Matt Zerrusen

Building Authentic Faith Communities | Founder @ Newman Ministry: Called App, Newman Connection, Newman Student Housing | Catholic Dad | Illini & Cowboys Fan

[Matt Zerrusen @MattZerrusen]

Most people don’t leave the Church because they stop believing.

They leave because they lose connection.

[Fr. Patrick Hyde, OP @frpatrickop]

Father Ben sharing the Good News about the growth in interest in Catholicism this morning from the Indy 500

[Matt Zerrusen @MattZerrusen]

The Catholic revival is real.

We are not ready for it.

OCIA numbers are up across dioceses. Campus ministers are seeing more students at Mass than they have in a generation. Young adults are showing up at retreats and adoration in numbers that surprised the pastors who scheduled them. Something is happening.

Here is the part that does not get said enough.

They are coming back to a Church that was not built to receive them.

Most parishes do not have small groups. Most do not have a way for a new face to be remembered next week. Most do not have a system for noticing when someone stops showing up. We have built a Church that is good at sacramental events and bad at relational continuity.

A twenty-three year old walks in on a Tuesday looking for something real. She sits in the back. Nobody knows her name. She leaves. She does not come back.
Not because of bad theology. Not because of the homily. Because no one knew she was there.

This is not a Catholic problem alone. It is the operating reality of most Christian communities in America. We have spent years optimizing for the weekend service and forgetting how to build the rest of the week.

The revival is a gift we did not earn. If we treat it like a marketing win we will lose it.

The Church does not need a louder front door. It needs a deeper second week.

What is working in your ministry for retention of new members?

[Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub @BRAVEpastorjeff]

‼️ Hundreds of studenta flooded the altar at Oklahoma State University last night.

There is no denying that God is moving in the next generation and especially Gen Z young men.

But why is God marking this generation?

⏩There is a HUNGER for meaning

They grew up in chaos—pandemic, anxiety, identity confusion.

Now there’s a rising hunger for something real. Not hype. Not noise. Truth. The truth of the Word of God.

⏩There was a loneliness that is driving them to real community

Isolation pushed them to search for belonging. Something beyond the digital.

And for many, they’re finding it in faith & in the church. They are choosing to attend church. Churches that boldly proclaim the truth.

⏩ There is a desire for authenticity over hype

They don’t want polished religion. There don't want spiritual hospice care. They want raw worship. Honesty. Repentance. Revival.

[Matt Zerrusen @MattZerrusen]

In October 1967, Johnny Cash crawled into a cave in Tennessee to die.

He was thirty five. Addicted to amphetamines and barbiturates for over a decade. His marriage was collapsing, his career was a mess, and he’d already survived one overdose that year. He drove to Nickajack Cave on the Tennessee River, took a flashlight, and walked in as far as he could — miles deep into the dark — planning to lie down, let the battery die, and never come out.

The battery died faster than he expected.

He lay there in total darkness, expecting to feel nothing. Instead, he later said, he felt something he hadn’t felt in years — a presence, and a clear sense that his life was not his to take. He started crawling. He had no light, no sense of direction, and no reason to believe he’d find his way out. He followed what he described as a pull. Hours later, he saw a pinhole of daylight. His mother was standing at the mouth of the cave. She’d driven hours on a feeling, with a basket of food, certain something was wrong.

He walked out, went home, and began the long fight to get clean.

He didn’t become a saint that day. He relapsed. He fell again. But the man who wrote “Man in Black” and stood on the stage at Folsom Prison and spent the last decades of his life making the American Recordings was a man who had decided, in the dark, that his life belonged to God.

He could have kept it quiet. Country music in 1967 didn’t need another Jesus story, and Cash had a reputation to protect. He told it anyway. Sang it anyway. Wore the black anyway.

I keep coming back to the mother in this story. She drove hours on a feeling. I think about the people God has put at the mouth of caves for me , the ones who showed up without being asked, who somehow knew. And I think about whether I’m willing to be that person for someone else this week. Most days I’d rather stay home.

Lead anyway.

[Matt Zerrusen @MattZerrusen]

@RedWoods89 @honorablesaint Those 20k chose that mass.

[Matt Zerrusen @MattZerrusen]

@RedWoods89 @honorablesaint St Ann’s. There were 20k+ who attended Easter services here.

[Sean Callahan @Sean_Callahan]

Husker fans have not only over taken Oklahoma City’s hotels, bars and restaurants, they also just overtook St. Joseph’s Old Cathedral for 4 pm mass. The priest couldn’t believe how much red was there. The church sat 700 people and was 85 percent Husker fans.

[Joe Piscopo @JrzyJoePiscopo]

“If you want to be happy for an hour eat a steak if you want to be happy for a day go play golf. If you wanna be happy for a week go take a vacation, but if you wanna be happy for a lifetime, put your faith in Jesus Christ.”
#RIP Lou Holtz

[Natalie Jean Beisner @NJBeisner]

Likely the best thing you’ll see on the internet today.

During a confessional hearing on Minnesota fraud (featuring Walz and AG Ellison), Representative Cloud (Tx) schools a female woke “reverend” in what Matthew 25 really means and what God really commands when it comes to charity.

