CAN THE ANSWER REALLY BE AS SIMPLE AS GOING FOR A WALK??

The following article is written by YOU.  Hundreds of YOU from around the US and around the Globe. We curated the answers from all the responses last month’s (August 2020 5.4 Friday) email and identified the following ‘buckets’ of ideas on how to continue to foster a training, discipleship, and missional community among your leadership team in the midst of a disrupted school semester.  Bottom line:  Comply with Young Life, State, and local CDC guidelines but continue to find a way to develop volunteers and reach kids. Below is the question we asked and some of the best, creative answers.  (*denotes the answer was given several times!)

The results are in. Here was the QUESTION:  Aside from zoom calls, what is one creative way you are ENGAGING VOLUNTEER LEADERS and helping to foster leadership development this fall?

THE ANSWERS- 

*****Taking my dog on a WALK WITH A LEADER

*******Meeting for OUTDOOR WORSHIP

*****AFTER SCHOOL TUTORING at a local church

********CALLING EACH AND EVERYONE. Listening to their good things and bad things and in between things.

*******Lots and LOTS OF WALKS! One walk with a leader a day! 

***Leadership MOVIE NIGHTs that related to ministry

*********Instilling an Acts 2:42-47 vision in our time together, and going through MULTIPLE BOOKS together.

*****We're doing a PRAYER AND PRAISE wall with hand cut outs at our fall kickoff

*****gathering, walking, playing and praying in OUTDOOR SPACES!!

****Study Groups, Study PODS, Tutoring 

******Team dinners with our MISSION COMMUNITY to foster a Total-Area community culture!

*LEADER FLOAT TRIP ON INNER TUBES on a local river next month. Colder weather?  Meet in small groups.

*****Giving them WEEKLY TASKS/GOALS to accomplish.

******LEADER BOOK CLUB, Prayer Partners, Double Dates to do Contact work with teen mom and baby

*****PRAYER WALKS  AROUND THE SCHOOLS at our leadership training day

*********DINNER & GAME NIGHTS, going through the principles laid out in the book Margin

***We BOUGHT EVERY LEADER TWO LAWN CHAIRS to keep in their car. Being a leader this year is going to mean showing up to kids' world (their drive way even) pulling out some chairs, and sitting down to talk about life, faith, and hope in Christ. 

Thanks EVERYONE for your simple, practical and helpful input!  These ideas work in almost every context.  Gather your team, take a moment, and choose a few ideas and start in your context.  Take a walk, talk, and watch lives change.  Go on a walk with a purpose! 

-Written by 127 Staff around the Globe.  

EQUIP YOUR WYLDLIFE LEADERS LIKE NEVER BEFORE

Equip Your WyldLife Leaders

We are incredibly grateful for the hundreds of staff and volunteers who serve as WyldLife team leaders; this ministry does not happen without them.

In the United States, 75 percent of WyldLife ministries have team leaders who are part-time staff or volunteers. These leaders get to build relationships and share the gospel with middle schoolers – a unique group of kids who don’t see, feel or experience things in the same ways as high school students. So it is important that WyldLife team leaders understand how to meet middle school kids where they are.

During this stay-at-home season, we offered a series of online classes just for WyldLife leaders. More than 400 leaders from 42 states and 3 countries participated in the classes which focused on how specific ministry tools must be used differently when working with middle school kids.

Leaders learned about club talks, Campaigners, contact work, and sharing the gospel in a WyldLife setting. They also learned how to create a parent communication plan and how to connect with parents who are not as available – both important when working with kids whose parents manage their schedules, transportation and finances. In the final class, leaders learned how to build a discipleship program for high school students that gives them the opportunity to serve as WyldLife leaders.

The classes received a great response. One team leader said, “You did such a great job of packing in material about why middle school kids are unique. I can't believe how much I learned in 55 minutes.” She added that she can’t wait to share what she learned with the leaders on her team.

Another WyldLife leader said, “I loved hearing from the panel who have diverse and difficult experiences but have overcome and stayed so faithful.”

It’s not too late to train your WyldLife team leaders – or your entire WyldLife leadership team. The recordings of the Zoom classes and additional materials are available in the WyldLife Toolbox on Staff Resources. 

Tell us if there are additional middle-school-specific topics that would be helpful for your team. Send your ideas to wyldlife@sc.younglife.org. 

Written by: Julie Clapp

Global Volunteers July 2020

HAVING A VISION FOR OUR MOST VALUABLE RESOURCES- PEOPLE 

Outside of Christ’s presence in our lives and our calling to ministry, our people (staff and volunteers) may be the most important resource we have in Young Life. Leaders who learn to develop their people accomplish exponentially more and have a richer staff experience along the way. How can you develop the people entrusted to you? Here are eight ways…

Value “Who” before “What.” In her book Radical Candor, Kim Scott says the best leaders BOTH: Care Deeply and Challenge Directly. The staff who feel cared for by their supervisor are often the most motivated to follow a boss’s direction. Do your staff sense you care? How are you investing in them spiritually, emotionally, and personally?

Envision Who They are “Becoming.” “For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you…plans to give you a hope and a future.”  Why does Jeremiah 29:11 inspire so many? One reason may be because it describes the sort of Shepherd we long for…one who has great plans for us, one who can prosper us and one who can lead us to a future we cannot even begin to envision ourselves. Throughout my career, God has blessed me with leaders who pointed me to who they could see me becoming. How would you fill in the blank for members of your staff…? “I could see you becoming ______________ one day?” Try things like: “a camp speaker, an area director, a great father.”

Teach to Swim…IN the Deep End.

Give Younger Staff a Voice from the Start. Have you ever noticed we have no Junior Varsity staff?  Everyone starts on the Varsity team and is a paid professional. While we have different roles, inviting each team member to weigh-in on objectives communicates value and helps achieve the best outcomes. Plus, if they weigh-in, they’ll be more likely to buy-in. 

Empower Staff with Great Responsibility BEFORE they think they are Ready.” This does three things:  shows tremendous faith in the person, calls something great out of him/her, and demonstrates the supervisor is not jealous for power or credit. It may scare them (and you) at first, but if you show that you’re in it with them, it won’t be long before the training wheels come off and they’re soaring.  

Train “Up” Leaders by Pushing “Down” Decision-making. While a supervisor is responsible for many decisions, it doesn’t mean she has to make them all. Pushing decision-making down the org chart, raises “up” other leaders by empowering them to help make big decisions.  

