Omolara (Lara) Kotun
The Young and Saved Youth Empowerment Initiative
2025-26: The “Young and Saved Youth Empowerment Initiative 2025” is a Christ-centered program by RCCG IGA designed to spiritually, emotionally, and socially empower youth. The initiative includes weekly worship services, a summer Youth Week and Camp, youth-led worship, mentorship, and volunteer outreach. Focusing on challenges such as low self-esteem, spiritual disconnect, peer pressure, and digital distractions, the program provides a supportive environment for growth in Christ. It emphasizes leadership development, community service, and spiritual formation, preparing youth to become bold, faith-driven leaders in their communities.
Rooted in Christ: Cultivating Christ-Centered Growth as Youth and Young
Adults Navigate Identity, Purpose, and Urban & Traditional Culture 2025-26: The Rooted in Christ affinity working group is seeking to gain a deeper, more informed understanding of how to effectively support youth and young adults as they navigate identity, purpose, faith, and the cultural pressures surrounding them. The group goal is simple yet significant: to study, listen, learn and discern what young people need from the church in this season and how Rooted in Christ can respond with clarity, compassion, and biblical wisdom. Two guiding questions shape this work: 1. What spiritual, emotional, and cultural challenges are most affecting youth and young adults today? 2. How can Rooted in Christ develop a Christ-centered model of care, discipleship, and connection that meaningfully responds to these realities?
Lara Kotun is a youth minister and nonprofit founder serving teens and young adults in faith-based and community settings. She is the founder of Rooted in Christ, a newly launched nonprofit dedicated to supporting youth and young adults as they navigate identity, purpose, and the challenges of traditional and modern culture through biblically grounded discipleship and guidance. Lara is passionate about creating safe, welcoming spaces where young people feel seen, heard, and supported as they grow spiritually and personally. Through Rooted in Christ, she is focused on developing sustainable models that equip youth and young adults to navigate life transitions with clarity, confidence, and a strong foundation rooted in Christ.
These grants aim to help participating churches and organizations to explore innovative practices that form youth for lives of faith, service, and leadership; deepen theological engagement in youth ministry, particularly within diverse, urban realities; and strengthen their organizational capacity to sustain and expand youth-focused ministries that make a lasting difference.
The Affinity Working Group initiative aims to provide time and space for HUB learning network members to engage in focused ways with others interested in a similar topic and questions around ministry in the city. We anticipate working group members to explore, deepen, and assess their own vocation, urban context, and church life; gain clarity about vital questions and issues in a particular focus area (eg. youth, arts, etc), and learn from group members’ lived experiences and other sources of knowledge and wisdom.