“I’m always amazed in DC how much we get to define our personal worth as a politician by how much of OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY WE GIVE AWAY.”

[Matt Zerrusen @MattZerrusen]

Don’t wait until you’re perfect to start showing up.

I used to think I needed to clean up first. That I had to be more consistent, get my life in order and then I’d be ready to go to church, join a group and take faith seriously.

But if I had waited until I felt “ready,” I never would’ve started. Faith doesn’t begin when you’ve got it all figured out. It begins when you show up anyway.

Even with your doubts. Even with your mess. Even when it’s awkward, uncomfortable or unfamiliar. God doesn’t ask you to be polished. God asks you to be present.

So show up. Even if it’s not every Sunday. Even if it’s just one friend, one step, one try. That’s where it starts.

[Matt Zerrusen @MattZerrusen]

@PaulAnleitner Revival is happening on our college campuses. We are seeing 10%+ increases in attendance and engagement across the country.

[Matt Zerrusen @MattZerrusen]

Most ministries wait for people to walk in the door. And when they do, we welcome them like it matters, because it does.

But for most students, the real question gets answered earlier: “Would anyone expect me there?”

The window for belonging is not when someone arrives. It is in the weeks before they arrive, when they are still deciding whether they belong anywhere at all.

We are learning this firsthand. Our Faith Forward program at Newman Connection connects high school students to college campus ministries before they leave home. The entire program is a bet that pre-arrival structure matters as much as post-arrival programming.

Presence, Process, Proof.
Presence: someone has to see the student before the student sees themselves as part of a community.
Process: a system has to make sure the right person shows up at the right moment.
Proof: the student has to feel, not just hear, that they are expected.

Most communities invest in the welcome. Few invest in what makes the welcome possible.

What structures do you have in place before someone walks in the door?
Are we doing this well?

[Matt Zerrusen @MattZerrusen]

@cnalive That front courtyard feels so uninviting. One prompt and look at the change.

[Matt Zerrusen @MattZerrusen]

Catholic colleges are about to face their hardest test in decades.

Enrollment is projected to fall sharply through 2030. Budgets will tighten. Departments will close. Some schools won't survive.

The question isn't whether cuts are coming. The question is what gets protected when resources get tight.

Mission statements don't prove identity. Budget allocations do. Hiring decisions do. What stays funded when everything else is on the table… that's the truth.

I've watched mission driven organizations make these calls. The ones that survive with their soul intact are the ones who decided in advance what they will not compromise. Core theology. Formation programs. The people who actually do the discipleship work.

The ones that drift do it slowly. A little less here. A practical adjustment there. Then one day they wake up and realize they're a school that happens to be Catholic, not a Catholic school.

What gets protected when resources get tight? That's the real mission test.

[Sachin Jose @Sachinettiyil]

More than 8,000 attended Ash Wednesday Mass at Texas A&M

Image: St Mary’s Center

[Matt Zerrusen @MattZerrusen]

We just released the national scorecard for fall semester campus ministry.

145 ministries. 96 Dioceses. Real numbers.

439,732 encounters with Christ in the Eucharist at Sunday Mass.
16,526 hours of Adoration.
2,141 students preparing for Confirmation or entering the Church.
618 students discerning priesthood or consecrated life.

Culture says faith fades in college.
The data is saying something different. Students are choosing Mass. Adoration. Formation. Discernment. They are not drifting, they are leaning in.

This does not happen by accident. It happens because campus ministry reaches students early, by name, before isolation sets in. When freshmen are connected before they arrive, 1 in 5 become active in ministry.

We are seeing a national revival of faith on college campuses. Not because of programs. Because of presence.

Leadership Matters.
@USCCB @ArchbishopOKC @BishopPaprocki @BishopBarron

[Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron]

A recent statement by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez illuminates the Marxist ideology which continues to take hold of American politicians. Here are my thoughts.

[Matt Zerrusen @MattZerrusen]

@IngrahamAngle *Adds Minnesota to list of states we will not hire from.

[Matt Zerrusen @MattZerrusen]

Pope Leo spoke directly to our young people today.

And he said something the Church desperately needed to hear:
God never tires of forgiving.
You are not alone in your anxiety.
Screens can’t replace real community.
AI can’t replace human wisdom.
And the future of the Church doesn’t start “someday.”
It starts with you... right now.

As he talked about mental health, distractions, confession, trust, and technology, I heard one message come through louder than all the rest:
This generation needs real community… and real shepherds.

Not more content.
Not more noise.
Not more “digital busywork.”

They need people who know their names.
Spaces where they can bring their 5%.
Friends who pull them toward Christ instead of away from Him.
Leaders who refuse to outsource discipleship to algorithms or hope.

To take Pope Leo’s call for real relationships and make it something every parish, campus, and leader can actually live out.
To help you shepherd your people, know their needs, and reach them before they fall through the cracks.

Pope Leo reminded us today:
We are the present Church. Not the future one.
And if that’s true, then the work starts now:

Build community.
Shepherd people.
Lead anyway.
And make sure no one walks alone.

@ncycofficial @EWTN @EWTNews