2025 Montreat Youth Conferences

Name: 2025 Montreat Youth Conferences
Start: 2025-06-01
End: 2025-08-02
Location: Montreat Conference Center

Light My Path

June 1–August 2, 2025 SummerYouth

A Montreat Conference Center program

2025 Dates

Week 1	June 1-7
Week 2	June 8–14
Week 3	July 6–12

Week 4	July 13–19
Week 5	July 20–26
Week 6	July 27–August 2

Montreat Youth Conference affirms youth in their calling to be and to shape the church of Jesus Christ. Our desire is to help youth come to know and believe that they are the beloved of God and to be a place where authenticity, community, connection, and God’s truth thrive. We seek to be an inclusive space where each voice can be heard and where each heart can be molded; where change is invited, challenge is expected, and where all are embraced.

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105. Drawing from the biblical text and our chosen theme Light My Path, this summer we will build an accepting community of unconditional love where every story matters. Through engaging worship, lively music, and practices of gratitude and fun, we will offer youth different opportunities to cultivate their spiritual faith journeys and practice sabbath. We will provide a secure space that is brave, loving, holy, and authentic so that we may glorify God in all that we do, inspiring and equipping a lifetime of faith.

Youth leave Montreat knowing that:

Their faith matters.
They are loved as they are.
They are part of a community of faith.
They are empowered to act for change in the world.

Check out the MYC Guidebook!

Feeling overwhelmed? Need some clarification about something? Check out the MYC Guidebook! We’ve collected lots of information we think you might need all in one, easy to access place.

Visit the MYC Guidebook

Montreat Youth Conference Email Sign-Up

Need to talk to a real person?

Have questions about registering? Contact Hope Barker at hopeb@montreat.org or by phone at 828.419.9828.
Have questions about housing? Contact Susie Burns at susieb@montreat.org or by phone at 828.419.9814.
Have logistical questions or need resources? Contact Susie Burns at susieb@montreat.org or 828.419.9814.
Are you a new group or a group who hasn’t come in a few years? Contact Susie Burns at susieb@montreat.org or 828.419.9814.

Leaders

Youth Conference Weeks 1 & 2

Casey Wait – Keynote Leader

Casey is a pastor, artist, and storyteller serving at John Calvin Presbyterian Church in Annandale, VA. A lover of the arts, Casey brings these gifts to her leadership at the church. When not at home or church, you can find her in her art studio. Casey is married to the Rev. Casey Thompson, and they share a love of their kids, art, church, the name Casey, and their only-slightly-obedient dog, Hildegard von Oodle. Casey loves both depth and absurdity and is grateful to serve a church which celebrates both.

CeCe Armstrong – Preacher

Pastor CeCe serves the church on every level and most recently was elected Co-Moderator of the 226th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She says often, "I love you and there's nothing you can do about that."

Kim Mendoza – Music Leader

Kim believes that everyone has a part to sing and play in the Body of Christ and can’t wait to hear the beautiful songs sung together at Montreat. She is passionate about teaching the Word of God in creative ways, cheering on the LA Lakers and LV Aces, and runs when she is excited!

Isaac Moshay – Music Leader

Isaac Moshay was born in Houston, Texas and is the oldest of three. At a very young age he showed a deep interest in the church and sacred music. Isaac serves as the Minister of Music at the Historic Ebenezer Third Baptist Church in Austin, Texas. He also serves as the Minister of Music for the American Baptist Southern District Association of Texas, Associate Minister of Music of the National Baptist General Convention of Texas, and Board Member of the Theater Organ Preservation of Nebraska.

Neeley Rentz-Lane – Recreation Leader

Neeley is the senior pastor at FPC, Covington, GA! She's married to Robert and together with their three daughters, they make up the Lane hot mess express! Neeley understands ministry as dancing with the Holy Spirit with one another! She enjoys reading, singing really loud in the car, evenings outside at home, and morning walks on her neighborhood trails.

Alejandro Salas Hernandez – Recreation Leader

Born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico, and since coming to the US, Alejandro has been working with youth and young adults. His motto is, "Life begins at the end of your comfort zone." - Neale Donald Walsch.

