By Renée St. Martin Wizeman

Dan Bartleson’s story could have deadended. His parents’ marriage failed when he was in high school and at 16, he moved out of the family home, “wandered the planet and explored things, got into some trouble.” Although he was nominally Catholic in his youth, the future executive director of Reach Youth Ministry had a conversion experience on the streets of Spokane, Wash., as a 21-year-old struggling with alcohol and drugs.

“I felt that God spoke to me,” Bartleson said. “He told me that he knew my name, knew who I was and loved me. I couldn’t shake that experience. It was a reality I couldn’t avoid. I went to a parish right after that, presented myself to the priest and said ‘I think I need to go to reconciliation.’” The priest encouraged Bartleson to watch, help and learn from the parish’s youth minister, and connected the two.

Today, Bartleson and his family have relocated to Helena along with Reach Youth Ministry, previously based in the Yakima, Wash., area. A collaborative ministry between Reach, which is a traveling retreat program founded in Yakima more than 30 years ago, and the Diocese of Helena’s Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry was announced in August. Separate from his Reach duties, Bartleson will be the camp manager for Legendary Lodge, the diocesan summer camp on Salmon Lake.

Conversion to Youth Minister

After his conversion experience, Bartleson volunteered in parish youth ministry. He participated as a Reach Youth Ministry team member in Yakima, then led a Reach team, and settled into parish youth ministry for several years. He met Renée, the woman he eventually would marry, and followed her to British Columbia. “I learned how to get over myself when doing youth ministry in Canada,” Barlteson said. “It was much more like learn to love the kids for who they are before you even talk about Jesus, which was different than what I’d been doing.”

In 1999, he returned to Yakima as Reach director. He had been a sawmill worker and found the transition to fulltime youth ministry challenging. He said he was “a little callous” and as the transition continued, he consulted mentors. They advised he spend more time in prayer.

Gen X, Meet Gen Y

Bartleson, 39, acknowledged differences between his generation, commonly known as Gen X, and the generation of young adults, known as Gen Y or the millennials, who participate in Reach.

“I feel like what we’re doing now with our formation with young adults is about principles,” he said. “I think that enthusiasm is so very encouraged, recognized and affirmed for this generation of young adults. And I think that’s wonderful. But it’s very unprincipled. It’s very nebulous and could be anchored anywhere one wants, with one being presented as good as another. It’s very relativistic in some ways.”

Reach encourages the articulation of Catholic principles, among them integrity, purpose and commitment, he said. “Then we give them lots of opportunities to try this out. We encourage them to make a commitment for a week and measure how it goes. Once someone can see their own growth, they start to value those principles.”

Bartleson said successful formation of the young adults in Reach requires having a relationship with them and being a relevant voice. “You need to have that openness, so that when they come back to discuss their experience, there is trust,” he said.

Reach 101

While Reach will operate out of new headquarters, the model remains the same. Bartleson said there are 16 team members this year. They are in two teams with five members, and one with six.

The relationship begins when members are recruited. Potential team members are screened for strong understanding of Catholicism and for faith commitment. Reach requires a commitment to serve for 10 months while living what Bartleson describes as “a very simple life, with a tremendous amount of energy expended every day.”

The formation has two major components. “We give them all the tools we can, at every functional level, so it’s all there for you,” Bartleson said. “But we also try not to increase their expectation of what they are going to do.”

Addressing the Reach teams on the first day of this year’s formation, the father of four said he is “a family man, and that’s what you’ll see from me. And you are Reach team members, and that’s what I’ll expect to see from you. In some ways, I’ll ask you to do things I don’t do, and you’ll see me doing things you don’t do. But being exactly, genuinely who we are, being who God made us to be, is something we’ll all do together.”

Formal formation spans five weeks. Week one addresses personal and team formation, including prayer life, communication and simple living. Week two focuses on Catholic formation, including the Nicene Creed and Catholic values. Weeks three and four are retreat components, including identifying team members’ proficiencies and the facilitation of retreats for junior high and teenage youth. In the final week, parishes are offered pilot retreats at no cost. Bartleson and assistant director Johnny Doran attend the retreats, then offer the Reach teams affirmation and constructive criticism.

Diocesan personnel in a number of roles provided instruction during the formation this year, Bartleson said.

The teams are organized in the first week of formation. Bartleson said there are efforts to achieve balance with respect to age, gender and the gifts team members bring to their work. Members must be at least 18 years of age. The cutoff age for Reach team members is 30.

Reach Rebuilds, Expands

Bartleson has been responsible for Reach team formation since 1999. “I want to teach the teachers now,” he said. “That’s why I’m excited about Johnny Doran and what he can do.” Doran was hired Aug. 1 as associate director.

Bartleson sees the director’s role as setting the tone, naming the ideals, setting the process in place and empowering Doran and the team members. The planning to create deanery service teams is on the docket for this fall and winter. The tentative plan is to launch service teams in both the Conrad and Missoula deaneries in 2011. There would be 10-12 additional team members, with formation and ministry similar to that of the existing traveling teams.

“A diocesan mandate for this is a really incredible opportunity,” Bartleson said. “The drawback of the national teams, for some dioceses, is does this fit with our diocese and our bishop’s vision? So the deanery team idea is specific to the communities, parishes, even the families and youth of each parish.”

He identifies the charism of team members as this: They are relevant to young people, they have young adult energy and they are idealistic. “Then we will talk with the parishes about their needs, the environment and who the youth of their community are,” Bartleson said.

Carrying the Lodge Charism Across

As year-round camp manager for Legendary Lodge, his work includes planning and collaboration with diocesan Catholic Formation Services and its Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry to reinforce youth and young adult ministry efforts already under way, and to continue Bishop George Leo Thomas’ vision for the Lodge. His Lodge manager position is separate from his role as Reach director.

“Bishop Thomas described Legendary Lodge as ‘high octane’ ministry, with a special charism there that he wants to see carried back to parishes,” Bartleson said. “The gift of enthusiasm that takes place there is something he really wants to make accessible and understandable for everyone.”

Bartleson expressed gratitude for Colleen Dunne’s sharing of her wisdom about the Lodge. Dunne was the camp manager for six years. Bartleson said he plans to stay connected with some seasoned counselors, “so the Lodge remains the Lodge. I see myself as a custodian of that vision.” He and John Fencik, whose purview as Catholic Formation Services director includes Legendary Lodge, are discussing how to establish continuity from one season to the next.

“The Lodge is bigger than all of us and that requires a core group of people, but also the fresh blood of new counselors,” Bartleson said.

He sees similarities between the retreats offered by Reach teams and the Lodge experience.

“I feel like what we do is very simple and very pure,” he said. “It’s about serving kids, helping them to know God better. It’s definitely about letting them have that experience for themselves on retreat. That’s what I saw at the Lodge, too. In order to get to that tip of the iceberg, there’s a lot of trying to be prayerful, to grow in our walk with God. It always comes back to those things for me.”


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 26, No. 10, October 15, 2010.