CRC Member to Serve in Fuller Youth Institute Initiative
CRC member Myriam Kalmbach has been appointed as a young adult advisor to Fuller Youth Institute for research on young adult ministry.
Fuller Youth Institute is a branch of Fuller Theological Seminary, an interdenominational seminary based in Pasadena, Calif. Through research, Fuller Youth Institute aims to equip leaders and parents to help churches become places of welcome and growth for young people, says their website.
Kalmbach is well suited to assist research in young adult ministry, says her former pastor, Ron deVries. “Myriam served Covenant CRC in Edmonton [Alta.] by being part of its youth group before attending Dordt [University]. She also came back during the COVID-19 pandemic and helped to lead a local mission experience in downtown Edmonton at a place called the Mustard Seed,” said deVries, who serves as a youth and emerging adult ministry consultant with Thrive.
In addition, deVries pointed to Kalmbach experience with the denomination’s Emerging Adult Leadership Team, with a new residence experiment operating through First CRC in Denver, Colo., and with mentoring-event planning as part of Generation Spark.
Kalmbach heard about the opportunity to serve with Fuller Youth Institute from deVries. “I was interested in the project,” she said, “because, in the churches I have been a part of, I have had a hard time finding my place in the community as a young adult. I am interested in helping develop a better way to welcome young adults into the church.”
She applied and was selected by Fuller Youth Institute to participate in a group of young adults drawn from different faith backgrounds, age groups, ethnicities, and occupations.
“Since they are working to develop better resources for this age group, they wanted to ensure they had involvement from that demographic on the project,” explained Kalmbach.
Bret Lamsma, a pastor at First CRC in Denver, agrees that Kalmbach is a good choice for the research, citing her love for the church and young adults.
“She is very thoughtful and asks good questions while contributing to conversations well. She has become involved in many ministries in our church – Bible studies, women’s retreats, Sunday school, emerging adult groups,” he said.
Lamsma added that amid this activity, he also has seen that sometimes it hasn’t been easy for Kalmbach to find her place.
“I think that the questions she has and the struggles she has been through make her uniquely qualified to speak into young/emerging adult ministries in both the CRC context and Fuller Youth Institute’s context,” Lamsma reflected.
Kalmbach said that in her first meeting with the Fuller Youth Institute group, they discussed research questions that will be used to interview young adults about transitions and how church has affected them. In line with the institute’s goal of ‘turning research into resource,’ the current research aims to learn how young adults relate to church and how churches can better support young adults.
“I hope that this research will help retain more young adults in the future, showing them that they are an essential part of the church and have something to contribute,” said Kalmbach. She added, “Too often it seems that young adults are lost in the middle, viewed as too young to be involved influentially in the church, but too old for high school groups. I would like to witness a change where more young adults are recognized for what they bring to the church and they are supported in a way that they can develop and use their God-given gifts.”
