0922 Volunteers

When I attended UNC-Chapel Hill as a college student, the legendary Dean Smith was our basketball coach. He’s arguably one of the greatest coaches of all time, in any sport.

This past weekend, I saw a lot of Tar Heel fans sharing a story about Coach Smith on social media. When I watched the video, I immediately thought about Young Life leaders. It’s from an interview with Kenny Smith on the All the Smoke podcast.

You can watch it here on Twitter or on YouTube below (starting at the 34:42 mark.)

What would it look like for Young Life leaders to be that intentional about listening and understanding the culture of the schools we visit? Earning the right to be heard begins by seeking to understand before being understood.

Written by: Drew Hill. Originally Published on Young Life Leader Blog here.

15 CONVERSATIONS TOWARD 1 GOAL-Christlikeness

We all know the basic messaging elements of Young Life’s mission statement

Part 1: “introducing adolescents to Jesus Christ.” 

• The person of Christ, in all his humanity, divinity, compassionate humility, and sacrificial love;

• The truth of humanity, including its brokenness, sin condition, and separation from the Lord;

• The invitation to new life made possible by Christ’s death and resurrection.

Part 2: “helping them grow in their faith.”

That’s an endless conversation and a lifelong learning experience. During our small sliver of time with students, where do we start this formation process, and how do we determine a direction and plan?

Thanks to a generous Templeton Foundation sub-grant awarded through Fuller Youth Institute, various Young Life leaders and staff have spent the past year considering this question and developing discipleship content that can be used broadly across the mission, from WyldLife to Young Life College and University to Young Life Capernaum and more.

“Head, Heart, Hands: All of Me Becoming More Like Jesus” is a full-scale series that includes 15 group conversations (that can be subdivided into even more conversations if desired), leader’s guide, helpful tools and formation resources, student take home cards, and more.

The content went through a pilot-feedback-revision cycle during 2021-2022 with all ages (middle school through college) in a variety of contexts (small town, suburban, urban, camp). All of the feedback and suggestions were reviewed and incorporated into fully revised files that are now available for FREE to all leaders and staff.

Our hope is that those who use the content during 2022-23 will provide additional feedback so that we can continue developing the best possible discipleship content.

• You can access the content by signing up at the link below. 

• Thank you for all you do to introduce adolescents to Jesus Christ.

• Thank you for all you do to help them grow in their faith.

• Thank you for being faithful disciples yourselves.

We hope and pray that these resources are helpful in both your own life of discipleship and in your discipling ministry.

ACCESS NEW DISCIPLESHIP SERIES HERE

Written by Crystal Kirgiss

DISCERNING THE ‘WHERE AND THE WHY’

Determining calling has never been easy. Making the step into occupational ministry can feel both exhilarating and overwhelming at the same time. The simple process that Young Life Military has adopted to help others discern one of the most significant decisions of their life is proving to yield incredible results. 

Young Life Military has a discernment process that helps prospective candidates for field ministry talk with God and self-discover if this ministry is where God is leading them. Field Operations Director, Robert Raedeke, says, “The secret sauce is not in the weekend event we host, it is the 4-6 week process candidates go through leading up to the weekend. By the time Discernment Weekend happens, they are 85-90% sure they are being led to Young Life Military.” The 4-6 weeks prior to Discernment Weekend candidates will 

• Complete an application

• Submit their resumé

• Complete a questionnaire

• Turn in a 3-minute video

• Zoom interview with the Young Life Military Recruiting Team 

If they have continued through the process up to this point, they will have a Zoom call with a Field Director. If they are invited to Discernment Weekend, the invite occurs on the Field Director Zoom. 

Throughout the process, Robert points out that the ball is in the candidate’s court as they determine if they want to continue to pursue ministry with Young Life Military. He says, “We don’t rush the process and don’t miss steps as they are all crucial to the candidate discerning if they are called to this ministry.” 

Prior to attending Discernment Weekend we have the candidate watch a series of four pre-recorded videos, each with five questions that they are to bring their answers to Discernment Weekend. This allows for the weekend to not be so much us talking to them, but a group conversation and time for them to share so we get to know them better. During the weekend candidates share their life story. The whole weekend is an extended interview as well as a time for them to ask questions and get answers. It is time for our team to interact with them over meals and meetings. 

