Director of Faith Formation for Youth and Young Adults Announced
Director of Faith Formation for Youth and Young Adults Announced
Rev. Wendy Mohler-Seib has been selected to be the first director of faith formation for youth and young adults for the Richard and Julia Wilke Institute for Discipleship at Southwestern College. She will begin her new position July 1. Mohler-Seib’s primary responsibility will be to work within a 350-mile radius of the college to identify students for a selective one-week summer summit at Southwestern. The Summit will help participants explore the spiritual call in each of their lives and will be administered by the Institute for Discipleship with funding by the Lilly Endowment, Inc.
“I’m thrilled to be returning to Southwestern,” Mohler-Seib says. “Some of the most influential years of my faith formation occurred at SC, so I am excited for the opportunity to give back in a way so many gave to me. For me, there is nothing more joyful than seeing young people engage in deep theological conversations and experiencing the life-transforming grace of Jesus Christ. This position is the perfect place for my greatest passions and gifts to meet in a way that I can positively influence others, particularly youth and young adults.”
Mohler-Seib is an ordained elder in the Great Plains Annual Conference. She is currently the senior pastor for United Methodist Church At the Well in Wichita. She has worked as an associate pastor at Chapel Hill United Methodist Church in Wichita; a student pastor at Kingston United Methodist Church in Kingston, N.J.; youth ministry architects consultant, and the director of youth ministries at Forest Park United Methodist Church in Panama City, Fla.
The Institute for Discipleship received a grant of more than a half million dollars to establish an annual youth leadership summit. The $506,403 grant is part of Lilly Endowment Inc.’s High School Youth Theology Institutes initiative, which seeks to encourage young people to explore theological traditions, ask questions about the moral dimensions of contemporary issues, and examine how their faith calls them to lives of service.
“My hope is that Southwestern College becomes a place full of burning bush stories for high school and college students,” Mohler-Seib says. “I desire for the Summit to be a place where young people encounter God and bring positive change to the world. The youth and young adults who will come to the Summit will have an opportunity to engage in theological education beyond a weekly Bible study or youth group.”
Mohler-Seib hopes to continue the tradition of sending Southwestern College students into ministry.
“When I attend young clergy gatherings in the Great Plains Annual Conference, SC alums are at every turn,” she says. “I want Southwestern to continue to feed the United Methodist Church with vibrant, thoughtful, engaged young people passionate about living out their faith through vocational ministry in the Great Plains Annual Conference and beyond. I believe we can build a network of hope and energy for young people to enthusiastically answer God’s calling.”