Give Honest and Clear Feedback in An Environment of Affirmation. If a team member knows how deeply you care, evaluations happen in a positive environment. Also, try to use the evaluation as a time to agree together on “next steps” in their development and identify new opportunities for them to grow.

Teach Your Staff to Depend on God – In EVERYTHING. Model dependence on God in how you pray, make decisions, structure meetings, and celebrate when He proves faithful. Teaching them it all depends on Him rescues from putting their identity in performance, comparison, talent or experience and challenges them to grow not just vocationally, but spiritually as well.

Remind Them What Matters Most – In a ministry filled with many responsibilities, teaching staff that Christ, kids and people matter most develops the best kind of people for our mission.

Written by: Scott Caldwell

GROWTH IN UNEXPECTED PLACES

‘Made for….the HARDEST OF PLACES’

In Young Life, we believe that every kid deserves to hear about a God who loves them. In Kane County YoungLife, in addition to WyldLife and Capernaum, our committee is championing a vision which also means we are looking for ways to share the love of God with incarcerated teens at the local Illinois Youth Center (IYC).

While Young Life ministry at IYC has been going on for over two decades, it has really taken off in the past couple of years. It has grown from a single volunteer showing up once a week to have a Bible study with a small group of guys to over 20 men serving on teams multiple nights a week providing pizza, hanging out in cottages, hosting monthly birthday parties, working out in the gym, studying God’s Word and praying together. 

IYC – St. Charles, where we serve, is a Level 2 medium security facility. It houses juvenile males whose crimes include armed robbery, gang activity, drug offenses, school shootings, and murder. While some may have a bit of church background, most have little direction or hope in life. During a recent discussion one of the guys shared, “My life has no purpose. I am going to be locked up for the rest of my life.” 

However, change does happen. Earlier this year, we had the privilege of praying for one of the young men who was about to be released. He shared how his life had been dramatically changed while at IYC. He prays daily and has seen answered prayer. He knows he needs to make different decisions on the outside. He talked of getting involved in a church and being a good role model for his three younger siblings.

But not only are the kids being changed. Here is what some of our volunteers recently shared. 

- “A year ago, if you would have asked me could I see myself in a prison, helping with a ministry to felons, I would have said no chance. However, this has become the highlight of each week for me.”

- “Time just hanging with the kids is precious. They are really good kids who have made some bad decisions. Loving them with our time and resources and telling them about Jesus is a way to give back for the gift God has given us.”

- “Serving at IYC has been both a blessing and learning experience for me. Many of the incarcerated teens are just kids who have made some terribly poor life choices. And as kids, they need hope, encouragement and a belief that others care. If we can offer a small amount of that, then we are providing a glimpse of Jesus.”

There are about 50,000 incarcerated juveniles in the United States alone. They need to know that there is God who loves them more than they could imagine. Perhaps some of these incarcerated teens are near you.

For more information on lessons learned in Kane County Young Life, feel free to contact area director Dan Griebel (dangriebel@ylchicago.com) or committee chair Don Vanthournout (don.vanthournout@gmail.com).

Making the Most of Summer Campaigners

If you ask middle school or high school friends about their favorite part of camp, you will hear an array of things.  For my friend Ruby, it was “the actors who made everyone laugh.”  For my friend Allison, it was the fact that she “felt like an adult” and didn’t have her parents “breathing down [her] neck all the time.”  For my friend Peyton, it was the fact that “the food was all-you-can-eat at every meal.”  But for my friend Sienna, it was the fact that “[she] got to talk about real life stuff and hear about how Jesus really cares for what is going on in [her] world.”  

Gosh, isn’t that what Campaigners is all about? Long after we pull out of Young Life camp and the “actors,” feelings of adulthood, and all-you-can-eat food are memories, we get to continue talking about real life stuff and learning about how much Jesus really cares.

Most often, we do this through Campaigners (the “help them grow in their faith” part of our mission statement). And, after eight years as a leader in three different areas, I am here to say that there are about as many ways to do Campaigners as there are stars in the sky. (Young Life staff are a go-the-extra-mile, try-something-new bunch.) BUT! There are two things that are consistent throughout every Campaigners gathering I have ever been a part of:

1. We read the Bible together every time.

2. We talk about real stuff.

Now, maybe more than ever, we have the opportunity to link arms (figuratively, at this point) with our middle school, high school, and college friends and invite them to join us in the transformational and missional life Jesus directs us to live (2 Corinthians 3:18 and Matthew 28:19). 

How might we do that in the coming months?  What does that look like?  

Since we are innovative and fluent in our spheres of ministry, I’ll share a few ideas, but leave specific answers (some of the hows and whens) to us individually. However, I hope that these questions provide a helpful and encouraging lens through which we can plan for summer Campaigners this year.

• What can we do this summer (because of our current reality) that we have not been able to do before? Let’s face it.  Our current circumstances have provided both us and kids with more margin than we have had in years. What is possible now that was not possible before?

  
  Perhaps it’s meeting in a small group every day for one week. Walk through one of the five-day studies on the Bible app. (Young Life offers several.) If week one goes well, ask kids if they want to try a second week. Or, move to a weekly model, with kids doing a five-day study on their own, using the app to chat with each other about it throughout the week and then coming together once a week to talk about it. 

• How can we read the Bible with our friends in a NEW way?
  Give your friends different opportunities to engage with Scripture. Try letting kids read the story like a play – one person playing the narrator and others reading the words of specific people in the stories. Ask them to imagine the scene or draw pictures of it. You’ll find other ideas in “A Dozen Ways to Bible Dive” by Crystal Kirgiss, Vice President of Discipleship.

• How can we incorporate fun and laughter?
  It doesn’t take much for us to see ways in which the loneliness and sadness of the world have crept into our friends’ lives. How can we use fun and laughter to break through the walls of sadness?
  
  Yes, the focus of Campaigners should be the Bible and real stuff, but it can include more. If you’re working with middle schoolers, it will definitely need to be more because they don’t want to sit still and talk for long. Bake cookies, play basketball, take silly photos. That’s not “throw-away” time in Campaigners – it’s intentional time to build relationships and trust with your friends.

If there were ever a group of people to enter into the lives of kids in new and creative ways during unprecedented and uncertain times, it would be you.  Over the last few months, I know you have worked tirelessly to come up with ways to continue to get middle school, high school, and college friends in front of Jesus.

