Help for Young Life Leaders NOW

We are very excited to announce a wide-spanning project called “Sync”. Simply put, the first project is a weekly club talk through a story in each chapter of the book of Mark with a corresponding Campaigner plan. Here are some thoughts behind it:

• Club talk resources can really help new and experienced leaders plan club talks
• Campaigners often needs an extra boost, having a ready-to-go Bible study makes it easier
• I have found it is easy to follow-up with a campaigners based on the club talk rather then introducing a whole new topic
• A major strength of our club talks is that they are Christ-centered, lets try more of that in Campaigners
• Often times in Campaigners I find myself asking the question, “what should we cover?”. This lets the author of Mark have a say in that.
• The Gospels and the Gospel of Mark are the outline of our traditional club talk sequence, so it will flow naturally with most club talk semesters.

I have invited a bunch of the best speakers and YL people I know to help on this project. Each week will combine the ideas of some of the best people out there. Even better, we can collaborate through the comments on each post to improve them. We will be adding about one per week until we get through Mark!

Here are some resources that will jump-start your planning if you haven’t already…

My preliminary semester club plan:

Some plans from my friend Hugh in NC:

Also, a great resource for club games, mixers, run-ons, etc. is the YL Playbook. Aaron and his crew have done a great job with it. 

Here are some of the top posts on YLHelp.com over the past months.

They tell me that leaders are looking for help with campaigners, with club, with situations with kids, and a lot with club talks.

Very soon I will be telling you about a bunch of help we will post about club talks and campaigners. It is very exciting and a lot of people are working on it.

1. TalkPrep – Message Worksheet – Woman Caught in Adultery – A worksheet that helps plan a talk on the woman caught in adultery.

2. Campaigners Chaos – Getting them to talk: Faces Handout – A fun ready-to-print handout for campaigners.

3. The BEST Talk Illustrations (3 of 5) Video clip and talk idea from Blood Diamond – I am your father who loves you.

4. Entire Semester of Club Plans Download – A full semester of club plans.

5. What NOW? – Female student won’t leave male leader alone – Just one of those things we deal with.

6. Cross Talk Help – A Harmony of the Cross Story – A helpful summary when doing a cross talk.

7. Cabin Time Continued… Campaigners Bible Study – A campaigners booklet you can order with a free chapter to download.

Any posts that you liked? Any topics you would like covered more?

My friend Twiggs years ago showed me a short foreign movie about the famous story of the drawbridge operator who closed the bridge on his son in order to save the people on the train. If you can watch it in its entirety, I recommend it. We watched it after camp with an all-area campaigners and had powerful small group discussions afterwards.

I used this earlier this year in a cross talk. I think there are lots of ways to use this clip. It is not a perfect analogy of the cross or atonement (for example, Christ’s death was voluntary by Christ, not an “accident”), but there are some very powerful themes that this clip is able to get right to.

Earlier this year we had a follow-up discussion in campaigners about this clip. Here are a few of the questions we used…

Q: What do you think those people were thinking when they crossed the bridge?

Q: How is this similar about the way people treat God?

Q: How did the father feel about his son?

Q: How do you think the father felt about the people on the train afterward?

Q: What does the movie motivate you to do in your relationship with God?

Here is a question a friend of mine would like some feedback on…

Would you have club at a fast food place?

• Would you have it there once?
• Would you have it there for an entire semester?
• What would be the pros/cons?
• If you’ve done it, any recommendations?
• Any funny stories?

Here is my experience… I’ve done club several times at Taco Bell, at a local kids pizza place (Peter Piper Pizza), and maybe somewhere else. I’ve found that these places are very open to having an event on a Monday night if it brings people in. I’ve also been very upfront with them about the songs, the talk, etc. Nothing has phased them. On the plus side I’ve seen people who are just eating there really interested in who we are. On the challenging side, I have at times been worried that a stranger or two was being a little too interested in some of the teenage girls. It is a hard place for proclamation, but I like the oddity of it… Something feels right to me to be at a public place in our community talking openly about Christ to our friends. I’ve never tried more than one meeting a semester doing this.

I’m very eager to hear your input, and I know some of my friends are too… Can you help us by proving some comments?