WHAT I LEARNED FROM BEING A REGIONAL DIRECTOR OVER 3 DECADES

Jim Rayburn chose a motto for Young Life, BEFORE Young Life became Young Life. It was “Christ is life” from 1 John 5:12. Everything we know about Young Life today (camps, clubs, messages, campaigners, relationships, mission, approach to kids, etc) comes from Rayburn’s thinking (theology) of this passage. It is a BIG DEAL. Click here to hear Bob Mitchell’s comments about “Christ is Life.”

Jim Rayburn also said, “the best Young Life work has yet to be done.” Jim’s words call for us to think about all the things he meant by his statement. One of the most important ideas is that Young Life is dynamic. It is ever-changing. First, it is changing because adolescent culture is changing. The 60’s kids are not like today’s kids. Kids in Hawaii, Armenia, Peru, or India are not the kids of Tyler, Texas in 1941. Second, I am changing as I grow in the Lord (my understanding of Jesus is greater now than when I was in high school and first met Him… He is bigger and better!).

We in Young Life need to be “learners/students” of kids (adolescent culture) and “learners/students” of Christ (who He is, what He has done for us, and how that relates to us). All that Young Life is doing is putting Christ and kids together… and seeing what happens! Tom Raley spoke at a staff conference in 1977 entitled “13 Qualities of a Disciple on the YL Staff.” One point was we are to always be growing. Click here to hear Tom’s 13 points.

Our challenge in the mission of Young Life today, is how to create a place (a Mission/Community) to live out those two big ideas. “Christ is life,” and “the best Young Life has yet to be done.”

We do fairly well in the mission part of Mission Community, but we sometimes lack in the community part looks like.

Here are a few things we found to be important, qualities, about what this community is like and how it needs to function.

it must be safe
a place of trust between individuals and the leader
the leader must be a learner and risk being vulnerable
it goes beyond tolerance to embrace different opinions and even conflict
the group acts more than talks… commits to act as a group
the leader invites and desires honest feedback of meetings

If your team or leader is not functioning this way, it is time for an open and honest discussion to get there. We are privileged to serve Christ and kids this way.

Written by Randy Jackson (rackson@me.com)