I can’t help but think about the paralyzed man’s friends in Luke 5. They were relentless in bringing their friend to the feet of Jesus because they knew that He was exactly what he needed. They knew that Jesus really cared about what was going on in their friend’s world and that He would find a way to heal him through His words. If reading God’s spoken word to us and talking about real stuff are the two most consistent pieces of Campaigners, I truly believe that we have so much to look forward to this summer.  

Written by: Emie Salem

Proof of a changed life? TRANSFORMATION

Jesus bookended his mission with a charge to evangelize. He invited the early disciples to come be fishers of men in Luke 5, and then commissioned them at His departure to go and make disciples of all nations. From His teachings in between we can discern at least two motives for this call to mission. First, the Lord’s vision is to redeem the entire world, all his lost children, so he privileges us to be his hands and feet toward that end. Second, He wants us to walk in faith and He knows that we grow more when we are pushed out of our comfort zones and are forced to depend on Him. We can’t very well share the gospel unless we know the gospel, so the challenge to witness presses us to know Christ and our theology more fully. Once a young believer has seen their life make an eternal impact on someone else, they are hooked, as few things will ever seem as significant. 

Pastor Michelle Jones from Imago Dei in Portland, Oregon, is responsible for spiritual formation. She teaches that, “Sharing the grace we have been given is not only evidence of our transformation; it is itself transforming. Every opportunity to share our faith with others challenges us to live out what we say we believe (Reviving Evangelism, p.29).”

Thankfully, Young Life has historically embraced a passion for reaching not only the lost, but the “furthest out kids.” We are all about outreach; BUT, our mission statement reminds us that effective outreach only occurs when we disciple our converts and in turn invite them into this missional calling with us. That is why there should never be Young Life without Campaigners. Just as the Lord delegates to us the responsibility to reach the world, we entrust and equip kids with the vision to reach their inner circle. Even if we could do it without them, we wouldn’t, because it would deprive them of the opportunity to grow closer to Jesus as they put their faith on the line.

Witnessing is a multi-faceted gift from the Lord. I love the story in Luke 8 where the man for whom Jesus cast out the legion of demons begged Jesus to let him go with him. Instead of granting this request for sweet fellowship, Jesus tells him to “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” Jesus didn’t need this man to do His work for Him; rather, he offered him this role for the sake of his own faith development. 

Seminaries have gotten a bad rap through the decades for training men and women with head knowledge but too little application. Jesus doesn’t want fat little Christians who are content with fellowship alone – He wants world changers willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of establishing His Kingdom here on earth. Bill Gothard said, “We either send our kids to school as missionaries or they become mission fields themselves.”

Tried and true Young Life theologian, Darrel Guder, speaks fondly of YL as “a witnessing community,” where we are saved in order to be sent. It would be anathema to gather believers without giving them vision for their impact on others because of Christ in them. “Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Written by Rick Beckwith

Global Volunteers March 2020

SUMMER STAFF=SUMMER INTERNSHIP

“Sorry I 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. These prevent more and more sharp students from serving on Summer Staff. Instead, they file papers, answer phones, and go get coffee when they could be growing in leadership and faith through Young Life Camp.

What if instead we could answer: “I’m so glad you said that. I have the perfect internship for you.”

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. It is unique and better than almost all other classic internships and offers 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 more.

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

[Guide to describing Summer Staff as an internship]

We need to be flexible. Creative. Innovative. And take the initiative. So here’s the plan (special thanks to Tami Ostlund for her input):

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 [link to guide—Build your own mini internship] 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. (No promises or 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.  [linked best practices doc]

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.

Helpful Resources

1. Build your resume after doing summer staff

2. Best practices to recruit more students on summer staff

Written by Pete Hardesty (petehardesty@gmail.com)

Global Volunteers February 2020

Understanding Millennials & the Future of Work

Wherever the very latest neuroscience intersects with real-world challenges facing the workplace, classroom, homelife or healthcare, and our everyday lives, you’ll find energizing insights from brain scientist John Medina. His client-customized presentations, based on his own research and the findings of others share a common takeaway: How to optimize the performance of the performance of the human brain by improving practices, interactions and environments. Whether you’re looking to maximize productivity, enhance creativity and innovation, improve learning and engagement, design brain-healthy spaces, make better hiring choices, or understand teenage behavior, Dr. Medina unlocks solutions and explains the fascinating inner-workings of the human brain with his trademark humor and enthusiasm.

December 2019 Global Volunteers

PRESENTS / PRESENCE AT CHRISTMAS 

We Were All Together 

When we were kids we always had three traditions during Christmas. We had this box of terrible old ornaments for the tree, so my dad would bring a noble fir home in early December and we'd put the ornaments on, remembering the story of each one. We listened to the Muppets holiday cassette featuring John Denver and then we'd watch a Charlie Brown Christmas.

My mom died when I was in my mid-twenties and I came home for Christmas seeing all the empty spaces, "The ornaments are silhouettes from when nothing bad had happened yet." I was drinking while my sister slept, while my high school friends were in other places. I realized that the holidays are a really symbolic time for a ton of people. It's a symbol of how things are not how we want them to be and how they could be maybe. They are much more like a reminder of how things didn't work out for us.

I think the opposite side of that coin is the idea that Christmas is, itself, a promise of how things could feel when the world reconciles with itself, when there is peace on earth, good will towards men. In loss, in missing pieces, we have the option to discover a greater hidden meaning, that all missing pieces imply the possibility of redemption. In other words, if there is a piece missing, then there is also a missing piece. It's the promise that separation is only a distance, that fractures can be mended, that reconciliation is a universal longing. I wondered what the promise of reconciliation would sound like:

Would it sound like coming down?

Like a quiet voice…

Or a turning page…

Like Linus standing on that stage…

Like where we are is not where we are going…

I have a new song, it's called We Were All Together. It's a Christmas song about the hard side of the holidays for some of us. It's also about the promise of Christmas. Both things at once.

My dad got our family VHS tapes together this fall and sent them to a guy in a garage in Ellensburg, Washington to have them converted from the tapes. I watched through them. It was an odd experience. I saw young me with a new perspective, how smart I was, how much I was trying to curate likeableness with an infinite energy, how irritating the combination was. I had a lot of compassion for that kid, because in some ways I am the only person who really understands him, which is what he wanted the most – and also, I am the only one who knows exactly what that kid is in for.

