I WAS THAT KID

Many of us were THAT KID and we have never forgotten…

As we walk through another summer of camping, let’s dream. Let’s look at the masses getting off of the buses and consider what God is going to do in each of them. He’s not just changing lives and hearts, but he’s pivotally changing the direction of their lives. 

As we’ve seen, many of our amazing staff were THAT KID and an experience at camp changed the course of their life and their impact on other kids. 

So many of us can say we were THAT KID, and many more will say that in the future.

KEEP THE CORE - CHANGE THE CONTEXT

KEEP THE CORE - CHANGE THE CONTEXT 

“But it's different over here!” 

 I am not sure the first time I noticed the phrase above, but I can tell you that I have heard it countless times since. Over the past eight decades, as Young Life has grown and expanded,  we have committed organizationally to reaching adolescents in ALL communities and settings. What started with high school students in Texas now has a presence in all 50 states in the US and over 100+ countries around the globe. The graphic below gives a sense of how Young Life became Young Life and where ministry and cultural moments intersected.   

(Thank you - YL Creative Services)

• Over the last several years we have tried to get a ‘pulse’ on the growth of new ministry models beyond AGE & STAGE Ministry and FOCUS Ministries (Capernaum and YoungLives). Below is a simple, broad overview of the ministry models that we are aware of globally and it is growing daily!

• So what do you do when you have literally a few dozen ministry models spanning Junior High to College aged?

• What do you do when your rhetoric is to reach ‘Every Kid’ not just in the US but globally?’  

YOU FOCUS ON  TWO KEY VARIABLES. 

1. You align your ministry along CORE principles.

2. You give great flexibility to allow for a broad range of CONTEXTS. 

The relationship between ‘Core to Context,’ may be the most valuable connection that we can foster to stay relevant in the coming years. If we understand it well, we are allowed to pivot, shift, have permission, and adjust according to the context we serve. When we stay committed to our Values and Methods and adjust to specifically serve our communities, everyone wins!  At the intersection of  ‘Core to Context’ is the heart of the gospel, and Jesus modeled it well:

• Jesus was multicultural 

• Jesus went to people 

• Jesus was relational

• Jesus looked for common ground

• He asked good questions and listened,  Jesus was authentic 

• Jesus didn’t avoid hard topics 

• Jesus was not afraid to speak truth 

• Jesus kept the gospel primary

As a mission, we will survive if we remain different because we respond to the shifts we observe in the culture. So we should stay committed to Principles and be flexible in Particulars.  

Try this 15-minute EXERCISE with your team:  

Answer 3 simple questions-

1. (6 min) What are some core (key) essentials to your Young Life ministry that are non-negotiable? (List 10 or more!)  

2. (6 min) What are some specific contextual elements within your community that make it different? (List 5 or more)

3. (3 min) Grade yourself on how you are doing on the relationship between core to context? What should you do more or less?

Students are changing constantly although, at their core, their needs are similar to what they were when Young Life began. Young Life is the same too - Jesus, faithful adults, lasting relationships, and a compelling presentation of the gospel. Being different will be a good thing only if it helps us reach not just more kids but the current kid as well as the next kid. 

Written by Ken B Tank

TAKING YOUR STUDENT STAFF TO THE NEXT LEVEL

5 Things Your Student Staff Need for Leadership Development

What does an invitation to the next level look like for a college-age person in your community? Hopefully, it's framed with a vision for potential impact and an opportunity to develop that vision! As we think about the invitation for the next generation, what can we include in how we support and shape their calling?

Here’s a list of suggestions for what to include and how to lead as we continue developing adolescents for the sake of the gospel.

1. Christo-centric. Jesus’ model of developing the disciples gives us a beautiful framework for how we are supporting and shaping the next generation of leaders. When we are developing others, how much of Jesus’ model are we using versus our own? Who are we centering as we plan, learn, and process? 

2. One on One. Leadership development will require more resources than you think-more of your time, energy, creativity, etc. Life on life development is wholistic (modeled by Jesus!). How does the conversation at a table over coffee integrate with walking through the community or school? It happens when the same people are in both places. Planning for intentional time together to talk and act on what is being taught is essential to leadership development. 

3. Direct Ministry. How can you model the dynamism of your own calling towards disinterested adolescents? Adolescence is evolving. As the world has become more connected through social networking, the framework of incarnational witness will be changed. It will be difficult to develop others in a context in which you have no working experience. There was no age limit placed on the Great Commission! 

4. Clarity. Are you clear on your goals when you make the invitation into the leadership development AND does it match what you’re offering once they say yes? Development is intricately tied to process. It’s hard to gain momentum within the process if there isn’t consistency in direction. 

5. Other Voices. You do not need to be the only voice they are learning from. Bringing in diverse voices and perspectives is critical for the development of kingdom perspective. We value and uphold diversity, equity, and belonging as a mission. Does your leadership development plan for others match those values? Where can you imagine and execute adding breadth of authorship, ministry experience, age, gender, and the list goes on!

To read more on our findings on Student Staff click here for the executive summary.

Written by: Marisa Avramovich stock.marisa@gmail.com

STARTING SMARTER WITH STUDENT OWNERSHIP & LEADERSHIP

The Global ‘pause’ of the last few years has led to a local ‘restart’ for many of us during 2021-22. Every Young Life leader can share their own stories of the challenges within their own context and they are significant. What may be more challenging is the ability to launch a new ministry. That’s what Emma McPherson and Eric Anderson were tasked to do in Hartland Michigan.

Read their story below:

We launched Young Life in a new school/community in the summer of 2020 - Hartland High School in Hartland, MI. The leadership team was forced to approach this creatively, since they were not initially allowed in the building and events were relatively restricted or non-existent. This school is similar to many in that it offers a wide variety of sponsored “clubs” and this school actually designates a short time during the school day on Fridays each week for students to participate in club meetings, as a way to diversify learning and connections.

After some creative thinking and prayer, here is what we had:

• A brand new Leadership Team 

•  Connections with a small group of students with strong leadership gifts. .

• There was a strong Vision from Students and the broader mission community for Hartland High School.

•  An outline of a plan for the school year. 

With a team, some students, a vision, and conviction to start an official Young Life Club within the school, we submitted an application containing:

• A Teacher sponsor

• Application submission for approval 

• Overview/Purpose/Content of ‘the Club’ 

One benefit we realized was that we were able to work in close partnership with the school administration and foster a deep partnership based on trust from the very beginning. We gave significant thought as to the purpose of the ‘Young Life Club’ from the students perspective and the team defined our Friday after club as a place where “any student in the school has the opportunity to get a taste of what Young Life was all about.” The Club meetings were the same in principle to what is traditional Young Life but also very different. 