Youth Conference Weeks III & IV

Brad Clayton – Keynote Leader

Brad is the Senior Pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee, Florida. Brad has been coming to Montreat since he was a child, and even worked on summer staff with the Aud Crew when he was in college. Brad is an associate member of the Iona Community and he values ecumenical worship and conversation. Brad’s greatest joys are traveling with his wife, being a fun uncle, walking his dogs under the live oaks of Tallahassee, and cheering for the Atlanta Braves.

Julianne Clayton – Keynote Leader

Julianne is a spiritual director, writer, speaker, and podcast host. She has a Master of Arts in Spiritual Formation and Leadership and loves helping others remember God's presence, love, and call in the middle of it all. Julianne lives in Tallahassee, FL with her husband, Brad, and she is excited to spend time in Montreat this summer!

Samantha Gonzalez-Block – Preacher

Samantha serves as the pastor and Christian Spiritual Leader of the Interfaith Families Project of Greater Washington (IFFP), a community of nearly one hundred Jewish and Christian families seeking to practice both traditions side-by-side. Samantha has a passion for creatively building bridges across faith traditions and cultures in order to impact social change. Samantha is an ordained Presbyterian (U.S.A.) minister, who has worked in a number of different fields in the United States and abroad: including as a pastor in Asheville, NC, a communications officer for a United Nations campaign to end violence against women, a New York City public school teacher, and a women's rights advocate in Chile. She loves teaching Salsa dance, slam poetry and storytelling as mediums to bring people together.

De’ Patton – Music Leader

De' Patton is joining us from Rock Hill, SC, where he teaches high school choral music. He is currently serving as the director of music at a PC(USA) church. In his free time, De' enjoys singing, playing the piano, learning new instruments, going to concerts, reading, camping, and playing with his labradoodles Ollie and Belle.

Blue Setzer – Music Leader

Blue is a graduate from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where he earned a bachelor's degree in Vocal Performance. Currently, he serves as the worship music leader at Bowling Green Presbyterian Church in Clover, South Carolina, where he is dedicated to leading and enriching the congregation through music. He is also a contracted singer with Opera Carolina in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Cal Findeiss – Recreation Leader

Cal Findeiss is a software developer who spent a decade running Montgomery Presbyterian Center in Florida, where he mastered the art of outdoor fun. Now living in Dallas with his wife Meagan and two kids, Jude and Bethan, he spends his days coding, playing with his two dogs and searching for the answer to the age old question of “why did the chicken cross the road?”

Chelsea Icenhour – Recreation Leader

Chelsea is a local to the North Carolina mountains, along with her husband and sweet pups. She loves spending time in Montreat and is thrilled for the opportunity to serve with leadership for MYC this summer! She loves to travel, write, teach and learn in her classroom, and connect with people through games and music.

Youth Conference Weeks V & VI

Chris Lee – Keynote Leader

Chris is the Executive Presbyter of Grace Presbytery in Dallas, TX, where he provides bold and creative leadership with equal doses of playfulness, prophetic imagination, and down-to-earth humility. He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and raised in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He is married to his awesome wife, Brandy, and they have two amazing daughters, Erin and Jordyn. Chris believes in working hard and playing harder!

Jenny McDevitt – Preacher

Jenny has lived in Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, California, Kansas, New York, and South Carolina -- but the mountains of North Carolina are still one of her favorite places. When she's not at Shandon Presbyterian Church, you can find her walking one of her (four) dogs, napping on her porch swing, or preaching and leading liturgy in various places throughout the country. She reads voraciously, laughs easily, gardens terribly, and drinks too much coffee.

Zach Light-Wells – Music Leader

Zach is the Director of Music at First Presbyterian, Dallas. On any given day, you can find him outside in the garden or playing pickleball and tennis. Zach is married to Jessie, and together they parent Phoebe and two goofy collies.

