My Crazy NCCYM Adventure

Going to San Antonio

For seventy-two hours, I had left my family and traveled to San Antonio, TX to participate as an exhibitor for the National Conference for Catholic Youth Ministry (NCCYM).  It is a national conference for which youth ministers, parents and parish priests could attend and gain both practical resources and inspiration to be able to be salt and light for the teenagers and young adults in their parish. This was my first such conference in ten years (life got in the way).

It is odd to share about my experience going to a conference, for which the central attraction–the keynote sessions–I was simply not a part of.  When you become an exhibitor, you willingly enlist yourself in the margins.  While everybody had marvelled at Sr. Helen (Dead Man Walking) Prejean’s compassionate plea to introduce youth ministry to social justice, or Fr. Greg Boyle’s brilliant comic timing, us exhibitors are relegated mostly to catching blurbs here or there on twitter.  (Sure, there was also the live feed, but choosing a booth without electricity meant battery power would only go so far).

Returning After a Long Absence

Returning back after such a long absence, it is a warm but sobering experience.  The numbers are smaller.  In fact, they had expected great numbers, and had to downsize the venue.  The costs of travel, the aggravations of going through airport security, these all take a toll.  Perhaps it wouldn’t have been as noticable had I attended every two years, but the difference is palpable.

But those who attended really wanted to be there, and grow from the experience.

From what I did participate in–some of the worship sets, the morning liturgies, Eucharistic Adoration, and the Friday night entertainment–I can tell that the musicians, the homilists, the jugglers–they all brought their best to the venue.  The musicians who performed–mostly those of the SpiritAndSong roster, the World Library Press roster, and most especially the Heartbeat Records New Artist showcase, they all gave quality performances that rivaled their peers.  The comedy on the Friday night was hit and miss (as would all comedy sets would be), but there wasn’t a performer there who didn’t do something that made me chuckle.

Thank you, Comedy and Worship Supporters!

As an aside, I am grateful for the number of people inquiring as to why I was not on the comedy night stage, or saying I should be.  Maybe next time… I don’t control these things.  I have learned over the years that I not be controlled by the nay-decisions of the powers-that-be; you simply have to roll with the punches, and you’ll do fine, regardless of the limitations you have been given.  The comedy night did just fine without me, and I want everybody to succeed.

Same with the worship; the music was led by really talented contemporary-style worship musicians.  But there was definitely a technical snafu between them and those responsible for the lyrical projection. In my limited time going to these sessions, there was a praise and worship set, but no lyrics (mostly). This includes both those music sets on the main stage, and the logistics of doing Eucharistic Adoration.  This limited the choice of songs greatly; either the songs were complicated lyrical affairs (so that when no lyrics were projected, it came across as one of many solo performances), or the songs had to be overly simplified, almost kiddie-like, with a call to response, or a simple phrase repeated over and again.  I so wish that the organizers really get on the ball with this, to be able to get the songs crafted so that a fuller participation would result.

Rolling with the Punches

Nonetheless, there were some things that, as they say, are the breaks.  My own carefully-chosen booth, was relegated to the very back of the arena when the venue got downsized.  I was facing the gates of loading docks. Is this a problem?  Somebody had to have the bad exhibitor’s spot; and if Saints before me had to deal with the inconvenience of being martyred, if Davy Crockett had to deal with the inconvenience of fighting a losing battle, then I can deal with the inconvenience of traveling over 1800 miles and getting a bad location.

I had to find ways to make it work.  I had to hustle.  I had to jump up and down at the end of the aisle, to signal to attendees that there was a back row (or that there is a crazy exhibitor at the conference).  I am grateful for the organizers for not carting me away to the funny farm for leaving my booth and being proactive in the aisle (they must have had sympathy on our bad luck of location).  And I think of the myriad comic nuggets I had milked for being in my predicament; I’d like to think that these nuggets had made me memorable to those whom I did have the pleasure to meet.

And through it all, it was wonderful to meet so many of you for the first time, or for the next time.  Some remembered me.  The emcee Bob Rice seemed legitimately pleased to see me again after so many years.  Many of my comic and musical friends were in attendance, and it was great to catch up with them.  There were fans of mine who remembered me from my appearance on EWTN’s Life on the Rock or my viral video for “This Time of Forty Days.”

Promoting My New Book

My own participation at the conference was to reconnect with others, especially to let the know I had written a book just for them: 24 Unique Ways to Upgrade Your Catholic Youth Group.  It will be free until the end of the month.  After which, I will put up a price tag.  Many of you have already downloaded it (thank you!), and if you have found the book beneficial for your calling as a youth minister, could you leave a kind word? Perhaps when it gets uploaded to Kindle, leave a review?  This would be a great help for me.

That said, I’m now looking forward to going to National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis, next year. Hope to see you there.

Correction: I have been informed that the numbers for this conference were actually in line with previous years, and actually up since ten years ago.  Nice to know.  Mea culpa on the miscount.

Correction #2: I inferred that the main sessions conflicted with the times of the exhibitor’s table, but in reality they did not.  But those were times where I had to do many other myriad tasks to prepare for being an exhibitor for those days.  It is possible and likely that other exhibitors participated fully in the main sessions; I was not fortunate to do so.