Here is what made them unique:

• Entirely Student-led.  

• Staff /Leaders did not attend the Friday Club meetings. 

• Our staff/leaders met with the student team for support, planning, and prayer. 

• The students who lead the club prepare mixers, fun, and message.

• Weekly “random act of kindness challenge” as a way to care for the entire school population. 

• The Talk is an invitation to participation and ‘come and see.’

The Friday afternoon Club complemented a more traditional weekly Club as our group grew and fostered significant ownership, partnership, and discipleship opportunities for our student leaders. The agenda for a Young Life Club during school is very simple. If you have any interest in hearing more, please feel free to contact Emma McPherson and Eric Anderson, at etakeeper13@gmail.com. 

We have found that more kids at THE “Young Life Club” leads to more kids at their new Young Life CLUB.

Written by Eric Anderson and Emma McPherson

A Good Testimony

In my 29 years on Staff and more recently working with hundreds of students for their Work Crew or Banquet Testimonies.

One phrase I hear too often, “I don’t have a 'Good Testimony.’” That phrase just kills me.

Watch this 2 minute video to encourage you and yours to rethink how we might see our Testimony as God sees it.

Feel free to reach out to Kent personally at (971) 506-5368 or Kent@1161.younglife.org if you are interested in more help.

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Part two of a “Good Testimony” helps us remember what we are celebrating in a testimony in the first place.

Where should we place our focus? Who stands in the spotlight?

Also, it gives us three quick steps to rethink how to put our thoughts together around sharing what Jesus has done in us.

Don’t let yourself fall into the trap that more sin equals a better testimony.

Feel free to reach out to Kent personally at (971) 506-5368 or Kent@1161.younglife.org if you are interested in more help.

Taking Advantage of ‘HINGE MOMENTS’

The summer I graduated from high school I was given a gift. 

• A plane reservation with my name on it to Seattle, Washington.

• A ferry boat ticket to Vancouver.

• Travel plans to British Columbia . 

• Finally an itinerary that ended at Beyond Malibu for a backpacking trip. 

Incredible! What a gift! I can’t think of a better way to transition from High School to the next chapter of my life! My response?

-I decided last minute that I was not going to go and I bailed!-

I missed the chance to celebrate a ‘HINGE MOMENT.’ Simply, a place where you turn the corner and enter something new. Traditionally, we have called these stages or events in someone’s life a ‘rite of passage.’ They mark transitions like birth, puberty, marriage, and death. Adolescence is at the intersection of these moments and that is why so many of us are called to this season in a person’s life and love what we get to do in Young Life Camping. For years, I told everyone that would listen, that this was my biggest regret in my life! I say that less now because it seems a bit dramatic, but now, as I begin my 6th summer working in Young Life Adventure camping, I know more about what I missed. 

What I missed was THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE MY LIFE STORY for the first time. As people involved in ministry, this process can become watered down. As a reminder, though, for an 18 year old to think about and articulate what all has happened so far in their life, and for a bunch of other people to listen to it and respond in care, can be pivotal. The majority of campers coming through adventure camping are rising or just-graduated seniors and, while we aren’t asking them to close a chapter of their lives, this week can lead to growth out of that chapter. High schoolers who have come through camp in recent summers (‘20 and ‘21, particularly), are looking to process and vocalize some recent life and world events that they haven’t yet been able to healthily move past.

I didn’t consider how I was giving up AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPERIENCE AUTHENTIC CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY. Though I had known this group of friends for years, I later heard from the trip report about the depth that I had missed. Not unique to Beyond, the fleshing out of Acts 2 happened that week: I found out that one guy devoted himself to the apostles teaching for the first time, that they grew deeper in their fellowship with one another, that they broke bread and prayed together multiple times daily with dirt & ice beneath them. Campers that come through adventure camp experiences get a week-long taste of what it can look like for them to seek life together in Christ for the rest of their lives. 

Now, after the summers I have worked in adventure camping, I have come to REFRAME WHO DISCIPLESHIP CAMPING IS FOR. I, like most, used to consider adventure camp a 2nd-timer opportunity. And while that can be true , the population is not that narrow. The discipleship content that we get to share is embedded with Gospel truth for those who may be hearing it for the first time and those who have been in relationship with Christ for years, for campers, leaders and camp staff alike. If discipleship camping is about growing deeper in Christ, I hope that growth is true for me everyday I come to work, for teams of volunteers across adventure camping, for staff & volunteer leaders attending camp, and for 1st, 2nd, 3rd time campers. A friend on field staff helped me realize this when he said, “I never like to miss my area’s trip to adventure camp because it is one of the best things for my relationship with Jesus.”

If we are going to live up to our rhetoric and not only introduce adolescents to Jesus Christ but truly help them grow in their faith, then ‘hinge moments’ are going to be a key part of our camping plan. They facilitate the ability to 

1. Look out: Share our story with others

2. Look around: Experience Community

3. Look in: Realize that God is always doing something ‘in us’ and ‘through us’. 

What is your ‘hinge moment’ plan for the students you serve in your YL context?  There is no richer part of ministry, don’t miss it! 

Written by Kristin Farren kfarren@wg.younglife.org

SHARING WHAT ONLY YOU CAN SEE

WHAT ARE YOU ‘UNIQUELY POSITIONED’ TO DO?

On September 29, 1932, one of US history's most iconic pictures was taken, then shared by the NY Herald Tribune, Sunday Supplement. LUNCH ON A SKYSCRAPER was the photo. The backdrop was what would become one of the most photographed cities in the world:  New York City. 

At mid-day,  11 ironworkers were photographed seated on a girder on what would ultimately become the central feature (RCA building) of the surrounding Rockefeller Center. Ultimately, 14 buildings made up the space above 50th Street, NYC now known as 30 Rock. 

Behind the 11 men on the steel beam, you can view Central Park in the background, the growing city below and the Hudson river in the distance.  These men (children of immigrants) are suspended 78 stories above the city (840 feet). They sit on a narrow support beam with a 4 inch lip.  At that time, half of the structural steel manufactured in the US was being used by New York City, to make room for the 24 million immigrants who had descended on Ellis Island between 1883-1925. A burgeoning population, still suffering the effects of  the great depression in the background told the larger story of… 

• 25% unemployment rate.

• The collapse of several banks in New York City alone.

• A contentious Presidential election race between FDR and Herbert Hoover.

• The repeal of Prohibition. 

• The end of Babe Ruth’s 14 year stint with the  New York Yankees.

