Women in Youth Ministry

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: This season, we’re interviewing the incredible members of WYM who make up our board, moderators team, and conference team! This week our WYM Conference Chief of Staff, Bethany Parker is joining Heather to introduce our 2026 Conference Speakers! Bonus? You get to hear Heather's favorite unhinged icebreaker of all time. ABOUT BETHANY: Bethany Parker (she/her) lives in Columbi...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: This season, we’re interviewing the incredible members of WYM who make up our board, moderators team, and conference team! This week we are chatting with Samantha! We talk about her call to ministry and her passion for including youth who don't typically get asked into leadership roles. ABOUT SAMANTHA: Howdy! My name is Samantha Green! I’m the host of the stuttering christian p...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: This season, we’re interviewing the incredible members of WYM who make up our board, moderators team, and conference team! This week we are chatting with Christina and her passion for including students in your context - not anyone else's, babes. Yours . We also spend some time talking about how each of us rebuilt our personal community in our thirties, giving renewal to li...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: This season, we’re interviewing the incredible members of WYM who make up our board, moderators team, and conference team! This week we are chatting with Azia and how she responded to a need in her congregation, sparking a 15-year career in youth ministry. Her ministry is focused on empowering young leaders in congregations - and you won't want to miss her passion for it! ABOUT...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: This season, we’re interviewing the incredible members of WYM who make up our board, moderators team, and conference team! This week we are chatting with Jess and how her views of inclusion ministry have changed. In this episode we emphasize the importance of creating organic, everyday opportunities for inclusion rather than relying solely on structured programs. ABOUT JESS: Je...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: This season, we’re interviewing the incredible members of WYM who make up our board, moderators team, and conference team! This week we are chatting with Gwen and her passion for creating more inclusive environments for young people, especially and particularly in Confirmation! Stick around until the end to hear Gwen and Heather chat about self-compassion and its importance as...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: This season, we’re interviewing the incredible members of WYM who make up our board, moderators team, and conference team! Jennifer is one of the founding fathers of Women in Youth Ministry—she’s been here since the very beginning, 11 years ago! When she and Heather first met, they were both serving in the SBC, working in youth ministry and Southern Baptist group homes (no coin...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: This season we are interviewing all of the women who make WYM happen behind the scenes! We are starting off with interviewing Heather! 3 years ago, Heather's life looked massively different. She quit her job, ended her marriage, lost 100 pounds - and is here to tell her story about it all. This is the LONGEST episode we'll probably ever have - but after 75 episodes you...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: It's been two years -- and so much has changed! This season we are interviewing each member of our newly developed Women in Youth Ministry Team - but first we wanted to share Heather's keynote from the 2024 Conference as we prepare for 2026's! Sign up at https://womeninyouthministry.com/conference ABOUT HEATHER: Heather’s first love is youth ministry, and her second love is you...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: With the Women in Youth Ministry Conference just 86 days away, we wanted to take the opportunity to share this year's opening keynote by our Founder and SHE-E-O Heather Lea Campbell. Growing up in a fundamentalist church, Heather heard conflicting messages around being too much and yet not enough. Why do so many youth ministers struggle with imposter syndrome? Heather explo...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: Each year, it is estimates that a million teenagers walk away from faith. This is why Fuller Youth Institute launched Tenx10, a collaboration of youth ministry organizations with the goal of reaching ten million teenagers over the next ten years. Women in Youth Ministry is one of Tenx10's hundreds of partners, as we connect to the belief that by resourcing youth leaders, le...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: We grow up hearing "there are no such thing as dumb questions," and yet the Church has historically been a place where questions aren't always welcomed. In order to engage the next generation, how can we not only respond to their questions well, but set up an environment where they are comfortable to ask them? This is what we talk about with this week's guest,...