Help for Young Life Leaders NOW

My favorite and least favorite moment of the YL year is being at high school graduations. I see friends walking across the stage, some are brand new creations in Christ, others have become mature disciples, and others are making progress slowly but surely in their faith. But I also find myself cheering loudly for some kids while inside I cringe and think… I wonder if there was anything I could have done differently, Lord I wish my friend on stage really knew You. My confidence is in the Lord alone, and I quickly remind myself of 1 Cor. 3:6… Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God makes it grow. Only God can grow people. But I wonder, was I faithful to plant, faithful to water?

John Irwin is a wise man and years ago told me that he would make a list of seniors that he didn’t think he got the chance to really share with them all that they needed to hear. I want to challenge you and myself to a call for BOLDNESS in the final weeks of school in talking to seniors. Here are a couple ideas about how to go about that:

Make a list of seniors.

1. First, and foremost, stop and pray. God may bring to mind a friend who you need to talk with right away.
2. Look on Facebook or Twitter. Look through your entire friend list.
3. Look on your phone. Scroll through all your contacts.
4. Look through old club and camp lists. Maybe you have these on your computer or can get this from your local YL staff person.
5. Look at old camp and club pictures.

Make a plan to communicate.

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A lot has happened since I wrote this post. There were some fantastic comments on the post that were very thought provoking for me. I also went to Woodleaf, where my friend Dave did an excellent job proclaiming the gospel. In fact, he did something very similar to what I was planning. He moved up the traditional talk sequence one day also. Honestly, I don’t think many leaders even noticed. It worked flawlessly. So that was good confirmation.

I also had been hitting a wall in the overall flow and analogy of my talks, so after a lot of through and prayer I pretty much stopped the 20+ pages of outlines and notes I had prepared and took a different approach, but I didn’t change the sequence.

I am now prepared and excited to speak in about a week. I have everything written and outlined. But I am working to fine-tune some details. In case you are interested, here is the general plan…

I have a drama, a cardboard testimony part (saw this at my church and at Woodleaf, which was awesome), and one main analogy. I am using a ring as an analogy that will carry over through several talks. I can go into that more later if anyone is interested, but I think it is a good one that is theologically sound and is easy to understand.

Also for the real life / role play type thing, I am going with the Best/Worst day thing from City Slickers (similar to this clip), I’ve done it before at summer camp and it was utilized really well by the Woodleaf team this year. I can tell you more if you are interested.

I’m not quite settled on doing a relationships/sex seminar. Does anyone have any good outlines, resources, details or comments about this? I have some, but I’d love to hear what you have to say.

If you have been following this, or enjoy ylhelp, I’d really appreciate your prayers as I begin speaking on July 11th.

OK, I got lots of support and prayer for this conversation. Thank you so much!

Just so you know, when I have spoke at camps I look at the big picture and try to integrate a lot of the themes and keep to one primary analogy. I also start with the last talk and work backward, among other things. I learned a lot of this from Marty, Rick and Larry, some of my good friends.

This summer I am thinking of moving up the talk sequence one day so that I can add a little more about a part of the gospel I think we could talk about more, that is Jesus Christ in you and the call to follow him.

Here is the traditional 7 day camp speaking topics (in general) breakdown…

1. It gives one more day to process the cross.
2. It gives one more day to have one-on-ones that include the cross.
3. Many resurrection talks are mostly about the “response”, this gives the resurrection more emphasis.
4. I really want to give a picture of what it means to follow Jesus while we still have them at camp.

Here are the challenges in my mind:

1. It makes the first two person of Christ talks very important because sin is moved up a day.
2. Some leaders will not like changing the sequence just because it is different.
3. Others I’m sure too…

I have a lot more I can share. If this generates comments/conversation I’ll keep the posts coming.

PS God bless you in your camps and fundraising this summer! It is a battle for me too, we are all in this together! We leave for Woodleaf in 4 days!

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.