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| Rev. Da Vita D. McCallister |
HARTFORD (12/18/2007) – The Rev. Da Vita D. McCallister, the dynamic preacher for the opening worship of last summer’s 50th Anniversary General Synod and a woman with over twenty years’ experience in ministry with youth and young adults, has been called to be the Connecticut Conference’s Associate Conference Minister for Youth and Young Adult Ministries. Rev. McCallister will begin her service on December 26th.
According to Conference Minister the Rev. Dr. Davida Foy Crabtree, the newly created senior staff level position is directed to supporting and equipping youth workers and ministers, and to building a youth leadership movement that is multiracial and multicultural. “There are many dimensions to the position,” she said, “including encouraging our churches to participate in the National Youth Event and working with Silver Lake and its programs.”
As the first person to hold this particular position, Rev. McCallister is excited about the call to build a movement, and to challenge the very institution that has called her to extend to youth and young adults the ministries and invitation to leadership in the Church. “It takes vision and courage to build a movement,” she said, “and to invite the staff of an institution to challenge it.” Part of the new job is to push and challenge the conference, the local churches, and the seminaries to reconsider what it means to be called by God.
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| Rev. McCallister Preaches at General Synod 26 |
“Since I was called into ministry as a youth, it is very important to me.”
“Da Vita McCallister is an inspired and inspiring Christian minister who will lead our Conference’s churches into a new era of outreach to youth and young adults,” said Dr. Crabtree. “What a great day this is for all of us, but especially for youth and young adults across our churches!”
The search committee found a significant number of highly qualified and exciting candidates from all across the country. The six member committee reduced the list down to seven initially and then interviewed three. Members of the committee included two ordained ministers with responsibility for youth, a high school student, two young adults, two parents of young adults, a church musician and racial, ethnic and gender diversity.
Ordained in the Southeast Conference in 2004, Rev. McCallister has served in the historic First Congregational Church UCC in Atlanta, Georgia; with the Fund for Theological Education, the staff of the Southeast Conference, and most recently as Minister for Youth, Young Adult and Outdoor Ministries for the United Church of Christ. She comes to the UCC from the nurture of the United Methodist Church, and was drawn to this denomination because it was consistent with her values: an emphasis on justice and peace, and the radical inclusion of persons of varying races, cultures, and orientations. “The diversity of racial, cultural, and religious traditions is important to me,” she said.
Rev. McCallister is not the first in her family to serve as a leader in the church; her great-grandfather the Rev. Jesse Baldwin was a Baptist pastor for sixty-five years. “This is an amazing position and an amazing time for ministry in New England,” she said, noting the excitement about youth ministries in the seminaries, the renovation of outdoor ministry facilities (including Connecticut’s Silver Lake), and the creation of her position.
A “serious sports fan” with long-standing loyalties to the Washington Redskins and the New York Yankees, she also proclaims herself “an avid Madden PS2 player” on the video game playing field.
The commitment to this position is made possible in part by the strong response to OCWM Basic Support in 2006, as well as careful management of Conference resources in previous years, which provided additional funds to help make this a reality. Dr. Crabtree stressed that the Conference’s ability to carry forward this revived focus on Youth Ministry will depend on our local churches sustaining the momentum with their OCWM dollars. In her annual address to Conference delegates, she said, “We want to build the capacity of our churches to respond to the needs and gifts of young adults. This is a crucial strategic move to support our local churches, to express our invitation and hospitality to youth and young adults, and to deepen the covenants among us.”
Rev. McCallister will have an office at United Church Center in Hartford.
