Youth Ministry in Cosmopolitan Cities
2020-21: “The Timothy Project” is aimed at enhancing leadership and advocacy skills in African immigrant youth in multi-generational and multicultural/mixed status homes. Based in Brooklyn, NY, but implemented across the city, this project will empower participants to see the links between “calling” in ministry and serving in community as other ways of fulfilling ministry rather than the notion of standing behind the pews, which is the common understanding in these communities.
2021-22: For this renewal grant period, the goal is to try a different format (summer session) for the program, and to work towards capacity building for the future.
2023-24: [Affinity Working Group] The goal of the group is to bring five youth leaders from Nigerian diaspora churches together to discuss and explore creative ways that they can revamp their youth ministries with a view to building spiritually strong and confident individuals and viable youth ministries. The hope is that at the end of the year, they will be better equipped to lead and disciple the youth in their care and if possible, create a program that can be sustained in our churches. Key questions they ask are: 1. How do we make Christianity and spirituality desirable for youth in our communities? 2. What are creative ways that youth can thrive in as people of faith in the city?
Oluwatoyin (Toyin) is an ordained servant of God, mother of three beautiful young women, and wife to Minister Oluremi Omolola. She is the founder and facilitator of The Timothy Project, a youth leadership program, and active in immigrant advocacy. She and her husband are both graduates of City Seminary of New York’s MA degree program in Ministry in the Global City.
Congregational and Community grants provide support for urban pastors, churches, faith-based community organizations, and theological institutions to share resources, ideas, and practices for life-giving ministry in cities across North America. Typically, we invite those who have not previously had access to resources or grant funding. This inaugural cohort of grantees included organizations working with children and youth, capacity building for a community. ministry, support for community healthcare, and research on congregational responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Congregational and community grants provide support for urban pastors, churches, faith-based community organizations, and theological institutions to share resources, ideas, and practices for life-giving ministry in cities across North America. Typically, we invite those who have not previously had access to resources or grant funding.
The Affinity Working Group initiative aims to provide time and space for HUB learning network members to engage in focused ways with others interested in a similar topic and questions around ministry in the city. We anticipate working group members to explore, deepen, and assess their own vocation, urban context, and church life; gain clarity about vital questions and issues in a particular focus area (eg. youth, arts, etc), and learn from group members’ lived experiences and other sources of knowledge and wisdom.
