Posts by Young Life Leader
What You Missed In August
Here are links to the six most read posts from the past month. If you haven’t had a chance to read them yet, hopefully they’ll be helpful to you. When Leaders Cry Updating Your Young Life Playlist How I Failed On The First Day Our Fall Club Schedule An Anonymous Post From A High School…
Read MoreOur Fall Club Schedule
Here is our fall schedule. Feel free to steal any ideas that trip your trigger.Creativity is just forgetting where you stole it from.I think I made that up. Sept 12- All City Freshmen Club Sept 19- First Club Carnival Sept 26- Rave Club Oct 3- Harry “Mustache” Potter Club Oct 10- Blue Club Oct 17-…
Read MoreDigital Contact Work
Simple idea. Many of you already do it. I wish I had learned to do it earlier. Take pictures at games, practices, concerts, tailgates, anywhere kids are. Not just Young Life events, but school events. Post those pictures on facebook. Tag your friends. Make funny comments. Make sure that your photo privacy settings for those…
Read MoreHow I Failed On The First Day
It was 3:15pm and the first day back to school for my high school friends. I was excited, nervous, and scared. I tried to talk myself out of going to the school. I made excuses. “No other leader can go today. It’s worthless going alone. I haven’t made plans to meet up with any kids.…
Read MoreThe Yellow Sheet
I was a freshmen in college going through Young Life leader training. We met in the lobby of Winston dorm on Tuesday nights. One evening we were handed a yellow sheet of paper. Written on that yellow sheet were words. Words that deeply impacted my life. Words that God used to call me to lead…
Read MoreHow Young Life Was Born
On This Day in Young Life History: A Guest Post from Kit Sublett August 24, 1956, saw the summer coming to a close at Frontier Ranch. The final days of camp were a gathering of college students, known as “Leadership Seminar.” The speaker was Young Life’s founder, Jim Rayburn. The collegians had arrived the previous…
Read MoreWhen Leaders Cry
Our Area Leader Retreat was this past weekend. It was good for my soul. We spent an hour praying together on Saturday morning, but it was weird. Our Area Director asked us to do something I don’t really remember ever doing. He said “Pray for yourselvesout loud. Don’t pray for kids, don’t pray for Young…
Read MoreHow To Meet 50 New High Schoolers
Earlier this week I asked for your wisdom in how we can beinclusive without being exclusive. Here’s one of the responses from the comment section: “Do things that are specifically aimed at being inclusive. In our area we have created an Ultimate frisbee league. Even in name its called “The Ultimate League For Non All…
Read MoreHow To Start Club With A Bang
Here’s a link to a post from last semester with some suggestions on how to begin club each week. It includes ideas such as: -Inviting upperclassmen in to the club room early to make a tunnel for everyone else to enter through -Using a chant like (Tonight, Yes, Tonight) to create a place of belonging.…
Read MoreMore Songs for Your Young Life Playlist
Last week I posted asking for suggestions for songs to play at club as kids are entering the room or during games, etc… I took the comments and added the songs to the original post with links to each song in iTunes. Hopefully they will help get your playlist started. Please feel free to add…
Read MoreDilemma
We have a dilemma. Three weeks ago I spoke at a church about Young Life. After the service, a guy in his mid twenties approached me, excited about the possibility of getting involved as a leader. Ten years ago he had been a student at the same high school where I lead. He said, “After…
Read More7 Creative Contact Work Ideas
Do you need some creative contact work ideas to close out the summer or kick off the fall? Here are seven ideas you might not have pulled out of your bag yet. Leisure Dive I tweeted this idea out last week, but it’s a guaranteed winner. It’s the new “planking.” All you need is a…
Read MoreLipDub Club Promo
How amazing would it be if you got some of your high school friends fired up about making a lip-dub video like this to promote the first Young Life club of the semester? Pretty stinkin’ amazing! If anyone decides to go crazy and do this, be sure to email me the video and I’ll post…
Read MoreUpdating Your Young Life Playlist
I got a tweet today asking if we had any good ideas for new songs to put on the YL playlist. I’m sure many of you, like me, have a playlist on your iPod entitled “YL Club Music.” We play songs from it before club, after club, as kids enter club, during games, etc… It…
Read More39 Theme Club Ideas
It’s coming up soon…that marathon YL Team meeting where you stay up late, eat Cheetos, and plan a whole semester of clubs in 6 hours. Here are a few “Theme Club” ideas to hopefully jump start your planning. Please add your own suggestions in the comments below. If you have any ideas for songs or…
Read MoreWhat You Missed This Summer
Summer is a busy time for Young Life Leaders. You’re gone to camp, vacation, summer staff, etc… You probably don’t have time to read all the blog posts you may have missed from the past couple months, so I thought I’d try to save you some time and give you the links to the most…
Read MoreAn Anonymous Guest Post From A High School Principal
While this Guest Post was not written by Mr. Belding, it was written by a real high school principal who wishes to remain anonymous. Special thanks to this friend of Young Life who took the time to share valuable insight with us leaders.As a long-time friend and former leader in Young Life since 1989, who…
Read MoreBring Leadership To Life
5 Strategies For Vibrant Leadership In Young Life A Guest Post by Hugh Jones, Volunteer Leader in North CarolinaHere is a list of essential ingredients to an effective Young Life Ministry:Understand your calling. You must be called by Christ to enter the Ministry of Young Life. It can be trying and difficult to be a…
Read More8 Things Every Young Life Leader Needs To Do Before School Starts
ThankIf you’re allowed on campus, write a thank you note to the principal at your high school.Read“Dance Children Dance” by Jim Rayburn III. Few things will better kick-start your Young Life year.ChurchAsk your church to commission you as a “missionary” to the high school. You need to be sent out from your local body with…
Read MoreHow To Know Your High School Friends’ Hearts
As a follow up to yesterday’s letter from Pastor John, here’s an idea I learned this year from Megan, a leader on my Young Life team. Megan is a kid magnet. She’s one of those artsy types that dresses funky, but pulls it off. Girls are attracted to her creativity and confidence. God wired her…
Read MoreGuest Post from John Piper
Pastor John did not actually submit this post to be published on The Young Life Leader Blog, but I’m sure he’s happy to share with all the Young Life leaders reading it. Below is a response letter that Piper wrote to a young person in his church after the teenager had asked for advice on…
Read MoreBlob World Record
Many of you saw some amazing blobs this summer, like some of these in this video from Rockbridge: But have you ever witnessed a blob like this? Wowsahs! If you have some high school friends with video editing skills, it might be a funny idea to take some video footage you shot at camp of…
Read MoreHow To Get Your Friends To Sleep At Young Life Camp
Guest Post from Mackenzie Olson, Ft. Collins, CO This may sound silly but I swear it is the most brilliant idea I’ve ever had. Maybe not ever, but it is a good one. I know for years I spent nights at camp saying, “ooooo-k let’s be quiet” “ooooooo-k DOESN’T BED SOUND FUN!” “OOOO we probably…
Read MoreLeading Young Life As A New Mom With Cancer, Part 2
A Guest Post By Amy Patwa DiBias Part 2, Continued From Yesterday. Follow up from camp has been unreal. I’m one of only of two leaders in town right now so I’ve been meeting with kids three days a week for breakfast and bible study. The other leader and I have been having Sunday night…
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