By Erika Clary
The National Youth Conference (NYC) 2022 office is excited to announce our worship and music coordinators for next summer. Our worship coordinators are Bekah Houff, Cindy Laprade Lattimer, Shawn Flory Replogle, and Walt Wiltschek. Jacob Crouse is coordinating music.
Thus far, the worship and music coordinators have been meeting over Zoom to plan worship for NYC 2022. We are excited to see the ways in which they make the theme come to life next summer!
Below are brief biographies for each of these leaders:
Bekah Houff serves as the university pastor and director of Church Relations at Manchester University in North Manchester, Ind. She loves to work with college students and help them succeed during their academic career. A graduate of Bridgewater (Va.) College and Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, Ind., Bekah is no stranger to Church of the Brethren conferences and events. She served as coordinator of National Young Adult Conference, National Junior High Conference, and workcamps (now FaithX) during her time in Brethren Volunteer Service. Bekah loves camping, spending quality time with friends, and spoiling her nieces and nephews. She lives in Goshen, Ind., with her spouse Nick, dog Kobol, and cats Starbuck and Boomer.
Cindy Laprade Lattimer (she/her) and her partner Ben are parents to three energetic kids: Everett (8) and twins Ezra and Cyrus (6), plus an aging dog, Jake. They are also co-pastors of Stone Church of the Brethren in Huntingdon, Pa., and co-chaplains at Juniata College. She enjoys reading, coaching her kids and their friends in sports, playing strategic board games, and hiking the wooded trails behind their home. This is her seventh NYC and she always looks forward to the connection and community NYC creates.
Shawn Flory Replogle is the proud partner of Alison, with whom he shares a great family: Adin, Caleb, Tessa, and Simon. Together, they live in Lindsborg, Kan., where Shawn has been a pastor and a consultant who facilitates/advises/consults and trains organizations of all sizes and shapes. Currently Shawn is executive director of Organizational Resources for the Church of the Brethren, based out of Elgin, Ill., and serves as one of the Western Plains District co-district youth coordinators. This will be Shawn’s ninth National Youth Conference (he’s not really that old), and he says he’s done about everything there is to do at an NYC: “OK, I’ve never led the choir…or played in the band…or been on the medical staff…but nearly everything else!”
Walt Wiltschek started Sept. 1 as part-time district executive minister for Illinois and Wisconsin District and currently divides his time between Maryland and Illinois. He also does part-time chaplaincy work for Illinois Wesleyan University. He is finishing up as pastor of Easton (Md.) Church of the Brethren and was previously campus pastor at Manchester University, and editor of Messenger magazine, for which he still does some writing and editing. He enjoys traveling, camp ministry, puns and wordplay, and cheering for various sports teams. Walt was an advisor for the 2010 NYC cabinet, but this is his first time serving as a worship coordinator.
Jacob Crouse (he/him) serves as a music leader for Washington (D.C.) City Church of the Brethren along with running projection, audio, and recording. Brother Jake also does audio-visual engineering work for the American College of Cardiology. Other notable activities he enjoys include working on vintage motorcycles, cooking, traveling to new and familiar places (road trip!), spending quality time with family and friends, editing and hosting the Dunker Punks Podcast, and writing and recording music. He wrote this autobiographical haiku to briefly describe himself to someone he hasn’t met before:
Techno/logical
Culture, adventures give life
Dunker Punk describes
— Erika Clary is coordinator of the 2022 National Youth Conference, serving in the Church of the Brethren Youth and Young Adult Ministry as a Brethren Volunteer Service worker. Find out more about NYC 2022 at www.brethren.org/nyc.
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