana split.

The “Big, Banana, Bonanza” was the perfect hook to grow the youth program at St. John Neumann.

Starting with just 10 teens and two adult volunteers, the program expanded over 10 years to involve 75 adult leaders and 500 teens. Banana splits and scavenger hunts aside, Mercadante’s youth program at St. John Neumann focused on leadership and discipleship training.

Two programs for youth emerged at St. John Neumann: Advance!, a program for younger teens and the Student Ministry Team which was geared toward upperclassmen and graduates. Each group’s goal was to generate student leaders who would evangelize their peers while pledging to live out Christian moral values.

These days, Mercadante is busy leading Cultivation Ministries, a youth training and discipleship ministry he founded in 1990. Cultivation Ministries specializes in, “… training both volunteer and professional youth ministers, helping parishes with the nuts and bolts of developing an effective youth ministry and producing resources in order to support both adult and teen leaders.”

Mecadante has authored several books for teens and youth ministry training manuals for parishes. He and his team also present national and international retreats for teens and youth ministers.

Stressing the importance of the Gospel message and keeping it fresh and relevant for today’s teens is a constant challenge for Mercadante and Cultivation Ministries.

“We make some of the biggest decisions of our lives during those teen and young adult years and having God’s guidance and direction is so critical at that time,” he said. “The joy of having God’s guidance and direction in my own life has been so important that I couldn’t think of anything better than helping young people experience God’s love and guidance in their own lives.”

The Generation X youth that Mercadante worked with as a parish youth minister have now become the parents of Millennials and Generation Z children. Engaging these younger generations in a church or religious faith requires a different approach than what worked for their parents.

“When Gen X was in high school, we would always say, ‘If you build it, they will come’ meaning that if you made an announcement about youth group at church or sent out a mailer you would have 50 kids show up,” Mercadante said.

“With Millennials, it’s very different. If you make a personal contact, call or text a Millennial, they might come to youth group. This is due in part to Millennials growing up in the information age. They have so many messages coming at them from so many different sources, that they have ‘circled their wagons’. It has to be personal for Millennials. I think of it as the ‘caller ID’ generation; if they don’t know you, they won’t engage in your group,” he said. “To engage the Millennial and Generation Z youth, our churches need to become communities and we need to build relationships with these kids before, during and after high school.”

Despite the typical pubescent strife between teens and their parents, Mercadante emphasizes the importance of parental involvement during the adolescent years.

“Parents are the greatest social influence on the religious identity of young people …. So, we need to adjust youth ministry in a way that parishes can equip parents to share their faith with their children. We need to give our churches tools to nurture parents as they build a faith dialogue with their teens,” he said.

Churches who actively help parents pass on their religious faith to their teens represent a paradigm shift in youth ministry.

“When Gen Xers and baby boomers were teenagers, they didn’t want to be around their parents. That’s why we built such age-segmented youth ministries with some cool adults as leaders. While that model worked for the Gen X and Boomer generations, today’s teens typically like being around their parents. As the parent/teen relationship takes on more prominence now, youth ministry has to reflect and support that change,” Mercadante said.

“A youth ministry today that is not addressing the role of parents in the faith formation of teens is a recipe for failure.”

Whether empowering the parent/teen relationship, engaging youth through relevant social media or offering sports-based faith formation programs, the youth ministry experience continues to provide teens with the priceless life lessons of faith, leadership and service to others.