An exciting new approach to starting Young Life areas.
Fresno, California, is home to more than half a million people, and one of the fastest growing, most diverse communities in the state. But by fall 2018, Young Life had vanished from the city in the desert.
Fast forward a mere eight years, and the work here today is vibrant. Fresno now plays host to seven Young Life areas, comprised of:
- Five full-time staff
- Seven part-time staff
- Six committees
- 40+ Young Life leaders who know over 800 kids by name
The common denominator in this explosive growth? How the Lord launched the ministry of Young Life College at Fresno State and used it in turn to begin the local high school and middle school work in the area. This is not your typical approach to starting a Young Life area, but then again, this is not your typical story …
COUNTDOWN
For any successful Young Life ministry to start or restart, it must begin with prayer. In the case of Fresno, caring adults began praying in 2014, and continued for another five years.
Meanwhile, Rob Crawford, the California Central Regional Director, was also praying, and sensed this was a place where a different approach might help. Instead of starting the work at one of the local high schools or middle schools, he looked to begin with Young Life College. “Fresno is the fifth-largest city in California by population, and with Fresno State, you have the potential for a lot of leaders,” Rob said. “This way, you have a lot of youthful energy, and I think adults get excited about seeing young people investigating Christ, growing in Christ, and then giving their lives away.”
He worked closely with John Byard, the Southwestern divisional coordinator for Young Life College, who appreciated Rob’s approach. “Rob had a strategic vision. He said, ‘We’re going to start with the college because of the potential for significant growth faster.’ Rob doesn’t act from a scarcity mentality, but rather out of courage to reach kids for Christ and grow a sustainable area. Knowing that five years from now, the growth will be exponential.”
With the vision in place, the next step was finding someone to come in as the Young Life College area director. The Lord had been preparing this pioneering position for someone ready to build from the ground up. Someone like Ben Boelter, who grew up being steeped in Young Life’s DNA, as he watched his dad, Spence, serve as a Young Life associate regional director.
“In my teens I became a big fan of Young Life because it’s all about the fundamentals of the gospel and makes learning about Jesus fun for kids,” Ben said. “Personally, rediscovering Jesus through the lens of my unchurched friends recaptured my heart for Christ. I loved seeing him through the eyes of people encountering him for the first time.”
While attending Point Loma Nazarene College, Ben joined San Diego State’s college team as student staff to be trained in reaching a large campus. The year served him well, John said. “Ben learned quickly from Billy Jack Blankenship, the college director at San Diego State, about the uniqueness of a 35,000-person campus and how you build a team there.”
In late 2019, Rob and John invited Ben to interview for the Young Life College director position at Fresno State. After being accepted for the position, the college graduate couldn’t wait to get started that spring.
And then COVID happened.
NO SCRAPPING THIS MISSION
When the campus closed and classes went online, Ben felt stuck. “How do I start a ministry when I can’t meet with people in person? There’s no one in Fresno saying, ‘Here, get plugged into this community of Young Life people,’ because there was no community yet.
“So I prayed and heard the Lord say what he’s said to Young Life leaders forever: ‘Just go where the students are.’ I went to social media, which was where the students were, and started using social media as a place to create spaces of community and connection. I organized Zoom game nights and smaller socially distanced hangouts.”
For Ben, necessity was indeed the mother of invention, with his initial contact work — hanging with students — happening all on Instagram. Through prayer, patience, and persistence, these gatherings eventually turned into a student leadership team and within a year — 2021 — college students were packing a house every week for club.
The growth soon happened off campus as well. As leaders naturally rose up at the college, Young Life ministry began, with more staff coming on board in the city. “We spread out into the nearby high schools all around Fresno Metro,” Ben said, “and hired area directors for the various pockets of the larger Fresno Metro area.”
ALL SYSTEMS GO!
Today the area is indeed thriving, but John and Ben are not surprised.
John explained, “If you start with great college ministry, other ministry will grow out of it because it’s both reaching college students for Christ and producing college-aged leaders to help reach the junior high and high school kids down the street.
“When these students come into a relationship with Jesus, we tell them the best way to grow in their faith is to be discipled and give your faith away to others. So high school, WyldLife, YoungLives (our ministry with teen moms), and Capernaum (our ministry with kids with disabilities), are all benefitting from great Young Life College work.
“By typically putting high school ministry first, in a couple of years you may have a club of 35 kids and take 20 kids to camp. By starting with a college ministry at a campus of 35,000, though, you can have a club of a couple hundred and produce leaders for all the junior high and high schools around you within those same years. The fruit can be tenfold, but we have to be willing to play the long game.”
Ben sees what makes these leaders so effective. “College students are at one of the most transformational times of a person’s life. They step into new things and have a hunger to say yes. Being a Young Life leader means stepping outside their comfort zone. A college student going to a high school or a middle school campus to create friendships is uncomfortable, but the 16 students on our leadership team are experts at friendship. They’re great at initiating conversations, being good listeners, asking smart questions, planning events, and inviting. And a community like this attracts other similarly minded, relational people, which continues the growth.”
TO ETERNITY AND BEYOND …
The model is not limited to Fresno, however. Rob and his team are launching area work with Young Life College in other spaces like Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Turlock, California. “They’ve just hired someone to start work at Cal State Stanislaus, and they’re looking to grow a team of 30 people in the first year of having someone on campus,” says John.
“The future is obviously bright. Once Fresno was a place in the desert where there was nothing; now it’s where staff come from to go serve in other places around California, and hopefully around the country. It’ll probably grow into seven areas or so with YoungLives and Capernaum all thriving, hundreds and hundreds of kids going to camp every summer, and a launching pad for many staff, all because of the great college work.”
Ben can feel God on the move, too. “The truth is we’re not spreading Young Life, we’re spreading Jesus and Young Life is simply the banner. The Lord is the one establishing his Kingdom. We’re citizens of this Kingdom, and trying our best to share this citizenship with others.
“The Central Valley of California is often an overlooked place, or underestimated because it’s tough, diverse, and lacks resources. But I love that it’s where God has me. This work has been the absolute joy of my life.”
