NET History

NET began in 1981 as an outreach of the St Paul Catholic Youth Centre. In it’s first year, NET fielded a solitary team of 12 young adults who travelled around the central U.S. sharing the Gospel with an estimated 12,000 young people. This Catholic evangelistic ministry was introduced to Australia in 1988 with an international team working in 5 dioceses during a three-month pilot programme. This ministry has continued to develop with a full time team serving each year in Australia.

To date NET has worked in 24 dioceses across Australia, 6 dioceses across New Zealand, 2 dioceses in Papua New Guinea and also in Singapore; impacting on the lives of some 140,000 young people. The demand for the NET ministry has increased and in 1993 we trained and fielded two national teams. In 1995 NET Australia commenced its Local ministry in response to the need to encourage young people to become more active participants in the life of their parish

Training

A commitment to NET begins with a five-week training programme. In this course team members are trained to work as modern day evangelists. Training includes instruction in: Christian Personal Relationships, Catholic Disciplines, The Power of the Holy Spirit, Christian Character, Prayer and Scripture, The Content of Evangelization, and basic Evangelization skills. In addition to this, ample time is spent in individual and corporate prayer, daily Eucharist and fellowship. Even the environment in which the team members live is instructive. All team members are housed together throughout training. This community lifestyle offers countless opportunities to put into practice the lessons learned during training sessions. Team members learn to speak well of one another and to love one another as Christ has loved us. Team members continually comment on how much they’ve grown just by living with others who are committed to living out the Gospel message.

The Ministry

The ministry of NET is found in two expressions:
- The National Ministry
- The Local Ministry

National Teams

Having completed training, the team (comprised of 10 -12 members) is issued their van and departs on their apostolic missions. Once on the road, team members are kept busy by doing evangelistic encounter days. For the most part, these Encounter Days are with high school students in grades 8-12.

Encounter Days may differ greatly in their structure, the basic message delivered is always the same; namely that Jesus Christ is Lord, He desires to free us from sin, and that He provides abundant life for us. Team members use a variety of methods to present this truth. Creative/relational activities, experiential learning, debates, small group discussion, drama, personal faith sharing, music, prayer and the celbration of the sacraments are all employed in an attempt to bring Retreatants to the realisation, that in order to live lives in true freedom they must choose to enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Local Ministry Teams

The Local Ministry is about walking the journey with young people in a particular parish or diocese and helping them to build a real and lasting foundation for their faith and to find their place in the life of the Church. The team of five becomes the heart of a much larger community always inviting young people to come and encounter Christ and experience the life He has to offer.

Experience and observation shows that the task of youth ministry in a parish is often too great for a single youth worker. A team of 5-6 is more able to create a youthful community within the parish and welcome others to become more active participants in the parish. A team of 5-6 have a greater visible presence and bring their many and varied gifts to their ministry. A team of 5-6 can support one another in their ministry.

An essential component of the team’s ministry is in identifying the Catholic young people of the area and actively seeking to develop an ongoing relationship with them. The team will establish programs and structures such as involvement in Liturgy, youth groups, bible studies, newsletters, evangelistic rallies, etc that they can invite young people to become involved with. The team seeks to befriend young people, share with them their faith in Jesus Christ and their love of the Church, and then invite the young people to join them in becoming more active in their faith and the life of the Church.

Special Calling

As you may have already guessed, it takes special people to work on a NET team. The most important characteristic necessary to being accepted to this ministry is a personal commitment to Christ. Other important considerations include: participation in the Catholic Church, a personal prayer life, freedom from major sin, a regular reading of Scripture and an openness to using the charisms of the Holy Spirit, see 1 Cor 12.

Sponsorship Raising

During the entire 10 months of ministry, members receive housing, meals and travel expenses. Each member receives a personal stipend of $120 per month. We are asking that all members help defray some of the costs of these benefits by raising at least $3,600Aust in sponsorship funds. Although this may seem like a large sum of money, most team members in the past have raised it with very little trouble.