After the weekend we give them time to reflect and three days later call to follow up. 

At the weekend they will have been given a budget and fundraising packet and this follow-up call is a time to find out what they are thinking. If we decided to move forward we then go through the budget line-by-line, through the Faith & Conduct policy and we send an official offer letter. 

We have found this process and the weekend is an optimal way to get to know candidates and for God to lead the process of helping them discern if Young Life Military is the right fit for them. 

Written by Kristina McCloskey 

**If you are interested in learning more about our discernment process /resources/ schedules and how you can adapt it to your context please reach out to Kristina McCloskey, kmccloskey@clubbeyond.org

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.

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

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 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.

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

THE 3 MINUTE VIDEO YOUR AREA WILL USE FOR THE NEXT 3 YEARS!

What would be the perfect video for your Young Life Ministry? 

Seriously. Think about it. 

If there was one video that had the qualities you needed all year long what would that look like? If you’re anything like the Young Life staff we have made videos for here is what we know. 

- You would love a tool that can share what your Young Life ministry does, moves the heart of the viewer but doesn’t confuse them. 

- You would want it to not only ask for donations but also be used to recruit leaders or committees. 

- You don’t like the one size fits all approach because your Young Life ministry is unique in who it reaches and where it does ministry.  

That is why we made this guide to The 3 Minute Young Life Overview Video.

Direct download here: missionaryfilms.org/ylov

After helping hundreds of Young Life Ministries over the past 15 years I found that this flow works best in creating your video to meet most of the needs of a Young Life ministry throughout the year. 

With this guide of an overview video you can partner with your local videographer, film it all on your phone or DSLR, give it to your intern, or hire me to do it. The video will work great for fundraising events as the audience is geared toward people who don’t know about Young Life or are just too busy to notice. This step by step guide will give you a clear vision for what the video needs to look like. 

Having a video like this will help you share your ministry at:

• Banquets

• Online fundraising events

• As a link in your email signature

• On the landing page of your website

• Sent as primer for a meeting with a donor

• Sent to a leader for recruitment or a candidate for committee. 

• Or used in a church to share what your ministry is doing. 

After you make it, then you will have a unique ministry overview video that doesn’t confuse the viewer but shares your mission with your visuals and your people speaking the parts.

Once you have this video you will be able to use it for at least the next 2-3 years. And even after that you can update it as needed to make it last longer. 

Here are some examples of the flow in use:

Desert Cities Young Life: http://younglife.missionaryfilms.org/video/529148403

Gallatin Valley, Montana: http://younglife.missionaryfilms.org/video/490255726

Tricities, Washington http://younglife.missionaryfilms.org/video/451373406

Liberia, Africa: http://younglife.missionaryfilms.org/video/343575121

Phillippines: http://younglife.missionaryfilms.org/video/296225052

If you need help with this, a custom video, or are confused by part of this, reach out to Young Life creative services, or to me directly.

Ashley Maddox (wam@missionaryfilms.org)

Global Volunteers Archive

Equipping your leaders has never been more important, and now even easier. For the past four years, we've shared resources, ideas, training, and encouragement to help you build up your volunteers to be world class leaders in ministry. We compiled them all in one place to make it even easier for you to access the content you need to share with your team!

What’s Our WIG?

What’s our WIG? 

Most of us Young Life people are pretty familiar with wigs. We have to be one of the few organizations to wear them regularly. Mullets, rasta dreads, game show hosts, and more. But this is about a different wig. It’s the Wildly Important Goal. This term was coined by a book called The Four Disciplines of Execution (summary here) and we highly recommend it. It’s about how to get the most important things done in the whirlwind of all of our day-to-day job responsibilities. The Wildly Important Goal is what keeps a team focused on staying committed to their truest calling.

In Young Life what is our WIG?  The job description for a Young Life staffer seems like it’s 20 pages long but what’s the most important thing we’re after? It could be club, or developing leaders, or raising money, or camp trips, or maybe kids standing up at the say so. These are all important but we think it’s something else.

