Catholic Ministry Tips from the Field — What I Wish I’d Known

This week we speak with some professionals from the field, a parish priest, a youth minister, and a pastoral assistant for stewardship and evangelization, about what they’ve learned so far during their time in Church ministry. They also offer personal, spiritual, and time-saving tips. Let’s dive in!

Ministry Tips from Catholic Professionals

Fr. Derek Peterman — Parish Priest

Hi, I’m Fr. Derik Peterman, priest in solidum at Our Lady of Refuge Parish in Orchard Lake, Michigan, in the Archdiocese of Detroit. The in solidum part just means that I work with a team of priests who serve a group of parishes in the area but, my primary responsibility is at Our Lady of Refuge.

1.  Is there anything you have learned over your years in ministry that you wish you knew when you first started?

One thing I’ve discovered is how difficult it would be to keep up a discipline of prayer. Priests have to sacrifice other good things in order to keep this highest good. Another is that, when Jesus said, "Without me you can do nothing," He meant it literally. Anyone in ministry absolutely needs a deep friendship with him. Lastly, you can't help everyone. Even young, zealous priests have their limits!

2.  What are some tips you would impart to someone new in your position at another parish?

Two tips I’d specifically like to impart are first, be generous with those who interrupt you.

Secondly, don’t forget to take time to be a father to the young.

Chel Wilde — Youth Minister

My name is Chel Wilde and I worked for 14 years as a Catholic youth minister at a number of churches, most recently St. John the Baptist in Covington, Washington.

1.  Is there anything you have learned over your years in ministry that you wish you knew when you first started?

One thing that would have saved me hundreds and hundreds of hours over my 14 years in youth ministry is the online Catholic library of graphics and content called WeCreate. Youth ministers execute tons of events, create updates for the bulletin, make flyers, posters, and parent packets, create marketing emails, post on (and sometimes run) social media accounts, and often need to find or design unique graphics for ALL of these tasks. WeCreate does the work for you — simply navigate to WeCreate online, search a topic, holiday, or whatever you need graphics for, to find lots of professionally designed graphics to choose from which can be saved to your computer and used any way you like. There are even graphic and flyer templates so if I wanted to change the words in the pre-made design to be whatever I want, I could. I can’t even explain how many hours I spent on designing flyers that I could have saved using the church flyer templates already made in WeCreate.

What’s crazy to me is that the church I most recently worked for had a free subscription to WeCreate because they were an LPi bulletin customer, and I just never realized it! Churches who use LPi to print their bulletins have access to up to five WeCreate accounts, and if your parish doesn’t print with LPi, you can still subscribe to WeCreate independently!

2.  What are some tips you would impart to someone new in your position at another parish?

Invest in learning a digital project management tool. I suggest something like Asana or Monday.com. I have no idea how I survived before I learned how to use these tools for myself and my volunteers.

Anne Frederick — Pastoral Assistant for Stewardship and Evangelization

Hi, I’m Anne Frederick. I’m the Pastoral Assistant for Stewardship and Evangelization at St. John the Baptist Parish in Covington, Washington. In my role, I welcome new parishioners and encourage everyone to become engaged with ministries and programs in our church. One way we do this is through the Living Your Strengths program. This particular program helps us identify and connect people’s talents with activities at the parish that fit their gifts, giving our parishioners the ability to be involved at St. John with faith filled purpose.

1.  Is there anything you have learned over your years in ministry that you wish you knew when you first started?

One thing I’ve learned is how important it is to frequently pause and to pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance and the wisdom to be present for those I am called to serve.

2.  What are some tips you would impart to someone new in your position at another parish?

A tip I’d give is that, in ministry, it is essential to attentively look for the presence of Christ in each person that is placed in front of you. This is especially true for the person who may interrupt your schedule and might need someone to listen to all that is in their heart. The gift of presence is the soul of authentic ministry!

We’d like to extend a big heart-felt LPi thank you to everyone who offered their sage wisdom for this blog! We know that working in ministry comes with lots of challenges, blessings, surprises, and more, so we at LPi are grateful for all of those we work with at the churches we partner with on a daily basis. God bless you!

Updated 11-05-2025