Believing in dream goals over dream jobs
Learning path of Young Adult Track at Triennium focuses on resilient leaders
“Suddenly I found that I had a dream job that I never knew I dreamed of,” Bobby Watson told a group of nearly 50 young adults participating in the learning path of the Young Adult Track at the “As If We Were Dreaming”-themed Presbyterian Youth Triennium last week. For many delegates ages 19–25, the opportunity to attend a Triennium was a dream come true — especially after missing their chance before turning 18 due to the Covid pandemic.
Watson was one of several speakers chosen to address the group last week. Others included Dr. Tamice Spencer-Helms, author of “Faith Unleavened: The Wilderness Between Trayvon Martin & George Floyd,” and the Rev. Dr. Jerry Cannon, with a guest phone call from his nephew, celebrity Nick Cannon.
This was the first Triennium to offer a dedicated Young Adult Track, featuring two distinct paths: service and learning. The Rev. Jeremy Wilhelmi, who oversaw the learning path with the Rev. Maggie Alsup, said the goal was to feature speakers — especially those close in age to the young adults — who could share personal stories and model authentic leadership.
Bringing young adults to Triennium had long been discussed, but the idea gained urgency when 2022’s event was canceled due to Covid.
“I have been looking forward to going to Triennium for forever,” said one young adult from the Heartland Presbytery delegation. “But my year was the year canceled by Covid, so I was really disappointed. But when I heard about the fact that I could come here and do an opportunity for the young adults, I was over the moon.” The delegate, whose father is a pastor, had grown up hearing stories of Triennium. They appreciated that the learning path emphasized moral leadership over pragmatics and provided space to discuss issues facing the church from the perspective of young adults. As the only college student who attends the church near their school, they added, “It is nice to be around other people who are within the faith and have a relation to God and Jesus in this way.”
Abby, 21, from Mid-Kentucky Presbytery, said, “In the young adult track, we learned about what good leadership qualities are and what are some of the issues in the world that we might, as young adults, need to take on and make changes in the church to help it be more inclusive and more empathetic towards everyone.”
For Esinam, a college student studying nursing and a member of the Ghanaian Community Presbyterian Church, a new worshiping community in Irving, Texas, Triennium offered a chance to build leadership skills. Recently ordained as a ruling elder during her church’s chartering process to become Covenant Community Church in Grace Presbytery, she hoped to better engage youth in her congregation. “It was really inspiring. I was low-key overwhelmed at my first training because I was learning so much,” she said. However, she found comfort knowing that several elders were ordained at the same time. “We’re all learning and growing together.”
A recent Forbes article noted that Gen Z is reshaping the workforce, especially around purpose-driven work, authentic leadership and flexibility. Their experiences — as digital natives and with the Covid pandemic occurring during pivotal moments of their educational and career development — create a unique relationship toward efficient use of new technologies like artificial intelligence, work-life balance, trauma-informed care and management styles.
Themes of purpose, authenticity and flexibility were reflected in Watson’s session on Tuesday. Watson — now a policy advocate at Texas Impact and co-starter of Vidas Robadas — shared his journey through high school, college, and young adulthood and how those experiences shaped his interfaith policy work and the concept of faithful leadership. He named familiar Generation Z challenges: global crises like the pandemic, wars abroad and local tragedies such as school shootings.
For Watson, leadership means putting faith into action, being open to unexpected opportunities, relying on your support network, adapting to challenges and failures, creating positive change in your community, listening to and understanding diverse perspectives, taking initiative to address social issues and staying flexible and resilient.
“Everything that led me to Texas Impact was a series of failures, a series of surprises that I didn’t think would be important, and a series of people who got me to the next place,” Watson said as he introduced the concept of a “better North star.”
“I believe there are things you can want to be a part of that is a better guiding point to take you on a complicated, mixed and zigzagging path than if there were that one thing, that perfect plan,” he said. “I don’t think dream jobs are real, but I do believe in dream goals.”
At Triennium, young adults discovered how living out one’s faith can be just as creative, unexpected and winding as a dream.
You may freely reuse and distribute this article in its entirety for non-commercial purposes in any medium. Please include author attribution, photography credits, and a link to the original article. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeratives 4.0 International License.
