Welcome! If you're here, then hopefully that means you're looking to become involved with youth ministry. If that's the case, then you've come to the right place!

My name is Ryan Neill and I am the Director of Youth Ministry here at St. Matthew's. It is an honor and a privilege to serve our young Church, and I would like to personally invite you to come see what our program is all about. This past year we have been really focusing on our middle school ministry (5th-8th grade), and this year we are gearing up to do more with our high school youth as well (9th-12th grade).

Our middle school youth nights are loosely based on Life Teen's Edge programming, but we try to keep things a bit lighter and more fun. We meet regularly on Fridays from 5:30pm-715pm, so if this sounds like your group, please come out and join us and learn about some of the other exciting opportunities we can offer, like summer trips and service opportunities!

As for our high school programming, we will be starting monthly Life Teen meetings on the third Sunday of each month following the 5pm Mass, from 6:15pm-8pm. We will have a kick-off dinner on September 18th, with an overview of some of the exciting opportunities we will have available this year, so I hope you will consider joining us if this sounds like your age group! 

Registration forms will need to be submitted either in person or online (below). We send out regular updates through Evangelus, which lets us send text and email simultaneously, so please be sure to indicate a preferred contact method for both youth and guardians.

We hope you'll consider joining us!

If you are looking to join our ministry as an adult volunteer, I invite you to look over our Ministry Team page and review the values we seek to uphold and our code of conduct, then reach out so we can meet and discuss available opportunities.

Ryan Neill  |   ryan@stmatthewsjax.com  |  (904) 388-1207

Religious Education does not end when a young person receives the sacrament of Confirmation. In fact, religious education is a life-long process. We invite and encourage young people to join with their peers in this continuing journey. Youth Ministry helps to foster the total personal and spiritual growth of each young adult. Youth Ministry also seeks to draw young people to responsible participation in the faith community.

It is our mission at St. Matthew’s Youth Group to give the youth of our parish an active role in the church. By being open to new people, ideas, and giving back to the community, we enhance the goodness of the human heart. We strive to set an example for tomorrow’s youth while having fun experiencing God’s blessings in different ways. 

Also, be sure to follow us online at:

@StMatthews YouthMinistry	@smcatholicyouth
@smcatholicyouth	@smcatholicyouth