JaRon Lindsey – Recreation Leader

JaRon is the youngest of 6 children. He has worked with youth in various professional roles for over 18 years. He joined The Grove Presbyterian in Charlotte NC in 2010, and has served on a planning team and as a co-director for Montreat Middle school conference.

Sofia Lanzot-Rivera – Recreation Leader

Hola Friends, I am Sofia from San Juan Puerto Rico. Recreation is one of my favorite ways of connecting with God and others. I'm so excited to play, create and dance with everyone at Montreat Youth Conference.

What Is MYC?

Worship & Keynote

Worship and keynote engage youth in the theme and challenge all in attendance to faith exploration and growth. Using scripture, Reformed theology, and song, youth are affirmed and united as children of God. During keynote, everyone gathers for group building, announcements, and song. During worship, youth hear the Word of God proclaimed in word, song, and action.

Small Group

Small group is a place where youth can share their journey of faith with peers through respectful conversations. Small group sessions are led by trained adult leaders who facilitate honest discussions about the themes presented in keynote and worship. It is an important time where youth can dive deeper into the conference theme, while forming bonds and making dear friends with youth outside of their congregation.

Recreation

We engage youth physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually in events that build up the Christian community while having fun! We believe that people who can play together can pray together; people who can sing together can talk together; and people who can dance together can walk together.

Back Home Time

Back Home Groups are the people you come with to Montreat. Each evening groups gather together to connect through prayer and conversation. Our hope is that experiences in keynote, worship, small groups, and recreation will provide all the content youth need to have some meaningful conversations with their back home group. Materials are provided to help adult leaders debrief the amazing events and emotions of each day with their youth.

Mission

We are all invited to participate in God's mission in the world by serving our neighbors. In addition to collecting offerings on behalf of different mission partners each week, Montreat Conference Center builds mission opportunities into the weekly programming with opportunities are as varied as packaging meals for food insecure communities to educational opportunities to bring change to your home communities. Montreat also partners with local organizations for optional add-on mission programming for groups attending the Montreat Youth Conferences. For more information about those opportunities, please visit the Ways to Participate menu.

Conference & Housing Rates

We want you to be as informed as possible before you register! We've created a page with a lot of information pertaining to registration, conference participation, and things to know while you're here. We highly encourage you to read it before filling out the registration form. It should answer a lot of your questions. Below is information about scholarships, the cost of conference registration per participant, and the combined cost of conference registration and Conference Center and College housing.

Click For MYC Guidebook

Scholarships

We think Youth Conference is an important and formative part of a young person's faith journey and understand that it's not something affordable to everyone. As such, we have a limited number of scholarships available for this conference.

Conference Cost

Registrations made before April 1 require a $100 per person deposit paid to the conference registrar no more than 10 days after registering.

Registrations made after April 1 require the conference fee balance to be paid in full within 10 days.

On or Before April 1
($100 deposit)

After April 1
(paid in full)

Conference Registration

Housing & meals not included.
Includes $5 community services fee

$330

$380

Conference Center & College Housing Options

Montreat Conference Center Housing Info

Rates are PER PERSON and include room for six nights and meals in Assembly Inn’s Galax Dining Room (Sunday dinner through Saturday breakfast). Linens are included. A $50 per person non-refundable housing deposit is required (this is included in your $100 registration deposit).

Weeks 1-6	Single Occupancy	Double Occupancy	Triple Occupancy
Assembly Inn Private Bathroom Limited Availability; goes quickly	$827	$527	$427*
Assembly Inn Shared Bathroom Limited Availability; goes quickly	$707	$467	---
Winsborough Shared Bathroom Modest Housing	$557	$392	---
Glen Rock Inn & Apartment Shared Bathroom Modest Housing	$602	$414.50	$352

* A limited number of triple occupancy Assembly Inn with private bath rooms are available.

Montreat College Dorm Housing Info

Rates are PER PERSON (regardless of how many are in a room) and include room for six nights and meals in Montreat College's Howerton Hall (Sunday dinner through Saturday breakfast). Linens are not included. A $50 per person non-refundable housing deposit is required (this is included in your $100 registration deposit).

View pictures of the dorms here.

