New Offerings

The semester at Yale Divinity School is over and summer is almost here. As we enter the lazy days of summer, don’t forget to check out our newest offerings. You can access them at home, on your laptop, iPad or phone, at the beach, or at church. And they’re available for free! We have resources on storytelling and youth, faith practices for the summer, and a new YDS introductory course. Some are highlighted below. For our full suite of offerings, visit our website. Enjoy!

Visit our website here.

There is an old expression about faith: “Faith is more caught than taught.” And fewer things “catch” people’s attention, empathic feelings, and imaginations better than stories. As we listen to young people, how good are we at receiving their stories, and interweaving them with stories of faith, so that they can feel a sense of interconnectedness?

In March of 2023, YMI was pleased to host a gathering with Mark Yaconelli. Yaconelli spoke to those gathered about telling stories, and deep listening practices with youth. The following videos and accompanying questions have been compiled into a resource. We hope this resource will be helpful to you in your journey of reimagining your youth ministry.

Learn more here.

Practice Faith at Home

With Sunday School ending for the summer, help parents to develop faith practices for the family at home. The Rev. Traci Smith, author of Faithful Families, discusses the fundamentals of developing daily faith practices and outlines the role that ministry leaders play in encouraging and supporting families.

Watch the video here.

The Rev. Traci Smith also shares four short videos on practices for Mindfulness, Serving Others, Dinner Time, and Bedtime.

Watch the videos here.

Learning Beyond the Walls – New YDS Introductory Course

Want to see what it’s like to be a YDS student in the lecture hall? You can view our latest recorded YDS introductory course – Introduction to Christian Ethics with Professor Jennifer Herdt – at no cost!

This course is an introduction to Christian moral norms, ideals, and practices, and to some classical and contemporary disputes over their substance and application. Drawing upon a variety of historical and contemporary sources, we explore what difference Christian commitments make for assessing the ends that human beings pursue, the actions we permit and prohibit, and the traits of character we praise, tolerate, and admonish. We consider the ways in which Christian moral thinking is shaped by the Hebrew Bible and New Testament before considering interlocking questions concerning the ethics of the use of force, the economy, property, prison abolition, immigration, families, disabilities, environmental justice, and food.

Watch the videos here.