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It’s fitting that Jan. 18’s Extravaganza, an event hosted by the diocese’s Office of Youth and Campus Ministries, was held in the Exhibition Hall of the Robinson Center in downtown Little Rock, given the faith and joy that the nearly 600 attendees put on display.
Up front, a band of high school musicians and vocalists from Christ the King Church in Little Rock called Team Jesus launches one Christian song after another to the delight of the congregation. Seemingly everyone knows not only the lyrics, but choreography and hand gestures to go with it.
Some of the 32 participating parishes’ kids are decked out with themed T-shirts; others have T-shirts announcing attendance at state or national Catholic youth conventions. They link arms, pray together, dance in the aisles or stand in silent prayer. The mood is cathartic, the environment electric; they hug when they’re happy and cry when they feel like it.
It’s a concert, a dance party and its good for the soul. It is decidedly not your grandma’s Catholicism, which is kind of the point. Pope Francis told them to make a mess and they are more than happy to oblige with silly string and superhero costumes if need be.
“When you’re a little kid you’re OK with Bible stories, but when you grow up you start to question things,” said Augie Gentry, YAC member from Little Rock. “It’s like, this was written 2,000 years ago how does it matter? In YAC, we take that same teaching and modernize the message so young people can relate to it better. It’s one of the greatest things.”
“I’m really enlightened by their spirituality, and I am motivated to be a better person and a better Christian,” said director Liz Tingquist, who has spent 18 years in youth ministry at the parish and diocesan levels. “They just give me a real witness of what it is to have Jesus in your life. I look at them and I think ‘I wish I was that enthusiastic in my own faith life when I was their age.’”
This is not anarchy; simple rules for behavior are strictly enforced and plenty of adult chaperones are on hand to keep things from descending into a free-for-all. But make no mistake, this is the kids’ show, kids with the indomitable attitude that deep devotion and love for a Catholic Church shouldn’t be muted or hoarded, but broadcast as wide and loud as possible.
The annual pro-life lock-in is held before the Mass for Life in downtown Little Rock.
At the core of the event is the youth advisory committee (YAC), a group of 24 high school juniors and seniors. They’ve put this entire program together from the first skit through the last prayer.
“It’s our job to plant the seeds and God does the rest,” said YAC member Kenzie Cundall of Little Rock. “I feel like the Holy Spirit is always on our side, so we can’t go wrong. It makes me feel really great to be a part of that.”
YAC members go through what Tingquist calls a “discernment” process which includes application, endorsement by their youth minister, pastor and other adults followed by a live interview with the selection committee.
Once assembled, YAC members assist the youth ministry office in a number of activities, but none quite as thoroughly as Extravaganza, which is completely theirs from the theme to approving the evening’s speaker. This year, that honor went to Jennifer Briselden of Fort Smith, a campus minister who spoke movingly and directly on the decisions she made in high school and after that ultimately led her to give up her now-14-year-old son for adoption. The talk was made even more powerful by Briselden’s older daughter Monica sitting in the front row, a member of this year’s YAC team.
Tingquist said the honesty and pull-no-punches nature of the speakers is by design.
“It’s one thing to be on the sidelines and be pro-life and another thing to really act on as God’s calling us to be his missionaries in this world,” she said. “We want the kids to take this to heart to do what they can do in their own community among their own friends to evangelize for life and to get involved in pro-life events.”
