For the first time, the Presbyterian Youth Triennium (PYT) welcomed young adults to attend as participants. Young adults who are 19–25 years old and are active in the PC(USA) or Cumberland Presbyterian Church were invited to join the new Young Adult Track. Along with participating in PYT’s large group sessions (worship, recreation, group meals and more), young adults during this year’s PYT, held July 28–31, had the option to choose between two unique paths to further deepen their PYT experience — Learning and Service. Both paths began together each morning, exploring the theme and engaging with the Presbyterian Youth Triennium preachers. In the afternoon, they were separated based on interest before coming back together in the evenings after worship and recreation for young adult community time.
The Learning Path was led by the Rev. Jeremy Wilhelmi, chaplain at the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Arkansas, and the Service Path was led by Dr. Kris “Bubba” Brammer, director of Christian Education at the First Presbyterian Church of Lincoln, Nebraska.
With a background in both youth ministry and college chaplaincy and a love for PYT, Wilhelmi was a natural fit for leading the Learning Path. He said he felt called to fill the gap for the group of young adults who missed a PYT national gathering over the pandemic but is also excited about what this new track means for the future. “We have a future-forward vision that this might be a catalyst into some new young adult communities that could be formed going forward,” said Wilhelmi. “By adding this component to the event, we hope it will be the right steppingstone in discerning what the Holy Spirit might lead us to do with young adults in our denomination.”
In the conceptual stage of the Young Adult Track, Wilhelmi met with a group of young adults who are serving on the PYT Production Team. “It was loud and clear in asking them what they might like to see out of this” Wilhelmi said. The response was, “We want to find our people.”
“As soon as they leave home for college or the workforce, it’s not easy to build community. There seems to be a gap in our denomination once they hit their 20s, where they find people of similar faith and build community,” said Wilhelmi. “They shared with me a deep desire to want to change that.”
“For a number of years, I have wondered about expanding the participant age range into the young adult age range,” said Gina Yeager-Buckley, Presbyterian Youth Triennium manager. Yeager-Buckley defined eligible young adults as those immediately out of high school plus a few years, such as “young adults in college, young adults working and young adults seeking a connection to their church.” The pandemic and the postponement of the in-person PYT really pushed the needle for Yeager-Buckley and the leadership team to develop an official track for young adults and make the invitation.
“There is very little national PC(USA) programming for a larger community of young adults. There are fantastic and profound programs such as the Young Adult Volunteer program, various intentional communities and a Collegiate Conference that happens at Montreat in January,” said Yeager-Buckley, who wanted to expand PYT programming after hearing from former youth who participated in Triennium who’d said that “they really wish there was either a bigger place for them at PYT or a young adult version of PYT.” Yeager-Buckley highlighted the intentional hospitality that PYT offered young adults this year, adding that they had “a joyful, polished, purposeful space to be together.” She described “rooms full of new information, tailored activities, critical space to build community and friendship within the framework of faith, and peer-to-peer mutual accompaniment.”
Beth Waltemath, Communications Strategist, Interim Unified Agency (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Edward Thompson, Senior Church Consultant, Louisville, KY, Board of Pensions
Mark Thomson, Publishing Manager, Communications Ministry, Interim Unified Agency
Let us pray:
Lord Jesus, thank you for what you are doing in the world today to call many people from many nations to be part of your body, the church. Open our eyes to see what you are doing and show us how you want each of us to be involved. In your name, we pray. Amen.
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