Help for Young Life Leaders NOW

I am leading a seminar at our regional leader retreat next weekend about how to share Christ. I did a similar seminar last year and I got good feedback.

This year I want to focus on investigating what God has already done in their lives. In other words, this person may have never heard of God, or they might be ready to come to know Christ the day you meet them because of other ways God has worked in their life, or they may know Christ and need to be challenged to grow. So the seminar theme might be, "investigating and doing your part" of God’s plan in their life. This might not be "leading them to Christ", though it might be.

This could have a couple benefits, one would be that we don’t just assume that everyone is brand new to the gospel, in fact that is not even biblical. Furthermore statistics tell us most kids have been involved in Christian churches in one way or another. More than that, we will have to be more skilled in our friendship to examine what is needed. It is easier to start at square one then to know them enough to move on.

One other thing I want to include is the idea of a "community sandwich". This is the idea that they are "in" our group, they are accepted, loved, one-of-us, and in the midst of that, we also talk about Christ. We accept them and love them before, during and after any interaction about the gospel. Not a new idea to us, but certainly one that seems to be new for those who think it is a postmodern or emergent approach. 

• What do you think about these ideas?
• What are some of the most helpful concepts you have learned about sharing Christ?
• Does the hamburger above make you hungry? It makes me want In-N-Out right now.

We sold our house and are looking to move closer to the school where we do club. It is a lifelong dream to live super-close to the school. We want our house to be a hub of club, campaigners, Friday night football tailgate parties, … you get the idea. 

We find ourselves asking, could we possibly be too close? Some fiends have cautioned us that we don’t know what we are getting ourselves into. Some of these friends understand YL and some don’t.

Just so you know, we have three kids ages 5 and under. We are currently renting the house we sold from the new owner for a little while.

Does anyone out there have any experiences with this?

• Pros?
• Cons?
• How close is too close?
• How far is too far to be helpful?
• Anything we should consider?

We could use your help. Thanks!

What would you do? At a club with a great history of club, campaigners, school involvement, and weekly on-campus contact work a new principal was hired. The leaders knew lots of teachers, the security guards, and the office staff. They were all familiar with leaders visiting campus. The leaders were trusted, known personally, and had a 10-year track record of working within the guidelines of the school.

Then, in the first week of the new principal the leader walked into the office to get his visitor’s pass. There was a new lady who was at the front desk who said, “Who are you and why should you be here?” Turns out that leaders are not allowed on campus anymore. The vice-principal vouched for the leaders, but apparently the new people simply do not want the leaders on campus.

What would you do?

A female student keeps text messaging a male leader. The leader points the student to the female leaders but she just keeps texting and the content is rather serious. She won’t agree to talk to anyone. The leader schedules a meeting with the girl, a female leader and himself. The girl won’t talk to the girl leader and after the meeting keeps texting and calling the male leader with her problems, which are rather serious. What would you do?