Save the Dates for the 2009-10 Princeton Forums on Youth Ministry!

November 3-5, 2009
Kanuga Conference Center, Hendersonville, NC
Registration for the fall Forum will be open July 2009.

April 26 - 28, 2010
Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJRegistration for the spring Forum will open fall of 2009.

The Princeton Lectures on Youth, Church and Culture will be offered by:

Shane Claiborne (Princeton)
Shane Claiborne is a founding member of The Simple Way faith community in Philadelphia, PA and author of The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical. He is an original voice, a creative spirit, in a gathering movement of young people known as the "new monastics." With virtues like simplicity and imagination, they are engaging great contradictions of our culture - beginning with the gap between the churches they were raised in, the needs of the poor, and the "loneliness" they find in our culture's vision of adulthood.

Kenda Creasy Dean (Kanuga and Princeton)
Kenda Dean is associate professor of youth, church, and culture at Princeton Theological Seminary. She specializes in theology and adolescence, Christian formation and discipleship, practical theology, and theology and culture. Kenda is an ordained United Methodist minister. Her publications include The Godbearing Life: The Art of Soul-Tending for Youth Ministry; Starting Right: Thinking Theologically about Youth Ministry; and Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church.

Peter J. Gomes (Princeton)
The Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes is an American Baptist minister ordained to the Christian Ministry by The First Baptist Church of Plymouth, Massachusetts. Since 1970 he has served in The Memorial Church, Harvard University; and since 1974 as Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in The Memorial Church. His numerous publications include New York Times and national best-selling books, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart, (1996); and Sermons: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living (1998), as well as The Backward Glance and the Forward Look (2005).

Rodger Nishioka (Kanuga):
Rodger Nishioka holds the Benton Family chair in Christian education at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA. While he teaches in the area of Christian education and practical theology, he specializes in ministry with youth and young adults. Prior to his joining the faculty at Columbia, Rodger served for 12 years as denominational staff in youth & young adult ministry for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The Forum Preachers will be:

Pamela Driesell (Kanuga)
Pam Driesell is the pastor of Oconee Presbyterian Church in Athens, Georgia. The Oconee congregation began as a small group in Driesell's home in 1999 and received the 2004 Walton Award for Excellence in New Church Development. A frequent speaker and retreat leader around the US, Pam also has many years of experience in youth ministry.

Luke Powery (Princeton)
Luke is the Perry and Georgia Engle Assistant Professor of Homiletics at Princeton Theological Seminary. Nurtured in the Holiness-Pentecostal tradition, he is an ordained Baptist minister who has served in an ecumenical capacity in churches throughout Switzerland, Canada, and the United States. He is author of the forthcoming book, Spirit Speech: Lament and Celebration in Preaching and serves on the lectionary team for The African American Lectionary, a Lilly-funded project.