Grace Blackstock knew that she wasn’t dreaming.
Yet when the 18-year-old Denver native was tapped to help plan the 2025 Presbyterian Youth Triennium (PYT) — themed, not coincidentally, “As If We Were Dreaming” — she practically had to pinch herself.
“The production team is really great,” she said of the cohort of volunteers who, alongside national staff members in the PC(USA)’s Office of Presbyterian Youth and Triennium, bring their passion for youth ministry to make the highly anticipated event happen.
Held every three years, Triennium is a gathering that draws more than 3,000 high-school-age youth, youth leaders and young adults from the U.S. and internationally. Sponsored by the PC(USA) in partnership with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America, the 2025 event will be held July 28–31 in Louisville.
Although Blackstock has held numerous leadership roles as an active member of Wellshire Presbyterian Church in Denver Presbytery as well as in her high school’s theater program and student government, the senior honors student and aspiring church leader said that she found the PYT production team’s process to be both exciting and new.
“When we all met last year, we talked about having a dream range of 10 of our craziest ideas and throwing them all out there,” said Blackstock, who has played an important role in helping to design the Triennium worship experience as a member of the Worship Ministry Team.
“It was really nice to be able to have my voice heard, no matter what my idea was, as we started to make decisions about which ideas would be realistic and what would be best for the conference,” she added. “I’ve never experienced that type of planning before. I really enjoyed it because it’s a good way to not shut people down and give ideas room to grow without necessarily promising anything.”
Encouraging young leaders like Blackstock to share their unique gifts with the church and the world is what the Pentecost Offering, one of the PC(USA)’s four Special Offerings, is all about.
Although the Pentecost Offering may be taken anytime, most congregations receive it on Pentecost Sunday, which this year fell on June 8.
“Young leaders are a gift who are all too often seen more as ‘developing leaders,’ which is a shame because many, if not most young Presbyterians, have deeply rooted ideas about how to offer hospitality, service, spiritual practice and witness,” said Gina Yeager-Buckley, manager of the Office of Presbyterian Youth and Triennium. “Our younger Triennium production team members, like Grace, and our volunteers have the ability to shake up what has been done in order to do what is needed now; what will have the deepest impact for ‘the young soul.’”
And because Blackstock’s life-changing experience on the production team made her curious about — and hungry for — additional volunteer leadership opportunities in the PC(USA), she spent two weeks last summer as an intern, dividing her time between the national offices in Louisville and the Office of Public Witness in Washington, D.C.
It was the latter placement that may prove instrumental in shaping her future vocational path.
“After spending time with the Office of Public Witness, seeing the magic of Capitol Hill and all the tiny little pieces that help put together a somewhat functioning government, I was initially going to apply to college as ‘undecided,’ but then opted for political science and public policy,” Blackstock said. “The work that I saw with the OPW to influence policy to align with the beliefs of the PC(USA) and seeing the way that they could advocate was really cool.”
In speaking with Blackstock following her experience in D.C., Yeager-Buckley said she was deeply moved by how the young leader described having taken part in a public demonstration.
“Because showing up is what we are called to do as followers of Jesus Christ,” said Yeager-Buckley, “Grace made me realize, once again, that leadership is formed by participation, by observation paired with physical exertion and passion. One of the most beautiful aspects of my job, our jobs, as youth ministry leaders, is being a witness to the moments when leadership development shifts to leadership decisions.”
Emily Enders Odom, Associate Director of Mission Communications, Interim Unified Agency, PC(USA) (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Nicholas Skaggs, Record Archivist II, Presbyterian Historical Society
Eva Slayton, Mission Specialist, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Interim Unified Agency
Let us pray:
Gracious God, we thank you that you are a miracle-working God and a multiplier of loaves and fishes. We thank you for your love and the opportunity to tell and show your love to all. We hold up to you the needs all over the world. Amen.
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