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

HOW TO DOUBLE THE VOLUNTEER LEADERSHIP IN YOUR YL AREA IN 45 MINUTES

In everyone’s life and leadership there are pivotal ‘aha!’ moments that simplify, clarify, and define our next steps going forward. Basically, they become teachable moments! I want to share one of mine. It happened to me 20 years ago as a young Area Director. Every Friday, we would gather for our three hour staff meeting. The time was rich but not unique in YL circles:  food, fellowship, community, devotion, some to-do’s, and a teaching.  

When I arrived Friday morning, I didn’t make it past the front door of the office before my staff barraged me with different needs they had for the YL Clubs they supervised. The list was long:  ...a male to work with the freshman boys...a team leader on a WL team...a whole group of volunteers for a new Club... Parents to support the Capernaum ministry ...a musician...etc. They were desperate, passionate, anxious and somehow I had become the ‘clearing house’ for all volunteerism in my YL Area. I was immediately overwhelmed.

So we got to work, once the screaming and yelling had subsided, we made the decision to set aside the agenda for the day and sit down and talk about what had become the most pressing issue in the Area:  ‘WE NEEDED MORE VOLUNTEERS!’ This is typical because ‘more volunteers’ is always at the top of every YL area’s list of needs. However, the next 45 minutes changed my perspective and approach on volunteerism forever. 

Here is what happened:

First, I got out a pad and pen and asked everyone to list for me the ‘right now’ needs they had in their individual Clubs. We wanted a baseline of what we had to have to keep the area running. We went around the circle and the result was that we needed 15 VOLUNTEERS immediately! Men, women, parents, WL to College and everything in between! 

Then, I asked everyone to bring out their Matthew 9:38 List. (“Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”- Mt 9:38) We had been keeping this list of potential ‘workers’ to join us in ministry for a while so that wasn’t new either. For some that list was in their journal or notepad, for others it was tucked away in the back of their mind somewhere but we all had a list. 

Now here is where it got fun! We shared our list of people, but then we brainstormed more,  then we prayed some more, then we talked some more, then we debated, discussed, prayed and dreamed some more. What we typically gave a few moments of attention, we allowed to take the next 45 minutes. Talking, praying, thinking, dreaming, scheming, and asking ‘who else?’ It was amazing! The list kept growing and we slowly gained God’s perspective. I think sometimes we give five minutes to a topic, need, or problem that maybe deserves 45 minutes. We gave this one 45.

At the end of the 45 minutes, our cumulative Matthew 9:38 list was 147 NAMES! Remember, our need was 15, and we had close to 10x that on our prayer board! At the end of the meeting we realized that if only 10% of the folks that we had listed responded to the invitation to join us- we would be good to go! So as the dust settled, we decided on a few things going forward-. 

1. EVERYONE in the YL Area had a vested interest in recruiting the next volunteer.  Not just staff or Committee but everyone in the community!

2. We were going to continue to EXPAND that list by talking to our existing Volunteers in the area who also had Mt. 9:38 lists.  (that was another 75 people and 75 lists! )

3. We were going to continue  praying, dreaming and inviting this  group. This list was going to grow and be a significant part of EVERY TIME we were together. 

4. Lastly, we decided that we would be PERSONALLY INVITE all those people on the list to join us in becoming volunteers in the Area. The invitation would be face to face, specific, and intentional. 

Yes, we doubled the number of volunteers because of that day! Finally, we realized that if we did three things well in our YL Area we would always identify enough volunteers but we would retain them too because they would be un-recruitable. They were:

1. Live out God’s calling in our life within the mission of YL.

2. Seeing change (transformation) in our community and in our own lives.

3. Having fun while we are at it!  

HERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU! If you think walking through these steps may be a fit for your area then we want to help. Over the coming months we are accepting applications for 12 YL areas around the Globe to go through the same process that I went through as a cohort in an attempt to significantly increase the number of volunteer leaders in your area. We will do it together, step by step, and celebrate what happens when you invite someone into an area of gifting and a community of transformation. If you are interested in being one of the 12 - email TANK (kenbtank@gmail.com) and tell him you are interested in the +1 PILOT  and we will send you a brief application and get you going. You may be 45 minutes away from doubling your leadership base!

October 2019 Global Volunteers

GETTING YOUR BANQUET MESSAGE

DOWN TO A FINE POINT

Tell me a story.

Don’t tell me all of the stories. Tell the right story and tell it well!

I’ve found this encouragement, instruction, pro tip—call it whatever you like—to be more than helpful as we continue to work through the Banquet Project in the Northwest Division, alongside the Field Events team at the Service Center. We continue to discover ways that Areas can produce consistent, excellent fundraisers. This one statement is significant:  tell the right story and tell it well.

In the interest of honoring your guests and to be a good steward of your stakeholder’s time, don’t miss this! Tell them what their supporting. Make it clear. Keep it simple. Identify a problem or a void and tell them how Young Life in your community is solving the problem or filling the void. 

Please don’t lose their interest by over-telling the story. 

As a staff person or volunteer leader, you give and receive to this mission in remarkable ways! I’m certain that you could tell all sorts of amazing stories. Believe me, each of those stories have value. Yet, telling a single story and telling it well may be our greatest challenge in our fundraising efforts today. 

Could you tell me in one clear statement what you’re expecting me to know at the end of your fundraising event?

When you plan a banquet, auction, 5k, skeet shoot, game night, or whatever else, are you considering this question:  what is the one story that I’m telling my guests? 

Let’s imagine for a moment that one day you get home in the evening and decide to make a large pot of soup. It’s a good soup and there’s lots of it! Then, you just sit around and wait for your friends to show up and eat it…right? NO! You’ve never done that. When you prepare a meal for your friends, you invite them over first; then you’re careful to think about what they like or if they have dietary restrictions. You’ll consider how many are coming and what time of day it is; you’ll prepare a table or a picnic; you’ll buy wine or lemonade. Whatever you produce, it will be completely dependent on who will be there.

Can we give that same attention to our Banquets? What if your entire banquet plan began with “who’s coming?” Begin every part of your strategy with that filter. What have they seen/heard in our community recently? What drives their passion? How are they currently connected to our ministry? What will offend them? What problems exist in their lives and how can Young Life help solve them? What burns in their gut and makes them stand up and cheer?!

It’s likely that, of everyone at your Banquet, you care the most about the mission of Young Life. Think about that reality for a second. You eat, breathe, and sleep Young Life. I think we owe it to your guest to give them one, clear story to grasp.