We want to make a case that Young life’s WIG is our KKBN. That’s not an old radio station in Cleveland, it’s Kids Known By Name. This is our starting point. This is the trailhead of our relational journey with adolescents. Every kid we’ve seen go from death to life or start to love their classmates or serve on Work Crew or Summer Staff or even become a leader starts with us knowing them by name.

Knowing a kid by name starts our journey of friendship with them. Bob Mitchell, one of our dear YL heroes who went to be with the Lord this past year said “Every kid he met he considered a friend for life.” But he had to meet them first. 

The more kids we know by name, the greater our chances of getting to introduce them to Jesus and help them grow in their faith. 

We might be rusty at this. Most of us haven’t gotten the chance to walk up to a group of students with butterflies in our stomachs in a long time. It’s been a while since we braved the student section at a football game to introduce ourselves to a teenager longing to be known. Luckily, we’re not doing this alone. We are on teams.

Here’s a thought. As you begin to think through the coming ministry year, take some time to plan club and campaigners, and be sure to get a strategy of inviting students to camp. But don’t forget that the engine, the lead measure, for those three Cs, is knowing kids by name. In that same planning meeting, set aside some time to cast vision, dream and brainstorm about how your team could meet more kids by name than you ever have before. Our encouragement is for your team to have a WIG of meeting a certain number of kids every day or every week and to talk about this at every team meeting. 

Can you imagine a better WIG? To get to know kids by name. That’s what Jesus did. Let’s follow His lead.

Written by Chris Cockerham and Pete Hardesty, Divisional Coordinators for Young Life College

Do You Have VOLUNTEERS or YOUNG LIFE LEADERS?

We have been a ‘leader-centered’ ministry since 1941. It is one of the marks of the mission and one of the elements that sets us apart from other organizations. Now, in a culture where identifying faithful volunteer leadership is increasingly more difficult, we are seeing a desire to elevate the role so that we are able to recruit, train, and retain the next Young Life LEADER and not just find another volunteer. 

(Peter to Porthos)“This is absurd. It's just a dog.” 

(J.M. Barrie )“Just a dog, Just? Porthos, don't listen! 

Porthos dreams of being a bear, and you want to shatter those dreams by saying he's JUST a dog? What a horrible candle-snuffing word. That's like saying, "He can't climb that mountain, he's just a man", or "That's not a diamond, it's just a rock." JUST.” 

(Peter)   “Fine then, turn him into a bear, if you can” 

(J.M. Barrie) ”With those eyes, my bonny lad, I’m afraid you’d never see it”. 

FINDING NEVERLAND- J.M. Barrie, Creator of Peter Pan   

I hear the statement often. “Well, you know, I am JUST a volunteer.” Ouch! Nothing hurts quite like that. I sometimes wonder if it reveals the deterioration in status of a critical community of individuals in the mission of Young Life. If the statement is true, we are acknowledging some shifts in volunteerism that will be challenging to reverse. 

That volunteer’s JUST...

• HELP achieve someone else’s vision.

• ATTEND events and that is appreciated but not critical. 

• CONTRIBUTE, but feel the mission of YL could be done without them.  

• SUPPORT the work, but are expendable. 

What a horrible candle-snuffing word ‘JUST!’ Maybe we have incompletely labeled the thousands of individuals who serve as the owners, backbone, and lifeblood of the Young Life ministry. Some current mislabels are:

YL VOLUNTEER - (noun) A person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or help undertake a task. 

YL COUNSELOR -(noun) A person trained to give guidance on personal, social, or spiritual problems.

YL CHAPERONE - (noun) A person who accompanies and looks after another person or group of people.

Volunteer, counselor, chaperone are partially true descriptions, but we don’t just take part - we lead. We don’t just give guidance, we speak truth. We don’t just accompany, we share life. These titles identify an element of the role but not the heart.  What if we shifted from ‘JUST’ to ‘MORE THAN.’ The person in your community that owns the ministry without being  compensated is significantly ‘more than’ a volunteer; they are invested, passionate, and irreplaceable because they are LEADERS! What would happen if we aligned our rhetoric with our actions and gave them the care, development, and voice that they deserve? I believe the result would be more, well-trained leaders then we have had in our 80 year history. 

Young Life LEADER - (noun) the person who leads or commands a group, organization, or ministry.

