Young Life: A Non-Denominational Christian

My first year of high school was a bit of a challenge because I did not know anyone

Right when I became into knowing the school better, I had to transfer to another middle school. I was happy and sad but mostly sad. Happy because I was going to meet new people but sad because I had wanted to graduate with my friends. And the mixed emotions started all over again. I could tell you from my personal experience that making an identity from scratch takes a lot of time and courage. But tell you the truth I liked the new middle school rather than the earlier one. I made lots of friends and even joined the student council. I had also joined the basketball team. Helping the school and the community is my type of thing.

Just like any freshman in high school I was very nervous about coming up to the high school but thankfully my sister and her friends were seniors so they made me

Dean argues that if teenagers don’t have a firm grasp of core Christian principles and instead worship at what she calls “the Church of Benign Whatever-ism” or they don’t worship at all. She claims that it’s because youth pastors and other leaders have” watered down” the message. The first part of the book draws upon extensive research data to diagnose the problem that teens are being taught a brand of Christianity that is shallow at best. Dean lays the responsibility for the emptiness at the feet of Christian parents and churches.

Before I started going to SOTA, I had been homeschooled for the past X years. And when I transferred from homeschooling to high school, it was like traveling to a different country. During the early months of my freshman year, I felt like everyone around me was speaking a different language and sadly I didn’t have google translate. I was unsure about how to appeal to the seemingly endless crowds of unfamiliar teachers, students, and social customs. This, as I have discovered is unfortunately not just a high school thing. Even when you have survived freshman year and have some vague sense of who you are and how to be your most authentic self, one can still face the common feeling of being out of place in your current environment.

Growing up in the Western Christian Church, I always thought that God was a He. A large, white, wrathful, powerful man dressed in white, scepter in hand, and ready to zap anyone who committed an evil deed. God was a man to be appeased. And then a shift came—my later adolescent years were ones where I began to view God as a Father. Kindhearted, open, loving. Ready to pick me up and carry me—His precious child—at any time. And then, this Father also became my King. I, His daughter, a princess whose daddy offered both a dwelling place of safety, but also the spectacular experience of the Divine. As my education continued, my horizons expanded, causing me to ask: God, what if you are a she? A mother—the picture of compassion, love, and nurturance—but

I joined an American Junior High school and found it very different from the Boys English Grammar School I had attended. I was use to being in a grade of one hundred boys and being an active soccer, rugby and cricket player, I knew everyone by name and most of them well. Now, all of a sudden I was thrown out of my comfort zone in a school with over four hundred students in each grade and a school system that

The thought of being in high school is both exciting and nerve wracking. It is thrilling to have more independence and freedom. However, going to a whole new school with older students can be intimidating. Over the summer, I had been planning out how I would get around the school and how I could get to each class on time. The anticipation weighed heavy on my mind. The first couple of days were stressful. I had to juggle getting to each class with stopping at my locker for materials. Though, I was also eager for the sense of having purpose again after the long summer. Freshmen year will be full of new experiences and challenges.

I have carried the title of “Christian” for as long as I can remember. Still, appropriating the Christian faith for myself did not begin until middle school. As a child, my family moved churches and traditions every few years. My family first attended a Baptist Church, then moved to a United Methodist Church, and finally settled in a non-denominational Pentecostal Church. It was while we were attending this church that I had the most significant experience of my life to date. While I was attending a youth conference, the pastor began giving altar calls for different groups of people. After various altar calls, he eventually gave a call for those who felt called to go into youth ministry. I had never considered such a path before, but something

I was "born in church", I tell them for the thousandth time. Not necessarily born in the church building, I was actually born at the New York Hospital in Manhattan. But that's how I find myself explaining it to everyone.

I have always been skeptical about Young Life. My closest friends, who have been a part of Young Life for multiple years, have always encouraged me to go to Young Life, but I just never saw the interest in going. Why would I spend one of my school nights, learning about God, when I’m not very religious? I decided to do a profile on Young Life. I wanted to see what Young Life was like, for myself and for other people.

This study conducts an examination of several models of youth ministry programs including the Inclusive Congregational Approach, the Preparatory Approach, The Missional Approach, the Strategic Approach, Practical Theology as Youth Ministry, and the Incarnational Approach.

The Christian life is filled with joy, complexity and peace that people can find, even in their darkest of times. Through faith many feel that “we are not our own masters, but belong to God.” (Calvin, 1) The ideals are very straight forward in the sense that we are to provide our bodies to God as a living sacrifice and live by him. We must not conform to the fashion of the world, but be transformed by the renewal of our minds, so

I believe that youth ministry is vital to the growth and effectiveness of the church—local and universal. In order for the church to grow, the adult generations of the church needs to insure the faith by training children and young adults “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord”(Ephesians 6:4). When the youth of the church are not taught the importance of a vibrant and active relationship with God, then the church will see its ranks become thin and aged. With age comes wisdom and experience, but with youth comes energy and determination. In order for the church to be effective it must see youth ministry as a vital part of

Against the attacks on Christian life, against the prevailing lack of commitment to anything beyond material gain in contemporary culture, against the confusion and relativism of post-modernism, the unrestrained struggle for wealth and pleasure of the global culture preached by the media, we can place before the eyes of the young a role model of commitment to Christ and to his Gospel. We can invoke the intercession of a 17-year-old native Filipino to pray for, inspire and lead young people to a new understanding and love for Christ and his way, to a willingness to give witness to what the Gospel teaches, to a readiness by a young person to give his life for Christ and his Church.