	Per Person Rate
Anderson Hall Private Bathroom All rooms have two twin beds* Available Weeks 2, 3, 4, and 5	$545.00
McGregor Hall Shared Bathroom Rooms have a mix of two and three twin beds* Available Weeks 2, 3, 4, and 5	$515.00
Howerton Hall Mix of Private and Shared Bathroom Rooms with private baths have three twins beds Rooms with connecting baths have two twins beds* Available Weeks 2, 3, 4, and 5	$515.00
Davis Hall Hall Bathroom All rooms have three twin beds Available Weeks 2, 3, 4, and 5	$455.00

*Third person in a room must bring their own sleeping bag, air mattress, or cot.

Private Housing

Make your own arrangements directly with a private cottage owner or rental agency. A private cottager list can be acquired by emailing Hope Barker at hopeb@montreat.org.

Refunds & Cancellations

Please view the Youth Conference Guidebook for information regarding refunds and cancellations.

Registering "Extra" Adults

You will have an opportunity to purchase Keynote and/or Recreation wristbands upon arrival at conference check-in. The prices for each wristband are listed below.

Wristband	Price
Keynote/Rec	$150
Recreation Only	$20

Ways to Participate

Montreat Youth Conference is for graduated 8th grade to graduated 12th grade young people and their leaders. Participation in MYC includes access to Keynote and Worship, Conference Recreation,—like late-evening energizer parties, scavenger hunts, and other activities—and Small Groups where you’ll unpack the message of the day and build bonds with other Youth and with God.

Opportunities for Youth

Jeremiah Project (JP) More information will be provided to Back Home Leaders at a later date.

Opportunities for Group Leaders

Small Group Leaders (SGL) Small Group Leaders provide critical guidance for the heart of the Youth and Middle School Conferences by leading small groups. The application will be available after the first of the year.

Learn more about SGL

Back Home Leaders (BHL) are the people that bring youth to Montreat. They often help plan the trip, serve as chaperones while the group is onsite, and guide evening discussions and debriefs in the Back Home Groups.

Chaperones are important to the MYC experience. Chaperones act as drivers, cooks, and covenant protectors. We recommend 1 registered adult per every six (6) youth that attend.

Other Opportunities

MYC wouldn’t be able to exist without the important work done by our wonderful volunteers. As such, there are always opportunities to participate in MYC in support and planning roles! You can register to be a part of a Planning Team or become a Small Group Leader to lead our young people in discussion. For all opportunities, visit montreat.org/get-involved.

Montreat Mission Experience with Asheville Youth Mission

Description: Want to begin your group’s MYC experience with a mindset of mission? Sign up your group to spend Sunday with Asheville Youth Mission (a program of Youth Mission Co). AYM leaders will host a “pre-conference” experience from 9am to 3pm that includes mixers, interactive simulations, guest speakers, group discussion, artistic reflection, and exploration of our call to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God. Groups will consider their home context and how they can live differently in it when their week at Montreat is over.

Sunday Montreat Mission Experience is $25/participant. Sunday MME does not include lunch, but you may pre-order and purchase box lunches from Montreat for $13 per person.

Wednesday Montreat Mission Experience will still be offered, and includes your group volunteering at a local agency from 1-3pm on Wednesday afternoon. Cost is $15/person

You can learn more about Asheville Youth Mission at youthmissionco.org/asheville-youth-mission. You will receive additional participation details in your Youth Conference confirmation email.

Resources

MYC Guidebook

We want you to be as informed as possible before you register! We've created a page with a lot of information pertaining to registration, conference participation, and what to expect once you're here. We highly encourage you to read it before filling out the registration form. It should answer a lot of your questions.

Click here for the MYC Guidebook

First Youth Conference?

Is this your first time bringing a group to Montreat? Contact Susie Burns to walk you through the process at 828.419.9814 or email her at susieb@montreat.org.

Back Home Leader Information

Back Home Leaders are super important to the Montreat Experience! The link at the button below will provide you with resources and the necessary information to help your youth conference experience be a success.

Click here for Back Home Leader Info