Articles

by Kyle Bomar [This article is adapted from a message during the Collide service week.]   Where Do We Find God?   Where is God? Where do people say God is? Where is it that God shows up?   Often ...

by Lesleigh Carmichael 1/31/18 Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another man gets a ...

Born and raised in Memphis, TN, Anna Wheeler is a woman who will strike you with her huge smile, infectious personality, and gentle spirit. She has known since college that she has a heart for ministry, and it was during ...

Emily Mastin, class of 2017, recently graduated from CYMT’s Graduate Residency program. Through her three years in residency she has served at Franklin First United Methodist Church, and is continuing to serve her church as their full time Youth Minister ...

CYMT provided an education that pushed me to seek after God in study, worship, and conversation. I received much more than an education, though.  CYMT is a program that builds up the Christian in faith and in love.  I was ...

by Kat Bair AVOIDING THE TOPIC I sat in our youth building across from our new Director of Stewardship on staff. She had come over to talk to me about what the youth ministry was doing, and I, smelling an ...

by Pierce Drake The cooler air… The shorter days… The gatherings of family and friends… The gifts, food, carols, music… The Christmas eve candlelight services…   It’s Christmas time!   For those of us in ministry, especially student ministry, this ...

by Andrew Zirschky It is ironic that exactly a week after Christians in America were overcome with the emotion of Easter, that they were overcome again Sunday night with emotion concerning the death of another man.  This time a Muslim.  ...

The Center for Youth Ministry Training is excited to announce receiving a $1.1 million grant from the Lilly Endowment for the Innovation Laboratory for Youth Ministry. This grant will empower CYMT to create a research-based incubator for innovation in youth ...

by Steph Dodge 9/28/17 It's a new school year, and these Back to School Prayer Stations can help your students process their worries and excitement, and prepare them to start a new year. Open the service with the Back to ...

by Jason Sansbury When the box office season began for the summer of 2017, not many people anticipated the amount of success that Warner Brothers would have with its film Wonder Woman. Based on the DC Comics superhero of the same ...

  By: Dietrich Kirk and Dr. Andrew Zirschky In the wake of Charlottesville and all that has occurred since, we join many Americans who find themselves disoriented and speechless, including other youth workers who are left wondering how to lead ...

Toby Chastain First United Methodist Church, Hartselle, Alabama Toby has been the youth minister at First United Methodist Church in Hartselle, Alabama for the last 10 years and has been in youth ministry since 1996. Toby heard about the “Veteran ...

by Andrew Zirschky, Ph.D. Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt of Dr. Andrew Zirschky’s book Beyond the Screen: Youth Ministry for the Connected But Alone Generation, published in 2015 by Abingdon Press. Teenagers live in fear of losing their network. ...

by Fred Reyes, Senior Director of Camps & Recreation, Deer Run Camps & Retreats For six summers, middle school through high school, I was positively impacted by camp experiences that were combined with hands-on missions. My life was molded by ...

by April Kuykendall, Guest Services Manager, Deer Run Camps & Retreats Whether this is your first retreat to plan or you’ve done this many times, eliminate the stress of planning a successful retreat by determining each of the following essentials. ...

This is part three of a three part series. Click here to read Part 1 and Part 2. by Scott Gillenwaters There are those who believe there is no need for sex education in the church. They argue if we ...

This is part two of a three part series. Click here to read Part 1 and Part 3. by Scott Gillenwaters Teaching sexuality in the church can be a tricky proposition. Communicating your intentions with all of the players involved ...

This is part one of a three part series. Click here to read Part 2 and Part 3. by Scott Gillenwaters You can tell a three-year-old not to touch an electrical outlet and, usually, he or she will do what ...

by Tess Frohock “SEX!?” Talking about sex with our children can be one of most frightening things we face as parents. As both a parent of three young daughters and a youth pastor, I think often about future conversations about ...