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. 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

One of the most important pieces of our leadership approach in our area is the use of junior leaders. Junior leaders are juniors or seniors in high school who become “jr leaders” in our Wyldlife or Young Life clubs. They receive 6-8 weeks of training and go through an interview process. Currently about 30% of our adult leaders were once junior leaders in our area. Also, just for reference, 60% of our current adult leaders went through our freshman in college Bible study and leadership training program, FYL.

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For decades in our efforts to reach a world of kids Young Life has connected with high school kids in our traditional Young Life clubs. “In the past few decades junior high students have been reached with Wyldlife, kids with disabilities have come to love Capernaum Young Life, teen moms have found a safe haven with YoungLives, and in our commitment to reach every kid, many of us have applauded Young Life’s newest venture, Wyldlives”, says the newly appointed Western Division Wyldlives champion Troy Gray, current Area Director in Tempe, Arizona. Read the rest of this entry »

My friend Amber from Malibu (California, not the resort camp where none of us can ever get assignments, work crew or summer staff at…But I’m not bitter) sent this great club idea along. If you didn’t catch the title, it is a spin on the Man vs. Wild TV show.

For our Man vs Wyld…Life club we met at a park (you could probably do this in a large backyard) after dark. Everything was done in extremely limited light or else in the dark. We had battery operated lights (they have strobe and spot lights that are surprisingly powerful!) from the dollar store that we used when we needed light. After playing sardines we brought kids to a lit place in the park for the raffle, announcements, new kids and club talk. I think you could do a cricket spit or gross food games with this club theme…our kids won’t do that so I didn’t put it in, although I think it would’ve been funny! We had a lot of fun and it was a really easy club to pull off. Make sure if you do it at a park that you get a permit so that the park officials and/or police don’t kick you out of the park after dark. Whenever a kid didn’t want to do something I would simply tell them that Bear Grylls would do it…that was a pretty good motivator! We did the following games (see the file below)

PS Amber’s husband in a sitcom on TV… seriously!

Over the past year we started a new Wyldlife club in our area. As I mentioned before we meet right after school in a classroom and the school is nearly 90% Latino. These club plans reflect a little bit of that context. Many of them are adaptations of my high school YL club plans for a junior high setting. I hope they might help you a bit in your planning!

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Today is the official kickoff for two of my clubs I lead. Tonight is our big all-area dodgeball tournament. I am doing a new type of talk there, here is one I did before.

But in about an hour we will have our WL club which meets after school. The school is 87% hispanic and all of our leaders are former students there (except me). Below is our club plan for today.

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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

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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This may be a little too late to use with pumpkins, but you can file this away for next October/November, or it might bring to mind a similar creative idea to do with kids.

Erin from Silicon Valley YL sent me this idea and said this… Read the rest of this entry »

I’m speaking at a junior high summer camp in a several weeks. I want a theme to tie it all together. I’m thinking Transformers (i.e. Jesus can transform people). I loved them as a kid and I think junior high students like them quite a bit too (based off conversations with some of my junior high friends).

I have a 7 talk outline already drafted, but I would love some of your ideas before I post mine (and possibly limit your unlimited collective creative potential).

Any ideas for illustrations, Bible stories, ideas to communicate sin, cross, resurrection, accepting Christ, discipleship, etc.??

Here are two more clubs for your junior highers. Again, these come from my super smart and organized YL friend Amber.

Dive In Movie Club

Grosser than Gross Club

Junior High clubs can be a different beast all-together. My motto with WL is, "choose for them when you want them to spend their energy or they will choose to when you don’t want them to." Embrace their energy!

My friend Amber passed along some WL Clubs you can use right now. Thanks Amber!!

BTW… this picture looks like my YL friend Sam P in Tucson.