Tell them the right story and tell it well.

Like every good recipe for a meal, our fundraiser should include elements or ingredients that come together to make one great thing. Your MC, Program Team, Kid Testimony, Committee Member, Auctioneer, Speaker, and whomever else gets on that stage to share will honor your guests if they blend their messages together to tell one story. 

Here are two videos that author and founder or Story Brand, Donald Miller published recently to support this concept: 

https://www.businessmadesimple.com/video/should-marketing-messages-be-short/?inf_contact_key=d3d02e00f429f33aa269d91a987d8eebe785e10e4d66e1d24c16227e162c13f0

https://www.businessmadesimple.com/video/this-marketing-message-works-every-time/?inf_contact_key=fd32d8a2bf7fe6ac203e876890c9da20a91245ca6bd452a9752f53c4c590a541

Written by:  Blake Raney (blakeraney@gmail.com)

Stepping into their World

If you saw the news on July 20th this summer, you probably caught some nostalgic interviews and footage of the 50th anniversary of man setting foot on the moon. You may have also heard scientists and explorers talking about Artemis.

In Greek mythology, Artemis was Apollo’s sister. In NASA-speak, it is our NEXT attempt at putting an American on the moon (this time, fitting with the name, a woman). It is exciting to think about. It will also be unbelievably expensive – nothing less than 30 billion dollars, and likely more. So, sometime in the 2020’s, we’ll be doing a more modern version of exactly what we did in 1969.

How did we get in this position? Some people call it “lost knowledge.” Think of it like this – in the 1970’s, we decided to wind down trips to the moon to save some money for other projects. What might have been intended to be a “pause” became a “stop.” The scientists aged or passed away. The mechanical systems rusted. The factories and craftspeople who made components moved onto other work. We accidentally forgot how to get to the moon. 

I don’t know about you, but I think our moonshot in Young Life is “showing up” - contact work. We go to campus, to sporting events, and to neighborhood hangouts. We go in discomfort at being out of place, in solidarity with other leaders and Campaigners, and in hopes of being Jesus’ presence. It has gotten harder in many places to go – because of school rules, kids’ busyness, the administrative burdens of running Young Life, you name it. 

The temptation is to slowly stop going. To text a kid instead of saying hello in the hallway. To over-engineer the club skit at the expense of cheering at the field hockey game. My challenge to teams is to fight that. At your next team meeting, make a plan to:

• Prioritize Contact Work – how can we each be at the school once a week this month?

• Identify Distractions – what is eating up your time that we could be handling differently?

• Recognize the Cost and Benefit – know what you’d lose if you stopped showing up the school. What fruit have you seen by the discipline of being “on their turf?”

It is easy to slowly stop doing the important things. And it is very hard to start doing them again. It will cost you time, money and energy that we don’t have the luxury of wasting. Kids are waiting for us to take that “one small step” into their worlds. Let’s never stop. 

Written by Josh Griffin

Global Volunteers August 2019

WHAT HAS 5000 LEGS BUT NEVER STANDS AROUND?  Summer Staff

In all of my Young Life experiences, the deepest relationships with students came from taking them to camp and coming back home with them to live life together. While we call this outreach camping, there are just as many discipleship experiences where kids build a community of unlikely friends, living and sharing life with each other. 

So how, after all these years of life-changing, community-building, discipleship-shaping experiences, did I miss the goldmine that had been directly in front of me for the same amount of years? 

What goldmine? The Summer Staff Experience. I am embarrassed to say that I did not prioritize this in any of my Young Life positions—until now.

Some of my favorite moments of Jesus’ life are when he was walking, eating, and sitting by the fire with his disciples. They talked honestly about life, unpacked the day’s events, and shared important yet uncomfortable feelings. It’s where they worked on being human. Irenaus, an early church father, said, “the glory of God is a human being fully alive.” This is where the glory happens, where we come alive: in real, authentic, life-giving community.

All this happens on a Summer Staff assignment—hard work, service, challenges of jobs, living in community, processing uncomfortable feelings in a safe space, daily learning more about Jesus—and it typically leads to one thing: transformation. If this is true, then let’s get to it! It is who we are, what we do, the second half of our mission statement, a pillar in YL FORWARD (Deeper). Besides, we have a Bible full of Jesus modeling shared experiences with people that he hoped would join him in shaping the world into his image for his Father’s glory.

Taking college students deeper into the heart of Jesus is a part of who we are, from YLC staff to AD’s in college towns. Let us not overlook the goldmine of Summer Staff while searching for a different speck of gold on the ground. These students are in front of us and so is this opportunity, right now!

Here are five practical ways for staff to strategize with their college students:

1. PRAY: Summer Staff can be a pivotal moment in a students life.  Ask the Lord to help you identify specific College Age students who are ready for the challenge of SS.

2. LIST: Start a list (now) of students you want to personally invite to do Summer Staff 

3. ANNOUNCE: Starting now!- Start announcements at Club, etc., about Summer Staff.  

4. INVITE:  Starting on or before October 1 - Start personal invitations. 

5. TRAIN:  Invest in students before, during, and after their SS Experience. Need a goal? If you train and place 5-10 students you would be in the top. 20% of staff in the US utilizing Summer Staff!!

The Young Life College Summer Staff Pilot has provided YL staff across the country like Brittany at Palm Beach Atlantic University an opportunity to bring students with them on assignments. Lily, a sophomore at PBAU, said it was an easy decision to serve on Summer Staff because her leader Brittany invited her and would be her SS Coordinator, and she’d spend a month in Colorado with several of her friends. “It was truly a life-changing experience that I couldn’t be more grateful for,” Lily said. “One of the coolest things about the experience is that I get to go home with five people who were at Crooked Creek with me experiencing this change and growth."

Let’s be a part of the 5000 legs that don’t stand still, inviting students into a transformational experience—and then celebrate their change at home with them.

Written by:  Kenny Nollan (knollan@sc.younglife.org)

Global Volunteers July 2019 - YOUNG LIFE’S KODAK MOMENT



Singer/songwriter Paul Simon once immortalized Kodak Kodachrome film in a #2 Billboard charting song.

“Kodachrome

They give us those nice bright colors

They give us the greens of summers

Makes you think all the world's a sunny day.”

