The Biggest Little Youth Festival

Parish Ministers Launch Inaugural Southern California Event

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Robert Batch had only been living on the West Coast for about a month when he realized that something was missing.

“We need something dynamic and powerful in the southern California region, specifically aimed toward Catholic youth and young adults,” said Batch, 26, “something they can go to that’s fun, yet high in energy.”

Now closing out his first year as coordinator for confirmation and youth outreach at St. Paschal Baylon, a parish in the Santa Barbara pastoral region of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Batch moved to southern California in 2014, after graduating from Franciscan University of Steubenville with a degree in communications. As a student, he worked as the production lead for the Steubenville Conferences held on campus (now in their 40th year) and also served with NET Ministries, which ministers to young Catholics.

He knew what it would take to launch a new event — but he didn’t know who to partner with to make it a reality. That’s where Adam Cross, himself a first-year youth minister at nearby St. Rose of Lima parish, came in.

“We got together, started brainstorming, and one of the things that came up was: How cool would it be to get Matt Maher out here for a concert?” said Cross, 22.

“Contacting Matt’s people was the first step,” he added. “We really didn’t have a Plan B. It was really just — Matt Maher; let’s do it.”

And that’s how the inaugural Conejo Youth Fest, set for June 20 in Thousand Oaks came to have Maher — a Dove Award winner who has had four albums make the Billboard “Top 200” secular-album chart — as the headliner.

 

Short List of Big Names

Landing Maher was a coup — but it’s not Batch’s and Cross’ only impressive achievement.

Sponsors for the inaugural Conejo Youth Fest (named for the Conejo Valley in which it will take place) include Franciscan University of Steubenville, NET Ministries, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Office for Vocations and Thomas Aquinas College, in nearby Santa Paula, in addition to local parish organizations and local businesses. Mass will be celebrated by Franciscan Father Nathan Malavolti, vice president of pastoral care and evangelization at Franciscan University. And international youth speaker, recording artist and comedian Paul J. Kim is the keynote speaker.

Those are some heavy hitters for a first-time event — but participants don’t seem to look at it that way.

“I’m always excited to be a part of an event that seeks to present a world-class experience, with the deeper purpose of leading young people to Christ,” said Kim.

“There’s a lot of people in this generation who need to find their way back home. They’re hungry [for truth], they’re longing for purpose and love, and they have questions.”

Sponsorship dollars currently cover about two-thirds of the anticipated costs of putting on the Conejo Youth Fest, Batch said, but with additional sponsorship commitments and ticket sales, he expects the event will break even or make a profit.

Concerned about overextending themselves, Batch and Cross turned to an area Catholic high school for the performance venue. La Reina High School’s auditorium seats 700.

“As much as we wanted to go to maybe a local college stadium, we knew that wouldn’t be smart,” said Batch. “It’s a first-time thing, so we didn’t want to go too big.”

For that same reason, the schedule is both compact and simple. The festival opens at 3pm, giving attendees time to play a round of laser tag and go to confession. Mass is at 4pm, followed by more time for fun, fellowship and food. Kim speaks at 6:20pm, and the concert kicks off an hour later, ending at 9pm.

It’s a far cry from the nearest Steubenville conferences, which feature a full lineup of speakers and performers throughout a three-day event — and far from Youth Day at the Los Angeles Religious Education Conference (LAREC), which this year drew 15,000 to the Anaheim Convention Center.

But Cross and Batch have big-picture plans for the Conejo Youth Fest. “We definitely do want to bring some sort of conference out to the Santa Barbara area — a three-day conference,” said Cross. “But that’s still in the works.”

 

Forming Youth

Southern California has a rich Catholic community: The Los Angeles province, which stretches from Fresno and Monterey all the way down to the Mexican border, has the greatest number of Catholics of any province in the United States.

But California’s long distances can pose a challenge.

For Batch’s youth ministry to attend the LAREC Youth Day, the group would have to be on the road 90 minutes — without traffic, which is not a typical situation on southern California freeways. That drive would double in order to get to Steubenville San Diego, to be held July 24-26.

“With hundreds of thousands of youth to reach across the U.S., there will always be room for new events for Catholic youth,” said Franciscan University’s president, Father Sean Sheridan.

The university is sponsoring Conejo Youth Fest “for the same reason that we organize and sponsor 21 youth conferences in 11 states and Canada,” he added. “Helping to promote these youth events makes our faith tangible to youth, who are bombarded with false messages and steeped in a secular culture.

“We lend our support to Conejo Youth Fest in the same spirit of forming other Catholic leaders — so that the youth who attend will have their lives transformed more deeply for Christ, and they will go forth and be lights of Christ with their friends, family and, indeed, the world.”

Steve Villa, who is in charge of alumni relations for NET Ministries, echoed the importance of partnering with other organizations to reach more youth. “We are more concerned that today’s young people grow in a personal relationship with Jesus that will bear lifelong fruit,” he said. “Most importantly, we want today’s American teens to be saints in the making, so that their sanctity can lead others to Jesus and begin to transform the world we live in.”

Conejo Youth Fest’s organizers and performers anticipate that the impact will be disproportionately large.

“I think you can’t be in the presence of God and not be changed, and I pray God would bless us with his presence as we worship and pray together,” said Maher, who is one of the few Catholic artists to break into the mainstream Christian-music scene.

“My prayer is that people leave encouraged, edified and with a notion that, despite our fallen, human ways, we can make a difference in the lives around us.”

Elisabeth Deffner writes from Orange, California.