You’re comfortably in your seat, enjoying your all-you-can-eat meal that’s included in the price of admission, when the infield comes alive with a senior citizen female dance team (the Banana Nanas) and the dad-bod cheerleaders (the Man-Nanas) getting down to “Footloose” and “Dancing Queen,” while an inflatable banana mascot is cutting it up with the children lined up to get high fives and autographs. Then your eyes fix on the larger-than-life player approaching the mound … yes, it is indeed a pitcher on stilts. And this is all in the same inning! Just another night at Grayson Stadium, where the Savannah Bananas hold court.
So what could a 10-year-old startup business centered around baseball and bananas possibly have to do with our eight-decade-old camping program? More than you can possibly imagine! In fact, attending a Savannah Bananas game is a lot like going to Young Life camp. The shared principles of these two organizations could fill a book, but here’s a few that stand out immediately (with commentary from the Savannah Bananas and Young Life founders).
1. They Thought of Me!
People want to know they’re important. Inside each of us is the longing to know we’re valuable. That someone cares about us.
This seemingly obvious belief drives the Savannah Bananas in how they run their dynamic business model. In fact, their mission statement simply states: Fans First, Entertain Always. As Bananas’ Founder Jesse Cole says in his book, Fans First:
“Every decision we make, we ask if it’s Fans First. If it’s not, we don’t do it.” Read more of the Savannah Bananas’ business principles in the book, Fans First
In Young Life, of course, our focus is on adolescents. They, too, want to know their worth and have others recognize it as well.
We see them as God does: precious treasures, who are the image bearers of God. We love kids and want the best for them, which ultimately means an introduction to the Savior. That’s why we built a camping program in the first place: to give them places custom-made for them, where they can get away, slow down, and experience his love. We want them to know him, and live in his Kingdom from this moment forward. It’s why we invest so much time, money, and energy into these spaces. It’s why our founder, Jim Rayburn, said this to his wife in 1935:
“Maxie, I have a dream of a real camp for kids. A camp that’ll be so great that when they get out of the bus and they walk onto the camp, they’ll know somebody was thinking about them before they got there.”
And so we continue “thinking about them” in all phases of our camping programs.
2. Excellence
Both organizations strive for excellence. Notice I did not write perfection! Both have failed often, and in the pursuit of trying new things, will continue to fail from time to time. In fact, one of the Bananas’ tenets is “fail quickly!” In cultures that boldly attempt the unknown, perfection is unattainable.
But excellence is not. For the Bananas this means thinking through every little detail from the moment the fans arrive to their final seconds on the grounds. It’s giving the fans the best experience they’ve ever had at a ballpark.
For Young Life, it’s also thinking through every detail from the arrival of the buses until their departure. Details like …
- Beautiful locations that point to a Creator
- Plenty of delicious food served family style
- Adventurous rides to stretch them
- Uproarious laughter to break down walls
- Meaningful messages on the love of Jesus
- Time to reflect about our Lord’s invitation to be in relationship to him
Through all of these and hundreds of other details, we strive to provide excellence because we serve an excellent Savior. Jim Rayburn also had thoughts on this:
“We talk about the King of kings; let’s act like he’s in charge! We’re going to have the classiest camps in this country.”
3. Boredom Is Not Allowed
Both obviously share an affinity for offering their people a great time. For the Bananas fans, it’s a night of unforgettable fun. For a kid at Young Life camp, it’s an experience that many leave saying, “That was the best week of my life.”
Both serve as platforms to offer up what every soul is longing for: unbridled joy.
That’s why there’s never a dull moment at a Bananas game. This might sound cliché, but it’s undeniable. There’s always something happening — dancing by the dugout, Split the Mascot in the outfield, games with the fans between innings, the marching band weaving through the stands. It’s easy to forget there’s also a game going on!
Where the Bananas might say, “It’s a sin to bore a fan with baseball,” we say, “It’s a sin to bore a kid with the gospel.” It’s one of our founder’s most famous proclamations. Let’s just let Jim elaborate on this point:
“When you talk to kids about the Sovereign of all that is, the One who made you and everything else, the One who became one of us, the One who died for us, and the One who is alive for us today — don’t you dare bore anyone with that. If you can’t do this, then you need to get better acquainted with the One you’re talking about.”
Even a cursory look at the Gospels will show us that Jesus was anything but boring. Quite the opposite, he was the most magnetic figure to ever walk the planet. It’s a message that brings kids running to him every week, in every Young Life camp around the world.
4. The Power of “You Wouldn’t Believe …”
According to Jesse Cole, these three words — you wouldn’t believe — “are the most powerful words in creating an unforgettable experience. They speak to something so outrageous, so surprising, so beyond expectation that there’s only one possible response: tell the story to others.”
It’s obviously worked for the Bananas, whose waiting list for tickets is now at four million people. While their social media presence and appearances on ESPN showcase their talents to the world, there’s nothing like experiencing them at their home stadium in Savannah.
You just have to be there.
It’s the exact statement Young Life leaders have been telling kids since the beginning. Explaining Young Life club and camp to a kid really doesn’t do them justice — they must be experienced to be believed. Especially because we believe in the power of “Wow”!
- Wow, they’re clapping and cheering for us as we arrive at camp!
- Wow, out of nowhere, hundreds of ice cream sundaes just appeared!
- Wow, this night feels like it will never end!
- Wow, I’ve never realized how much Jesus loves me!
Things kids wouldn’t believe, until they came to camp and physically experienced each of them for themselves.
5. Know What Business You’re In
It might seem obvious what business the Savannah Bananas Baseball Team is in, but here Jesse throws us a curveball …
“We play baseball, but we’re not in the baseball business. We’re in the entertainment business. Once we made that distinction, we gave ourselves permission to be more than a baseball team. That has made all the difference in creating an unforgettable experience.”
Like the Bananas, it’s important that we make a distinction too. To paraphrase Jesse, we have camps, but we’re not in the camping business. We’re in the life-changing business.
Of course, it’s God who does the changing, but in his kindness he uses believers like us to be his hands and feet that bring the message to people. A Young Life camp trip is but one week of the year; the other 51 offer opportunities to share the life-changing message with kids back home.
And where the Bananas are about good times, we’re about good news. The good news. This is what we have to share with kids, in fact it’s our only real message: Jesus Christ has come to bring them from death to life. Life to the full. Abundant life. That’s the invitation we present to them, and it’s why we do everything we do.
As baseball is the Bananas’ vehicle for entertainment, Young Life is one of God’s vehicles to introduce kids to the Savior. As Jim once said to a group of Young Life staff the year he died:
“That’s not just what Young Life’s all about; that’s all that Young Life’s all about — Jesus Christ.”
It’s the Young Life equivalent to “Play ball!”