That sunny day lasted for quite a while as Kodak captured 90% of the US film market in its heyday and became the world’s fifth largest company. However, the bright colors and greens of summer came to a dull end in 2012 when the company declared bankruptcy.  

What went wrong? Was Kodak blindsided by the digital camera wave? Actually, no. Steve Sasson, a Kodak engineer invented the first digital camera in 1975. 

The problem was that management saw digital as a threat to the sale of Kodak film and instructed Sasson not to tell anyone about it.

As writer Avi Dan put it in Forbes Magazine, “Kodak made a classic mistake: it didn’t ask the right question. It focused on selling more product, instead of the business that it was in, story telling.”

Focusing on the wrong thing and not asking the right question can have the same detrimental effect on Young Life as well.  Kodak mistakenly thought they were in the film business.

What business are we in?  

Fundraising?  ‘NO’...Camping?  ‘NO’ ...Ministry Management? ‘NO’

We are in the business of -

Relationships...Going where kids are.  

Contact work...Earning the right to be heard 

Sharing the gospel...and giving students a chance to respond.   

When we serve AT CAMP during the summer it is to leverage and develop the relationships we have fostered over the year. When we plan for year toward our FUNDRAISING BANQUET, it is to hopefully showcase the effect and impact that the gospel is having on adolescents in our community. The funding need will follow. .  We go to TRAININGS and RETREATS so that we can  sharpen our ministry skills.  We DELEGATE and DEVELOP TEAMS so that we will have more time to be in the lives of kids. 

Perhaps the one thing you should never stop doing as a staff person is contact work. It has proven to be the non-negotiable of ministry and one of the historical ‘marks’ of YL. After all, there is not a staff person who got into this gig to sit in an office all day. So go. Go to the game tonight. Show up at school today. Go to the pep rally. Camp out at Starbucks or Chipotle closest to the school. What could be more fun or energizing for the other parts of our job? Go. 

GO. 

YOU. 

HAVE. 

PERMISSION.

PERMISSION, TO DO WHAT WE’VE ALWAYS DONE. 

GO, SHOW UP IN THE LONELY PLACES. 

SHOW UP IN THE STANDS, 

IN THE HALLWAYS, AND CAMPUSES.

SHOW UP WHERE NO ONE ELSE WOULD THINK TO GO. 

GO. SHARE YOUR LIFE SIDE-BY-SIDE WITH A KID. 

IT IS THE METHOD OF CHRIST. IT IS THE METHOD OF YL. 

THERE IS NO OTHER THING. 

THERE IS NOTHING BETTER. GO. 

GO, WASTE SOME TIME WITH A KID TODAY. 

GO, IN THE NAME OF JESUS.

...GO. 

Contact work may not be the most photogenic thing we do , but it is the most beautiful. 

‘GO’ by Lauren Bocci 

WHAT DOES A 5 STAR YOUTH MINISTRY LOOK LIKE?

What can your weekly Young Life club learn from a world-famous, fine-dining restaurant? I wasn’t sure of the answer to that question myself until recently. I stumbled across the Season 2 opener of the “Building a Story Brand” podcast in which author Donald Miller interviews Mark and Brian Canlis. These two brothers own and run Canlis, an upscale restaurant in Seattle, Washington. Ranked one of the top 20 restaurants in America by “Gourmet” magazine, the staff at Canlis know how to put their customers first while delivering unforgettable experiences.   

As I listened, I could not help thinking of applications when it comes to kids’ experiences when they walk into our clubs. Below are three questions I began to ask myself as I thought through the Canlis experience and the Young Life experience:

1. Does our Young Life club create a sense of belonging or exclusivity?

It would be interesting to go back to the first time you walked into a Young Life club. I asked my seniors to do that every year. I wanted them to think back to when they were a lowly freshman and felt insecure about showing up.   

According to Miller, at Canlis, “You walk in wondering even if you belong here. You walk in going ‘I hope I fit.’ And within seconds you get this overwhelming rush from their customer service that you belong here — that you have always fit here. Any insecurities you’ve had are absurd.”

Is that the feeling kids get when they show up at club? Are they greeted? Is there something for them to do (corn hole, giant jenga, frisbees, T-shirt table, leaders and seniors greeting, music playing) rather than standing around awkwardly as crickets chirp?

How do popular dress-up theme clubs (Disney, Harry Potter, America) affect whether kids feel like they truly belong just as they are or don’t fit in? What if you are the kid who can’t afford a new costume every week? What if the “America” theme club does not necessarily make everyone feel welcome in today’s political climate?

Club is our widest open door and it always should be. Kids should always feel welcome and within seconds know “any insecurities they had (about fitting in) are absurd.” Let’s do our best to remove all obstacles to opening that club door wide so that all are welcome.

2.   Are we trustworthy with two of our kids’ most precious assets — their story and their time?

Each student walks in the door of club with a unique story and a finite amount of time in their day. They have chosen to give it to you to care for that hour. They come from different places that day, and I don’t mean just geographically. Their SAT score came and it was not as high as expected. They just broke up with their boyfriend or girlfriend. Someone just asked them to prom. Mom and Dad just had a fight. They just got their first new car.   

It is our charge to take those kids, no matter their story, and welcome them to a place where they can see, hear, and experience the gospel.

The staff at Canlis understand being a good steward of their customer’s time and story, and so should we.

“They understand that a guest walks in the door and tonight needs to matter. That guest brings their most valuable asset … almost like a treasure … their time. They walk in the door with this fragile memory, and they are offering it to you and saying ‘can you take care of this.’ They’re coming to make sure tonight will matter, and that’s what our staff get so excited about.” — Mark and Brian Canlis.

Is that what you still get excited about? Like the Canlis staff, is that what your leaders get excited about? Or has club become something you “have to do” and “paint by numbers” rather than something you GET TO DO and a work of art that you can’t wait to share with your kids?

We have the greatest job in the world! Kids run in the door, laugh hard, sing loud, engage with leaders, and then we get to open up the Bible and talk about Jesus. May we always say like Canlis, “That’s what our staff get so excited about!”

3.   Do you have a strategy or do you simply follow the rules?

“Pay attention to strategies and not to rules.” — Brian Canlis

Let me try to make sense of this in a Young Life context. Young Life rules might include raise money, form a committee, have a banquet, turn in your GPS and R1 and R2, do your Concur, have an assignment.   

