Purpose of the Young Life

Despite a history of seven decades and its expansion across all continents the mission of Young Life remains the same; introduce Jesus Christ to teenagers. Its vision is to provide an opportunity to every adolescent to meet Jesus Christ and follow him. Volunteer leaders and staff try to accomplish this by doing contact work by reaching out to kids, building personal relationships based on faith, loving them regardless of their response and helping young people to develop their skills, attitudes and assets to reach their God given potential.

The focus is still on reaching out to children and meeting them on their turf. The underlying purpose is to build mentoring relationships, share lives with them, instill confidence by conveying a message that they are accepted for what they are and teach them how to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

All volunteers and staff undergo a screening process. The touchstone is allegiance to the Young Life's statement of faith that focuses on its central purpose of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ and introducing it to children the world over and aiding them to grow in faith.

The activities of Young Life are coordinated by Area Directors, staff members and volunteers assigned to a particular school. These are usually trained people who are aware of and have read and believe in the organization's mission statement, policies on sexual misconduct and sexual harassment and guidelines for conflict resolution. The training process is usually left to the discretion of the area director. However, at Young Life, supervising members are responsible for the activities of all under them, right up to the president of the organization.

Apart from its primary focus on school children, Young Life has ventured into other areas as well. It has a ministry, called Young Lives, for teenage mothers. Young Life College is a ministry to college students, which also recruits and trains students for serving in clubs. Club Beyond is a ministry of clubs on military bases for children of people serving in the defense forces.

NOTE: Information on this site is not guaranteed to be accurate. Some content is compiled from 3rd party sources. If you are aware of incorrect or outdated information, feel free to contact us.