In my experience, here are the two key questions and answers we need to acknowledge regarding volunteer leadership:  

Question 1.  WHY DO YL LEADERS LEAD ?

1. They have a heart for Christ and adolescents. 

2. They want to give back because someone was there to lead them to Jesus. 

3. They have a desire to be stretched and challenged in faith.

Question 2. WHY DO LEADERS STAY?

1. They found a niche where their gifting is being utilized and they are experiencing community.

2. They see transformation in themselves and the adolescents they serve.

3. They grow in their faith. 

It takes a community to reach a community and when that happens, everyone is changed! When done correctly, we all LEAD.  We LEAD in relationship, authenticity, guidance, and by example. Ultimately, we LEAD toward an encounter with a living and loving God, and that is not ‘just’ something we do, it is ‘more than’ our eyes could ever imagine witnessing. 

FINAL THOUGHT:  I have noticed when volunteer leaders’ sense of ownership grows their description of their role changes as well. They shift from saying phrases like: 

•  “I  HELP run a YL Club.”    - to -

• “This School is where I choose to MINISTER.”  

Which phrase describes your team? We will always be grateful for more volunteers, but we really need leaders engaged in ministry! 

A CHALLENGE:  Take some time with your team to discuss the difference between volunteer and leader. What is the current state of things in your mission community and what could be done to change it this year? 

Written by Ken Tankersley (kenbtank@gmail.com)

Committee Academy

It all started with a prayer!
The faithful, steady, and bold prayers of women--powerful and significant women in Gainesville, TX--have long been credited with Young Life’s inception. Our founder, Jim Rayburn was protected and prompted by prayer warriors as he went courageously to the school. This was the beginning of our mission. This was the beginning of Committees. 

It’s not a stretch to say that from the start every healthy and growing ministry in Young Life has included a team of adults who own the local ministry as partners with YL Staff and volunteers. Together they lead the mission. At it’s best, this partnership tackles vision, funding, administrative tasks, and leadership development in tandem. It’s a missional community with the Area Staff and Committee at the helm.

As a way to bring focussed training and resourcing to this significant group, we are thrilled to announce Committee Academy.

Committee Academy is designed by Committee members, for Committee members. Today, a Committee is exceptionally more than a prayer team. It is a team of passionate, called, generous adults who align their skill and abilities with the needs of the Area or Region. 

Very soon, you’ll have access to our newly designed website that will include a variety of resources and tools built to elevate and strengthen a local Committee. But, this effort is so much more than a website! Our team is available now to teach, consult, coach, direct, and lead any project that your Region or Area is interested in regarding Committees and Boards.

Please take 4 minutes and complete this quiz! Your results will help us understand what’s needed for your Committee or Board. As well, it will give you a glimpse of what’s to come… AND, you could win a great prize! By completing the quiz, you’ll be entered into a drawing for something special to be delivered to your door!

Take the QUIZ!

The Storehouse

It was a Monday afternoon in the fall of 2010. I was on Young Life staff in Littleton, CO and prepping for club that night. As usual, I did what most “good” Young Life leaders did three hours before every club - jumped online and Googled “Young Life games” and “Young Life songs.” I had already used everything on Sean McGever’s YLHelp.com and didn’t find anything new or usable on Google, so I went to the Staff Resources site. Same result. I got frustrated and emailed my YL boss’s boss’s boss and asked if we could figure out a solution to this problem. I drove down to Colorado Springs and we met and I presented an idea. He said, “That sounds awesome. We can’t pay you for that, but if you want to start it as a volunteer, go for it.” A month later, The Young Life Leader Blog was born.

I Googled “How to start a website” and created a blog on Blogger. I started spending an hour or so each night after club or after Campaigners or after doing contact work - just writing up the details of what we’d done and what we’d learned. I shared it with our area, our region and a few YL friends back in NC and GA. It slowly grew. Over the past 10 years, I wrote over 1500 articles and more and more leaders started sharing content. Along the way, a ton of other folks started doing similar things - the WyldLife blog, the Capernaum blog, YL College podcast, etc… And there were all the great training resources and videos being shared on YL Access. 

In 2019 we had the idea: “What if we brought all of these great resources into one, easy-to-use resource for staff and leaders?!” At YL2020 we pitched the idea of “The Storehouse” on stage during “The Next Big Thing.” It got funded and we’re moving forward! 

