Help for Young Life Leaders NOW

Over the summer I normally try to post a couple things that I learned over the previous school year. These are a little late, but I really wanted to pass them along anyway. Also if you have anything you learned from last year that you would like to tell me about, send it my way smcgever (at) pv dot younglife dot org

In my community there is an often-avoided neighborhood nestled in an otherwise pleasant and upscale part of town. In the past years this area has been one of the most violent square miles in our state and has faced other significant challenges.

In this neighborhood there is a middle school and a team of amazing teachers who love their students. I remember meeting with one of the teachers five years ago. She has an amazing heart for Christ and for her students. Many of her students come back to her classroom after school weekly, even when they are in high school and beyond. She knew that Young Life would be a great bridge to connect these kids to Christ. When we met five years ago we dreamed of opening a Wyldlife club at the school. In fact she had one kid in particular on her heart that needed Wyldlife right away. Over the years we were able to get some of the kids to YL camps and occasionally to club. We kept praying and strategizing to reach these kids. Then a little over a year ago the kid who needed Wyldlife desperately four years earlier was finally convinced to go to Woodleaf. He met Christ in a powerful way and started growing quickly in his faith.

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Over the summer I normally try to post a couple things that I learned over the previous school year. These are a little late, but I really wanted to pass them along anyway. Also if you have anything you learned from last year that you would like to tell me about, send it my way smcgever (at) pv dot younglife dot org

I have been a leader for over 15 years now in YL. In the first half of my experience I rarely saw high school students have much of a role in the leadership and execution of the club. I realize this is different across the country and some areas have been doing this for decades. Then about 6 years ago I recognized that the strongest club in our area always had students as a part of their leadership team. I would train them and encourage them but I thought that was nice and kept on doing things the way I was used to doing in my club. Then other clubs in my area started adding junior leaders and they were having stronger campaigners, stronger clubs, camp, everything.

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This is the fifth and final post in a series that is a review of the Original Young Life Leader Training Manual from 1942.

If you are interested, here is the link to the copy I made of the manual with a letter from Jim Rayburn.

4. The Young Life Club and Promotion

The last two sections are about club and promotion of club. From the very start, the manual says that there is no set procedure for the club meeting. The manual consistently reminds the reader that Young Life is done best when it is molded to the local context.

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This is the fourth post in a series that is a review of the Original Young Life Leader Training Manual from 1942.

If you are interested, here is the link to the copy I made of the manual with a letter from Jim Rayburn.

3. The Campaign Organization

The Young Life “Campaign” was organized under a national board of directors, much as it is today. Under this board sits a local committee. Then there are field staff. At the time of this manual there were only five Young Life staff! The manual mentions that they were paid a salary each month, if the money came in that month! The staff was expected to keep a file of all club members. Weekly reports of attendance were to be sent in to the office for their records.

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This is the second post in a series that is a review of the Original Young Life Leader Training Manual from 1942.

If you are interested, here is the link to the copy I made of the manual with a letter from Jim Rayburn.

1. The Introduction

The introduction begins by asking a great question, “Why Young Life Campaign?” Basically why do we need something like Young Life today? It also asks, “What need is there for another organization?” The same questions are asked today. Sometimes this is asked by teenagers, “What is Young Life?” Sometimes this is asked by parents. Sometimes the question is asked by opponents in and out of the church, “Is there a need for another organization?”

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Want to know how to be a super fantastic YL staff person? Make your leaders heroes! That is exactly what my friend Amber has done in Malibu, CA.

Here is an example of some of her work. Great job Amber! Enjoy!

As the semester gets rolling, so many club teams are sitting down to plan clubs. On YLHelp.com there are plenty of clubs you can check out. To make it easier I have put together a whole semester plan of clubs using existing plans on YLHelp.com. In case you need more, I did this last year too. This year I make it a zip file for easier use. Enjoy!

PS If you want to send your club plans my way, I’d love to hear about them! smcgever (at) yahoo.com

The “This Year…” series looks back at lessons learned in the past year of YL. It will feature several posts and guest posts.

Here is one from my friend Jason in Flagstaff…

Don’t set a club start date.  Instead set a goal for leaders knowing 100 or 200 kids (or whatever goal you think is appropriate for your school/club) and once they know kids by name and are committed to praying for them then you will start club.  This starts the year focused on contact work, prayer, and recognition of what’s truly important.  Relationships.

OK, so basically our economy seems like it was hijacked by Black Bart. I went into a local yesterday Einstein’s Bagels and it was empty. They said is has been very slow and people’s hours were being cut big time. My guess is you are trying to make the most of your money, especially now.

Being a YL leader can cost you a fair amount of money. Here are a couple ideas about how to save money as a YL leader:

• No Starbucks. Some of my friends affectionately call it "Five-Bucks". Not only for yourself, but it is kinda the standard phrase to say, "hey lets do coffee" or "lets do Starbucks". How about meeting at McDonalds? My wife says their iced coffee thing is pretty good. I’ve been meeting people at Wendy’s and we get $0.99 Frosty’s. (Ummm I love Frostys). Basically avoid Starbucks. You can even feel like one of those "down with the establishment" people.
• Paying for school events. Many schools will give you free passes to games if you explain what are you are doing. (Use the word "mentor", they like that). Ask the front desk or teachers or coaches. Your staff person can help with this.
• Carpool to club. Basically carpool everywhere. Maybe ask a kid to pick you up if they can… Why not?
• Fun is free. Dust off the board games and all the stuff you already have. You don’t have to go see movies or anything like that. Also don’t do Pizza Olympics club, that always costs me like $50-75.
• If you expect paying for camp to be a problem, tell you team leader or staff person ASAP! They might be able to help you figure it out if you give them enough time. If you tell them two days for camp then you might be out of luck. Don’t be prideful and don’t wait.

What are some of your ideas how to save money these days?

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.