Help for Young Life Leaders NOW

Over the summer I normally try to post a couple things that I learned over the previous school year. These are a little late, but I really wanted to pass them along anyway. Also if you have anything you learned from last year that you would like to tell me about, send it my way smcgever (at) pv dot younglife dot org

When it comes to preparing campaigner lessons, I’ve tried it all. Fortunately the plan is not the most important part of campaigners. If the meeting includes honest sharing, a conversation about scripture and prayer, you pretty much can’t go wrong. With that said I’m always trying to provide the best content that is relevant. What I’ve done for the last few years is simply go through books of the Bible (ex: Mark), or sections of scripture (ex: Sermon on the Mount), or similar verse-by-verse type things. Here and there I’ll mix in some different approaches, but this is what I’ve found to be my favorite.

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Over the summer I normally try to post a couple things that I learned over the previous school year. These are a little late, but I really wanted to pass them along anyway. Also if you have anything you learned from last year that you would like to tell me about, send it my way smcgever (at) pv dot younglife dot org

In my community there is an often-avoided neighborhood nestled in an otherwise pleasant and upscale part of town. In the past years this area has been one of the most violent square miles in our state and has faced other significant challenges.

In this neighborhood there is a middle school and a team of amazing teachers who love their students. I remember meeting with one of the teachers five years ago. She has an amazing heart for Christ and for her students. Many of her students come back to her classroom after school weekly, even when they are in high school and beyond. She knew that Young Life would be a great bridge to connect these kids to Christ. When we met five years ago we dreamed of opening a Wyldlife club at the school. In fact she had one kid in particular on her heart that needed Wyldlife right away. Over the years we were able to get some of the kids to YL camps and occasionally to club. We kept praying and strategizing to reach these kids. Then a little over a year ago the kid who needed Wyldlife desperately four years earlier was finally convinced to go to Woodleaf. He met Christ in a powerful way and started growing quickly in his faith.

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Over the summer I normally try to post a couple things that I learned over the previous school year. These are a little late, but I really wanted to pass them along anyway. Also if you have anything you learned from last year that you would like to tell me about, send it my way smcgever (at) pv dot younglife dot org

Usually when I need something that I don’t have I just Google it and start my search. I do this with things for club, things for my home, all kinds of stuff. I bet you do that too.

In my spare time I like to read Wired magazine and all kinds of other sources of technology information. One thing that tech journalists are always covering is the battle between Google and Facebook. Google has a monopoly on internet information. Facebook has a monopoly on information and access on your friends. So it dawned on me (and probably many of you too) one day, instead of looking to Google for information and stuff I need to get, why don’t I look on Facebook. For instance I wanted to sell my car and buy a different one. Instead of putting my car on Craigslist or Autotrader, I told all my friends on Facebook. The benefit is that they know me, for better or worse haha, but many of them know a lot about my car and probably have been in it before. So a few weeks later, my car was sold at a great price to someone who really needed it.

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Over the summer I normally try to post a couple things that I learned over the previous school year. These are a little late, but I really wanted to pass them along anyway. Also if you have anything you learned from last year that you would like to tell me about, send it my way smcgever (at) pv dot younglife dot org

I have been a leader for over 15 years now in YL. In the first half of my experience I rarely saw high school students have much of a role in the leadership and execution of the club. I realize this is different across the country and some areas have been doing this for decades. Then about 6 years ago I recognized that the strongest club in our area always had students as a part of their leadership team. I would train them and encourage them but I thought that was nice and kept on doing things the way I was used to doing in my club. Then other clubs in my area started adding junior leaders and they were having stronger campaigners, stronger clubs, camp, everything.

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What do kids like pretty more than anything else? Pictures of themselves! Just check out Facebook… Wait it is called Face book, as in, I want to see my own face. Yes, that is the idea. Random tangent, I almost did a program skit recently that was going to be about my newest invention, “MyFace”, a new website that combines the best of both worlds, you can steal that idea if you want.

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This may be a little too late to use with pumpkins, but you can file this away for next October/November, or it might bring to mind a similar creative idea to do with kids.

Erin from Silicon Valley YL sent me this idea and said this… Read the rest of this entry »

Last summer I wrote a brief post about camp unity outfits. There were some great comments and ideas send in by you too. Thanks!

While I was on assignment last summer I tried to take a few pictures of some of the camp unity outfits I saw, so here are a few you can use and steal as needed! You can click on the pictures for larger versions. If you have ideas for this summer, leave a comment. I’m looking for an idea for my guys and we leave in a few days!

1. Old Ladies

2. White T’s with Letters

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Last Monday I gave the Resurrection talk. I always like to include a part about what it means to be a follower of Jesus in this talk.

I love the resurrection talk. It is often under-stated most times I see it at club or camp. The resurrection is the power for our new life in Christ! You can even see that last summer when I spoke at YL camp, I moved all the talks a day earlier just so I could do an entire talk about the resurrection. Read the rest of this entry »

Hey sorry if you got the last post that I deleted from ylhelp. It was meant to go on my personal blog. I try to keep my opinions separate from the resource-focused stuff on ylhelp.

Like many of us I am starting to look for summer camp shirts. You may have noticed the link on ylhelp about Retro Fashions. Ryan and Kylie at Retro have been active in YL for many years and have worked with our YL area to provide great shirts for all of our activities. I highly highly recommend them from my personal experience. In fact I think they have even gotten better over the years. They have a “we will beat any price” promise that I have never proven wrong. They even do artwork free of charge. Anyway, I was looking at some of their designs they have done in the past as I’m thinking of some for this year and I thought I’d pass them along for your viewing pleasure. These are some of my favorites…

PS… Check them out if you need a great design or price. http://www.fashionablyretro.com or just email RyanDurkin@FashionablyRetro.com