National Children’s and Youth Ministries Conference Trip

Oklahoma Christian University will be paying for students’ transportation and lodging to attend the annual National Children’s & Youth Ministries (NCYM) Conference held in Tucson, Arizona on January 4-8 2026. Students will need to pay the registration fee of $125, as well as the cost of four to five meals during the trip.

The conference, according to the NCYM website (ncym.org), 

 “exists to provide professional level training for men and women serving within children & youth ministries all across the nation.” The four-day conference will feature keynote speakers, along with several classes, devotionals, worship services, and much more.

According to Rick Odell, associate director of church relations:

“We’ll take care of the gas on the way there and back. Dr Beller and the Bible department are going to pay for the hotel rooms for the OC students that are going to go. It’ll be four to a room… there’s space for fifteen [students] to go.”

Odell is passionate about giving students the opportunity to learn more and get involved in children’s and youth ministry in an applicable way.

Odell said, “for somebody that’s thinking about doing youth ministry as a profession, this is a great place for making contacts and networks. And there are a lot of churches there that are looking to hire youth ministers too. There are some that are there looking for interns also. It’s just a great opportunity for students.” Odell said, “I’ve seen a lot of students who weren’t really sure [about ministry] who came to [the NCYM Conference], and they were like, man, I need to do this. God’s really calling me to do this.”

While there is a fee that Oklahoma Christian will not be covering, Odell said:

“If there’s a student who is concerned about the cost of the conference, I would encourage them to reach out to their home church, because I know a lot of them would be more than willing to help with that cost,” Odell said.

Jeremie Beller, dean of the college of Bible, will be funding the trip for Oklahoma Christian students who would like to attend the NCYM Conference.

Beller said, “We’ll pay for the students to have a place to stay, and then there’s a conference registration fee that they’ll pay.” Beller said, “It’s a good opportunity [for students] to kind of network, meet other people, meet some churches, see some ministries, hear some from some pretty good keynotes, and people with experience. Stephen Maxwell, from next door, is leading worship. Rick likes to take a group, and he asked if maybe we had some funds to help offset that cost for students so we’re trying to make that possible for him.”

On the allocation of funds from the Bible department for events related to the department, Beller said:

“We have some generous endowments that allow us to offset some cost for Bible things and Bible events. There’s some endowments built to help give students ministry experiences. And so we pull from those. It all goes back to what kind of trip it is, who’s involved, how many are involved, and stuff like that, to [decide] what funds we pull out,” Beller said.
Students who are interested in attending the conference with the group from Oklahoma Christian need to register for the conference and book their hotel through ncym.org. Students will need to reach out to Rick Odell (rick.odell@oc.edu) for a form to secure their spot in the van.