Every four years, something remarkable happens: thousands of United Methodist youth and their leaders leave their home churches and gather together. Macomb, Columbia, Salt Lake City, Knoxville (twice!), Greensboro, Purdue/Sacramento, Orlando, Kansas City, Daytona Beach, and now — Dallas!

Mark your calendar: YOUTH 2027 will take place July 11–14, 2027, at the Hyatt Regency Dallas at Reunion Tower, and we could not be more excited to welcome you.

Why Dallas?

We’re excited to bring the national YOUTH event to Texas for the first time. After searching for great potential locations, we noticed several things about this hotel and Dallas that made this site stand out among potential choices.

• The Horizon Texas Conference (which formed in 2025) is super excited to be the host conference, with many vibrant United Methodist churches in the South Central Jurisdiction and beyond within driving distance of Dallas.
• Dallas is a welcoming city that consistently receives high scores from organizations that measure human rights, equality, and anti-discrimination efforts.
• If you've led a youth group to a national event before, you know that it’s important to have lodging and event space in the same location. At YOUTH 2027, the hotel and the entire event are in the same building. Everything is under one roof when you stay onsite at the Hyatt Regency Dallas.
• The event hotel is also within a twenty- to thirty-minute ride from both DFW and Dallas Love Field airports.
• Oh yeah, we also get to take over THE ENTIRE HOTEL AND CONVENTION SPACE, so that means we have full run of every space, and we can be diligent about safety and accessibility, plus get really creative in our activities.

Who's Invited

YOUTH 2027 is designed for youth entering sixth grade through those graduating twelfth grade in 2027 (generally those between 12-18 years of age) along with their adult chaperones — and it's genuinely open, so consider allowing your youth to invite a friend who might not yet be connected with your church or is open to faith experiences.

When is it again?

Plan for July 11-14.

• July 11: arrive, check in to the hotel, evening worship
• July 12: full day of worship and activities
• July 13: full day of worship and activities with closing worship in the late evening
• July 14: hotel check-out and departure. No programming.

What It's For

YOUTH 2027 is a place for youth to experience community and connectionalism — a reunion, fittingly, at the Reunion Tower. (Fun Fact for Methodist Nerds: At General Conference in 1968 [often called “The Uniting Conference”], the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged to become the United Methodist Church. So truly, this is a reunion!)

The YOUTH event exists to remind your students (and yourself) that they're part of something much bigger: a worldwide connection of people, swimming in grace and surrounded by God’s love, who are asking great questions, solving problems, worshiping, and figuring out what comes next, together.

Why This Event? Why Now?

Here's something worth sharing with your leadership team when you make the case to attend. Recent research on Gen Z and Gen Alpha teens shows that even as screens and AI companions dominate more of teen life than most adults realize, young people are actively asking for loosely structured, in-person time with people outside their immediate circle. When researchers ask teens what faith communities could do better, the answer keeps coming back the same way: be more welcoming; be less judgmental, provide faith experiences with possibilities for transformation. YOUTH 2027 is built around those concepts. We worship, learn, and experience God’s grace and love together in ways that build trust and relationships so that young people are inspired and empowered on their discipleship journeys.