• The epicenter of Immigration shifting from The Mayflower to Ellis Island.

This simple photo provided a hopeful perspective that signified  that ‘something was starting.’ One historian, explaining the popularity of the photo mentioned that “In the midst of the building of NYC, this was the moment when New York became NEW YORK.” The 11 men were ‘UNIQUELY POSITIONED’ to have a perspective that no one else in the city possessed. They are tremendously aware of their surroundings and seem at ease. Their location wasn’t safe although they appear unfazed by the danger below. Their nonchalance can make the observer conflicted by discomfort and the desire to join them!  Of the 20 million historical photos stored at Iron Mountain (a 6 square mile storage facility 360 miles west of NYC)  ‘Lunch on a Skyscraper’ is their most popular.  Ordinary people doing extraordinary work may be the  reason. Few get to do what they are doing. 

All organizations have teams that are ‘UNIQUELY POSITIONED’ to effect change. They have perspectives that come from altitude, role, and tenure. Young Life is no different. If you serve in leadership in your Area, Region, or Division, you have perspective that allows you to see what is becoming. You see…

• What is starting and where greater focus is needed.

• The potential timeline, hurdles, and cost.

• The opportunities and possibilities.

• HERE is an example of a local Young Life Area Committee’s observation on what they are ‘uniquely positioned’ to do.  

Understanding what you are UNIQUELY POSITIONED to do gives you perspective to not only notice what is stirring but to find the places where only YOU can serve. Here is an exercise to do with your Committee or Leadership team.  TRY THIS EXERCISE:  

1. Study the, Lunch on a Skyscraper photo. (What emotion comes forth? Why do you think it is poignant that the identities of both the 11 men and the photographer are still unknown decades later?)

2. What are 5 areas where your perspective is Uniquely Positioned? What can you see that others may not have the same vantage point? (Be specific)

3. What are the harsh realities that you see in your ministry context that others may not be aware of?  (Share thoughtfully and respectfully observations you have from your perspective) The truth and reality that you see?  

4. Conversely, what are some opportunities that you see that others may not be aware of? (What are some areas of leverage that stand out to you because of your role, or vantage point?) 

5. What are some areas of support, training, resourcing, and strategy that can only be accomplished by those on your team, with your perspective?

I sometimes wonder if the ‘Lunch on a Skyscraper’ photo became famous because of the good questions it prompted.  

• “Are they really doing that?”

• “What are they discussing?” 

• “Where, when, and what is happening?”  

What is more fun than observing ordinary people doing extraordinary things? If you do the exercise listed above, I would love to hear your thoughts. Call or email me at kenbtank@gmail.com or (303) 472-8140.  

-Tank. 

Riding on Planes

I rode in some airplanes again this week. One from San Diego to Portland, Oregon, and then another one from Portland to Atlanta. It had been a while since I had been on any airplanes.

In Portland, a lot of the buildings were boarded up. I remember Portland as a nice green place with parks and people riding bicycles everywhere, but the parks were overgrown and had fences around them. There weren't as many people on bicycles, but there were still some. Cyclists are a hardy people. Especially the commuting ones. I bet there would still be some cyclists even if we had an apocalypse. The stubborn left-over cyclists rode past the boarded-up buildings and the graffiti. On one corner, there was a new mural on a building. It was a giant white painting of a beautiful tree, and surrounding the mural was a lot of graffiti. Two different kinds of paint in a silent battle for the city's soul. There was a guy with a ziplock bag filled with pills on one street corner. He was counting the pills out in his hand to give to another guy wearing a ragged red raincoat. One, two, three, four white pills. A long way off, I heard a siren; it was the kind of a siren an ambulance makes.

In Atlanta, there's a very long way to walk to get to the rental car facility. I walked past a lot of different kinds of people who had places to be, all rushing around. The women dress comfortably to travel now. They have yoga pants and sweatshirts. Some of the women ever have little pillows attached to their roller suitcases, but a lot of the men wear suits. The airport is the only place left where you can still see a man in a suit in the wild.

Outside of the city, there are a lot of green trees – a very Flannery O'Connell backdrop to all of the deep histories and unspoken expectations of the American South. There are Waffle Houses out there with their yellow and black signs, and Chick Fil-a's, and more and more green trees. I started reading the billboards. A lot of them are for lawyers. You don't even have to pay them unless you win. Accident lawyers. Divorce lawyers. There were some billboards for places to buy handguns and a lot of other ones that say how big the lottery is now. People tend to advertise things that are already selling. Somebody has to pay for those billboards. I imagined what court case must have paid to put that big bright sign up there for me to read. Come and get your HUGE settlement, The boards say.

I spent a lot of time inside during the past few years. I got married and made tea and wrote a book and made a couple of albums (one of the reasons my newsletters have been more sparse of late). I played the Legend of Zelda all the way through for the second time. I hid and ignored and felt overwhelmed by the world and the noise in it. When I came back outside again, the buildings were all boarded up, and the billboards were all marketing to desperate people. Desperation has a sound – a white noise like a big wave, but it also has an impact. I'd been hearing the sound, and maybe now I am feeling the impact.

On the second airplane ride, I was in the tunnel to board with all the other people. Yoga pants and suits. I began to feel very claustrophobic. Oh, no – why are we going to do this, to all pack inside this metal tube and fly through the sky. What if everyone has to pee at the same time? What if someone has a panic attack? What if that person is me? I couldn't believe we had all agreed to sit together like this. What an enormous terror flying is. It had nothing to do with Covid. I just couldn't believe everyone was going to shuttle in here like cows in chutes, light it on fire and shoot us to Atlanta, it is an enormous and for-granted chaos – not even the flying itself, but the pure togetherness it requires. Maybe I should stay here forever, I thought. Maybe I will walk home; I have walked a long way before, I thought. But when the plane was in the sky, everything settled into itself again like an afternoon with the slow hum of the oxygen and the soft roar of the jet engines, and everything was at rest. The people were reading magazines. One girl had an Australian shepherd. He doesn't like his head being pet, she told me. It's going to be a nice day when we get there, the pilot said over the intercom. He wasn't worried at all. I'd like to think that if we can trust one another enough to get on an airplane, there must be a lot more hope down there inside of us where the light doesn't shine. The kind of hope that can get covered up in the white noise of desperation like the sound of a big wave.

