About

John W. Vest is the lead writer and curator of the Progressive Youth Ministry blog. After fifteen years of ministry in the Chicago metropolitan area, most recently as the Associate Pastor for Youth Ministry at Fourth Presbyterian Church, John currently serves as the Visiting Assistant Professor of Evangelism at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. In 2013 he co-founded the Progressive Youth Ministry conference with Tony Jones.

He holds degrees from Rice University (B.A.), the University of Chicago Divinity School (M.Div.), and McCormick Theological Seminary (D.Min.), and has studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2015 he published a collection of confirmation sermons called It’s Not Conformation and blogs about his “Adventures in Post-Christendom” at johnvest.com. An enthusiastic pitmaster, John dreams of one day achieving the mystical union of church and BBQ.

Coming Soon: PYM will feature a diverse stable of regular writers on the cutting edge of youth ministry.