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.

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

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!

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)

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.

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

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

How Many Hours Does It Take To Make A Friend?

I was recently texted an article from the Southwest Airlines inflight magazine with the headline, “How Many Hours Does It Take to Make a Friend?” Immediately, my mind went to a letter written by our founder, Jim Rayburn, in 1952.

“For example, take our ‘contact work.’ By that we mean the hours and hours that our leaders find it necessary to spend with the kids, meeting them where they are, going along with them, living with them.”

While Jim Rayburn couldn’t put a specific number on the hours that are spent by our volunteer leaders, earning the right to be heard, science is trying to.

“The Journal of Science and Personal Relationships” recently published a study by K.U. Professor Jeffrey Hall, which reveals:

• It takes 50 cumulative hours of hanging out (contact work) to go from “acquaintance” to “friend.”

• It takes 90 hours to go from “friend” to “good friend.”

• It takes 200 cumulative hours to become someone's “best friend.”

“We have to put that time in,” Hall said. “You can’t snap your fingers and make a friend. Maintaining close relationships is the most important work we do in our lives — most people on their deathbeds agree.”

That should not come as a surprise to any Young Life leader, and it indeed would not be a surprise to Rayburn.

In today’s world, it is important to note that these hours refer to “face-to-face” time. Social media and texting simply won’t do. None of those technologies will ever replace showing up at the school or a Friday night game.

Let me put this in a Young Life context:

• 50 hours — Sounds like a weekend camp to me.

• 90 hours — That’s a great semester of contact work at lunches, games and just hanging out with kids.

• 200 hours — Add a 20-hour bus ride to seven days of summer camp, plus follow up, and that’s what you will get.

If you are a leader struggling to get to that next level of friendship with your kids, you might consider what Hall calls a “context shift.”

“What seems to be the case is that doing something I call a ‘context shift’ matters; this means that you want to spend time with somebody outside the place you met them,” Hall said.

What Young Life calls “Level 1 Contact Work” (just showing up/being seen) and Level 2 Contact Work (conversing with a kid) has to experience that context shift to move to Level 3 (doing something together). Without that critical shift, leaders are left with superficial relationships with kids that have little or no impact.

If you are a volunteer and feel you are stuck at “Level 1,” just showing up at the school or a game for an hour or two every week, ask your team leader to help you make that “context shift” with kids. Pray that God would help you see new opportunities ahead of you to deepen those relationships.

Maybe we didn’t need the “The Journal of Science and Personal Relationships” to tell us these things, but it’s helpful to see the science to back up what Rayburn knew. Those hours and hours of contact work you are putting in are not a waste of time. The Lord is using them!

“ … (M)any well-meaning Christians have felt that we are wasting time. Yet it is this time spent with the youngster, before and after his confession of Christ, that has made Young Life something far more than the ordinary youth movement. Not only do we win a hearing among the most difficult and hardest to reach, but after reaching them we stay with them, as a true missionary should. The winning and establishing of a soul for Jesus Christ cannot be done on a hit-and-run basis. The Lord Jesus Himself is our example in this.”

Keep logging those hours, volunteers. Science backs you up. But better yet, Jesus backs you up as well!

Written by Brian Summerall (bsummerall@mac.com)