Written by Tyson Motsenbocker (tyson.motsenbocker@gmail.com)

https://www.tysonmotsenbocker.com/

Use your PET PEEVES for good

Pet peeves are minor annoyances tied to a situation, a person, or a system. Listed below are some examples. Check all that qualify as a pet peeve for YOU:

Although pet peeves can start as frustrations, they can easily turn into a motivation. Having pet peeves means you have an opinion and you probably have thoughts about a potential solution too!! Bottom line:  pet peeves are small irritations that if addressed can lead to a significant positive effect. If directed appropriately, a solution to a pet peeve can bring about change. There is a simple progression that leads to change within a group or organization when pet peeves lead to pet passions and ultimately to pet projects.  

PET PEEVES:  An observation or annoyance that makes you say “We have to FIX this!” 

PET PASSIONS: A strong interest that you feel a strong attachment toward that makes you say “I need to DO this!” 

PET PROJECTS:  A cultural tweak, theory, or adjustment that makes you say “You need to SEE this!” 

(The 3 P’s) Peeves, Passions, and Projects are the little things that wake you up in the morning and keep you up at night. The common thread through each of them is that they represent small problems that are fixable! The answer is NOT a new program or initiative, but rather a pivot or tweak. 

Here are a few ways that some Young Life staff took a frustration (challenge) and created a simple tweak that improved things and reshaped the mission.  

• Q. How do we think strategically about outreach and discipleship?  A. MAP/TREE/LIST AND 3-12-72

• Q. How do we build a culture of Contact Work?  A. CONTACT WORK JOURNALS AND CONSISTENT ACCOUNTABILITY

• Q. How can we increase volunteerism with the ‘right’ people?  A. +1 PILOT COHORT

• Q. How do we foster community, accountability, and encouragement in our personal devotional life?  A. THRED JOURNALS 

• Q. What is a way we can align discipleship experience for all of those serving at camp?  A. SUMMER STAFF AND WC DEVOTIONAL 

• Q. How can we compete with corporate summer Intern programs?  A. SUMMER STAFF qualifies as SUMMER INTERNSHIP 

• Q. How do you highlight the Committee Chair /Area Director relationship?  A. WEEKLY CC/AD FACE TO FACE MEETING

• Q. How can you engage 25-35 year olds in your community?  A. YO PRO JUNIOR BOARDS 

• Q. How do we create a rite-of-passage experience?  A. ADVENTURE CAMPING

Here are 3 simple steps to move from a frustration to a solution in your YL area. Think about a frustration/challenge that you have tried to address in the past or a current issue you are working on now.  

It takes years to affect culture but often-times the smallest adjustment has the greatest impact over time. I would love to hear tweaks you are making in your context and how it is going. Let me know what you are learning.    Written by: Tank

Reflections for Young Life College Staff on “Languishing”

In the last year, have you regrettably binged a show? (Me too.) Have you unexpectedly stayed up late scrolling through social media? (Um, at least three nights a week.) Have you felt unmotivated, strangely empty, or had a lack of energy and focus? (Guilty as charged.)

If you're like me, then you might be experiencing something called languishing.

Adam Grant describes languishing as that blah feeling, the void between depression and flourishing, the absence of well-being. “The dulling of delight and the dwindling of drive.” You don’t have the symptoms of mental illness but you’re not doing so hot either. It’s characterized by going through the motions and joylessness, “as if you’re muddling through your day, looking at your life through a foggy windshield.”

Just…blah. Can anyone relate?

It’s no surprise that this is common for a lot of Young Lifers because one of the strongest factors in motivation is progress. When I first started reading Grant's article in the New York Times and listened to his TED Talk, I thought, “I’ll just pass this on to some college staff, maybe it will be useful for their students or for themselves…” And then upon reading further, I realized it was for me. I have been languishing. 

Here's the question though: How do we turn our languishing into flourishing? The acronym MAID will help because, you know, you were MAID for this! 

MINDFULNESS:

• Decrease distraction to get in “flow” – turn your phone off for 1.5 hours tomorrow and work on something significant you’ve been putting off. Then try it again the next day. (Even writing this little paragraph felt like progress. I turned my phone off and put it in another room!)

ACT:

• Do something! Be active while doing what you do every day. For me, I started walking on the treadmill while making a couple of calls. (For the folks who wouldn’t mind.)

• It is easier to act your way to a new way of thinking than it is to think your way into a new way of acting.

INCREASE POSITIVE EMOTIONS:

• Self-care – Take a nap, go to bed early two nights in a row, take a full day off with no Young Life, have something you look forward to doing every day.

• Relationships – Give a call to someone who is very important to you but you haven’t talked to in a while. Call a couple of your alumni or old Young Life kids. Look at old photos and remember God's faithfulness in lives changed. 

DEEPER MEANING:

• If we're motivated by progress, let's name the progress. We all want to matter and make a difference! It has been harder to see impact during COVID so let’s get out our magnifying glass and make sure we’re looking. 

• As we come down the home stretch of the semester, remember and celebrate. Celebrate the small wins or plan a celebration night. Get lots of sparkling cider and fun glasses and toast where you’ve seen God work!

Let’s light a path out of this blah and get back to John 10:10 flourishing.

Written by: Pete Hardesty, Eastern/Northeastern YLC Divisional Coordinator

A CONCERTO IS A CONVERSATION

Oscar-nominated short film “A Concerto Is a Conversation” is the story of love between a grandfather and his grandson woven together through music. It’s also a narrative about race in America. Composer Kris Bowers, the virtuoso behind “Green Book” and “When They See Us,” wears multiple hats for the film, as co-director (with friend Ben Proudfoot), producer, composer and star. He appears alongside his 91-year-old grandfather Horace Bowers Sr. The 13-minute film is the result of a short piece Proudfoot had been working on for L.A. Philharmonic, which had commissioned him for a project addressing the intersection between Los Angeles and music. He reached out to Bowers after learning the composer was set to appear at Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles for a violin concerto with the American Youth Symphony. 

Below are a few talking points to discuss with your Area volunteers, committee, and leadership. There are so many parallels we can pull from this short film that have application to the ministry we’re doing in Young Life. Consider using this short film as a tool to inspire and support your Area’s impact.

DISCUSS:  There is a strong theme of ‘legacy’ in this short film.  It touches on the affinity for music, race, discipleship and race to name a few.  In your group discuss the following questions.  

Q.  Was there a favorite quote, or scene from this mini-documentary that stood out to you?  Why? 

Q.  If a Concerto is a conversation between the soloist and the ensemble.  In this short film, which is which?  Where do you see this?

Q.  In your life, what legacy have you received?  

Q.  What legacy do you want to leave? What barriers will you or have you experienced and had to break through to establish a legacy?

