COOPERATIVE YOUTH MINISTRY (CYM)

Hello everyone!

A heartfelt welcome to our returning youth and our incoming new members! We’re elated to have you all join us!

For additional information about the Cooperative Youth Ministry (CYM) program, please scroll below. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Rebecca Adams (rebecca_adamstaylor@yahoo.com).

Cooperative Youth Ministry (CYM) Overview

Cooperative Youth Ministry (CYM) explores youth-centered “faith that seeks understanding” in rapidly changing environments, including social media.

Middle and high school youths meet weekly, on Sunday evenings, usually from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. We gather to have dinner, a short reflection, and interactive activities to foster belonging, purpose, self-esteem, and youth-community. It’s loads of fun. From Iron Chef cooking to outings like Go-Karting, our Sunday evenings have dynamic movement.

Every other month, we volunteer in a service project (for example, spending time with older adults at Riderwood or packing and serving groceries for those in need of food through MUM).

In the summer, we are dedicated to a mission trip. Past trips include home repair projects in West Virginia; Neptune City, NJ; and Juna Diaz, Puerto Rico.

In the fall, we have our annual retreat in WV at our church’s Retreat Center. We unwind and recharge to restore our spirit, mind, and body.

We also take other trips. In 2022, we took a short trip to experience the themes of “immigration” (Ellis Island, NYC’s Little Italy, Chinatown, St. Patrick’s Cathedral), “freedom,” and other formative issues that bring witness to faith and values.

We welcome you! Please come, check it out and visit with us. Explore your imaginative faith and discover God. If you can, stay till after you graduate from high school. You’ll experience a lasting chapter of your life. You’ll always have a spiritual home to return to.

Registration Forms

CYM Values

Connection of Gospel and faith to social justice and service projects
Developing commitment to faith, hope, and love through lasting friendships
Inclusivity, acceptance, and encouragement
Reflection, fellowship, and youth being youth
Integration of the relationship, sexual education and ethics program Our Whole Lives (OWL) into youth development
Building intergenerational opportunities for worship

If you are a youth leader of a church, and you would like for your youth to join CYM for any activity or program below, to further build youth communities, we invite you to reach out to Rebecca Adams (rebecca_adamstaylor@yahoo.com).

Upcoming Events

This spring, CYM is on hiatus while we participate in the OWL program.

Past Events

Bowling in College Park, ice skating and a cooking competition were among the many fun activities in 2023! We also brought back our annual Spaghetti Lunch in February. This has become an annual fundraiser for our summer mission trip. Last year we were able to raise approximately $800 toward our trip!

2023-2024:

September 10th – Beach trip!
September 17 – Special Guest Speaker Event: “A Potluck and Parenting Journey” with Esther Schwartz-McKinzie, Ph.D., a passionate advocate for inclusivity, women’s voices, and LGBTQ+ rights, and author of “Speaking Out: Families of LGBTQ+ Advance the Dialogue,”. Parents of teens participated in a special workshop led by Esther (topics: Understanding Youth Sexuality and Gender Identity, Positive Parenting for LGBTQ+ Teens and Allies, and MCPS: The State of Inclusive Education), while teens had a fun, interactive session with Pastor Matt filled with games, fellowship, and spiritual exploration, and had a blast.
October 1 – CYM volunteered to distribute food for those in need at MUM’s Mobile Pantry
October 8th – Visited Riderwood retirement community; pizza dinner with friends.
October 15th – CYM prepared sandwiches to give to Shepherd’s Table for homeless people
October 22 – CYM volunteered with the CCC Fall Festival
October 29 – Ziplining on the ropes course at Sandy Spring Adventure Park!
November 4 & 5 – CYM fall youth group retreat, led by Pastor Matt, held at the Retreat Center in West Virginia
November 12 – CYM Focus Group and Games
November 19 – CYM Career Day!
December 3 – CYM volunteered to distribute food for those in need at MUM’s Mobile Pantry
Dec. 10 – CYM went ice skating at Wheaton Ice Arena!
Dec. 17 – CYM Christmas Party with Pastor Matt and white elephant gift exchange!
Jan. 7 – Making sandwiches for Shepherd’s Table + Potluck Dinner. Thanks to CCC member Kristen Brown for organizing our efforts to make 200 sandwiches for people in need.
Jan. 21 – Indoor Rock Climbing! We had a great time rock climbing at ClimbZone in Laurel. We had 11 preteens and teens who were worn out by the end.
Jan. 28 – What does it mean to love your neighbor? We will discuss ways to do this before making friendship bracelets for pediatric patients (SSL hours available) and a round of games. We will have a potluck dinner.
Feb. 4 – CYM will be volunteering with the mobile food pantry run by Mid-County United Ministries (MUM) in the afternoon. Aspen Hill Christian Church, 13501 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD (at the corner of Georgia Avenue and Hewitt Avenue).

We also routinely make sandwiches for the homeless, go into the community to volunteer with organizations like A Wider Circle or Shepherd’s Table or MUM (and earn SSL hours), build disaster relief kits for other areas, and participate in outdoor clean-up events.

Expectations & Volunteers

Expectations

We expect youth to:

Participate wholeheartedly
Adhere to the safe church policy, including language, behavior, and respect for church property
Let us know how we can better serve them.

The same for parents!

Our Key Values in Youth Ministry

Developing faith, hope, love and friendship among young people.
Inclusivity
Provision for “multiple intelligences” in activities and worship
Connection of Gospel and faith to social justice and service projects
Intentional experience with spiritual practices
Fellowship and recreation
Integration of youth with all aspects of church life
Building inter-generational opportunities for worship and mission

Youth Officers

CYM will have elections in mid-September for youth officers. We will rotate every four to six months to give as many youth opportunities to serve. Please encourage your youth(s) to get involved and serve. Officers will meet once a month, about two hours before our regularly scheduled meeting and help plan and execute our ministry.

Parent Volunteers

Our parent volunteers are “ROCK STARS!” They really make our program run smoothly and effectively. We strongly encourage you to volunteer throughout the school year (e.g., chaperones), and would love for you to get involved! We also have a set of parent leaders who help with the ins and outs of our program. We will remind parents regularly about volunteer opportunities.