February Newsletter 2025

February has arrived, and we couldn’t be more excited! Registration opens this month for Summer Study and Yale Divinity School’s Youth Ministry Leadership Certificate Program. The Love of Children Program, which is being sponsored by the UCC, will have its first YMI event on February 5, “Context Matters: The Impact of Social Context on Emotional Growth.” There is still time to register. Be sure to explore our newsletter for more events and resources.

National Storytelling Week

The first week of February is National Storytelling Week. Explore our resources here:

	Storytelling and Youth Resources I Hear You: Creating Listening Spaces with Youth Stories of the Soul (Hope Lesson 1) Stories of the Soul (Hope Lesson 2) Register for “Storytelling with Spirituality” with Mark Yaconelli

Black History Month
February is Black History Month. We have resources to support your ministry, including:

Love of Children Program

In the Spring of 2023, the Justice and Local Church Ministries of the United Church of Christ was awarded a grant from the Lilly Endowment through its Nurturing Children Through Worship & Prayer Initiative. The Yale Youth Ministry Institute is honored to be a partner in this initiative through the creation of content and hosting webinars with experts in the field. This four-year program will allow the denomination to engage in thorough research to assess the state of Children’s Ministry in the United Church of Christ and then take that information and create a dynamic program to strengthen our local congregations in the work of children’s faith formation.

YMI has been working with the UCC to explore key topics such as childhood development, storytelling and spirituality, children in worship and more. Join us on February 5, 2025 for the first in this important series of offerings.

Upcoming Offerings:

“Context Matters: The Impact of Social Context on Emotional Growth” with Dr. Szu-Hui Lee, PhD, ABPP on February 5, 2025
“Storytelling with Spirituality” with Mark Yaconelli on March 12, 2025
“The Meaningful Inclusion of Children in Worship: Theology and Practice” with Wendy Claire Barrie on April 2, 2025

From the YMI Director: Stories

Dear youth ministry friends,

A question for all of us today:

When you are telling a story, what are you trying to accomplish?

I have long loved stories. As an English literature major, I had the privilege of being awash in stories throughout my undergraduate studies. And as a minister, a portion of my graduate studies involved poring over the Scriptures, mining for meaning, and learning how to embrace my identity as a holy meaning-maker.

Read full message here.

Summer Study 2025

Save the date! Yale Divinity School Summer Study will take place June 2-6, 2025 online. If you have not signed up for updates on Summer Study, you can do so by entering in your email address at summerstudy.yale.edu. Click in the box on the right hand side of the page.

This year’s schedule includes the following courses and professors. Click the course titles for more information on each course.

Harry Attridge, The Book of Revelation and the ‘End of Time’
Dr. Kenneth P. Minkema and Joseph Cochran, Jonathan Edwards on the Trinity
Markus Rathey, Sounds of Death and Mourning: Requiems and Funeral Songs through the Ages
Dr. Jerry Streets, Minding the Spirit Within Us: The Meaning of Prayer, Meditation and Mindfulness
John Hare, Faith and Reason
Donyelle McCray, Preaching for Introverts
Greg Mobley, The Book of Psalms: The Hopes and Fears of All the Years
Julie Faith Parker, The Bible Through Art and Artifact III

Registration is now open at summerstudy.yale.edu!

Yale Divinity School Certificate in Youth Ministry Leadership

The Yale Divinity School Certificate in Youth Ministry Leadership is a nine-month, digital, cohort-based program where participants will learn from select faculty and staff from Yale Divinity School and other leading institutions. The next cohort for this academic and practical primer on the themes relevant to leading resilient, healthy, theologically rooted youth ministries will run from September 2025 – May 2026. For more information click here.


Context Matters: The Impact of Social Context on Emotional Growth with Dr. Szu-Hui Lee, PhD, ABPP Zoom \| February 5 \| 12-1:30 pm This presentation will give youth workers, parents and educators a chance to examine the context and environment within which our children are developing socially and emotionally. The goal of this seminar is to offer a framework for understanding the WHY so we can identify the WHAT and HOW when we are working to support youth today. Participants will also be invited to think about how their own context can show up in their interactions with youth and ways to be mindful of those impacts. Learn more and register here.	Overturning your ‘Immunity to Change’ with Dr. Robert Kegan Zoom \| March 3 \| 12 – 3:30 pm Eastern \| Free Event In partnership with Andover Newton Seminary and Berkeley Divinity School “Immunity to Change” is a novel approach to personal improvement– now being deployed all over the world–which surfaces and engages those aspects of a person’s underlying mindset that prevent them from bringing about the very changes they most want to make. This free workshop will provide participants a fast-moving opportunity to try on this approach for themselves, conducted by one of its creators, Harvard professor Robert Kegan. Come with a Personal Improvement Goal you most want to work on in mind! Learn more and register here.

