Young Life

The other morning I received a pretty regular email from Young Life. It was reminding us that we have a concert coming up on the 8th of June. This concert is featuring Allen Levi and Bebo Norman and all the proceeds will go towards a new building on Sharptop Cove. The building will be in memory of Carter Butts, a Young Life kid/leader who was killed in a car accident last year. James Rockwell, our Area Director, wrote a column of sorts about Carter and his Young Life leader, Lumpy. James talked about the Journey that we endeavor when we set out to minister to our high school friends. He shared something another Leader shared with him: "Treat every kid we meet as if we are going to know them the rest of our lives."

For those of you who don't know what Young Life is, it is a group of adults who go into the high schools of any given area and share the gospel with teenagers. We build relationships with these kids and invite them to come to "Club", which is where we sing, play games, share the person of Chirst, and share our stories. You know you have them hooked when they come to "Campaingers" which is our small group bible study. It's at Campaingners that we dig further into the Word and answer the questions that our highschool friends have.


However, Young Life goes beyond Club and Campaigners. It goes beyond baseball games, prom, lunch at the school, and graduation. We have the ability and the opportunity to be at these events because of the relationships that we share with our high school friends. These relationships happen because of God, first and foremost. Because of Him, we (the Leaders) get those 2am phone calls, have our houses rolled and our cars written on. More importantly, we get the opportunity to love on these kids and to make an impact on their lives. Young Life goes beyond graduation. We get to be at weddings and baby showers. We get to be there for life's small accomplishments and the big ones too. Not only do we give these kids their own personal cheerleaders, we gain lifelong friendships and cheerleaders of our own. I love my high school friends and I can't wait for them to be college friends, married friends, mom friends, and old lady friends.