Youth Leader To Seminary Pipeline
By Ember Kelley

Photo by Ember Kelley; used with permission. Description: An outdoor scene. A park with a calm, reflective pond at its center. The area around the pond is grassy. Trees fill the foreground and the background. The largest and tallest trees are in the left part of the image and branches of the trees reach out overhead. A paved pathway runs horizontally across the bottom edge of the image. The sky is light but slightly overcast.
My name is Ember Kelley, and I’m a survivor of the youth leadership-to-seminary pipeline.
In elementary school, I made a statement that would end up shaping the course of my entire life. When asked about what I wanted to be when I grew up, I dared to name “Pastor” as a potential option.
Other options were on my list, including such glamorous work as Paleontologist and Painter. Yet, as a young evangelical Christian, once the words had left my mouth, ministers and other adults became a constant source of praise and encouragement toward considering a “call on my life”. I had not turned ten, but suddenly was being told that destiny had put me on a path toward a certain job. And who was I to consider fighting destiny?
As a teenager, the pressure only grew. My interest in writing led to pressure to share my writings in Church. Ministers went out of their way to set up time to provide mentorship. I was recruited to be a worship assistant.
When it was time to choose college, I had second thoughts about whether I was prepared to commit to a lifelong religious leadership calling. I was also figuring out my own path toward coming out as a trans woman. However, I loved the sense of belonging I found in mentorship by adults in my life. I had a space where I could feel that my voice was being heard. Did I truly want to leave that?
I still felt something pulling me toward ordination. As a young evangelical, I thought it was Jesus calling me, but looking back I realize it was actually the pull of the Youth Leadership Pipeline.
What is the Youth Leadership Pipeline? It is an experience across many religious experiences, where young people who express interest in exploring religious leadership are placed on a fast track towards eventual seminary and ordination.
In my case, the pipeline carried me to a special summer experience, “Facing Your Future”, much like the UUA’s “Summer Seminary”. In my senior year of high school, I was offered a scholarship that would lock me in for attending Calvin Theological Seminary. It would set me on the path of becoming ordained in the Christian Reformed Church. At 17, I understood that the next seven years of my life were now spoken for. And I understood that to turn away would mean incurring a massive amount of debt. This was not a decision I should have been making at 17.
Despite coming out as trans, and exploring new denominations, I felt ordination must be right for me, and I continued on the path. However, though Progressive Christian spaces were theoretically interested in the idea of a trans woman pursuing ordination, finding work that would actually pay my bills was impossible.
Even after finding a part-time position, I was eventually let go because of congregant complaints about a trans woman leading a youth group. This happened amidst my considering potential ordination in what felt like a more trans friendly place, the United Church of Christ, for which I had returned to seminary for a second time. When this happened, I had a moment of awakening about the pipeline that had led me to that point.
Since that awakening, it has taken years of healing religious trauma before I felt ready to consider ways to pursue my desire for creating communal belonging in religious spaces. It took years to imagine and learn that there are alternative ways to express leadership outside of our Western, individualist, and capitalist model. It took finding Unitarian Universalism and embracing my own spiritual path and vision of religious leadership.
I have found myself doing work I’m passionate about–-despite the pipeline, not because of it.
I share my story, because I know, deep in my heart, that it doesn’t have to be this way for others.
I share because I believe that at this moment in our Association’s history we must actively develop spaces where all of our youth feel empowered to grow their visions of hope-filled communal spaces. Instead of pipelines that take youth from point A to point B, we must develop an ecosystem that offers all of our youth the ability to contribute, with their own gifts, to the life of their congregations and the entire Association.
We must ask: What could it mean for all Unitarian Universalist youth to be leaders? Can we imagine new ways for our youth to grow their own sense of communal belonging and skills to share it with others? Can we offer new possibilities? I believe we can, and must.
I invite you, whether you are a Religious Education Professional, a Minister, or a UU Youth, to join me in envisioning the future of what we consider UU Youth Leadership. Take some time to reflect: How didyour journey bring you to the current moment, or to your leadership position? What has beenyour pipeline?
If you are an adult, I encourage you to find time in the coming weeks to interact with the youth in your congregation, with no agenda besides to get to know them better. Perhaps take some time to exploreDeeper Joy, new resources from the UUA filled with games, songs, activities, and practices for community building
If you are a youth reading this, know that you belong, not because of what you can offer us, but for who you are. Find the belonging you desire and deserve.
Finally, stay tuned in the coming months for more about our exciting new Youth Leadership Ecosystem, The Stream.