What is the heart of Younglife?

A Letter About Our Strategy for Reaching Students adapted from a letter written by Jim Rayburn, founder of Young Life, whose vision for reaching students through friendship, presence, and the Gospel continues to shape the work Rob and his leaders are doing in the Hub City.

Dear Friends,

I want you to read this letter! I want to share a little about Young Life’s strategy for reaching high school students for the Savior.

It is easy for me to assume that you know more about the work of Hub City Young Life than you actually do. I am so close to it because I have watched the progress and the changes the Lord has brought about in our ministry here since we arrived in 2018. Many friends have suggested that they would like to hear a little more about how Young Life works, because we do have a somewhat unique approach to reaching students. To reach them, we have had to move beyond some traditional methods, and, I am sorry to say, we have sometimes been misunderstood.

For example, take our contact work. By that, we mean the hours and hours our leaders spend with students, meeting them where they are, going along with them, and doing life with them. This is recognized practice in any cross-cultural mission field, but many well-meaning Christians have felt that we are wasting time doing that in the Bible Belt. And yet it is this time spent with your child, before and after they place their faith in Christ, if that has happened yet at all, that has made Young Life something different from standard youth movements . Not only do we earn the right to be heard among some of the most difficult-to-reach students, but after reaching them, we stay with them, as a true missionary should. Establishing and cementing a life for Jesus Christ cannot be done on a hit-and-run basis.

The Lord Jesus Himself is our example in this. His heart was tender toward sinners. He longed for them. He was not ashamed to be with them or roll up His sleeves and get in the middle of the mess. His compassionate approach is what we are after. We try to be kind in our approach to those who are far from Christ. We insist that compassion is essential if we are to properly represent Him. I am afraid we are often criticized for no other reason than that we are honestly seeking, under the Lord’s guidance, to be as He was, the “friend of tax collectors and sinners.”

Many people ask us what we do when we get together. Young Life has given years of prayerful study to the question of what kind of gathering is right for students. What we call “Club” is actually a Gospel gathering for high school students. It may be different from any gathering you have ever been in, but the differences are in small things. We sing both secular and non-secular songs. We play and laugh, and preach the Gospel in an informal way deliberately placed at their level. The language is accessible to this generation. We avoid the clichés of evangelical terminology and present the sweet story of how Christ died for our sins in simple terms that students can understand, relate to, and appreciate.

Young Life Club is the largest, yet smallest, thing that we do on a weekly basis. It is just one part of the picture, but most likely the part people see the most. We are with students six or seven days a week. We are with them at breakfast, lunch, chapels, parades, and assemblies. We are in the stands and on the sidelines at their games. We are in the audience at their shows. We are in the hallways of their schools. We are shoulder to shoulder with them as much as they allow us to be.

Then there are the leaders. We maintain a high standard for our leadership, and all of our leaders are carefully trained in our approach. These leaders are not selected because of personal charm or magnetism. There is a deeper quality that makes for a successful Young Life leader: sincerity, warmth, a personal walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, and a desire to see this hard work done for His glory!

There you have the three important phases of the Young Life strategy:

1. Direct and friendly contact with the high school student.

2. Follow-up, follow-up, and follow-up.

3. Leaders who are trained, skilled, dedicated and willing to spend time with students and to live life alongside them as much as they’re allowed.

And woven through all of this are breakfasts, Campaigners (Bible/book study), and conversations along the way.

There is much more to be said about our Young Life strategy, but the most significant thing is not the technique or the people. It is the willingness to meet students where they are, with no presumptions about where they are in terms of their faith or their relationship with Jesus.

In Young Life, we try never to forget that Jesus “looked on the multitude and had compassion on them.” We always keep in mind that He mingled with sinners, He did not condemn or judge them. He treated them as friends. He longed for them to be His friends. We do too! He has led us that way.

That is why a Young Life leader knows more students than almost anybody in town. That is why he or she spends hours and hours sitting in Topher’s, going to ball games, wandering around the campus and doing things that may look ridiculous! But they are not ridiculous; they are essential. We go where students are. That is where they can come to understand a Christian leader, learn to trust and respect them, and ultimately want to listen to them.

Because we are dedicated to these principles, we will never become a statistically prominent movement. We will never be the main event. But we know of no other way to reach students for the Lord and see results in lives that will stand the test of time. In our work here in Hattiesburg, the Lord has honored us with an outstanding host of young men and women who were reached in high school and middle school and are now taking a prominent place in Christian circles, as leaders at SMU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, University of Tennessee, Florida Tech, Southern Miss, and at PCS, Oak Grove High School, and Benedict Day School.

For so many of these students, it was the combination of Young Life and the churches they attended that propelled them in this direction. Our goal is to partner with churches to reach every student with the Gospel.

We feel no sense of superiority, and we don’t feel that we have an exclusive claim on a special kind of evangelism. We know that the Lord has used these methods in every age and throughout the world. But we also know that these truly scriptural methods for reaching teenagers are sadly neglected in America today. We trust that more and more of God’s people will rediscover how basic and important it is to “walk in wisdom toward those who are without,” making friends and helping people for the glory of God and for the purpose of making known the Savior and His love.

I hope this brief review of some of Young Life’s methods will help you better understand our work and explain it to others. Pray for us. Support us. Join us! You’re invited!

Sincerely in Him,

Rob Johnston

Area Director, Hub City Young Life