The Vision The Center for Youth Ministry Training seeks to advance and extend the effectiveness of mainline church efforts to reach future generations for Christ by: 1. Training Youth Ministers and Church Leaders 2. Building Foundations in Local Churches, 3. Bridging the Gap to Seminary, and 4. Impacting Future Generations
	The CYMT provides the "special needs" training that future youth ministers need.

Who benefits from the Center for Youth Ministry Training?

Students who leave the Center equipped to serve the church with joy and competence

Partner Churches where youth ministry is strengthened by coaching and placement of students

The LargerChurch, which reaps the benefit of an increasing number of well-equipped, theologically informed leaders preparing the next generation of leaders in the church

Mainline Seminaries who receive an increasing number of gifted, called, experienced well-trained students seeking to deepen their theological training

Next Generation Youth whose lives will be impacted by the effective ministries in which they participate.

History

Given the widening gap between the kind of practical and theological training currently available for youth ministers and the extensive needs that mainline churches are currently facing in youth ministry, the vision for the Center for Youth Ministry Training was born. The Center began as a shared vision of Brentwood United Methodist Church and First Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, two churches with a long-standing commitment to youth ministry.

With over 40 years of combined youth ministry experience , the Rev. Dietrich Kirk (youth minister, BUMC) and the Rev. Mark DeVries, (youth minister, FPC) began to craft a shared vision for a Center that could provide hands-on training for future youth pastors, particularly for those stepping into their first youth ministry positions. The Center has become a concrete expression of both churches long range mission to “establish a youth ministry institute to train future youth leaders in the mainline church, particularly among United Methodist and Presbyterian (USA) churches.

Soon after the strategic planning process began, a collaborative relationship was established between the Center and three other institutions with complementary missions: Duke Divinity School (Raleigh, NC), The Center for Church Leadership at Martin Methodist College ( Pulaski, TN), and the Institute for Youth Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary ( Princeton, NJ).

On March 1, 2006, the dream became a reality after both churches had unanimously voted to support the creation of the Center.

Statement Of Faith

1. We believe in one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

2. We believe in Jesus Christ, God incarnate, whose death and resurrection make possible the reconciliation of God and humanity. 

3. We believe in the Holy Spirit, God dwelling in every believer and in the church.  

4. We believe the Bible to be the inspired, authoritative Word of God.

5. We affirm the church is the most faithful expression of the body of Christ on earth and unity of all believers in Christ.

6. We believe in the priesthood of believers, that all disciples of Jesus Christ are called to share in his ministry here on earth.

7.  We believe in ministry for and with youth, the church of today and tomorrow.