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 Jayna Leitze Youth Sunday (yooth suhn-day) noun: Traditionally, a day during which the youth group of a church is in charge of the church service(s) on a particular Sunday of the year. adjective: A crazy idea, meant to drive a youth minister insane, though it can be completely awesome. Or, it can crash and […]
by Jenn Parrish Every time Youth Sunday rolls around my stomach ties itself up in knots. My hands start to shake and I swear I drink at least drink one pot of coffee throughout the morning to calm myself down and breathe. I’m always so worried that I won’t be able to find a student […]
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 […]
by Mike Adkins I hope you’re better than I when it comes to this, but I am majorly guilty of critiquing speakers when I listen as a part of their audience. Conference emcees, my senior pastor, the President . . . no one is safe! I’ll elbow my neighbors and share snide comments about the […]
L to R: Teresa Johnson (Dwight’s mom), Dwight Johnson, Arisie Marshall (Dwight’s cousin), Regina Marshall (Dwight’s aunt) My name is Dwight Johnson and I am a second year graduate resident here at CYMT. I am originally from Amory, Miss., but call Jackson, Miss. home since I graduated from Millsaps College and I received my bachelor […]
Above, from left: Overton Colton, Vice Chairman of CYMT’s Board of Directors; Katie Edwards, Jim’s lovely wife; Lesleigh Carmichael, Director of Coaching; Jim Edwards, Director of Finance. When CYMT was founded in 2006, we hired Lesleigh Carmichael to be our administrator. We didn’t hire her because she had experience as an administrative assistant. We hired […]
In a recent church staff meeting, I found myself pleading for worship moments that model the faith for parents, youth, and children. We have a generation of parents who are highly invested in their children’s lives, especially their academics and extra-curricular activities. How do we as a church harness those parents’ passion for their children […]
by Lisa Long I grew up in a traditionally conservative denomination, one that does not allow women to be leaders or pastors or even teach men who are not younger than they are. Sometime after my parents’ divorce when I was in grade school, my faith, studying the Word, and my relationship with God became […]
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