Help for Young Life Leaders NOW

On assignment for Wyldlife this summer we decided to do a guys hike and a girls talk. We split them up, I led the guys hike so I know a lot about that, but I can get info about the girls identity talk if you are interested.

The theme of the guy’s hike was "how to be a man". When we started the hike, which had five stations, I introduced this idea and, let me tell you, it got their attention. I will go on to explain the details, but beyond the details I learned that there is a deep hunger, especially among junior high guys, to find out what a man is supposed to be like. We need to leverage this more for the sake of the gospel. Help me think of ways to do this better and more often.

As I planned the stations I felt like I was pulling stuff out of the air for the topics. I knew I wanted to say something about how we treat women and a couple other things. But then 1 Tim 4:12 came to mind. It laid the perfect outline for a young man wanting to be a man. I repeatedly mentioned how they may have been looked at like children just a few years ago, but they have the opportunity to act like men. Also acting like a man has nothing to do with age, there are plenty older males out there that act like children. The kids I talked to knew that all too well.

So the stations were:

1. The power of our words
2. Our actions (especially in competition) – Joey Colletti did an incredible job with this station.
3. Selfless Love – Mike Mayfield from our summer staff shared about why he was serving them. They broke into groups and talked about men who had influenced them.
4. Faith – Walk what you talk. Don’t just "know" the right thing.
5. Purity – Especially how we treat women.

At each station we broke up into the cabin time groups and had a question for the leader to answer and a question for the kids in the cabin time.

• How do you think we can leverage the desire to for guys to want to be "men" for the sake of the gospel?
• What do you think they need to hear?