“A bio? Really? People like me don’t have bios.” -Laura Young
Laura Young spent twelve years working in banking and as an executive assistant before she landed her dream job as a full time wife, mom, and volunteer. With the sudden freedom to follow her passion the social justice junkie in her quickly emerged, and now that the little ones are in school much of her time is spent doing her part “ . . . for the transformation of the world.” Some of her passions are Christian Education, advocating for the Quadrilateral, the UM Social Principles, and our collective calling to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
Laura’s concerns include the growing number of friends who no longer associate with the UMC, offering reasons such as, “the church is hypocritical,” and “it seems more like a club,” and “they care more about believing in Jesus than acting like Jesus.” She finds it more and more difficult to defend her beloved church against such observations. Her prayer is that she can be a part of a denomination that moves past its current focus on false unity and declining membership and instead takes decisive steps toward Christian re-education – closing the gap between seminary and the local church, prioritizing the cause of Christ ahead of dogma, inviting absolutely everyone to the table, and intentionally being the church God calls us to be no matter how risky. She prays that her friends will soon find something they consider worthy of rejoining, and that her young daughters will grow up committed to and proud of serving God through a denomination that truly is making disciples of Jesus the Christ for the transformation of the world.
She is involved in Christian Education at her local church and serves on the Houston and Dallas Boards of the Perkins Lay School of Theology. She is a huge fan of the General Board of Church & Society and a member of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. She is a long time advocate for equal rights for all of God’s children, including full inclusion in the church for our Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) friends. Laura is a Reconciling United Methodist and devoted to the mission of Reconciling Ministries Network. She is quite proud of her association with Breaking the Silence (BTS), a group of clergy and laity who utilize education, witness, and dialogue as their primary means for bringing about a welcoming atmosphere throughout the Texas Conference.
Laura feels very fortunate to have been born into a long lineage of United Methodists. In the interest of full discloser, however, she admits that being married to a United Methodist minister is simultaneously the most rewarding and the most challenging thing for which she has ever volunteered.
In those rare “off the clock” moments she feeds her soul with music and fine arts, Houston Astros baseball, animals, photography, green tea, and shoes!