I’m certainly not saying not to do the above Young Life “rules.” I just wonder if in our day-to-day experience if our attention is in the wrong place. A staff person who recently went through our “Brilliant at the Basics” training in Dallas said, “We got back to our areas and tried that ‘Ministry Strategy’ stuff but quickly got distracted by other things.”

Other things than charging the hill and going after the next kid? That’s focusing on the rules my friends. Again, no great coach’s inspirational speech ever began with the words, “Boys, we’re going to go out there and not kick the ball out of bounds! Now go get ‘em!”

Start and end with strategy, not rules.

Do yourself a favor and listen to Season 2, Episode 1 of the “Building a StoryBrand” Podcast with Mark and Brian Canlis. There are so many more applications to our ministry in what they share. And you might want to stop by Canlis next time you are in Seattle. I guarantee they will be trustworthy with your story and your time.

MEETING KIDS AT A SUBWAY STATION

Like many city school districts around the nation, Pittsburgh City Schools are on a lottery system, which means kids can apply to a different public school than the one in their district area. Young Life leaders in a given community can do contact work in a neighborhood and meet kids who attend schools all over the city.

Doing contact work at dismissal is pretty universally utilized by Young Life leaders across the board and is still effective in the city. However, trying to find alternative places where critical masses of students meet and hang out can pose a real challenge. Recently, I had the opportunity to brainstorm with some of our staff and leaders in the city about different means of contact work and going to where kids are as we attempted to think outside the box.

Someone brought up that they had noticed waves of high school kids after dismissal hanging around the Wood Street Subway Station, which serves as a main transportation hub for mass transit in the city with subway cars and multiple bus stops. We became more curious about what contact work would look like post-dismissal at the station. After deciding to see for ourselves, we fought through traffic and eventually found some parking spots near Wood Street. Two of our staff members, Sly Williams and Olivia Horner, were able to join me.

We walked down into the subway terminal and took a loop around. Discouragement was beginning to set in as we hadn’t seen any students at this point. Suddenly, we bumped into two kids. One student attended Taylor Allderdice and the other Perry Traditional Academy, the two schools that Sly and Olivia lead in. We were encouraged by this Spirit-led interaction! It re-confirmed the brilliance of the intent to “go where they are” and “meet them on their turf.”

We persevered, and as we began to meet more kids, we thought, “OK, this is not a bad option and can be somewhat useful.” Soon after, the subway car pulled up and 100 students poured out!

We were surrounded by high school and middle school kids:

We talked to them and realized while they were from schools all over the city, a vast majority of them attended Brashear High School. We do not have Young Life in Brashear High School currently.

Since that day, I have been praying and brainstorming about what it would take to get Young Life going there. The idea of being able to do contact work in the station with access to so many high school kids spurred imagination and excitement. The day was a huge success and sparked multiple conversations about hitting up other stations in town and strategic bus stops in the city. At one point Sly, Olivia and I rode the train down a few stops and popped out where we thought there might be other critical masses of students.

Stopping and thinking outside the box with our team was a thrill for all of us, and it helped us unlock and discover new and innovative ways to reach kids. We’ve now even begun discussions on what it would look like to run a club near the Wood Street station so all the kids would have access to transportation. This had been one of the most energizing times of contact work I can remember! It truly was the best 45-minute window of contact work I could imagine.

NEXT STEPS: A SIMPLE EXERCISE FOR YOUR TEAM

1. Pray for the Lord to help you think in a different and creative manner about the kids He would like your team to reach. No idea is too far-fetched. Pray for a “God-sized” vision.

2. Identify the challenges in your “context” to reaching students at school. Busing, district policies, scheduling issues, distance and more.

3. Identify the opportunities or non-traditional and “out-of-the-box” ideas that could be available, like the Wood Street subway station opportunity.

   1. What could be a ripple effect of the ideas you’re discussing? (new schools, ministries, clubs)

   2. What could help us reach new kids, different kids?

   3. Are there any adjustments we would need to make as a team to ensure success? (Funding? Travel? Commitment for consistency? More volunteers?)

4. Try Something! Land on an idea or two and try it. Give it several weeks. Be faithful and consistent.

5. Measure/Debrief/Tweak what you tried. What worked? What didn’t? What should be changed? What next?

6. Thank the Lord! You listened, you acted, and you were obedient. That is the heart of contact work!

Contact work is the most flexible, informal, innovative and creative thing we do. As we reach a new generation of students with immeasurable challenges, our “out-of-the-box” thinking should be vibrant. Try something! What could go wrong?

Written by: Mike Chilcoat

THE ONLY THING BETTER THAN ‘THE BEST WEEK OF YOUR LIFE’

THE ONLY THING BETTER THAN ‘THE BEST WEEK OF YOUR LIFE’ IS

THE BEST MONTH OF YOUR LIFE- SUMMER STAFF!

Summer staff is a WIN-WIN-WIN for camps, areas and college-age students! Everybody wins on this deal.

CAMPS: When over 2,500 summer staff volunteer at Young Life camps, camps WIN because they rely on lifeguards, boat drivers, bakers, cooks, housekeepers, and landscapers, among other key roles, to make camp hum.

Summer staff work hard, yet it is meaningful service with ample doses of care, discipleship and encouragement from staff. There is still time to apply if you know a college-age student who would benefit.
Simply check out the camp’s website for openings HERE.

AREAS: Making summer staff recruitment part of your area’s camping strategy is a WIN for the area because you are providing a continuum of leadership development for alumni Campaigners and club kids.

On summer staff, they will learn, refine and apply leadership skills that can translate into solid volunteering back home in the local area. Serving on summer staff also provides a continuum of care in discipleship. It’s a rich discipleship experience as they work and live with a diverse community of peers under the shepherding care of summer staff coordinators. Finally, the community-building skills summer staff learn will only enhance your ministry community in your area.

SUMMER STAFF: The biggest WIN of all is for our college-age friends who serve on summer staff. It provides a space and place for them to live and serve as their authentic selves, which is often lacking in everyday life.

Because it’s such a win, we are in the process of enhancing the summer staff experience. Last summer we studied how we prepare and care for summer staff through  THE SUMMER STAFF PILOT PROJECT at specific camps with hand-selected summer staff. Before their session, these summer staff created personal discipleship plans in order to prepare spiritually and attended a training session led by a Young Life College staff person, who in most cases, was also their summer staff coordinator.

