Last week I celebrated my 12 year anniversary as the Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Archdiocese of Vancouver (I replaced Father - now Bishop - Mark Hagemoen in December 2002). I was excitable, passionate, and eager to
learn. And I had no idea what the Lord
had in store for me.
As an aside, I can’t really remember why I started on a
Tuesday and not the Monday prior. Maybe
it had to do with my former employer PricewaterhouseCoopers. Or perhaps it had to do with staffing issues
at the Archdiocese. But I digress.
I inherited a staff consisting of Gerard Garcia, Pat Gillespie,
Analyn Perez, and Rob Mascitti. We
quickly hit it off, as I knew all of them reasonably well – and in Gerard’s
case, very well – through my involvement with the archdiocese while I was
serving as the parish youth ministry coordinator at St. Paul Parish in
Richmond.
What impressed me right away was the dedication and
commitment that the staff had to their work and their ministry. It truly was a dream job to be paid to do
what I loved: youth ministry!
Over the past 12 years, I’ve been fortunate to work alongside
some awesome people in the office. Rob
and Pat are still serving the Archdiocese while Analyn has moved onto exciting
project management with Children’s Hospital.
Krissy (Chua) Litam and Sharon Goh have filled in at times in administrative
roles, while Faye McCreedy (2006) and Erwin Fung (2013) round out our current
staff. And of course, Gerard is still
there after all these years...I guess we’ll never get rid of each other haha.
I’ll put our staff and our work up against any youth and
young adult ministry office in North America.
This is not meant to sound cocky or boastful; I’m just very confident in
what we do and in the people we are blessed to work with. People like youth ministry and young adult
ministry coordinators and leaders, teens, priests, religious, parents,
principals and teachers, campus ministers, diocesan leaders and fellow diocesan
employees.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Archbishop J. Michael
Miller here. A large part of our success
and our desire to serve is because of his leadership and support. Despite my humourous (and pathetic) attempts
to earn his friendship, he is indeed a wonderful advocate for not only me, but
for our office and for the young Church.
Now this doesn’t mean we’re perfect. Far from it, in fact...we have a lot that we
haven’t accomplished. And just like any
family, we have our minor disagreements and differences. But we remain loyal to each other and
faithful to our mission of providing spiritual and professional formation for
those who serve youth and young adults.
Along with wonderful people from this archdiocese, I’ve also
met dozens of awesome people from beyond.
I love opportunities to network and share the ups and downs of ministry
with my peers from across Canada and the United States whether they be fellow diocesan
directors, youth ministers, young adult ministers, or young people.
This job has taken me as far away as Johannesburg, South
Africa. It’s taken me to numerous
provinces and states. And it’s given me
a venue to learn about my faith, hone my communication skills, and become a
better leader.
When you look at who we’ve met and been able to bring up to
our archdiocese, it’s a virtual who’s who of Catholic youth ministry, young
adult ministry, and music ministry. People
like Matt Maher. Steve Angrisano. Mike Patin.
APeX Ministries. The Jacob and Matthew
Band. Jesse Manibusan. The list goes on and on .
 |
| I may have name-dropped Matt Maher once. Or twice. Or 1,000 times. |
Some of these people have become my closest friends. They’ve mentored me, check in on me, and opened their homes to me. And they’ve undoubtedly added to my penchant for name-dropping.
Just last week at the National Conference on Catholic Youth
Ministry, Jesse Manibusan was on stage as part of the Friday night Youth
Ministry Extravaganza. In thanking the
2,000 attendees for their work in youth ministry, he talked about how all of
them were “heroes” to him. And lo and
behold, he mentioned my name as one of these so-called “heroes”.
I was surprised, flattered, and humbled. And no, I didn’t pay him to say that.
The quintessential name-dropper (me) actually got
name-dropped. It meant a lot to me given
that I consider Jesse a true hero in ministry and an inspiration as a minister
and friend. And he nailed my last name
to boot!
Moreover, I fully recognized that it was a reflection on the
good work that our archdiocese is doing as a whole. Indeed, we are blessed with a lot of things: strong leadership development. A good social media presence. Priest support. Strong leadership in the parishes. Hungry
teens (spiritually not physically).
I reflect back to the job interview back in November
2002. The panel asked me how long I
expected to be in the role if I got the job.
I remember answering, “I’ll give it 7 or 8 years...until the
year 2010. We’ll see if we’re still
moving forward at that point.”
It’s funny how God works.
2010 was an incredibly exciting year for me and our office. The JP 2 Centre opened wide its doors to
serve as a “Catholic Hospitality Centre” for the 2010 Winter Olympics. The volunteers primarily came from the young
adult community. And just a few months
later, in the summer of 2010, our office officially added young adult ministry
to its title and mandate.
I’d say that’s moving forward.
The year 2015 presents us with another big change: we’ll be moving
from 150 Robson to 4885 St. John Paul II Way (at the corner of 33rd
and Willow). The new location and new
surroundings will present some unique blessings and challenges. I’m looking forward to leading our office
through the transition period.
While I refer to my job as a “dream job” it truly doesn’t
feel like a job at all. I love coming to
work every day. I love the challenge and
the responsibility that comes with directing an archdiocesan office.
Most of all, I get excited to think that we are helping youth
and young adults encounter Christ to live out lives of personal and communal
holiness.
I know I won’t be in this position forever. Someday, someone much smarter and more
capable will come along. And If I ever
get complacent or feel that the office is not moving forward, then I’ll know
it’s my time to move on.
But I’m not there yet.
There is still a lot of work to do.
Clayton
Imoo is husband to Gail and father to sons Sean Isaiah and
Jacob Isaac and daughter Kayla Marie. He has served as
the Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult
Ministry of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver
for the past ten years, helping parishes develop their own
youth and young adult ministries. When not doing
ministry, Clay enjoys spending time with his family, playing
music, playing sports, playing naptime, and writing blogs
on topics such as family, faith, and the Vancouver
Canucks. Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo
