LEADER HUB

Welcome to UNITE 2026!

ALL COMMUNICATION SENT TO LEADERS VIA EMAIL IS ARCHIVED AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.

  • Save this website to the home screen on your smartphone! The website acts as an app for your digital hub during the event.

  • Add the director numbers to your contacts: Angel Garcia 417-483-2917 and Jessica Sachs 816-863-4911.

  • Pray, rest and play! This event will be an incredible experience for you and your students.

Small Group Guide

We've made the small group content is available ahead of time to allow you to plan how your group will use it. You can print it now at your local church to be able to hand out once the event begins. We’d recommend buying some cheap binders and putting the material in there since they tend to be harder to lose. If you choose to have it printed at a local print shop, we recommend using the available pro printer file.

Depending on if you plan to have students accessing their cell phones during UNITE, it’s available to view digitally. Remember, cell phone service at CMU can be spotty, so make sure to download it as a pdf to have on you and your students’ phones.

Finally, we will print a small number of these ourselves and have available. These will be printed for those that maybe don’t allow phones and could not print them at their local church. Quantities are limited, so please communicate with us ahead of time.

  • Digital PDF Download - Coming in June 2026

  • Pro Printer File - Coming in June 2026

Resources

Resources used during the event will appear here for use in your group and ministry.

Packing Information

Leader Videos

UNITE Mission Opportunity

Hello friends!

This year for UNITE, we are going to try something new that happens outside of the event! In hopes of finding new ways to integrate a service and mission into the event, we asked these questions: What if UNITE expanded outside of the week itself? What if the mission and service project was both local for your context as well as unifying across our connection?

This year we will be having a special session during UNITE where we bring together churches and students to talk about their experiences doing mission work. Regardless of where you are located and what you all did to serve, the hope is that we can all be unified by the conversations and sharing of those experiences at this special afternoon session. 

Not able to plan an event before UNITE 2026? That’s O. too! We want this special session to inspire students to hear from their peers and then go back to their communities to serve as a youth group or even individually. This is just one small way that we get to take the experience of UNITE out into our communities as we continue to discern how to expand outside of a one week event. 

Attached you will find a short mission opportunity small group exercise with a little flavor of what is to come at UNITE 2026. This will allow for our churches to all have a similar conversation and get the wheels turning for our special session at UNITE. This allows us the opportunity to live into the values of giving students a voice as well as serving our communities in a multitude of ways. You can download that here →

If you have any questions at all, or ideas to share, please don’t hesitate in reaching out to us as a UNITE team. We look forward to hearing from you all about your awesome experiences!  

Questions? Contact our team at UNITE@moumethodist.org.

January 2026 Leader Email

2026 is here! As we look ahead to July, here are some ways your students can engage before their week at UNITE.

Opportunities for Engagement

Call for Submissions

UNITE Students believes in empowering every generation in God’s vision of love and grace in our world. This year the UNITE Students team is inviting YOU to be a part of the vision and creation of UNITE 2026!We are looking for students, lay members, children, adults - everyone - to submit writing, art or other creative pieces that may be used as a part of UNITE: this year, in the future, or in some way we haven’t dreamed of yet. Submissions are due by June 1. Learn more and submit at this link.

Now Accepting Elective Applications!

Electives are an integral part of the UNITE Students experience! For 45-minute sessions, students are invited to engage in interactive, engaging, transforming ways. This is an opportunity for students to build relationships with new friends, learn new skills, create new things and build lasting memories. We are seeking applications for elective ideas and elective leaders. Learn more and apply at this link.

Leader Materials

Individual Registration Information

All students and leaders attending UNITE will need to fill out an individual registration form, which includes waivers and media releases.This is now available:

Unlike before, registrations must be completed individually. This is so we can get the most accurate medication and medical information.

Media Kit

Download assets specific to our 2026 theme and dates at the links below. If you are looking for different files or having trouble getting something downloaded, contact Lauren Miers at lmiers@moumethodist.org.

Payment Schedule

We've set some deadlines related to payment of registration fees:

  • March 25 - 50% of registration fees due.

  • June 3 - 75% of registration fees due.

  • June 30 - All registration fees and registrations due.

The Conference incurs a processing fee when we accept payments via Stripe. If you are able, please send a check to the Missouri Annual Conference of the UMC, 3601 Amron Court, Columbia, MO, 65202, and indicate UNITE 2026 and your church name in the memo line. Please let us know if you intend to pay by check mailed to the Conference Office, so we can keep an eye out for it.

Refund Policy

UNITE is provided at a discount to Missouri United Methodist Churches thanks to apportionment dollars. Because of this, groups must cancel any of their unneeded seats by March 25 to receive a full refund. If you have questions, please contact Rev. Angel Garcia at agarcia@moumethodist.org. 

Safe Gatherings Reminder

For every eight students of one gender brought to UNITE, your group will be required to have one Safe Gatherings-certified adult of the same gender at all times. As the event date draws near and we get a clearer picture of registrations, NextGen Ministries will work with smaller groups attending to partner them with other UMC groups to help accommodate the Safe Gatherings requirement.

Questions? Contact our team at UNITE@moumethodist.org.

UNITE Logistics Email

March is here, which means the countdown to UNITE is on! This email is to fill you in on everyone’s favorite, but necessary, topic: logistics.

Payment Schedule

We've set some deadlines related to payment of registration fees, the first deadline is this month:

  • March 25 - 50% of registration fees due.

  • June 3 - 75% of registration fees due.

  • June 30 - All registration fees and registrations due.

The Conference incurs a processing fee when we accept payments via Stripe. If you are able, please send a check to the Missouri Annual Conference of the UMC, 3601 Amron Court, Columbia, MO, 65202, and indicate UNITE 2026 and your church name in the memo line. Please let us know if you intend to pay by check mailed to the Conference Office, so we can keep an eye out for it.

Refund Policy

UNITE is provided at a discount to Missouri United Methodist Churches thanks to apportionment dollars. Because of this, groups must cancel any of their unneeded seats by March 25 to receive a full refund. If you have questions, please contact Rev. Angel Garcia at agarcia@moumethodist.org. 

Reminder

Please ensure that your bulk buy seat total is as accurate as possible, so that churches that have requested extra seats or are currently on the waitlist can be given seats.

Leader Materials

Individual Registration Information

All students and leaders attending UNITE will need to fill out an individual registration form, which includes waivers and media releases.This is now available:

Unlike before, registrations must be completed individually. This is so we can get the most accurate medication and medical information.

Leader Expectation Videos

Please watch the following videos and share them with your adult leaders. There is also a ton of information on the FAQ page on the website.

Safe Gatherings Reminder

For every eight students of one gender brought to UNITE, your group will be required to have one Safe Gatherings-certified adult of the same gender at all times. As the event date draws near and we get a clearer picture of registrations, NextGen Ministries will work with smaller groups attending to partner them with other UMC groups to help accommodate the Safe Gatherings requirement.

Make sure that all of your adult leaders start the Safe Gatherings application process to be certified by July 1. This is to make sure that the background check can be completed in time and verified by your local church.

Media Kit

Make sure to visit www.unite.moumethodist.org to download our latest media files.

Opportunities for Engagement

Call for Submissions

UNITE Students believes in empowering every generation in God’s vision of love and grace in our world. This year the UNITE Students team is inviting YOU to be a part of the vision and creation of UNITE 2026! We are looking for students, lay members, children, adults -everyone- to submit writing, art or other creative pieces that may be used as a part of UNITE: this year, in the future, or in some way we haven’t dreamed of yet. Submissions are due by June 1. Learn more and submit here.

Now Accepting Elective Applications!

Electives are an integral part of the UNITE Students experience! For 45-minute sessions, students are invited to engage in interactive, engaging, transforming ways. This is an opportunity for students to build relationships with new friends, learn new skills, create new things and build lasting memories. We are seeking applications for elective ideas and elective leaders. Learn more and apply here.

Join The Crew

An integral part of UNITE Students is the Crew of young adults that dedicate their time at the event to not only create space but to cultivate imagination, experience and, above all, the safety and belonging of the students and leaders attending. Do you know a student who is 18 or older that would be a great fit for the Crew? Send them this info.

Questions? Contact our team at UNITE@moumethodist.org.