Help for Young Life Leaders NOW

This year I had the opportunity to speak at a snowboarding camp in Northern California. They were nice enough to take care of my arrangements, but I thought I’d push my luck and see if they had room for me to bring one of my club kids with me. And they said yes! (Thanks SVYL!)

It was an incredible move. First, because he felt really valued and special that I asked him. Second, we got to go to camp. Third, it gave him vision and a behind-the-scenes look into what we do. Also, the group of kids and leaders said it gave them a cool example that they want to do themselves.

I have no idea if I’ll be asked to speak somewhere like that again, but it could work in all kinds of situations. Think this way… If I am going out of town, can I bring a club kid with me? You might only do it once a year or every other year, but it is certainly worth it!

We were having an all you can eat Taco Bell club (at Taco Bell). As if that wasn’t good enough, I talked to some guys about making a video to promote it.

Not only did it help the guys, some of whom had only been once to YL, but they wanted their friends to see it and come too. It spread online real fast. We also used a song from a band from their school. That helped too.

I’ll definitely do this again. Here is it…

Every year when I get back from camp I have club kids who want to keep cabin time going. So I sit down and pull together the best follow-up camp and campaigner resources I can find. This year I put a considerable amount of work into developing the best 10 camp follow-up Bible studies I could come up with. I decided to call these “Cabin Time Continued”.

Here are the 10 topics included in the study:

First 5 Camp Review

1. Christ at Camp and at Home
2. Person of Christ
3. Sin
4. Cross
5. Resurrection

Second 5 Foundational Topics

6. Christ in You: Identity in Christ
7. Christ as Lord: Deity and Ruler of my life
8. Christ Forgives: When we go our own way
9. Christ Communicates: Word
10. Christ Communicates: Prayer

It is a 48 page booklet that has worked well with my club kids. I printed 100 copies and ran out within a week of being back from camp. I’m going to print more. If you are interested in getting some for your camp follow-up, email me at smcgever@yahoo.com.

It can be used in a group or individually. The format is centered on interacting with scripture through questions and creative learning.

In case you are interested, here is a sample… It is all set to print on both sides, fold and hand out.

Cabin Time Continued - Lesson 8 Christ Forgives: When we go our own way

Recently I have had some requests to order these, I’m trying this link to handle it, let me know if you have any trouble with it.

In my area we had no formal plan for recruiting and developing college freshman as leaders. I asked around in my state if anyone else was doing anything, I didn’t get a ton of feedback. I asked around nationally and I got a little more. Eventually a key person told me about the "premier" freshman program in the United States. They were kind enough to send me all their material.

I like planning and training and all that stuff a lot. (So much that now there is ylhelp.com haha) So I worked through all their material and my own and came up with "FYL" First Year Leading. We had a free kickoff retreat to the beach, free leadership camp in September and we met every Thursday night from 9:20PM until about Midnight at my house. The first semester it was pretty much a small group then the second semester we started including leadership training elements. The format was so simple: food, short game, worship, life story, then discuss the past week’s reading in the One Year New Testament (this is a GREAT tool).

This is separate from our traditional leader training we do each semester.

We have high school seniors, juniors and even sophomores who are saying they can’t wait to be a part of it. Most of their leaders are involved in FYL so it is contagious.

If you don’t have a plan for freshman in college, you should! Contact me if you need some ideas. 

For six years I have coached basketball at Pinnacle High School. I love basketball. It is so much fun helping this way. It has helped me make great connections with the school and the administration. It is well worth it. You might think that I have a lot of club kids from the basketball team, right? Nope. I’ve only brought two to camp and only a few more to club. Ouch! Trust me, it hurts. Yes, I have a great YL leader relationship with these kids, but it is very disappointing.

Enter Twiggs Reed. I had an assignment (now two) with this quirky and incredible guy. He loves loves loves running. He told me I should go after cross country kids, they are more dedicated, more open, etc. Also no one goes to their events. At other sports, there are plenty of people there. How about an away JV cross country meet? Even the parents hardly come. The kids can easily tell you really care about them.

I’m debating whether I’ll coach basketball (a sport I love), I might just do it to keep the connections going with the school. But I know I will continue to focus on other sporting events much much more.

If you are heading off to camp one thing you absolutely must do is get in a one-on-one with each kid. This can be the most meaningful time not only for them, but for you.

It can be intimidating to sit down and have a conversation with them. So here is a tip sheet you can print out and stick in your Bible for camp.

As the summer approaches fast, it is very helpful to look back and think about what we’ve learned. This gives praise to God and all that He has done. It is also being a good steward of our time, there is no reason we should keep repeating the same mistakes and there is every reason to repeat what works!

So I’d love to hear what worked for you in:

• Club (plans, events, promotion)
• Campaigners (times, places, format, what kind of studies, other things you did)
• Camp (promotion, prep, at camp, camp followup)
• Talks (illustrations, Bible stories, other ways to do talks, i.e.leader panel)
• Contact Work (events, tips, success stories)
• Leadership (recruitment, team meetings, helping each other grow)

Those are just a couple ideas. Let’s share! Over the summer I will post at least one thing I learned this year each week. So my question is…

WHAT DID YOU LEARN THIS SUMMER?