THE LEGACY OF INCARNATIONAL WITNESS

    -Rediscovering the Occasional Papers-

I am so grateful for the staff that have curated a historical archive of Young Life’s resources and documents over the past 80 years! Recently, I stumbled upon some documents that are not only insightful to the history of the mission and pertinent to our current cultural challenges today. 

• Jim Rayburn’s first ever leadership manual

• Decades old camp video’s and ‘Say Gang’ pamphlets

• The original YL song books  and training resources.

…are just a few of the timeless gems  worth rediscovering.

The ‘Occasional Papers’ written by John ‘Jack’ Fortin are a series of essays whose relevance are just starting to be rediscovered. In recent conversations with some Senior Staff in the mission, I learned that Jack was a graduate of Luther Seminary and was on Young Life staff for most of the 1970’s and 80’s. He served as an Area Director, Regional Director, and Divisional Director over part of the Midwest. He hired Nancy Warden, the first female Regional Director in the mission and his wife Sara Fortin was on the Centurion Leadership team for over 10 years.

Jack wrote more than five sets of Occasional Papers over the course of his staff tenure on various theological topics that are foundational to Young Life. This specific set of papers summarize a gathering held March 1978 in Stuttgart, Germany and recounts a dialogue about Incarnational witness. Because of the age of the documents, photocopying or scanning them was not a viable option so I decided to retype the seven pages in preparation for a team discussion. Over the course of several days, I  was given the chance to ‘soak’ in truth of its wording and celebrate the biblical centrality of Young Life’s methods. The ideas, thoughts, and themes that Jack articulated left a mark on me and I was reminded of some of the very foundations of our mission vision, values and methods. 

INCARNATIONAL WITNESS: WHAT IT IS AND HOW IT HAPPENS. 

Jack unpacks the concept of ‘Incarnational Witness’ in four parts:

1. What it is.

2. How it started.

3. How it works.

4. What our attitude should be in the process

What stands out to me most is the emphasis that Jack places on the role of Christian Community in Incarnational witness and writes: ‘The act of loving through a personal relationship will usually precede the verbalization of faith in order to ‘flesh-out’ the reality of Christ’s love which the witness then shares.’ He then looks through that lens at the mission of Young Life and speaks about ‘contact work’ and describes it as, ‘physically going to the places in which adolescents are found, whether it be a street corner, a pool hall, a back-alley, the school yard, or a McDonald’s hamburger stand.’

Although back-alleys and pool halls might not be the places where we meet kids today, the heart of what he’s saying is true. Young Life leaders go to where kids are to invite them into relationship and community in order to witness in both ‘word and deed.’  As I’ve been reminded about the foundational values of our mission through reading these pages, I hope they are an encouragement to you as we get back to the basics of what makes Young Life ‘still work’ after all these years. I’m grateful to Jack and the mark he left on me and the mission.

We are currently searching the archives for more of Jack’s Occasional Papers.

• If you are interested in facilitating your own discussion on Incarnational Witness, you can download the Occasional Papers HERE

-written by Kimberly Silvernale

WHO OWNS ALUMNI?

Last Sunday night my husband and I enjoyed a night out at our local area Young Life Banquet sitting next to Kiki & Rhett. We met them as middle schoolers when I was on field staff in the early 2000s. They are now married, have two kids, and live five minutes away from us. I had the realization as I was sitting there, that they are now Alumni and Friends and we could be engaging with them even more! 

A week prior I had asked our local Area Director the following three questions:

1. What does your Area do to stay connected to YL alumni?   

2. What would be your top three things in a job description for someone helping your area with alumni?  

3. What are the top 1-3 positives you see for your area if alumni were more engaged?

I asked because my husband and I are former club kids, volunteers, leaders, and staff. We are YL Alumni & Friends from all angles as well. 

As such, we want to be part of the answer to the question ‘who owns alumni?’ In a word, the answer to that question is ‘everyone.’ In reality, it seems most effective if an area has a team of people in their mission community who raise their hands to come alongside staff to own, engage, and build a structure around alumni in the local area. 

This got me wondering if a job description existed for a “YL Community Engagement Coordinator?” Let’s take a quick stab at some essentials for this role that I’m beginning to think every committee needs:

• A SPECIFIC ROLE on your local area committee

  • Who is someone who is already a part of your community and is excited about essentially being a volunteer leader with alumni?

  • This needs to be someone excited to build a team of people who engage alumni (former staff, volunteer leaders, parents, etc.).

• The Alumni & Friends team will IDENTIFY the “alumni & friends” living in your local area

  • Work with area databases, former staff people, former volunteer leaders by reaching out to the Alumni & Friends department and work with your Area administrator.

• The Alumni & Friends team will OFFER mutually beneficial opportunities 

  • What are we offering that is of value to alumni? Networking opportunities, invitation to be a part of reaching kids with the gospel, relationships, & community.

  • As with any other part of Young Life, we want our engagement of alumni to be transformational, not merely transactional.

• The Alumni & Friends team will make it hard to say no 

  • Who wouldn’t want to go to a happy hour and reconnect with old friends?

  • Everyone is looking for community and relationships no matter their life stage.

  • Include alumni in celebrating what God is doing in the lives of kids in your local area.

  • Personal invitations are everyone’s favorite! Develop a culture of invitation among alumni: nothing is off limits!

Would a structure like this help your Area Director answer those initial three questions without expanding their bandwidth? YES! Consider this Young Life 2.0.: offering alumni & friends around the mission a chance to reconnect, re-engage, and continue the relationships that have always been at the core of Young Life. A win all around for sure!

Written by: Emily Lewis

IDENTIFYING THE VOLUNTEERS YOU DON’T SEE

This month (March 2022) marks the two year point in which the whole world changed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A big part of that change is how we do and see our ministries within Young Life. We’ve struggled and adapted more times than we can count, and in that we’ve experienced exponential loss. 

Perhaps the pandemic revealed more things than it caused.  

As a global mission we have seen some consistency crossing over from an International to US context. One exception is volunteers. While International volunteerism has continued to steadily increase we have seen significant losses in the United States. 

Since 2018 volunteer numbers have decreased profoundly due to several variables.

• Decrease in ‘discretionary time’ of volunteers 

• The ripple effect of a Global pandemic

• Activism replacing Evangelicalism on the college campus 

• Better mission-wide vetting, on-boarding, and ‘counting’

As a volunteer-led mission, we are aggressively honing our skills of recruitment and retention of volunteers, the temptation could be, to scale back, to play it safe and focus solely on what we know we can do. It’s easy to stop dreaming of what it looks like to go after every kid for fear that we don’t have the volunteer resources we need. But I want to challenge you to reimagine what it might look like to look at potential new ministries and identify the people who feel directly called there.