We are currently working with the IT department at the Service Center to create a one-stop-shop for all the best resources in Young Life. Stay tuned! 

Take the QUIZ to learn more!

ARE YOUR LEADERS READY?

“Then there are the leaders. We maintain a high standard for our leadership; all of them are carefully trained in our own approach to evangelism... trained, skilled, dedicated people.” Jim Rayburn - 1952 

As our volunteers' numbers have grown exponentially since Jim Rayburn said the above quote, we all want to do our best to ensure what Rayburn said about our leaders is still true today, especially as we look forward to heading back to camp.  

This summer, you have the opportunity to ensure that we are passing on the DNA of Young Life camping and excellent training to the next generation of leaders. Your camp leaders desire to feel confident, equipped, and well prepared from the second they get on the bus all the way to say-so and camp follow-up. 

However, with so many plates to spin heading into the camping season (fundraising, communication, health forms, COVID precautions), good camp leader training could be in danger of being the first plate to drop. 

That does not have to be true! With the help of the 2021 Camp Leader Orientation on Young Life Access (on the devices they carry every day … smartphones, tablets, and laptops!), you can help make sure all of your leaders are on the same page heading into the first leader meeting at camp. And you can rest assured that every other leader at camp that week will have done the same.  

If your area does not have a free Young Life Access account, email Laura at laura@younglifeaccess.com. For complete instructions as to how your leaders can access the training, click HERE. for a simple overview and faqs.

This 2021 Camp Leader Orientation course is divided into eight parts easy to consume parts...

1 Introduction and the Philosophy of Young Life Camping

2 Young Life Camping Non-Negotiables 

3 Understanding Your Role in Leader Centered Camping

4 Being a Leader and Keeping Kids Safe

5 Cabin Time:  Don't Fear the Silence

6 Cabin Time:  Sample Questions and Helpful Scripture

7 Mastering One on One Conversations at Camp

8 A Thank You and a Simple Glimpse of the End

The entire course should take under an hour to complete, well worth the time considering the impact of summer camp on our kids. There is also a “Returning Leader Orientation” which is shorter for leaders who have completed the original training in previous summers. 

Remember, this training is not meant to replace your pre-camp meetings with your other leaders but rather enhance those face-to-face meetings by allowing you to spend more time in direct application of the material and in prayer for your kids. We know you look forward to getting together with your camp leaders in the coming weeks, praying together for your trip together as a team. If your leaders have completed the training on their own, you have more time to pray and discuss what they have learned before those meeting. In other cases, you may want to do the training together by streaming it to a TV and consuming it as a group. Either way, the kids win.

Every kid deserves a well-trained leader. This summer has the potential to be the Young Life’s best, and you can ensure that by making sure all of your leaders are equipped and ready.

For more information on Young Life Access, visit http://younglifeaccess.com.  

Global Volunteers March 2021

Did You Know?

WyldLife doesn’t have an official anniversary date. As early as the 1970s, some leaders started “Younger Life” to teach high school Campaigners kids how to share their faith. In some urban settings, staff saw that younger kids were facing tremendous challenges, so they started clubs just for them. Staff learned that middle school kids can, and do, respond to the gospel, and by the late 1990s, the ministry had a name:  WyldLife.

In 2000, mission leadership announced that Young Life would now be equally committed to both middle school and high school ministry. Today, there are 1,706 WyldLife ministries in 739 areas in the United States. WyldLife leaders adapt ministry to meet the unique needs of early adolescents, knowing that younger kids are more open and in need of caring adults who can tell them that God loves them. Areas with WyldLife have the opportunity to disciple kids for seven years, watching God develop them into kingdom-minded young adults.

Why is WyldLife so important? Staff, leaders, parents, and kids answer that question in this short video. 

How much do you know about WyldLife? Test your knowledge here.

Want to know more about how to start WyldLife in your community? Let us know and we’ll connect you with the people who can help.

FALL 2021 STARTS THIS SPRING

I believe that now is the time to dream about the Fall. As leaders we are called to lead with hope and belief. We have to be leaders to see into the future and lead to what will be. We can’t get stuck in living in what is, but always dreaming and looking ahead. Now is the time to dream about the Fall and dreaming about the Fall starts by leaning into the Spring. If we wait until the Fall to ‘restart” we will be too late. 

