Amplifier of youth voices moves on

The end of summer 2024 also marks the end of over a decade of commitment to youth ministry for Kirsten Hamm-Epp, regional church minister for Mennonite Church Saskatchewan.

The Manitoba native, now 34, took over the reins of the Saskatchewan Youth Ministry Organization (SMYO) in the summer of 2013 after graduating with an English degree from Canadian Mennonite University in 2011 and working for two years as resident dean at RJC.

Only a few days after beginning her role, she led a bus trip of Saskatchewan youth to the 2013 Mennonite Church Canada national youth assembly at Camp Assiniboia in Manitoba. “It was probably the best start I could have had,” Hamm-Epp said. “It was overwhelming to take over a trip, figure out all the details…but just to hang out with this core Saskatchewan group of youth and leaders gave me a strong start. I went into the following school and youth year feeling like I really knew who my people were.”

It’s the relationships Hamm-Epp formed with youth and youth leaders that she treasures.

Madison Harms, 23, who was MC Sask’s representative at the Global Youth Summit in Indonesia in 2022, said Hamm-Epp was one of few women role models in church who motivated her to get involved in the church when Harms was in high school. “There wasn’t a huge presence of the younger generation,” she said.

Zach Stefaniuk, 26, who now pastors at Zion Mennonite Church in Swift Current, met Hamm-Epp in 2015 and joined SMYO soon after. Interested in pastoral ministry from a young age, Stefaniuk gave one of his earliest sermons at an SMYO-organized worship service. He credits Hamm-Epp’s mentorship as a major influence.

“Kirsten gives youth a voice,” he said. “She tells them, ‘You are valuable, and I am here to listen to your opinion,’ which is something young people do not hear as often as they need to.”

Hamm-Epp herself heard that message growing up. Her parents, Marilyn Houser Hamm and Ray Hamm, pastored Altona Mennonite Church, where she helped with Sunday school and heard the message from her church community: “You have gifts; we appreciate them and we’d love for you to use them here.’”

But it wasn’t until she moved away from “the Mennonite bubble” in the family's traditional housebarn in the Manitoba village of Neubergthal, under “the tall, tall trees,” and spent three summers working at Long Beach Lodge Resort in Tofino, B.C., that Hamm-Epp fully embraced her Mennonite roots. The difference between her life and values and those of her co-workers was evident, and Hamm-Epp found herself answering a lot of their questions about her Christian faith. 

“It would have been easy to just leave that behind,” Hamm-Epp said. “You finally have the opportunity… to decide for yourself if the answers you heard are your own.   That was huge for me.”

Hamm-Epp decided she would share the same message she heard growing up, and she has kept the same spirit of openness in her conversations with the youth she’s worked with over the past decade.

Youth today, she said, are open to hearing about Jesus but are also more open than ever to other expressions of spirituality. The current challenge of youth ministry is to figure out how to motivate youth to stay and lead in the church.

“[They have] this fear of missing out,” she said. “‘If I commit to this, I’m saying no to all of these other things.’ We can help our youth understand that this isn’t just a feel-good story—God made you, God knows you, God loves you—but that [it’s] your cornerstone, the thing worth saying that, when all else fails, ‘I know this.’”

Hamm-Epp also created opportunities for youth to develop their leadership skills by leading worship services at MC Sask churches and organizing Mega Menno youth events and retreats.

She stressed the importance of the church extending invitations to youth at the wider national and international levels. MC Canada youth gatherings like Fat Calf at Camp Assiniboia, Shake at Shekinah Retreat Centre in 2019— which Hamm-Epp helped organize—and Amplify! at Camp Valaqua in 2022 provide opportunities for youth to “dig in, dive deep” and be with others asking similar questions, she said.

“Those events can’t be overrated for the potential that they have to help our youth know that the church is a great place for them,” said Hamm-Epp.

Alex Tiessen, director of admissions at RJC, worked with Kirsten for five years as part of MC Sask’s youth ministry group. “Kirsten firmly believed that youth should have a seat at the table,” he said. “She was invitational, meeting youth where they were at in their journey with Jesus, and reminding the church as a whole that they are all part of the living body of Christ.”

Hamm-Epp and her young family live on her husband’s family farm in the Petrofka area, 45 minutes northwest of Saskatoon. Rural commutes are trickier now that she has children, and she believes that stepping down from her job will offer her more opportunity to know people in her local community as her children begin school.

Hamm-Epp’s last day as youth minister for MC Sask was August 31, but she will continue to mentor young people. Her family attends Eigenheim Mennonite Church, in Rosthern, where Hamm-Epp serves as the senior youth Sunday School teacher