Triennium debuts two Young Adult Tracks for participants ages 19–25
‘We want to find our people,’ young adult leaders say
For the first time, the Presbyterian Youth Triennium (PYT) is excited to welcome young adults to attend as participants. Young adults who are 19–25 years old and are active in the PC(USA) or Cumberland Presbyterian Church are invited to join the new Young Adult Track. Along with participating in PYT’s large group sessions (worship, recreation, group meals and more), young adults will have the option to choose between two unique paths to further deepen their PYT experience — Learning and Service. Both paths will begin together each morning, exploring the theme and engaging with the Presbyterian Youth Triennium preachers. In the afternoon, they will separate based on interest before coming back together in the evenings after worship and recreation for young adult community time.
Information on each path and a breakdown of their schedules can be found on the Presbyterian Youth Triennium website Young Adult Track page. The 2025 Presbyterian Youth Triennium will begin at 3 p.m. on Monday, July 28, and close at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 31.
The Learning Path will be led by the Rev. Jeremy Wilhelmi, chaplain at the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Arkansas, and the Service Path will be led by Dr. Kris “Bubba” Brammer, director of Christian Education at the First Presbyterian Church of Lincoln, Nebraska.
With a background in both youth ministry and college chaplaincy and a love for PYT, Wilhelmi was a natural fit for leading the Learning Path. He said he felt called to fill the gap for the group of young adults who missed a PYT national gathering over the pandemic but is also excited about what this new track means for the future. “We have a future-forward vision that this might be a catalyst into some new young adult communities that could be formed going forward,” said Wilhelmi. “By adding this component to the event, we hope it will be the right steppingstone in discerning what the Holy Spirit might lead us to do with young adults in our denomination.”
In the conceptual stage of the Young Adult Track, Wilhelmi met with a group of young adults who are serving on the PYT Production Team. “It was loud and clear in asking them what they might like to see out of this” Wilhelmi said. The response was, “We want to find our people.”
“As soon as they leave home for college or the workforce, it’s not easy to build community. There seems to be a gap in our denomination once they hit their 20s, where they find people of similar faith and build community,” said Wilhelmi. “They shared with me a deep desire to want to change that. We hope this PYT will give them some ideas and encouragement going forward to help make that dream a reality.”
“For a number of years, I have wondered about expanding the participant age range into the young adult age range,” said Gina Yeager-Buckley, Presbyterian Youth Triennium manager. Yeager-Buckley defined eligible young adults as those immediately out of high school plus a few years, such as “young adults in college, young adults working and young adults seeking a connection to their church.” The pandemic and the postponement of the in-person PYT really pushed the needle for Yeager-Buckley and the leadership team to develop an official track for young adults and make the invitation.
“There is very little national PC(USA) programming for a larger community of young adults. There are fantastic and profound programs such as the Young Adult Volunteer program, various intentional communities and a Collegiate Conference that happens at Montreat in January,” said Yeager-Buckley, who wanted to expand PYT programming after hearing from former youth who participated in Triennium who’d said that “they really wish there was either a bigger place for them at PYT or a young adult version of PYT.” Yeager-Buckley highlighted the intentional hospitality that PYT offers young adults this year. “Young adult Presbyterians from all across the country and the world (in PYT’s case) have a joyful, polished, purposeful space to be together,” she said while describing “rooms full of new information, tailored activities, critical space to build community and friendship within the framework of faith, and peer-to-peer mutual accompaniment.”
The Service Path is headed up by Brammer, who, with his wife, Kris Adler-Brammer, has a long legacy of Triennium leadership, including serving on the 2019 PYT work crew leadership team as production team “wrangler” and work crew coordinator, respectively. The Service Path originates from the tradition of staffing PYT work crews with young adults and past Triennium attendees, but Brammer promises it will be so much more.
“Yes, the Service Path will involve work — serving the conference with event set-up, breakdown, etc., but it is also far more than that,” he said. Brammer emphasized the intentional time spent on understanding what it means to be a servant leader, focusing on formation through community groups and unpacking conference themes just as other participants do. Participants in the Young Adult Track will spend their own focused time with Triennium preachers and will experience leadership through their behind-the-scenes work.
Brammer echoed the vision shared by Wilhelmi and Yeager-Buckley: “Finally, it is our hope that out of this time together, out of our time talking about what young adults need from the church, that something new will grow out of it, not only for them, but for future young adults in our denomination.”
Yeager-Buckley encourages mid council and church leaders to find young adults and talk to them about Triennium. This is an opportunity to notice and connect to young adults who have felt on the margins of presbytery and church life and to bring them into a place focused on their unique stage in life and its needs and opportunities.
“Do some identifying of the young adults in your church or presbytery. Reach out especially to churches that might not have typical youth and young adult staff or ministries,” said Yeager-Buckley. “Often there are young adults very connected by life to a church but distanced because of a lack of unique programming and community.”
“Find these youth and adults and talk to them about the Triennium! We really rely on the story sharing of the adults that surround our youth and young adults to ‘tell the story’ of why the Triennium might just be the best thing they could do right now.”
“Paint the picture for them of lifetime friendships, powerful and impactful worship and music, creative outlets and ways to engage.”
To register for the Young Adult Track, visit app.groupize.com/organizations/pcusa/events/2025-presbyterian-youth-triennium-individual-registration. To learn more about Presbyterian Youth Triennium, visit presbyterianyouthtriennium.org.
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