Posts by Young Life Leader
Social Media Week/ All-Staff Conference
It’s Social Media Week on The Young Life Leader Blog, now found at www.YoungLifeLeaders.org. Many of our friends who are on Young Life staff will be in Orlando this week at the Young Life All Staff Conference that is held once every four years. You can keep up with the celebration on Twitter by following…
Read MoreNew Semester Postcard Idea
I recently saw this pic on The Saddleback Church High School Ministry website, and thought…. It could be a great way to connect with parents to create a similar postcard with the pictures of all the YL leaders on your YL team. On the front have your pics with the YL logo in the middle.…
Read MoreThe Lies We Believe: A Campaigner Discussion
My wife and I have been in counseling, both individually and together, quite often over the past seven years. The first thing that sent us to awkwardly sitting on that couch was my addiction to ministry. I led Young Life as a single guy for seven years before getting married. During those years I didn’t…
Read MoreSummer Staff and Work Crew
It’s that time! Time to apply for Summer Staff and Work Crew for this upcoming summer. Only 128 days until first session starts at many of the properties. Summer Staff Info/Application (for college students) Work Crew Info/Application (for high school students/graduating seniors) Please leave a comment below if you’re life was impacted by serving at…
Read MoreI Am A Racist
MLK DAY, 2012 As a 19 yr old new Young Life leader, I was placed in a rural school, heavily divided by unspoken racism. Our YL club was, of course, filled with only upper middle class white kids. We did get pretty excited the time that two black kids came to club and made us…
Read MoreI Live In A Glass House
John 8:1-11 Jesus went across to Mount Olives, but he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down and taught them. The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone…
Read MoreA Crying Skit: Someone Like You
Thanks to an anonymous comment left on the blog, this semester our club will be reenacting a version of this SNL skit below. We’ll start with a few female leaders, being joined by some high school jocks, guy leaders, and hopefully I can talk my two year old daughter into being the crying finale’.
Read MoreKeith Baker’s YL T-Shirt Project
Wowsahs. Thanks for sharing Keith!
Read More101 Theme Club Ideas
Last summer I posted 39 Theme Club Ideas.This post takes those 39 ideas and adds a “few” more. Hopefully it will help in the marathon-YL-Team-semester-planning-meeting that’s coming up this week. (Apologies that I didn’t get it out sooner for those of you who have already met and planned.) Last January I posted this Spring Semester…
Read MoreBeach Party Club
Here’s a few options for “Young Life BEACH CLUB””Winter” Beach Party(bring lots of heaters to your club location)”Spring Break” Beach Party(the week before spring break)”Wipeout” Beach Party(using games from the TV show “Wipeout”)”Indoor Volleyball” Beach Party(in big cities there are often sweet indoor beach volleyball facilitiesas pictured above. Google your city to see if there…
Read More10 Tips For Giving Club Talks
Mason Rutledge, YL Regional Director of Western Washington, recently shared an article on public speaking to help those of you who will be giving club talks this upcoming semester. The article is written by Eric Schurenberg and adapted from a book by public speaking coach Sims Weyth. You can read ten highlights from the article…
Read MoreWhat If The Sexy Sax Man Were To Visit Your Young Life Club?
By now, most everyone with pupils has seen this “The Sexy Sax Man” viral YouTube video. But what does that have to do with Young Life? Last semester I was talking with one of my high school friends and the conversation went kind of like this… “Hey man, I know you pretty much run the…
Read MoreThe Young Life Bachelor?
What do you do if your Young Life club is on Monday nights, conflicting with the desires of many high school girls to watch “The Bachelor” at 8pm on ABC? We haven’t yet started club back after Christmas break, but last night I saw on Twitter that lots of high school gals had gathered together…
Read More12 New Year’s Resolutions For Young Life Leaders in 2012
A few days ago I tried to write a serious/humorous combo post for today, the first day of 2012, on 12 New Year’s Resolutions that we as YL leaders could make in 2012. My futile attempt crashed and burned, more so fizzled out…I tried to come up with twelve good ones, but only got seven…
Read MoreThe First Year
I know from experience that being a Young Life leader is often lonely, difficult and discouraging… so a year ago I decided to start this blog. What began as a small attempt to provide leaders with resources and ideas has grown into one of my favorite hobbies. One year and 182 posts later, I’m even…
Read MoreTop 10 Posts Of 2011
These are the ten most popular post of 2011 (according to web traffic). Enjoy! 1. 39 Theme Club Ideas 2. A Ton of Club Song Mashups 3. Who’s Your Eric 4. 8 Things Every YL Leader Needs To Do Before Club Starts 5.When Leaders Cry 6.Questions We Need To Be Asking 7.I Lost Control 8.Why…
Read MoreWhat You Missed in Nov/Dec
November & December have busy months on the YLLB. We’ve given awayten books anda Spikeball set. We’ve also had a variety of guest posts from a few of you! With over 40 posts in the last two months, I wanted to help our newer readers catch up on what you may have missed. Below are…
Read MoreDrew & Ellie Holcomb: NBA Forever
In case you missed the NBA season opening video yesterday, here it is, featuring the music of some of our favorite Young Life musicians, Drew & Ellie Holcomb.
Read MoreThe Dale House: Why We Work
Below is an article written by one of my heroes, George Sheffer, the founder and director of The Dale House Project in Colorado Springs. If you are praying about what to do after college and want to learn more about The Dale House, you can find out more here. Loving Our Work by George Sheffer…
Read MoreQuestions For The New Year
My wife and I have a little New Year’s Eve tradition we’ve come to love. Dinner combined with a little reflecting/dreaming. We head to a restaurant and bring two sheets of paper. Nat gets one, I get the other. On one side of each paper we write “Thankful in 2011,” on the other “Hopeful in…
Read MoreInternational Young Life Opportunities
A guest post from Kristalyn Simler. A few years ago my husband and I ventured to Costa Rica with International Young Life because God had laid it on our hearts to serve there, through a way that we knew could only be God. We led Young Life at an International School. The classes were taught…
Read More“More Than Words” (With Friends)
I use Google Reader as my RSS feed to follow a few other Youth Ministry blogs. (If you would like to subscribe to The Young Life Leader Blog via Google Reader, just click this link.) Yesterday in my Reader I discovered the hilarious video below on MorethanDodgeball.com After I watched it, I sent the video…
Read MoreA Rescue Story
Some people think the Bible is a book of rules, telling you what you should and shouldn’t do. The Bible certainly does have some rules in it. They show you how life works best. But the Bible isn’t mainly about you and what you should be doing. It’s about God and what he has done.…
Read MoreTake A Seat: Helping Get Kids To Camp
A guest post from Niki Crowe, volunteer YL leader in Clarksville, TN. I was a freshman in high school. My Young Life leader and friends were all standing around a charter bus getting ready to head to Rockbridge, VA. I was nervous because my leader told me to come with bags ready although I had…
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