From the findings, it was clear that summer staff who had pre-camp preparation and a strong relationship with their summer staff coordinator experienced higher ratings of spiritual growth, ability to work hard and being prepared to live in community while at camp. These critical findings prompted us to expand the pilot project this summer to include more camps, more summer staff and more summer staff coordinators. Selected summer staff coordinators recruited students from their ministries to serve on summer staff with them.

As part of phase two of the pilot project, summer staff will receive pre-camp spiritual guidance and in-person training to help them better prepare spiritually, prepare to work hard and live in a diverse community of peers at camp. As we continually invest in and care for summer staff, the win of deeper discipleship, leadership development, meaningful service and rich community will only become stronger for all. Volunteerism, Leadership Development, Discipleship,  WIN,WIN,WIN!  - Summer Staff!! Learn more about the Summer Staff Project Pilot HERE.

Written by: Tami Ostlund yltamiostlund@gmail.com

What Millennials Really Think About Evangelism

Where do millennials stand when it comes to talking about and sharing the gospel?

“Is it right to share your faith with other people?”

“What does it look like?”

The answers to these questions may surprise you. Millennials face more hostility and challenges in a postchristian world, causing new trends in how faith is shared. The way that looks in real life has a different spin on it than it has been done in the past. If you’re wondering what millennials really think about evangelism, this article is full of hard numbers to understand exactly what they’re thinking.

Read the full article HERE

The Simplicity (and Beauty) of the Handoff!

In August 2014, I received an email from a Young Life College staff person at Miami University of Ohio that read, “Could you send me a list of the freshman coming our way? We're gearing up for a big year!” After looking into our Alumni and Friends network, we were able to send information on 44 high school graduates that were heading to their way! Five years later we got an update on what happened with those 44…

• All 44 were contacted and received a personal invitation to stay connected to Young Life and get involved at their school.

• 25 became Young Life leaders!

• 14 are still leading post-college!

• 2 are on Young Life staff or participating in a Summer Internship!

This is one class, one school, one story, in the midst of thousands!

• Did you know that last year we were able to stay connected to and serve more than 26,600 graduates from the high school class of 2018?

• Did you know that the office of Alumni and Friends responded to more than 600 staff requests for information on incoming freshman to their universities and areas?

• Did you know that this effort has ripple effects touching individual lives, families, ministries and mission units in the U.S. and abroad?

• Did you know that we are working diligently to provide the opportunity to stay connected students in the 103 Countries around the World where YL has a presence?

• Did you know that we are only scratching the surface of the potential?

Conservative estimates are that there are more than 90,000 high school graduates every year in the U.S. alone who were involved with Young Life. Whether heading to college, the military, or the work force, these graduates are going through a significant transition and many want to stay connected. Giving them this opportunity is an extension of our commitment to discipleship and helping them “grow in their faith.” This effort will also result in more people being capable and willing to serve in numerous ways for years to come.

So, what can you do? (5 EASY STEPS)

1. Every region in the U.S has an Alumni Advocate/Graduate Manager. Listen to them. See who they are HERE.

2. Make sure you’re capturing information on the students you and your leaders know. Club cards are not a thing of the past, they are a crucial first step to staying connected to, and serving your graduates.

3. Check out our Graduate Campaign web-resources, and consider growing your local effort.

4. Prepare seniors for their upcoming transition and the opportunity to stay connected to Young Life.

Got 3 minutes? Well, we’ve got a video for you!

For more information about the the process of connecting High School Graduates to Colleges and Universities with a YLC presence, follow this LINK.

Written By: Jonathan Schultz (jschultz@sc.younglife.org)

Leveling Up Our Ministry Model

In our Mission, Methods, and Values document it states that Young Life accomplishes its mission by “going where kids are and building personal relationships with them.”  But, what if “where kids are” is on their screens, online playing video games? Do we go there?

We do if the values we list on our website are correct.  We say that we value “the next kid - developing innovative approaches to reach the uncommitted, disinterested young people around the world.”

According to Common Sense Media, teens spend an average of 9 hours a day online and much of that time is dedicated to gaming. Ask any staff person what keeps kids from coming to club and you’ll be very likely to hear the word, “Fortnite.”  And they’re not just skipping club. According to a recent survey by LendEDU, 35 percent of high school and college Fortnite players admit to having skipped school to play.

So if that’s where kids today are, why wouldn’t we try to find a way to meet them there?  

Some might argue that video games are not relational.  You might picture a kid alone in his room staring at a screen with a headset on.  While that may be true in many instances, significant investors in the US are betting on that dynamic changing.  Arlington, Texas is home to the Dallas Cowboys AT&T Stadium and the Texas Rangers Globe Life Park. Not satisfied with that, this year the city announced it's getting yet another new stadium -- one that will home to one of the fastest growing sectors in the sports entertainment world, eSports.  Arlington is partnering with Esports Venues to open a new 100,000-square-foot, 1,000-seat eSports Stadium right between the Cowboys and Rangers. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones himself has purchased his own eSports franchise to compete there.

The  point?  It’s not just a single kid in his own bedroom anymore.

Hong Kong Young Life Metro Director Josh Powell sees great potential in reaching kids through gaming.  “We were considering opening a gaming house storefront and staffing it with YL leaders as a business to meet and engage kids that we'd never otherwise meet and to practice hospitality, and have a venue for gatherings and ministry events,” says Powell.

This idea came to him when he saw the places where kids were hanging out. “Most of these gaming places in Hong Kong are dark dens of nothing good.  They're packed with kids, mostly boys,” continued Powell. “I was imagining us opening up something similar but with a twist and adding an element of YL hospitality into the mix to see if we might build a profitable and unique ministry opportunity.”   If you are wondering what YL Founder, Jim Rayburn might say about all of this, I think it might be good to go back and look at what he said in the original Young Life training manual.

• “Why not seize on new methods and different ways, especially when the old have largely lost their hold on young people? Why not seek the MOST EFFECTIVE way of getting a hearing for the gospel?  Are you sold on trying to find the most effective way?”

• “I am never going to be satisfied with what HAS BEEN done; the job must be DONE BETTER than before.”

• “The Campaign is committed to getting the Gospel to young people by ANY, AND EVERY  means that God may direct.”

I think Rayburn would say it’s worth a shot to meet kids where they are.  Do you currently have some type of “Gamer” outreach ministry in your area?  If so, would you email me, Brian Summerall, at bsummerall@mac.com and tell me about it?  You could be on the ground floor of something new.

Written by Josh Powell & Brian Summerall, bsummerall@mac.com