As Young Life staff we often hear about designated ministry opportunities such as YL College, Capernaum, Young Lives, or Young Life One, and we think, “That would be great, but I am already struggling to meet the need for volunteers in our existing ministries.” It isn’t that we don’t want to have an impact on college students, teen moms, kids with special needs, foster, homeless, incarcerated, or trafficked youth; we just don’t have the workforce to do all of this. 

As an area director I have often found myself in this place. I believe I have a finite number of leaders and finances. Adding something new will just make each slice of the pie thinner. 

I want you to consider that there may be an error in our logic. Sticking with the pie analogy, I have learned over my years as an area director, there are often other pools of volunteerism (Pies), full of called, committed, and caring individuals, that I am not inviting to the table. In my area we have YoungLives, Capernaum, and a Young Life One ministry to incarcerated youth. The leaders that lead in these designated ministries feel uniquely called to those populations. They don’t want to lead on one of our traditional High School Young Life ministry teams. They have passions and giftings that God has given them to serve the specific populations they serve. 

If I let my lack of leaders, or lack of vision scare me away from communicating about opportunities for designated ministries, there are potential leaders, donors, and partners who won’t give Young Life a second glance. If I begin to focus on scarcity, “there aren’t enough leaders!” I will miss out on the opportunity to invite specific leaders to the unique work that God has called them to. 

This has pushed me to change my mentality. I want to invite people to see all the opportunities we have for serving kids in our community, and trust that God will provide the people who are called to these specific types of work. Here is an example from a recent Young Life One ministry start-up. 

In September of 2020, North Branch YL and Susquehanna Valley YL began communicating about an opportunity to do Young Life One at the North Central Secure Treatment Facility in Danville PA (long-term Juvenile Corrections). They had little-to-no connection to the facility and no leaders for this ministry. This is a glimpse of their story,

“When starting YL One we weren’t sure what to expect. One thing we were unsure of is where we would find more leaders. Our ministries pull from two separate colleges to recruit leaders, and we knew we already needed more leaders than we had for our existing ministries. We decided to approach other adults in our community to help lead YL One. We now have over 10 new adult leaders. What has been great is several of them had very little YL experience prior to joining our ministry. This strengthened our ties to the local church, as we have leaned on them to help us recruit new leaders, and it has brought interest to our ministry from groups of people we had not connected with before. We are just getting started and we already have three churches to speak at this spring about our YL One Ministry. God has provided beyond what he had hoped for.”

I’m inviting you to join me in stepping out of a scarcity mentality, into believing that God may have people lined up to do these designated ministries in our area. I believe we have some untapped volunteer ministry pools that perhaps are waiting to be asked, even if they don’t know it yet.

-Mason Keller

HOW YOUNGLIVES DISCOVERED THE SECRET TO GENERATIONAL IMPACT

We all know that the work we’re doing has a long-term impact, but so often we actually have very near-sighted vision. We look at what is right in front of us during the teen years (and rightly so!), but we forget that there’s a whole lifetime that happens after a student leaves our clubs. But, what if we put on a new pair of lenses to look through and consider what would happen if we intentionally engaged our students for their entire lifetime?! 

In YoungLives, we’ve recently started dreaming and considering what it looks like to engage our club kids beyond just the years we have them in our traditional clubs. It makes sense, when our leaders are highly engaged in not just the students’ life, but their child(ren) too. The mentoring that happens in YoungLives is often deeper and wider than it is with traditional Young Life contact work because we’re talking about parenting, housing/resources for their families, emotions, faith, and all of the other things you’d expect from a teenager. So, it was a natural fit for our leaders to start seeing ways to engage our moms beyond their teenage years.

As a result, we’ve built up a focus around our YoungLives Alumni. We’ve seen these informal groups popping up all over the country - and often without even realizing that the other similar groups existed already! We don’t have a formal program, or a formal name for this, but we’re engaging our moms with discipleship, personal development, and service beyond just high school or college age. 

Here are some first hand stories from the field of these new blessings and experiences:

“We have doubled our Next Generation leaders of YoungLives Alumni! Growth has spurred on motivation to fundraise for the opportunity to diversify our Childcare teams so that we can see more YoungLives alumni serving in that capacity. Teen moms are meeting Jesus in the Southeast. Tennessee and Georgia joined together for a weekend camp recently, 24 teen heard about the extravagant love that Jesus has for them.”” – April Jackson, Divisional Coordinator SE

“Braelynn Cooper, former YoungLives participant now leading a metro area in North Puget Sound, WA. Inviting her into more, to expand her influence in this region and beyond. She is continuing to develop the pipeline of teen mamas through "Beyond" - ongoing discipleship and development for young women, age 21+. Can't wait to see how the fruit of ministry over 18 years in her community will continue to flourish!”

 - Heather Hoglund Divisional Coordinator NW

You don’t have to minister to teen moms to see the catch the same vision, and what we’re doing is something anyone could do. You have kids who never went off to college, are home from on a break, or who live in other places but you have this thing called the Internet keeping you connected. Consider how you could be discipling them, growing with them, and engaging with them more. They might become mentors to your current students, members of your committee, or a shoulder you turn to when you’re in need. 

There’s richness and longevity to the work we’re doing here. We just have to be willing to look a little bit beyond the people right in front of us and we’ll see there are huge opportunities for us to pour into others and for them to pour right back to us. 

Some Questions to Consider as You Think About Your Own Multi-Generational Impact:

-  How are you staying connected 'beyond' your formal ministry years?

-  What is your vision for the students you know now 5,10,15 years in the future?

-  How are you staying connected and making sure you don't lose touch?

-  What would be one strategic idea you could implement to have a significant effect on this group?  a. A committee person keep track.  b.  Alumni event c. Reunion. d.  consistent communication and encouragement in their faith e. a small group for graduates?  f.  partnership with churches etc. 

Written by Karil Connor

A SIMPLE WAY TO CONNECT TO TEACHERS

Maybe you’re like us in Lewistown, Montana where the schools are in need of substitute teachers more and more. Lewiston is the geographic center of Montana and is known for our natural spring water, hunting, fishing, and epic ranches. While you may not look exactly like us, you probably have the same need for substitute teachers, and the same need to connect with your schools to grow your Young Life clubs. 

I decided to give it a try and signed up to be a substitute teacher. 

When I got the opportunity to be a substitute, I looked through my club giveaways and office supplies. I was doing a partial day for a history class, and at the end of that day, I left some swag and office supplies with the teacher as a small gift alongside my substitute notes from the day. I thanked that teacher for the opportunity to serve them in their absence, as well as the opportunity to serve their students. After that first day, I decided to try it over and over again each day I substituted. 

A Wow Experience 

In Young Life, we’re all about making fun experiences that have a wow factor and make people want to come back for more. We know that it’s a party with a deeper purpose, so when we can bring a little fun moment to a teacher, why wouldn’t we? Think about how many substitutes leave a little extra gift with their sub notes. Probably not many. 

The Physical Objects Matter 

Everyone loves getting gifts and often those gifts sit around that teacher’s desk for a few days or even weeks. It’s a small visual reminder of that great experience they had with you as their substitute each time they see it. They remember that that was a different substitute teacher experience and they start to get curious. 

Serve 

Go into the opportunity with the mentality that you are there to serve. Our teachers have had a rough few years, and our kids have too. You get a chance to serve all of them when you sub. Taking that quick moment to thank them for the opportunity to serve them and their kids, shows the teacher you care. It also opens up the conversation for bigger needs that teachers may have. 

Long-term Relationships 

By leaving these small gifts and small notes of gratitude with our teachers, I’ve built up relationships and rapport with these teachers. They inevitably ask me about what Young Life is about and what my connection is to the group. This has proven to open the doors of communication with teachers to learn of their potential interest, needs for their classrooms, and students. We’ve seen more doors open just by taking a few small, simple steps as a substitute. Not only that, but we’ve gotten to know more students too, as well as their needs. 

We found a simple way to keep Young Life in front of our teachers in a way of service and support to them. These connections have been invaluable for us as we build our clubs and serve our students. The open door starts with a simple act of service!

Written by: Tim Painter

* While you’re serving, be sure to follow the school’s protocols; it’s not a place to promote Young Life club, but it’s a great way to care for teachers and be seen.

ANSWERING THE 3rd QUESTION

THE 3rd QUESTION IS THE HARDEST!!

All Innovations have two key elements:   

1. Try something NEW.  

2. Bring VALUE.

Daily, we are struck by large and small problems that we are convinced, “someone needs to solve!”  

Some are SMALL:

• Squeezing the last bit of toothpaste out of the tube.

• Designing packing tape that  tears cleanly

• Preventing clothes from getting caught in a zipper. 

• Fixing broken Christmas tree lights.

• Milk cartons not opening correctly.

• The wait time on customer service calls.

• 3 ring binders not clipping together. 

• Pringles potato chip cans opening that are too small for your hands to fit. 

Throughout history, entire Nations have tried to solve problems that are BIG:

• Quality education.

• Affordable Health Care.

• Responding to natural disasters. 

• World hunger and malnutrition.

• Climate change.

• Bias, prejudice, and inequality. 

• Armed conflict.

• Clean Water and Sanitation issues.

• Homelessness.

In Young Life, our innovative culture requires several things to work- collaboration, alignment, and integration across departments and creativity. Perhaps, most importantly, there is a need for strong PROBLEM SOLVING skills to handle the ‘heavy lifting’ of identifying the final steps as we RE-tool, RE-think and RE-imagine how to reach the next kid. Over the 5 year span of YL Forward every pilot that was launched had a multi-step process, input surveys, charters, ‘lead teams,’ and coaches. It’s impressive, but without the final steps of how to make an idea ‘operational’ all the work is wasted. 

Below are 3 questions and a simple ‘DIY’ exercise you can try as you innovate in any context or scope.   

PROBLEM SOLVING QUESTIONS

QUESTION ONE:  What is the problem? 

We answer this question all the time. Before and after meetings, in hallways, and even tossing and turning in our sleep.  Actually, it doesn’t take a lot of talent to spot the problem. Just eyes and ears and some general awareness of your surroundings. This question lives within the world of pet-peeves. Essentially, areas of irritation or frustration that we are committed to addressing.  

TRY THIS! Think of a challenge or pet peeve that has come to mind lately. It can be tied to your job, your home-life or your community, but it has to be something that has some degree of a connecting point to you and have the ability to influence and address it. Now: Write it done on a piece of paper.  Just one sentence, general description. 

QUESTION TWO:  What is the Solution? 

This question goes a bit deeper but is just slightly harder to address. A base-level understanding can equip even the most entry level expert with the knowledge to come close to a solution. Most can get close to the bulls-eye. You can identify someone coming to grips with this solution with the statement ‘You know what we need to do…..” 

TRY THIS! You have listed the problem, now take a guess at the possible solution. What do we need to do? Give yourself some guardrails. We don’t have unlimited resources, time, and funding, but on that same piece of paper, for the next minute, give yourself the freedom to solve the issue and list the solution in your view.  

QUESTION THREE: What are the next steps?

Here is where I have seen groups get stalled. This is the ‘now what?’ stage of problem solving and how your group navigates this space will separate them from the crowd. It requires patience, broad based knowledge and most importantly the ability to not just have a plan but work that plan.  

TRY THIS!   Ask yourself the following 10 questions

1. Make an effort to take apart the problem. What is the core issue?  Not just the symptom symptom? 

2. Who else or what other departments need to be in this conversation? Are there some experts you could learn from?

3. Has someone else tried to fix this problem before?  What happened?  What can we learn?  

4. What do you think will be the cost of fixing this problem? People? Resources? Can we afford it? 

5. Is there alignment? Is everyone on board? What could be some hurdles we could encounter internally?  

6. How long will the potential solution take? Weeks? Months? Years? Will there be stages/phases or benchmarks?

7. What does success look like? What kind of outcome are we looking for?

8. What is our definition of traction?  

9. Engage ‘thought partners’ and create an outline of a plan. How disruptive could it be? How do you make adjustments for it?

10. When does this need to happen? Today? Someday? Do we have the bandwidth to do __X__? 

The reason the 3rd question is the hardest is because it makes you involve others, think through next steps, and count the cost.  That is also the beauty of bringing about change. The work is always hard but if thought through it calls for more patience than effort. Answering these three questions can get you far down the road but as you go through the exercise, share with me your thoughts on the PROBLEM, the SOLUTION, and the NEXT STEPS as you try NEW things that bring VALUE! 

Written by: Ken B. Tankersley

YOUNG LIFE COMMITTEE PURPOSE & EXPECTATIONS

Over the years we have been asked time and time again if there is clarity around the expectations and purpose of the local Committee. There are several documents tied to covenants, and roles and the general purpose but there has been a resistance to being specific about the expectations that surround the local committee and mission community.

Over the past month, we asked a team to put together a simple one-pager that could give clarity to a potential Committee member as they pray and discuss the possibility of serving in this key area role. HERE it is! Simple, clear and short. If you would like to take it and make some edits for your local context, contact Tank and we will get you an editable version. If you have improvements or additions to it, please share so we can continue to serve this key leadership base the best we can.

