During the summer before my junior year of high school I (Mark) was challenged by my youth pastor, on the stairs of the Wheaton College football stadium, to prayerfully consider if God was calling me into a life of  student discipleship for my future.  After a few weeks of prayer, I felt God’s leading towards student ministry. This call led to a 9 month stint at Christ Home for Children, a year and a half at Gull Lake Bible Conference, 13 years at Western Springs Baptist Church, 4 years in Kenya, and now our next position with Young Life.

Liz and I have felt it has been a privilege to represent Christ to students in these past roles and look forward to our next opportunity that God is directing us to in Iowa.  We want to use this newsletter to share what my role will be with Young Life. 

Here are some definitions that might be helpful in understanding our new roles.

Young Life:  Young Life is a global parachuch ministry that seeks to reach non-churched non-Christian students with the Gospel.  When I was a youth pastor, we did a pretty good job of reaching non-Christian churched students but we were not as good at reaching students that did not attend church.  Young Life is designed and focused towards sharing the gospel with students that are disinterested in spiritual things.

Young Life’s purpose: To introduce adolescents to Jesus Christ and help them grow in their faith.

Heartland Region:  The heartland region is made up of all of Iowa and all of Illinois, outside of the Chicago suburbs.  I will be working with Dave Goy who is the Regional Director for the Heartland Region. Dave used to be the Area Director for the Lyons Township Area (his office was across the street from the church I used to be a youth pastor at).

Area Director:  An area director is a youth professional that leads weekly youth meetings in local homes in order to share the gospel.  They function in many ways similar to a youth pastor as they build a team of volunteers that will help them to reach students for Christ.  An area normally is connected to a local high school and starts with a ministry to high school students.  As the area grows the ministry will often expand to Jr. High as well.   Depending on the demographics of the area Capernaum (ministry to special needs students) and YoungLives (ministry to teenage moms) can also be started in the area.

Mark’s position with Young Life:
I will be the Regional Initiatives Coordinator for Iowa.

My 3 main objectives will be:

1. To develop new Young Life areas throughout the state of Iowa:
Since Young Life began in 1941, Iowa has been an underdeveloped state for Young Life compared to other states. One of my objectives is to help develop new areas and then to mentor and disciple new Area Directors in order to reach more students for Jesus Christ.  I am very excited about the opportunity to bring the gospel to students in new towns throughout Iowa and also to help develop the next generation of youth leaders that will reach students for the cause of Christ.

2. To Form relationships with churches and Young Life:
Young Life has begun to forge partnerships/collaborations with churches in order to bring more effective youth ministry to places that may not be able to afford a full time youth professional.  For over seventy years Young Life has been involved in specialized ministry to adolescents. The partnership is a way to link Young Life’s expertise and a local congregation’s resources together. The institutional church needs the enthusiasm and skills Young Life brings to youth ministry. Young Life needs the stability and ongoing sense of community that the church offers to young people.  I will be helping to develop these new church partnerships as well as mentoring the youth leaders that will be serving both in the church and in their community.

3. To help make discipleship a priority in the lives of the staff, leaders and students in the Heartland Region:
Over the years Young Life has done a tremendous job of reaching students with the gospel but they have at times struggled to really disciple these students that have come to faith.  In recent years there has been a new emphasis within Young Life to put more time and energy into the discipleship process.  My role is to help raise the level of discipleship in the lives of the Young Life staff members in our region as well as helping them to strategize how to best disciple their leaders and students. This will be more of a pastoral role as I seek to help leaders grow in their faith so that they will in turn disciple students that will become mature believers that are growing in their faith and assimilated into a local church.

Please pray for our family, that we would finish our time in Kenya well and that we would have wisdom for all the decisions coming up soon as we begin our transition.