Zenit Likes the Book

Zenit - The Vatican News Service gives my book another awesome review.

"Googling God: The Religious Landscape of People in Their 20s and 30s," published by Paulist Press, is written by Mike Hayes, associate director of Paulist Young Adult Ministries. In the introduction, Hayes explains that while some had doubted if young people were religious at all, there is a religious awakening among at least some youth.

Hayes provides an interesting examination of young people in the United States, with many points worth reflecting on. His book is also useful for the tips it offers on how to use the Internet and other media to communicate.

Read the entire review including some interesting facts on religion on the web worldwide here

Zenit is a worldwide news service and thus, Googling God's book rating on Amazon.com has skyrocketed from 35,000 to 7,500. Keep it going if you haven't bought the book as of yet.

Where's God

This needs a lot more editing but I wanted to get some reactions.

San Francisco Tour: First Stop: St Vincent de Paul

One of the best young adult ministry outlets in the country had me come and speak to a large crowd of book-buying young adults tonight. We even hit a bar afterwards.
John Brust, their fearless leader and their pastor Fr. Ring were gracious hosts.
They're trying to rope me into coming with them on their bike tour/wine tasting on Saturday while I'm here. This is forcing me to reveal one of my secrets: I don't bike--I never learned how--maybe coupling this with wine would be a good idea in my case.

Daily Breakfast with Fr. Roderick

Fr. Roderick--the host of the popular daily breakfast podcast--posted his recent interview with yours truly today.

Listen to our walk through Central Park here.

Hope you enjoy it.

Mike

Upcoming Events

October is chock full of events:

10/14 - St Paul the Apostle Church - BustedHalo Pre-retreat Event:
Join us at St Paul's to learn all about the BustedHalo Retreat Ministry--our next retreat is on November 9-11 at Mt Paul Retreat Center. Register Here.

10/19 - Providence Convention Center - Voice of the Faithful:
Join me as I speak to VOTF members about how they can better reach young adults. They are desperately seeking younger members. I think young people sense a liberal agenda with this group and perhaps rightfully so...it's the first time that I'll have an experience with these folks and I'll be a bit of a prophet in this neck of the woods...hopefully that will be met as a challenge by the membership and not a criticism. Check them out here

10/20 - Fordham University - Sapientia et Doctrina Dinner to benefit the Graduate School of Religion:
I'm on the committee for this dinner--it's $100/person but very worth it--superb food and the honoring of people who are doing great work in the name of the church. The big honorees are the priest and rabbi from the TV show--The God Squad. Register here

I will do a presentation on the book at the following locations as well:

10/21 - Holy Trinity Parish - 82nd and Amsterdam - NYC

Then all in San Francisco:

10/22 - St Vincent de Paul Parish - 7:30PM
2320 Green St.
(415) 922-1010

10/24 - St. Dominic's Parish
2390 Bush Street
(415) 567-7824
http://www.stdominics.org/youngadults

10/25 - Holy Spirit Parish
2700 Dwight Way
(510) 848-7812

10/26 - Discussion and booksigning at Old St. Mary's bookstore on Grant at California in downtown San Francisco on Friday, October 26 at 12:30pm (until 1:15pm). Mass is also at 12:10pm in the Church. Light snacks provided. Open to all.
Old St. Mary's Cathedral
California and Grant
(415) 288-3800

10/27 -28 - Holy Spirit Parish - Berkeley
Will be at masses signing books.

Cute Dogs Dig My Book

My chiahuahua, Haze Hayes, loves his new t-shirt which makes him a walking advertisement for my book. Perhaps my next book will be "Googling Dog."

Daily Breakfast with Fr. Roderick

I spent the last few days with the awesome Fr. Roderick Vonhogen of the Daily Breakfast Podcast and the Catholic Insider Podcast. What a nice man--and a good priest! He's from the Netherlands but has a worldwide audience on his podcast morning show.

It's a great show that doesn't merely talk about religion but instead talks about pop culture with an added view on the spirituality behind it. Of course there are other catechetical elements of the show as well but it's really more about the things Fr. Roderick likes to do.

Next week (most likely Friday) Fr. Roderick will feature me as a guest on his Daily Breakfast show which will feature a 45 minute jaunt we took around Manhattan together and chatted about my book. He gave it a great recommendation and it was just fun to walk in Central Park with someone who wasn't as familiar with NYC as I am.

Check his podcast out in advance of my episode.

National Catholic Reporter Review

Money quotes from the review of Googling God in the National Catholic Reporter by the obviously astute Erin Ryan:

Issue Date: October 5, 2007

GOOGLING GOD: THE RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE OF PEOPLE IN THEIR 20S AND 30S
By Mike Hayes
Paulist Press, 208 pages, $16.95

In his book for youth (my edit: young adult) ministers, Googling God: The Religious Landscape of People in their 20s and 30s, author Mike Hayes makes it clear that young adults are more than just the church’s “future.” They are the church now.

“God often is so far removed from young adult life that they long for opportunities where they can see, feel, taste and smell the very fervor of religion,” says Mr. Hayes, who points out the importance of following up these experiences with solid church teachings and guidance from ministers.

"In Part Three of Googling God, Mr. Hayes gives practical advice about methods of doing ministry and resources for further reading. He also stresses the importance of using technology, especially the Internet, and gives tips on how to start your own Web page, which every church should have, he says, in the age of Google search engines and instantaneous answers."

"Mr. Hayes also notes that all the young adults he interviewed wish for “a more collaborative dialogue between the church and young adults,” and that whether they are from Steubenville or from a Jesuit parish in New York, they tend to think beyond “liberal” or “conservative” categories. And from the interviews, it is clear that while their approaches to life are diverse, each young person has clearly given a lot of thought to the spiritual questions he or she has faced."

And finally, the big quote which refers to Mark Hart's Blessed Are the Bored in Spirit which she also reviewed in the same column:

"Both authors both clearly have a lot of experience with young people, but by letting the young individuals speak for themselves, Mr. Hayes winds up with the more engaging book.

She gets it. Now you can too. Buy my book
Read the whole article here: