Posts by Young Life Leader
Club Plans for 2018 with Key Dates
If you’re working on planning your spring semester, check out this spreadsheet that Ryan Weston put together for his area a couple years ago. It has tons of great ideas for YL, WL, and YLC to steal. If you email us your spring club plans we’ll add them to the post. Creativity is just forgetting…
Read MoreCamp Musician of the Month: Jordy Searcy
Our featured Camp Musician this month is Jordy Searcy! You may recognize him from his performance on NBC’s “The Voice.” Jordy’s first encounter with Young Life was playing at a Monday night club in Austin, TX. He was blown away by how easy it was to communicate the gospel in that setting. “Last Monday my…
Read MoreHow to Balance Being a College Student & a Young Life Leader
One of my biggest pet peeves in college was people saying,“You have the most free time now you’re ever going to have in your life.” I didn’t like the comment because I sure felt like I had ZERO free time. Balancing leading Young Life and being a college student isn’t easy. Below are a few thoughts on…
Read MoreCompass: A Life Changing Summer Discipleship Experience for High Schoolers
Do you know a high school student who is ready to go deeper in their faith and looking for an out-of-the-box experience this summer? One of my Young Life guy’s recently spent a summer doing a program calledCompassand it radically changed his life. The director of the program sent me this description below. — Compass is…
Read MoreA Spotify Playlist Companion for the Blue Book
For the many of you who use Jim Branch’s Blue Book as a daily devotional, my guess is that a lot of you also use Spotify (along with 140 million other people). If so, you’re in luck! Eddie Long (Young Life staff in Newberry, SC) has created a Blue Book Spotify Playlist with specific songs that…
Read More12 Days of Christmas (Young Life Style)
Enjoy Hong Kong Young Life’s incredible rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas with cornish game hens (via Josh Powell).
Read MoreBest Practices from the Past Semester
If you’ve found helpful ideas on the blog, now is YOUR TURN to share! At the end of each semester, we ask staff and leaders to share their “best practices” from the past few months. Would you email us here with your ideas? Send along: creative games, program characters, new songs, contact work ideas, camp…
Read MoreAn Advent Prayer
An Advent Prayer by Henri Nouwen Lord Jesus, Master of both the light and the darkness, send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas. We who have so much to do, seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day. We who are anxious over many things, look forward to your coming among us.…
Read MoreStranger Things in Young Life
I’m probably one of the only people on the planet that hasn’t watched “Stranger Things,” so I share the following ideas with that disclaimer. I’m not endorsing the show, because I haven’t seen it, but I know that tons of our middle, high school, and college friends love it, so maybe these ideas below can…
Read MoreGratefulness
“Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer” by Brother David Steindl-Rast Gratefulness is simply one way of experiencing the life of the Triune God within us. This life springs forth from the Father, the fountain and wellspring of divinity, the Ultimate Giver. The total self-gift of the Father is the Son. The Son receives everything from the…
Read MoreAdvent Devotional by Jim Branch
Many of you are familiar with “The Blue Book” and have loved reading Jim Branch’s writings. Jim was on staff with Young Life for almost twenty years and now directs a ministry of spiritual nurture in Knoxville, TN. Jim has also written a book called, “Watch and Wait,” specifically for the season of Advent. This year Advent…
Read MoreA Detailed Plan for Promoting Young Life Events on Social Media
Written by Ryan Ahlwardt (Area Director, Hamilton Southeastern Young Life) BEFORE THE EVENT Club Theme Twitter Poll One week during All-School Campaigners, call out for 10 rapid-fire ideas for Club themes from kids; repeat them to the crowd with an upbeat comment (“Stranger Things Club! Awesome, Katie! Who’s got another?”) Have a leader type them into their phone…
Read MoreHow To Tell Young Life Stories On Social Media
Earlier today, Ryan Ahlwardt (Area Director, Hamilton Southeastern Young Life) & Alex Lewis (Young Life Digital Marketing Specialist) led a “Storytelling on Social Media” webinar via Facebook Live. They explained why storytelling on social media is important in Young Life, what good stories look like, and how to tell these stories well. You can watch the…
Read MoreDo Not Be Afraid
At Young Life’s Carolina Point This summer I took some high school guys on a trip to the North Carolina mountains. One day, while we were leaping off of waterfalls, one of the older guys surprised me and refused to jump. I debated just letting it go, but I knew it was safe and he’d…
Read MoreWyldLife Wednesday: The Middle School Firsts
If you haven’t yet started listening to the new Young Life Podcast, you’re missing out! You can subscribe on iTunes, Google Play or Stitcher. Last week’s episode, “What’s God’s Favorite Color,” featured national WyldLife director, Julie Clapp. You can listen to it here. One of the highlights of the episode was getting to hear from actual middle school students.…
Read MoreCampaigners Idea of the Week: Escalating Summer Trips
Written by Ryan Weston. As Young Life leaders, one of the highlights of what we get to do is watch kids from different backgrounds be brought together by the bond of Christ. One difficult factor when trying to create a tight bond between folks in a Campaigners groups is that our high school friends tend…
Read More3 New Resources for Young Life Leaders
Below are three resources recently released by friends of Young Life. “Longing to Experience More of Jesus” by Ty Saltzgiver Many of you have read “My First 30 Quiet Times.” This is another 30-day book, written for spiritual formation. It’s a great introduction to 15 different spiritual disciplines that help us experience more of Jesus. …
Read MoreClub Game of the Week: Nerf Blaster Extravaganza
Looking for a fun mixer for club? This one will work with middle school, high school or college! Equipment Consider making an investment as an area or region and purchasing 50-100 Nerf n Strike jolt blasters (single shot nerf pistols, cost $3.97 each at Walmart.) You should also buy 600 nerf bullets ($18 on Amazon comes…
Read MoreSpecial Deal for Young Life Leaders to attend the NYWC in Memphis, TN
Check out this 52-second video from Cesar Castillejos, a YL Area Director in Minnesota. The National Youth Workers Convention (NYWC) is next month in Memphis, TN. It’s put on by Youth Specialities and they are offering a special deal for Young Life leaders. Like Young Life, Youth Specialties (YS) places a high value on discipleship…
Read MoreThe Great Pumpkin Hunt
The Great Pumpkin Hunt is similar to an Easter Egg Hunt, but the prizes aren’t inside the pumpkins, instead it’s more like a raffle. How It Works Buy 50 mini-pumpkins. You can probably get them from a local pumpkin lot or Wal-mart for around .75 cents/pumpkin. Take a sharpie and number each pumpkin 1-49. Use gold…
Read MoreCamp Musician of the Month: Carly Escoto
Our featured Camp Musician this month is Carly Escoto! Carly first got involved with Young Life in high school. Her soccer coach was a leader in the greater L.A. area. She met the Lord at Woodleaf when she was 14 years old and went on to serve as a WyldLife leader, on work crew, on…
Read MoreIdeas For Going Deeper With Campaigners
A friend recently sent me the email below. I thought it would be a helpful discussion for all of us who lead Campaigners. Drew, I’m currently leading a Campaigners group of around 15 guys. We meet every Sunday night at one of their homes and average 12 guys every week, which is great! The guys…
Read MoreClint Gresham’s New Book “Becoming”
Written by Super Bowl Champion and Young Life leader, Clint Gresham. Imagine…You are inches away from becoming back-back Super Bowl Champions. With the eyes of the world on you, you fight to stay fixed in the present moment…The smell of the grass…The electricity of the crowd…The satisfaction of the impending victory after decades of “mastering…
Read MoreHow Far I’ll Go (Moana) Chords and Slides
There sadly are not many new, popular, usable, club songs these days. If you have any ideas, email us and we’ll share them on the blog. Special thanks to Catherine Harrison at UVA for sending us slides for this newer Disney classic. Guitar Chords in C Guitar Chords in E PowerPoint slides Keynote slides
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