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Presbyterian News Service

Youth workers urged to ‘keep encouraging one another’

Lively luncheon at APCE Annual Event serves to connect, uphold and inspire

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January 31, 2025

Emily Enders Odom| Presbyterian News Service

Presbyterian News Service

MEMPHIS — Reaching eagerly into their brown paper lunch sacks and enthusiastically engaging the three conversation prompts displayed on the screen, attendees at the Youth Workers Lunch at the Association of Partners in Christian Education (APCE) 2025 Annual Event did just what the luncheon’s organizers had hoped they would do.

Network.

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PYWA luncheon at APCE
From left are Stephen Flavin, Children and Youth Director, First Presbyterian Church, Northville, Michigan; Shelli Dart, Director of Youth Ministry, First Presbyterian Church, Bellevue, Nebraska; and Chris Hecker, Director of Youth, Village Church, Rancho Santa Fe, California (photo by Emily Enders Odom)

“For me, this is my first experience with the PC(USA),” said Stephen Flavin, Children and Youth Director at the First Presbyterian Church of Northville (Michigan), who came to serve a PC(USA) congregation from the Free Methodist tradition. “I’m here to understand the culture and to network a little more.”

Sponsored by the Presbyterian Youth Workers Association (PYWA) and the office of Presbyterian Youth and Triennium (PYAT) of the Interim Unified Agency of the PC(USA), the luncheon was designed around the PYWA’s stated mission to “connect, uphold, and inspire Presbyterian youth workers to faithfully serve the one triune God among young people.”

One of Flavin’s tablemates, Shelli Dart, Director of Youth Ministry at the First Presbyterian Church in Bellevue, Nebraska, added that she was looking forward to “new ideas,” especially “creative ways to integrate our band, choir and show schedule with faith formation.”

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Dr. Christy Williams
Dr. Christy Williams (photo by Emily Enders Odom

As if hearing that very concern, Dr. Christy Williams, PYWA’s organizational administrator, opened the luncheon with timely words of welcome and encouragement.

“We understand your unique challenges and joys, and we want to be there for both,” Williams said.

The gathering then delighted in an appearance by the Rev. CeCe Armstrong, Co-Moderator of the 226th General Assembly (2024).

Armstrong, who — as Dart would later share with the gathering had so memorably preached at the 2019 Presbyterian Youth Triennium — offered brief remarks and the luncheon’s opening blessing.

“We do this work with love and joy and laughter,” began Armstrong, “and y’all need to laugh more! Feel free to practice now!”

She reminded the youth workers that they are doing the important work of “training the replacements.”

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The Rev. CeCe Armstrong at APCE
The Rev. CeCe Armstrong (photo by Emily Enders Odom)

“That’s your responsibility anywhere you go in spaces with youth,” she said. “It’s an important reminder that none of us is going to be here forever.”

Following a brief time of sharing their responses to the table prompts, the group heard from several PYWA board members, but not before Eileen VanGieson, co-moderator of PYWA, expressed the association’s excitement about being at APCE and their gratitude to the office of Presbyterian Youth and Triennium, which hosted and underwrote “a huge part of this lunch.”

She added that PYWA is one of five members of the Collective of the Office of Christian Formation of the Interim Unified Agency of the PC(USA). The others are the Presbyterian Older Adult Ministry Network (POAMN)UKirkPresbyterian Church Camp and Conference Association (PCCCA), and the Association of Partners in Christian Education (APCE).

Among the newest PYWA initiatives about which the group would learn during the luncheon was its new Youth Worker Map. As Board Member Rebekah Witt explained, the new map will be populated with blue dots representing UKirk sites, red dots for youth worker locations and green dots showing camps and conference centers.

“Maybe you have a college student and you’re looking for a UKirk site, or you’ve moved and you’re at a new church looking to connect with colleagues,” Witt said. “Once you sign up for PYWA, which is free, you can get your dot on the map!”

Board Member Kate Satterstrom pointed the group toward the comprehensive resource page on the association’s new website. “There are tons of resources to help get you thinking,” she said. “Don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to.”

Satterstrom announced that PYWA is in the process of developing a new sexuality resource, which they will be excited to introduce. She also commended the use of Quicksheets, which are free, downloadable PDF resources produced by PYAT on a variety of topics related to youth ministry.

VanGieson closed the event by inviting attendees’ membership and participation in PYWA, which she said is “actively trying to give you the support you need to make sure you thrive.”

“We know that sometimes this job is really hard and really lonely,” she said. “We hear so many of you say, ‘I feel so alone.’ But when you get into a room with such fun, energetic people, the spark in you ignites the spark in me. So, let’s keep encouraging one another.”

APCE is an association made up of those who are serving or have served in educational ministries, as ministers, professional or volunteer educators, or students, in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Reformed Church in America, The Presbyterian Church in Canada, and the Moravian Church in America. The 2025 Annual Event is being held at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis through Feb. 1.

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