Youth Ministry Institute

In this interactive presentation and dialogue, we explore youth identity development from understanding the synergies between holding multiple identities, for example, Black, neurodivergent, LGBTQIA. Geared toward youth leaders, layperson, and youth ministers we develop approaches of how oppression, power, and privilege may operate across systems. The overall goal is to develop approaches of how to create safer spaces for youth in their relationships and community building efforts.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the relationship between oppression, power, and privilege
• Review key findings from State of Mental Health of Youth of Color – Aakoma Project
• Assess and understand developmental challenges of identity development in today’s social political climate
• Understand role of active listening and emotional intelligence skills

Climate change is creating a spiritual emergency that is hitting generation Z harder than any other. Today’s climate crisis calls people of faith to a communal spiritual practice of care, as we must learn how to offer care that is informed by the spiritual-ecological crisis of their generation. Rev. Aho guides us with her pastoral and chaplain experience to keep young people at the center of our communities and listen to the troubles they have to share.

Dr. Amy Adamczyk, Ph.D. is coauthor of Handing Down the Faith: How Parents Pass Their Religion on to the Next Generation (Oxford, 2021). Drawing on key findings from the book, she will discuss how parents view the role of congregations and how they feel that their own experiences growing up shaped their perspectives on childrearing and religious socialization. Data are taken from several nationally representative surveys and over 200 interviews conducted with parents from different religious backgrounds across the United States. Practical information will be provided on parents’ perspectives (placed within the context of ‘Intensive’ parenting, which has become the norm for many Americans), and will be grounded in how congregations can help families address these challenges.

For more on Dr. Amy Adamczyk, Ph.D.

Video from the event is here: Handing Down the Faith

Slides from the event are here: Handing Down the Faith Powerpoint Presentation

Have you considered what ministry in the Black Church looks like for youth and young adults today, especially Black girls and children who are queer? How might we wrestle with the ways that churches have supported and failed black children? How might we develop forms of pastoral care that offers redress to the current state of youth ministry?

Through a panel discussion sponsored by Andover Newton Seminary at Yale, the Black Church Studies Program, and the Yale Youth Ministry Institute, Dr. Kishundra King, Ph.D. ’15 M.Div. and Rev. Whitney Baisden-Bond will offer paths, prompts, and prophetic witnesses that students might implement in their ministerial toolkit. The proposed conversation will be supported and moderated by Dr. Almeda Wright. This in-person event will be held at the Old Refectory at YDS at 12:30 pm. Lunch will be provided.

Video from this event is here: Church Shoes