Local Stats

Started in early 1970's in Cville
Area Director: Mike Cramer
Staff: Sara Hagerty
Staff: Nate Hagerty
Volunteer Leaders: 33
Boosters: 23
Committee: 14
High Schools: 8
Counties: Albemarle, Greene and Madison
Kids Involved Weekly: 260
Kids Involved Annually: 513
Kids to Camp Summer 2001: 221

For more information about Young Life Nationally and Internationally click onto:
www.younglife.org

 Our Vision

Every adolescent will have the opportunity to meet Jesus Christ and follow Him.

 Our Mission

Introducing adolescents to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their faith. We accomplish our mission by...

• Praying for young people
• Going where kids are
• Building personal relationships with them
• Winning the right to be heard
• Providing experiences that are fun, adventurous and life changing
• Sharing our lives and the Good News of Jesus Christ with adolescents
• Inviting them to personally respond to this Good News
• Loving them regardless of their response
• Nurturing kids so they might grow in their love for Christ and the knowledge of God's word and become people who can share their faith with others
• Helping young people develop the skills, assets and attitudes to reach their full God-given potential
• Encouraging kids to live connected to the Body of Christ by being an active member of a local congregation
• Working with a team of like-minded individuals - volunteer leaders, committee members, donors and staff

 Our Values

• Living according to and communicating the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ
• Carrying out our mission under the authority of Scripture and relying on the Holy Spirit to empower our ministry
• Encouraging the welfare and spiritual health of those who do this ministry, that they may minister out of a consistent and growing relationship with Christ and His followers
• Researching and developing innovative approaches to reaching uncommitted, disinterested kids around the world
• Reaching adolescents of all social, cultural, economic and ethnic backgrounds throughout the world
• Working with followers of Christ from a variety of traditions and local churches around the world
• Welcoming all those whom God calls to our mission, men and women of all races, staff and volunteers who are linked to a common purpose of introducing adolescents to Jesus Christ
• Observing the highest standards of stewardship of all the resources placed in our trust

 History of YL

In 1938, a young Presbyterian youth leader in Gainesville, Texas, was given a challenge.

A local minister invited him to consider the neighborhood high school as his parish and develop ways of contacting kids who had no interest in church.

Jim Rayburn, the youth leader started a weekly club for kids. There was singing, a skit or two and a message about Jesus Christ. Club attendance increased dramatically when they started meeting in the homes of the young people.

After graduating from Dallas Seminary, Jim and four other seminarians collaborated and Young Life was officially born on October 16, 1941, with its own Board of Trustees. They developed the club idea throughout Texas, with an emphasis on showing kids that faith in God can be fun.

By 1946, Young Life had moved to a new headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the staff had grown to 20 men and women across several states. Volunteer leadership began at Wheaton College, Illinois, in the late 1940s. This was a significant move because today we depend heavily on our 18,000 volunteers.

Prior to the 1960s, Young Life had directed its ministry almost completely to suburban high school students. By 1972 it had begun ministries in approximately 25 multiethnic and urban areas. Today, Young Life is in 120 urban communities meeting the unique needs of inner-city young people.

Young Life's main goal remains the same - to touch young people across the globe with the message of Jesus Christ through the loving hard work of establishing close friendships and winning the right to be heard. For more than five-and-a-half decades, God has blessed the Young Life staff, increasing its numbers from five to 1,800 - from one club in Texas to clubs in every corner of the world.