The Role of Rest in Innovation: Leadership Academy Session

We’re all innovators now. For ministry leaders, 2020 has shifted innovation from a side-hustle to a developing skill-set. And yet we are suspicious of the new forms of youth and family ministry we have been forced to design and lead. We long for programs, sacramental practices, and worship to find their way back into familiar, physical space. We wrestle with how to address the families and young people who are losing engagement with our congregations. And, we’re tired.

Abigail Visco Rusert and Carmelle Beaugelin of the Institute for Youth Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary presented a youth and family ministry focused Leadership Academy workshop on Thursday, October 15 at 7:00 PM. We explored together the role of rest and resilience in ministry, using theological reflection and hands-on processes that you can replicate with your leadership team, volunteers, and youth in your context.

Meet our Presenters

Abigail Visco Rusert
Abigail is the Director of the Institute for Youth Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary, where her work bridges theological discourse with the practice of youth ministry: creating programs, resources, and teaching classes for Christian ministry leaders. She is currently leading a grant funded by The Lilly Endowment, Inc. to research and journey alongside congregations as they design, test, and implement new forms of intergenerational ministry in their context.

Abigail recently co-authored the book Delighted: What Teenagers Are Teaching the Church About Joy (Eerdmans, 2020) and is particularly interested in the role of resilience in congregational innovation. Ordained in the PCUSA, she has worked as an associate pastor, researcher, youth director, chaplain, and camp counselor. She lives with her spouse, Thomas, and children Dorothy, Solveig, and Frank in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

Carmelle Beaugelin
Carmelle Beaugelin is a visual artist and a “holy cheerleader” of ministry practitioners. Carmelle began to discern her call to ministry as a pre-teen at her mother’s small, but mighty, Pentecostal church in Miami where a strong teaching in the “priesthood of all believers” allowed her sense of call to flourish.

Carmelle received her Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary. In 2018, she joined the staff of the Institute for Youth Ministry and serves as the Program Coordinator on a youth ministry and innovation research grant project funded by the Lilly Endowment, which journeys alongside congregations as they design, test, and implement new forms of intergenerational ministry in their context. Some of her work has included serving as on the coaching team of Ministry Innovators, an “Expert Innovator” for The Center For Youth Ministry Training, and as the Artist-in-Residence at the 2018 Princeton Forum on Youth Ministry.

When she’s not conspiring with teenagers and adults on design projects, she enjoys acrylic painting, Haitian cooking, and black Cuban coffee.