I would like to offer FIVE “S’s” for your Spring. Four of them will be external and one will be internal, but all five are key to being ready for the Fall. 

Social Media! Most of us have become good at virtual this or that, but many of us have been using social media poorly. Consider how you go after new students in the Spring. Students are hungry for connection and they are smart enough to want real connection. Here are three ideas to implement right now for the Spring social media. 

• Find and follow all the freshmen you can. Don't wait for them to follow your YL page, you add them! Take the initiative, be proactive. 

• Slide into those DM’s. That’s right, any students who like your post, start a conversation. Conversations turn into real relationships. 

• PLEASE stop post infographics and leader bios. It’s about them not you so post pictures of people not ‘cumurcials’ about your next thing. 

Shared Adventure is the second ‘S” plan for the spring. You and a student or two do something together that’s fun! The list is endless so be a dreamer and think about what is possible. Obviously follow local guidelines as it relates to Covid but also think about outside the box. Take some time in January and come with a plan or two and give it a try. 

Small groups/Campaigners! Invest now in the kids who are believers and start talking about the Fall! Give them the idea of Mission Community. We are growing together but we also have a mission to accomplish. Let’s go after our school for Christ! Help them to see the future. 

This one is a bit of a reach, but our fourth ‘S’ is squad. I believe that when we enter the Fall of 2021 we will have to look around and see who is still around as it relates to our leadership teams. So let’s start rebuilding our teams NOW! Plan a new leaders night at the end of the spring. Dream about a ‘big event’ where you can welcome new leaders into your area or on your team. Then work backwards and start a great leadership training class. Invite everyone and lead them to a place of giving their life away for Jesus. Your investment now will make the Fall of 2021 possible. 

This last ‘S’ is the internal one and the one that will be key to your success in the future. The last S is ‘should.’ Should you still be doing this? Are you still called? Make no mistake the Fall of 2021 will be a complete restart of many areas and clubs. There will be little to build on it will be hard to restart. Are you up for it? Don’t get me wrong, I am for sure not saying now is the time to quit, but I do want us all to realize that while the future is filled with hope and exciting new opportunities, it will also be difficult. Make sure you are ready for the battle that lies ahead.

Volunteer Resources

Your volunteer leaders are the unsung heroes of your ministry. Whether they’re students, young professionals, working adults, retired adults, or somewhere in between, they are busy! They’re also not on Young Life staff and often don’t know what resources are available to them within the Young Life library of resources. So, we pulled together some of the top articles from past 5.4 Friday email blasts to help give you and your leaders some simple tips and ideas to inspire and encourage.

The Three R’s Inspired by a Pandemic: RESET, RESTART and REDEFINE

I heard these three words from the Lord while being forced to be still and know that He is God. As I witnessed a global pandemic erase all ‘my’ plans off the calendar I had on my wall adjacent to my desk:  The words are RESET, RESTART and REDEFINE.

Beyond the C’s of Young Life, I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to use this non-rushed space to take assessment and evaluation of where things were in my life spiritually, personally, and professionally. As a track sprinter prepares for a race, it’s really important how you correctly position yourself in the blocks. Sometimes a coach will tell the runner to position themselves differently...RESET. How you do this will affect your take off...RESTART. How you start could determine how you finish and your ranking in this event...REDEFINE.

It’s no secret we’re all a work in progress, so thanks be to God that He’s always a motivating coach, wanting the best from and through us.

I put a large dry erase board on my office wall and have three columns vertically and three horizontally. The vertical columns are SPIRITUAL, PERSONAL, PROFESSIONAL. The Horizontally ones are RESET, RESTART, REDEFINE. As I’m hearing the Holy Spirit and desiring to be a better ‘ME’ in all these areas, I’m writing it on my board and frequently looking at it as a reminder to stay on course with God’s REBRANDING sanctification process (...hmmm, another R).

See the attached document (Kairos 2020) to start your own journey of self examination. Remember, it’s not a matter of quickly filling in the categories but it's making a decision to be still and listen intently to the one who holds the tomorrow and “knows the plans He has for you, for a good future and hope.”