THE NEED FOR SUMMER STAFF

“More and more we are seeing college students who WANT to go on Summer Staff but NEED to do an internship. We can help them solve this dilemma. Utilizing Summer Staff as an internship will take our summer staff experience to the next level...” –Cat Ryden, Divisional Coordinator for YL College, Central Southern Division

Is Summer Staff still a viable option considering what students have gone through the last 2+ years?  

YES. A THOUSAND TIMES YES. In fact, the need is even greater for them to serve and their need inside them is even greater still. Summer Staff could be what they need to unleash who they are, and set them on a course for following Jesus the rest of their life.  

“I really have to do an internship this summer.”

Have you ever been told this when you are talking to a college student about Summer Staff? Me too. It seems like unpaid internships (free labor for companies) have been increasing each year and now they are hypercompetitive due to COVID shutting many internship opportunities down. 

What if we could say: “I’m so glad you said that. I have the perfect internship for you…and I bet you’re having trouble finding one..”

More often than not, the Summer Staff experience has all the required components of an internship. And so much more! We know how special this experience is. Discipleship, sacrificial service, leadership growth, supervisory skills, a front row seat to many kids deciding to follow Jesus, hard work, teamwork and team building, community, and much, much more are all part of this adventure.

Summer Staff can most likely count as an internship for an employer, university, program, etc. 

We need to be flexible. Creative. Innovative. And take the initiative.  

So here’s the plan:

STEP 1:   Have your potential student find out exactly what is required by your student’s internship

Requirements vary greatly from school to school, job to job, and program to program. Some have almost no requirements and some have stringent standards.

STEP 2:   Send your student this guide and see if you together, with integrity, can craft the Summer Staff experience and description to fulfill the requirements of the internship.

STEP 3:   If there is a specific job that would help with the internship requirements, request that job for your student by calling the camp and the summer staff coordinator. (no guarantees, but make sure that the camp knows that this is a factor)

STEP 4:  Look at this short Summer Staff recruiting best practices list and rally your best students.

Thank you for having a vision for who kids could be.  

Thank you for going the extra mile to help kids have the experience of a lifetime on Summer Staff.

Thank you for making that extra phone call, sending that extra text, and going after those “internship” kids.

“Community. Adventure. Significance.  It’s who we are and what our college friends need. They get it all and more on Summer Staff.” –Cat Ryden

Bonus Resource: Resumer Building Tips After Doing Summer Staff

Written by: Pete Hardesty

LENT, The Intersection of Lament & Celebration

 I stumbled upon Daniel Bonnell’s art a few years ago while looking for a creative way to engage the various liturgical feasts in the Church calendar. Now he serves as a regular ‘go to’ for me when I am anxious to revamp, rekindle or re-engage my understanding of scripture. Over the next few weeks we will enter the Season of Lent marking the time period of prayer and preparation before Easter. Here is a print of the painting Lamentation of the Father by Daniel Bonnell to provide some inspiration this season. 

Daniel Bonnell is a working artist, an author, and a teacher. He is known throughout the United States, England and Israel as one of the few noted sacred painters of the 21st Century. Bonnell received his BFA degree from the Atlanta College of Art and his MFA from Savannah College of Art and Design and his paintings are found in churches around the world, and private collections. If curious, his art may be found at BonnellArt.com.

The Lamentation of the Father surrounds both Lament and Celebration, a tension that we have become accustomed to in our current cultural climate.It's intense in the themes of discord, mockery, humility, and loneliness. Bonnell captures it all. Interestingly, he chose to paint this scene on ‘grocery bag’ paper on purpose because the surface is humble, modest and world wide. There is so much to draw from in this painting! 

Bonnell was quoted as saying that “every piece of art is a personal devotional letter or offering to the Lord.” For me, his painting beautifully depicts the breadth of what occurs on the cross. Some elements to note: 

• He had a three step process with his paper canvas 1) paint the painting, 2) ball up the paper, and then 3) gently flatten it again with an iron to depict an aged and weathered texture.

• The earth tones of the painting are contrasted with the funnel of white rain from above and God’s reign pouring out below. 

• The stark outlining of Jesus' body subtly shows how Christ’s humanity is contained within his divinity. 

• The outstretched arms show a savior who has not only been ‘sent’ through embrace but ‘given’ obedience. 

THE CRUCIFIXION- Mark 15: 21-39 -The Message

21 There was a man walking by, coming from work, Simon from Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. They made him carry Jesus’ cross. 22-24 The soldiers brought Jesus to Golgotha, meaning “Skull Hill.” They offered him a mild painkiller (wine mixed with myrrh), but he wouldn’t take it. And they nailed him to the cross. They divided up his clothes and threw dice to see who would get them.25-30 They nailed him up at nine o’clock in the morning. The charge against him—the king of the jews—was scrawled across a sign. Along with him, they crucified two criminals, one to his right, the other to his left. People passing along the road jeered, shaking their heads in mock lament: “You bragged that you could tear down the Temple and then rebuild it in three days—so show us your stuff! Save yourself! If you’re really God’s Son, come down from that cross!”

31-32 The high priests, along with the religion scholars, were right there mixing it up with the rest of them, having a great time poking fun at him: “He saved others—but he can’t save himself! Messiah, is he? King of Israel? Then let him climb down from that cross. We’ll all become believers then!” Even the men crucified alongside him joined in the mockery.33-34 At noon the sky became extremely dark. The darkness lasted three hours. At three o’clock, Jesus groaned out of the depths, crying loudly, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” 35-36 Some of the bystanders who heard him said, “Listen, he’s calling for Elijah.” Someone ran off, soaked a sponge in sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down.”37-39 But Jesus, with a loud cry, gave his last breath. At that moment the Temple curtain ripped right down the middle. When the Roman captain standing guard in front of him saw that he had quit breathing, he said, “This has to be the Son of God!”

Lent is a complicated season on the church calendar, embracing both Lament and Celebration at the same moment. Grief, sorrow and weeping are inescapable within the truth of the Crucifiction. Conversely, celebration is demanded when one appreciates the depth and power of what occurred on the Cross. The gospel can be found at this intersection of those two realities. Jesus, promising ‘full life’ (Celebration), while embracing the label ‘man of sorrows’ (Lament). The Lenten season heightens our awareness of both, but offers great hope. The 40 days of Lent begin with Ash Wednesday on March 2, 2022. Let's continue to live at that intersection! If you have your own thoughts on the painting, please contact me.

-Ken Tank.