Lauren Gilliland (front row, center) serves as the youth minister at Munford First United Methodist Church in Munford, Tenn. She graduated in May 2013 from Memphis Theological Seminary and CYMT. I first became introduced to CYMT through Kris Konsowitz, CYMT’s Memphis Regional Director. We had several mutual United Methodist connections, and she was also working […]
John Padgett serves as CYMT’s Chairman of the Board of Directors, and has been on the board for three years. “Our children had a wonderful, positive experience as they progressed through the youth program at Brentwood United Methodist Church led by then youth minister Dietrich Kirk. When Deech asked me to lend my efforts to […]
Editor’s Note: This article stems from the author’s final paper in Theological Foundations for Youth Ministry, a graduate course offered through the Center for Youth Ministry Training and Memphis Theological Seminary, taught by Dr. Andrew Zirschky. by Neal Wilkinson “God is bringing life from death.” This is the crux of how I understand the good […]
by Mark Taylor Before some people see the word “flexible” and immediately think “relative” or “ambiguous,” let me quickly define what I mean by a rigid faith and a flexible faith. A rigid faith is a stubborn, eyes-closed, arrogant, unwilling to grow or learn, self-righteous, static faith. A flexible faith admits it doesn’t have all […]
by Lisa Long Our church celebrated its 100th birthday just a couple of years ago. For half of that century it has been located less than a mile from a local public housing neighborhood. Last year this housing community was named one of the most dangerous places to live in the U.S. Although the members […]
When I look across the struggle that is the church today, the greatest need I see is a church that is willing to hold each other accountable. We stand by and watch folks struggle with life, with faith, with depression, with … God help us. Jason Sansbury shares with us how to invite accountability into […]
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I’ve felt called to formal ministry since I was in high school in Central New York in the early 2000s. I registered for a lay speaking class offered by the United Methodist district where I was living at the time. My intent in signing up for the class was to gain experience in public speaking—I had absolutely […]
by Joanna Bellis When spring rolls around, I renew my love/hate relationship with a tradition that was passed to me in the church in which I serve: Youth Sunday. What’s to dislike about Youth Sunday? There’s always a possibility that anything a youth (and especially a child) does in front of a congregation can turn […]
by Jason Sansbury Want to do an interesting experiment? Create a Google news alert that will send you a message every time the words “youth pastor arrested” show up in a news story. I did this experiment for a few months before I had to turn the alert off. It is disheartening and saddening, and […]
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