Storytelling with Spirituality with Mark Yaconelli Zoom \| March 12 \| 12-1:30 pm Through lecture, exercises, and discussion we will explore how both biblical and personal stories can become a “thin place” for encountering the Sacred and the depths of our human experience. Learn more and register here.	The Meaningful Inclusion of Children in Worship: Theology and Practice with Wendy Claire Barrie Zoom \| April 2 \| 12 -1:30 pm Corporate worship is the work and the joy of the people of God, and when the body of Christ gathers, we are incomplete without the active presence and meaningful participation of children and youth. What can this engagement look like (feel like, sound like, smell like, taste like) in liturgy, and why does it matter to the formation of people of all ages? Canon Wendy Claire Barrie will lead this webinar exploring the theological whys and practical hows of incorporating children and youth into congregational worship. Learn more and register here.

Crafting an Easter Sermon You Can't Wait to Preach

Ministering to Those Impacted by Suicide
Zoom | February 7 | 11:30 – 1:30 pm Eastern

This training will increase awareness of the impacts of suicide, teach practical tools for responding appropriately and sufficiently in times of suicidal need, and expand the thinking of leaders about how churches and organizations can proactively address the hopelessness and isolation that contribute to suicidality.

Learn more and register here.

Crafting an Easter Sermon You Can’t Wait to Preach
Zoom | March 10 – 14 | 11 – 12:30 pm Eastern

Apply Backstory Preaching’s foundational sermon prep framework to crafting sermons throughout the Easter season you believe in and can’t wait to preach. In this process, rooted in prayer and practical tools, you will discover a framework you can rely on week after week to prepare sermons more efficiently and with more joy. You will discover how to experience sermon prep as a spiritual respite, versus as a purely academic exercise.

Learn more and register here.

If you’d like to help support our mission, you can make a donation here. There is joy to be found in practicing generosity. Your gift will enable us to continue to provide the necessary tools and resources that support life changing ministries.

Connect with Yale Youth Ministry Institute

Connect with the Center for Continuing Education and Yale Bible Study


Context Matters: The Impact of Social Context on Emotional Growth with Dr. Szu-Hui Lee, PhD, ABPP Zoom \| February 5 \| 12-1:30 pm This presentation will give youth workers, parents and educators a chance to examine the context and environment within which our children are developing socially and emotionally. The goal of this seminar is to offer a framework for understanding the WHY so we can identify the WHAT and HOW when we are working to support youth today. Participants will also be invited to think about how their own context can show up in their interactions with youth and ways to be mindful of those impacts. Learn more and register here.	Overturning your ‘Immunity to Change’ with Dr. Robert Kegan Zoom \| March 3 \| 12 – 3:30 pm Eastern \| Free Event In partnership with Andover Newton Seminary and Berkeley Divinity School “Immunity to Change” is a novel approach to personal improvement– now being deployed all over the world–which surfaces and engages those aspects of a person’s underlying mindset that prevent them from bringing about the very changes they most want to make. This free workshop will provide participants a fast-moving opportunity to try on this approach for themselves, conducted by one of its creators, Harvard professor Robert Kegan. Come with a Personal Improvement Goal you most want to work on in mind! Learn more and register here.

Storytelling with Spirituality with Mark Yaconelli Zoom \| March 12 \| 12-1:30 pm Through lecture, exercises, and discussion we will explore how both biblical and personal stories can become a “thin place” for encountering the Sacred and the depths of our human experience. Learn more and register here.	The Meaningful Inclusion of Children in Worship: Theology and Practice with Wendy Claire Barrie Zoom \| April 2 \| 12 -1:30 pm Corporate worship is the work and the joy of the people of God, and when the body of Christ gathers, we are incomplete without the active presence and meaningful participation of children and youth. What can this engagement look like (feel like, sound like, smell like, taste like) in liturgy, and why does it matter to the formation of people of all ages? Canon Wendy Claire Barrie will lead this webinar exploring the theological whys and practical hows of incorporating children and youth into congregational worship. Learn more and register here.

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