The Young Life Blog
Culture is changing. The next generation is searching for friends, hope, truth — and much more. We live at this intersection, offering insight, encouragement, and practical ways to show up in the lives of students.
From television to the internet, to social media, and now artificial intelligence (AI), the major generations alive today have all had disrupting technology drastically affect how they interact with the world. As new technologies come along, you often gain something, but you also lose something as well. It’s tempting to react to this shift with…
A Place Set Just for Kids At Young Life camp, the invitation of the gospel becomes tangible and real. It’s a place where young people from all walks of life — many carrying heavy burdens, loneliness, or isolation — are invited to pull up a chair, take a seat at God’s table, and experience the…
When it comes to being born in 1941, we’re in good company. Did you know that global icons Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Placido Domingo, Wonder Woman, jeeps, and Velcro are also celebrating their 85th birthdays this year? Each began in humble origins, and over time their influence has grown to global proportions. Young Life, too,…
Real community. Nourishing faith. Transformative service. For high school students volunteering on work crew, and college-aged men and women on summer staff, the rich experience of working at Young Life camps has a lifetime impact. Throughout their time at camp, these young adults not only help create an environment where kids can meet Jesus, but…
This is the second part of a conversation with Kimberly Nollan, Young Life’s director of Research and Evaluation, and Tiffani Hutton, Young Life’s research analyst, to discuss what the latest research from our Global RELATE project tells us about the lives, faith, and experiences of the kids we serve. Here’s where you can read part…
Young Life’s Resources for Rest and Intimacy in Him Most would agree, we live in precarious times. It turns out that the word “precarious” and the word “prayer” share the same Latin root. As we seek to navigate an increasingly unstable world, it’s fitting we draw near to God and pour out our hearts to…
At Young Life, we’ve spent decades showing up in adolescents’ lives: at their games, in their cafeterias, at the coffee shop, because we believe every kid deserves at least one adult who’s really listening. So when we set out to update our RELATE Project research this year, we wanted to understand something that’s changed dramatically…
When you think of a mission trip what do you picture? Maybe sports clinics, construction projects, and other hands-on service? What about a medical clinic with a limited budget or a complex public health project in rural Tanzania? Well, for thousands of families in the Maasai community, God has used these unexpected forms of service…
Young Life is all about reaching kids with the gospel — the next kid, the furthest out kid, the kid who would probably never step foot in a church. It’s the heartbeat that has driven our mission for over 85 years. But none of it would be possible without our volunteer leaders. Our volunteers are…
What does the latest research from our Global RELATE project tell us about the lives, faith, and experiences of the kids we serve? In part 1 of this conversation, we sit down with Kimberly Nollan, Young Life’s director of Research and Evaluation, and Tiffani Hutton, Young Life’s research analyst, for what we’re calling The Science…
When wildfires forced evacuations and canceled the five remaining summer camp weeks between the two camps at Washington Family Ranch (WFR) in Central Oregon, Young Life leaders were faced with unexpected questions: The answer to all of the above was consistent with what Young Life leaders do every day ― We keep showing up because…
What’s a generation and why does it matter? “Boomers can’t use technology.” “Gen Xers are just cynical.” “Millennials are so entitled.” “Gen Zers have no attention span.” Maybe you’ve heard these generational stereotypes. Perhaps you’ve even said one or two of them yourself! Tellingly, these complaints are typically uttered by someone outside of that generation….
For nearly a decade, a remarkable thing has been happening across the country. Women gather, sometimes a dozen around a kitchen table, sometimes hundreds in a hotel ballroom, and they give. Not alone, not quietly, but together. They pool their resources, they hear the stories behind the need, and they watch their combined gifts multiply…

