Young Life


Young Life is an international Christian youth organization based Colorado Springs, Colorado. Young Life offers week-long Summer camps with the stated goal of evangelizing to teenagers.
The organization was started in Gainesville, Texas in 1941 by Presbyterian minister Jim Rayburn and is currently led by president and CEO Newt Crenshaw. Young Life operates globally using several different organizations with different focuses.

History

In 1941, Presbyterian seminary student Jim Rayburn started Young Life to evangelize to high school students who showed no interest in Christianity. He began hosting a weekly club which featured one or two skits, as well as a simple message about Jesus.
The Young Life website credits the beginning to Clara Frasher, an elderly woman who around 1933 recruited friends to help her pray for teenagers attending Gainesville High School. In 1939, Rayburn who was a young seminarian, started a chapter of the Miracle Book Club. He also worked with local pastor Clyde Kennedy. In the late 1940s at Wheaton College in Illinois, the organization began using both paid staff and volunteers. Per Young Life's website, they have had partnerships with Fuller Theological Seminary, as well as other seminaries.

Ministry

Methods

Young Life operates using the "5 C's" of contact work, club, campaigners, camp, and committee. In the 2021-2022 year, an average of 294,761 teens attended weekly club and an average of 127,709 attended weekly campaigners, and was led by 46,340 volunteer leaders.
  • Contact work: meeting and befriending teens where they are
  • Club: weekly large-group meetings
  • Campaigners: weekly small group "bible studies" for teens wanting to grow in their faith
  • Camp: overnight weeklong camps at one of Young Life's 26 camps
  • Committee: parents and community members who oversee and guide Young Life in local areas

    Ministry Areas

Young Life operates several different ministries with specific focuses:
  • Young Life: a ministry for high school-aged students
  • Wyldlife: a ministry for middle school-aged students
  • Young Life College: a ministry for college-aged students
  • YoungLives: a ministry for pregnant and parenting teenagers
  • Young Life Multiethnic: a ministry with a special focus on serving teens of color in under-resourced communities
  • Young Life Military : a ministry for teens with parents in the armed services
  • Young Life Small Towns/Rural: a ministry focusing on teens in rural areas
  • Capernaum: a ministry for teens with disabilities
  • Young Life One: a ministry for teens affected by homelessness, incarceration, human trafficking, or within the foster-care system
  • Around the World: Young Life's international ministry
  • Catholic Relations: a ministry for developing staff and volunteers to minister to Catholic teens, equipping practicing Catholics to serve, and working alongside Catholic parishes, schools, and universities.

    Camps

Numbers and locations

Young Life maintains summer camps in 18 American states as well as camps in British Columbia, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Scotland, Armenia, and France. Overall, there are 26 camps, with 6 located outside the United States.
In addition to regular summer camps, Young Life operates 6 "adventure" camps which offer campers and their leaders unique outdoor-based experiences. In "Base Camp Adventures", campers stay in yurts or cabins while participating in daily activities whereas "Trail Adventures" allows for campers to participate in backpacking-based camping. Young Life also operates two "discipleship focus" camps, a ten week long work/study program for college students.
The largest of Young Life camp is the Washington Family Ranch in Antelope, Oregon. The ranch was formerly the site of a commune in the Rajneesh movement.
Young Life hosted 215,202 campers in the 2021-2022 camping season.
NameLocationType
Adventures BajaBaja, MexicoBase Camp Adventure
Adventures Santa CruzSanta Cruz, CABase Camp Adventure
Adventures Wild RidgeMt Nebo, WVBase Camp Adventure
Beyond MalibuBritish Columbia, CanadaTrail Adventures
Cairn BraeCreiff, Perthshire, ScotlandCamp
Carolina PointBrevard, NCCamp
Castaway ClubDetroit Lakes, MNCamp
Clearwater CoveLampe, MOCamp
Crooked Creek RanchFraser, COCamp
Eagles CallPigeon Forge, TNDiscipleship Focus
Frontier RanchBuena Vista, COCamp
La FincaMatagalpa, NicaraguaCamp
Lake ChampionGlen Spey, NYCamp
LoneHollow RanchVanderpool, TXCamp
Lost CanyonWilliams, AZCamp
Malibu ClubBritish Columbia, CanadaCamp
Notch PinesBranson, MODiscipleship Focus
Pico EscondidoJarabacoa, Dominican RepublicCamp
Pioneer PlungeWeaverville, NCBase Camp Adventure
PioneerHankavan, ArmeniaCamp
Rockridge CanyonBritish Columbia, CanadaCamp
RockbridgeGoshen, VACamp
Saranac VillageSaranac Lake, NYCamp
Sharptop CoveJasper, GACamp
SouthwindOcklawaha, FLCamp
Timber Wolf LakeLake City, MICamp
Trail West LodgeCreede, COCamp
Washington Family RanchAntelope, ORCamp
Wild RidgeMt Nebo, WVCamp
Wilderness RanchCreede, COTrail Adventures
Windy GapWeaverville, NCCamp
WoodleafChallenge, CACamp