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE : As women in ministry, many of us are up against the narrative that it is not "biblical" for us to serve in ministerial leadership, simply based on our gender. But is that actually true? What was it like when Jesus was alive? Heather Quiroz, author of First Century Youth Ministry, leans on the word of Dr. Dwight Pryor to explain what women in ministry looked like in J...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: Paula is passionate about creating safe environments for black-and non-black women to have reconciliatory conversations. Paula is the author of Dear Sister: There's Something Black Women Want You to Know , as well as several Dear Sister Events. This week Paula and Heather chat about what conversations need to be had, as well as how women in ministry can come together to sup...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: Amy is a youth minister, passionate about grief ministry. This week we talk about how to help students who are grieving. ABOUT AMY: Amy is a youth minister and Director of Operations in Murphy TX and has a Master’s Degree in Christian Counseling. She spends her time ministering at public schools, in the church, and through equestrian ministry. She has a heart for grief ministry...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: I met Roslyn at this year's WYM Conference, when Roslyn was repping Fuller Youth Institute. Roslyn recently posted about two projects from the Centro Latino at FYI that caught my attention: one on the Contextual Needs of Hispanic/Latino Youth & Leaders, and another on Self-Compassion in Ministry. Both of these topics are things we don't hear enough about -- and we t...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: Since this year's Women in Youth Ministry Conference, this team of 6 people have not. stopped. texting. Not only do they work together on various projects for WYM, but they're best friends "in real life." Today they're sharing some of their hot takes in youth ministry on various trends that need to die. With six different people comes six different opinion...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: Allie was a volunteer in youth ministry, serving as a Chaplain in the Substance Use Disorder unit in a veterans hospital. Then Allie got her first call as a pastor -- and it was to serve in youth ministry! The culture shock was big, but also not as big as you'd think! Her work as a chaplain gave her a big passion for mental health and spiritual resources; laying the groundw...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: As women in youth ministry, there are all kinds of different ways that we find ourselves struggling to fit in boxes that don't fit us. There are unique ways as women that we try to fit into boxes to create work-life balance. Add in church ministry -- especially youth ministry -- and we struggle to see what we have to give. And since most women are bivocational in ministry,...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: Lisette and I are both romantics when it comes to the Church, despite having experienced church abuse at the hands of narcissistic leadership. This week, we discuss the signs of a narcissistic leader, what happens when you call out church abuse, and how to spot narcissistic tendencies in yourself. If you have experienced church abuse, this might be a difficult episode to listen...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: Youth leaders are exhausted, and it's not because of the work itself -- it's from managing the grief of "what was" in ministry and wondering "what's next." Clearly the model we have had for youth ministry the last 20 years didn't work the way we wanted, as more and more people are leaving the faith-- so what can we do different to create life...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: Natalie grew up in a conservative sect of Lutheranism, found a call to ministry, and has moved to a more progressive sect. This week we talk about the gifts that her upbringing gave her, and how she is raising her kids differently than she was raised. ABOUT NATALIE: I’m a Wisconsinite who transplanted to Long Island, NY for 10 years, to come back to the Midwest in 2021. I grew...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE:  Heather met Sydney through Twitter (X? Are we calling it X now?) after seeing some of Sydney's spicy takes about church leadership go viral. Sydney experienced first-hand what it is like to be groomed by an adult in the church, and has used her online platform to call out church abuse. Today we talk about some signs of grooming in the church. If you do not have a child pro...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE:  In March, Heather met Azia at the WYM Conference and it was love at first sight. Azia's passion for student leadership landed her an instant invite to create content for the WYM TikTok account. Today, Azia shares about her heart for student leadership and how we can use students in any role that we use adults. ABOUT AZIA:  Azia is a youth pastor, an English teacher, the fo...

ABOUT THIS EPISODE:  During undergrad, Mary Helen completed a Senior Capstone Project titled “Why is the Church such a mysterious entity?” In other words - why does the WORD church stir up so many emotions in folks. Through a few years of research she discovered the terms "linguistic relativity" & "expectation violation theory", and how they contribute to why people mentall...