Kim Shockley, Coordinator for Pathways of Spiritual Leadership
The Young People’s Ministry Council (YPMC) has lived through months of interesting challenges, yet our spirit remains strong as we look forward to 2021! Despite the fact that we have not been able to have any of our fund-raisers, or build relationships with those who attend Annual Conference, or hold our Youth Leadership Retreat, we have bolstered ourselves and decided to continue to raise up students in leadership who engage, educate, and empower others to follow Jesus!
YPMC is working now to develop our online presence: through Facebook (Young People’s Ministry Page), the Conference web pages (igniteyoungpeople.org), Instagram, and other ways so that we can engage, educate, and empower others to follow Jesus. We are also working to finalize a current and active database of the Youth Coordinators throughout the Conference. As the local churches complete Charge Conferences this fall, please send the church name, name, and email of your current Youth Coordinator to our staff liaison, Kim Shockley at kshockley@susumc.org. She will continue to refresh and update this data so that we can send information directly to those who will use it! She is also interested in what new, wonderful ways of doing youth ministry have emerged during this COVID season so that we can encourage others with good and usable ideas! As our social media presence develops through the end of 2020, we will keep you informed as to how to find information!
As YPMC looks forward to 2021, we are actively planning several opportunities. One is our Spring Youth Leadership Retreat at Wesley Forest, which is scheduled for April 23–26, 2021. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we will be able to gather safely for this experience – “Lead from Your Strengths”! Save this date on your calendars and keep an eye out for more information as it develops! There will be four workshops taught by YPMC youth for the youth, and a special training event for the youth’s adult leaders who attend.
YPMC is uniquely tied to the Susquehanna Annual Conference’s effort to raise funds for the Youth Service Fund (YSF), which provides grant money for congregations who are developing youth for leadership by partnering with them to experience leadership! Because of our COVID experience, we were not able to raise funds as usual through the Annual Conference events. We did have some accumulated funds, so we look forward to offering grants before the end of 2020. However, we are looking for creative ways to raise funds for YSF granting in 2021. If you have any thoughts or ideas that would make it possible to raise funds for YSF, even if we have to do this virtually, please send them to Kim Shockley- kshockley@susumc.org
Overall, YPMC sees our work throughout the Susquehanna Conference to raise up students in leadership who engage, educate, and empower others to follow Jesus! We look forward to supporting and resourcing our local churches who truly are the energy behind this exciting work for a fruitful present and healthy future!