As I’ve embraced this self assessment, It has resulted in some stronger disciplines in my life. This has helped me in my pursuit to keep the main thing the main thing and to more often be LED than DRIVEN. My hope is to minister out of an overflowing vessel, rather than one with only a sip of water. 

“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.” John 7:38

Action Steps 

• Print out the attached PDF

• Spend time asking the Lord to shine light on the areas He is calling you to grow and mature.

• Set a goal for yourself to commit the first day of the month to review the R’s and evaluate your progress.  

Written by: Sam Coleman

THE VALUE OF A RESET! VOLUNTEER 101 TRAINING

“Then there are the leaders. We maintain a high standard for our leadership; all of them are carefully trained in our own approach to evangelism… trained, skilled, dedicated people.” 

Jim Rayburn - 1952

The number of our volunteers has grown exponentially since Jim Rayburn said the above quote creating the problem that we cannot easily guarantee what Rayburn says about our leaders is still true today.  Dedicated and skilled?  Absolutely.  But well-trained? Every kid deserves a well-trained leader and that is what we all want to ensure.

Obstacles to good volunteer training include time, busy schedules that cause leaders to miss meetings, and distance from training opportunities.  

In the beginning of 2020, another obstacle showed up… COVID-19. But, where some people see an obstacle, others see an opportunity. A pause in our hectic world gives time to regroup, reset, and find true north again.  

A rocket traveling to the moon that is off course by just one degree will miss the moon by 4,169 miles. We don’t want to miss the mark by even a foot when it comes to the training of our volunteers.

Thankfully, the new Volunteer 101 training course available on Young Life Access allows you to reset your training compass and points all of your volunteers in the same direction when it comes to contact work, club, camp, and Campaigners.

This four-part course ensures that we are passing on the DNA of the mission and excellent training to the next generation of leaders. Today’s volunteers desire to feel confident, equipped, and well-prepared the first time they walk into the school, club, or camp. This generation of leaders wants to impact the world and will give their time to the organization that best prepares them to do that.

One Area Director remarked, “After the completing Volunteer 101 training, new leaders became self-starters for campaigners, contact work at the school, and speaking at Club. I believe this is because they fully understood the ministry and its vision and mission along with how they could make it happen for kids in our community. They got excited to serve!”

Each section of the training covers one aspect of Young Life:

• Part 1: We Go After the Unreached

• Part 2: We Go Where Kids Are

• Part 3: We Share the Gospel in Terms Kid’s Understand

• Part 4: We Follow-Up; Helping Kids Grow in Their Faith

The idea behind Volunteer 101 is to create a blended approach (both face to face and online) to volunteer training that includes a trackable, standardized training piece that every volunteer can complete before they ever set foot on campus or become a leader. In no way should this course take training out of the hands of the area, but rather it gives the staff person a foundation to build on.  

Areas can send the training to each leader individually to complete on their own time, or complete the training as a group at a weekend retreat or over a series of leadership meetings as part of their blended approach to training. The training can be streamed easily to a TV or projector.

The bottom line is that with Volunteer 101, we will be able to ensure that every kid in Young Life has a well-trained leader and that these leaders will have Kingdom impact. Beyond Kingdom impact, easily accessible, quality training helps our recruiting and retention of volunteers and increases their likelihood for immediate effectiveness.  

After having every volunteer in his region complete the training, Regional Director Billy Suess said, ”The Volunteer 101 course came at a great time for our region as we were looking for ways to inspire our volunteer leaders to reach deeper into their communities and engage students from every walk of life. God has opened so many doors, but we needed better volunteer training so our leaders would take hold of the foundations of relational ministry and feel more confident to step out in faith with students. The Volunteer 101 course hit the mark and has led to more students in our region encountering Christ through a volunteer Young Life leader." 

The four-part Volunteer 101 course is available on Young Life Access (younglifeaccess.com) and also translated into five different languages. Don’t have a Young Life Access free account? Contact your staff person or email laura@younglifeaccess.com. Your account will give you access to great Young Life training along with video Bible studies from Francis Chan, Tony Evans, Jeanie Allen, Jo Saxton, and so much more.

*A collaboration of staff from around the globe, organized by Brian Summerall and team.