Back to the basics...

Since September I've been involved in first year staff training for Young Life, and one of our tasks is to read Back to the Basics of Young Life by John Miller. It goes through his life in Young Life, back when it was first starting up and his encounters with Jim Rayburn, the founder. Also since September, I, along with my faithful leaders, have been running Young Life-Club Beyond for the Lower Hudson Valley. I've have learned so much through this experience and have faced many challenges I never thought I'd see.

One of these challenges is giving the talk at the end of club. I've done this before, probably once a semester for the past four years where I'd get up in front of club and tell the kids a short story about something that happened to me then compare it to a verse in one of the gospels. I’ve learned there is a huge difference between giving the talk twice a year and giving it every week at club. This is a challenge I’ve accepted with a glad heart. Sure, in the spring we’ll have the other leaders and student leaders get up and give their testimonies, but I really wanted to take this challenge on and go through a semester of talks. I’ve never really been the get up in front of a group of people (especially high school kids) and talk to them about any subject, especially something like my savior and what He’s done for me. Yet I am. I’m getting up there every week with a message, and see kids respond. What a joy and reconfirmation of my mission this is.

I was reading this book by John Miller today and he is talking about some things I’ve heard many times at YL leadership retreats and trainings. These are the four statements he talks about that I want to keep with me every time I struggle with my courage to get up and talk:
• Walk in wisdom toward them that are without;
• It’s a sin to bore a kid with the gospel;
• Win the right to be heard, and
• Assume our young audience does not know anything about the Christian Faith. Therefore, always be in a posture of a teacher – not a preacher. There is a tremendous difference.

What amazing principles. So simple and yet so powerful. Us as leaders have been given the gift of letting these awesome high schools we’ve come to know (and ones we haven’t yet) who Jesus is in the most fun way. Why the heck would you want to bore a kid with the gospel? WE don’t want to be bored by it, so why should we do that to a poor unexpecting kid? By telling stories about our own lives, and how a verse or passage in the bible can relate to something we’ve experiences, we’ve gained interest from that kid to want to hear more. By making the verse or passage alive the kid starts thinking, relating to their own life and takes an interest, even if they don’t know it. Winning the right to be heard is an easy one, it’s the basis of Young Life. We befriend the kids, go hang out with them, show up to their games, meets, concerts, productions and become a part of their lives. It means so much more when you trust the person who is talking to you. In this day and age when kids have a whole bunch of reasons not to trust an adult, we need to give them a reason to trust us. To be there for THEM and when the time is right, we will win that right for them to hear what we are saying.

I know I’m not perfect, I still have a ton to learn about what the heck I’m doing, but I know I trust God enough to put that learning on me. He will always have me prepared as long as I do some of the preparing, to be able to be confident in giving talks and just talking to kids. This is an amazing and unique ministry we’re a part of, and we need to fully embrace what Jim has taught us, why he did things the way he did and keep that alive.