Evangelizing aspects

According to a 1994 Vancouver Sun newspaper article, out of 350 students attending one particular week-long session at the Malibu Camp in British Columbia, Canada, more than 100 publicly testified during the informal ceremony of "Commitment Night" on the final night saying they had committed their lives to Jesus. One camper said, "You're treated like an adult. There's a lot more freedom here than other Christian camps." Another camper said, "But I'm starting to feel a lot of pressure to become a Christian. I used to just sit there and agree with them, just to get them off my back. But now I'm ticked."

Promotion

In 2025, Young Life partnered with Joe Gibbs Racing to replace He Gets Us as sponsor the No. 19 Toyota Supra driven by Aric Almirola and Justin Bonsignore in select NASCAR Xfinity Series races. Both JGR co-founder JD Gibbs and team president Dave Alpern were involved with Young Life.

Controversies

Statement of Non-negotiables

In November 2007, Jeff McSwain, the Area Director of Durham and Chapel Hill, along with others, publicly took issue with the organization's presentation of the concept of sin. McSwain's theology emphasizes that “God has a covenant, marriage-like relationship with the world he has created, not a contract relationship that demands obedience prior to acceptance.” McSwain also took issue with Young Life's 2007 “statement of non-negotiables”. He was not satisfied with the wording of the theological principles and felt that they sounded “more Unitarian than Trinitarian by drawing a sharp contrast between the holy God and incarnated Son who ‘actually became sin.’”
Tony Jones felt that Young Life's Statement of “non-negotiables” encouraged telling staffers that “they must not introduce the concept of Jesus and his grace until the students have been sufficiently convinced of their own depravity and been allowed to stew in that depravity.”. This interpretation is not widely held by YL staff. Eight members of Young Life's staff based in Durham, North Carolina resigned their positions after these “non-negotiables” were announced.

LGBTQ+ policy

Young Life allows LGBTQ students to participate in Young Life activities, but does not allow them to volunteer or take leadership roles. In the organization's forms, homosexuality is described as a “lifestyle” which is “clearly not in accord with God's creation purposes.” Conner Mertens, the first active college football player to come out as LGBTQ, was active in the group as a teenager, and planned to work with the group in college, but was not allowed due to his sexuality.
Young Life's policy also extends to LGBTQ allies. Local leader Pam Elliott stepped down after being asked to remove a photo from her Facebook page showing her support for the LGBTQ community.

2021 EEOC investigation

As of 2021, Young Life was under investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for allegedly failing to protect its employees against sexual misconduct and racial discrimination. One alleged victim of sexual abuse reported that she informed more than a dozen people about the harassment she faced, being told at one point that it was "God's plan" for her. Her case was dismissed after she received a settlement from Young Life.

Notable people