Over the past few months, one of the questions I’ve repeatedly heard from parents is, “What exactly is Young Life?”

I love this question. The purpose of Young Life is to create space for high school students to own and explore their faith. Young Life’s mission is to “help kids know Jesus, grow in their faith, and serve Him.”

Now, you might be thinking of the typical follow-up question: “So, why do we need Young Life at Timothy?”

The best way for me to answer is to tell you one of my favorite stories from my daughter, Katy. She was about halfway through her 7th grade year when she asked to talk about her Bible class. According to Katy, her teacher (Mr. Wiener) was reviewing a lot of the history from the Old and New Testaments that they’d already learned in grade school. However, Mr. Wiener was providing more background and context. Basically, Katy couldn’t get over how interesting it was. She said something like, “Mom—it’s like we are learning the same stories I thought I totally knew, but in an even more interesting way. It’s really cool.”

I was loving this conversation. What’s not to love about your 7th grader getting all geeked out about the Bible? And then she said, “It makes me realize why some of the other spaces where I’m learning about the Bible seem so DEAD. Compared to Timothy, Sunday is the most boring part of my week.”

Eek.

Now, I’ve lived long enough to have walked through some dry patches in my faith journey. If that’s what this was, I was ready to give a pep talk. However, after digging deeper, that’s not what this was. And if you know me, you know I have a deep passion for my kids’ faith lives to be dynamic and personally enriching. The Gospel should never be boring. It’s too crazy and wondrous of a true story to be told in a way that’s a snoozefest.

I set up a meeting with our pastor to explain the tension Katy was experiencing. This guy is such a wonderful pastor and friend and I give him so much credit for being able to tell me that the middle school curriculum was all about Bible knowledge and it probably did feel boring. I love what he said next: “When your kids raise their hands and say, ‘I need more,’ you’ve got to go find it.”  He went on to say, “It’s too bad there’s not a Young Life she could join, because it sounds like she’s searching for a space to bring together her knowledge and community in some creative ways that are unique to high schoolers.” 

I think about that meeting all the time now that we have Young Life at Timothy, because my pastor was right.

No one pulls in young adults and makes the gospel dynamic, exciting, and personal like Young Life.

Despite amazing Bible classes, chapel, and service opportunities, sometimes our kids just need more. Often, it’s the not-parent, not-teacher, not-church leaders who can break through and have the most meaningful influence with our soon-to-be-adults. Each student in our high school is at a unique place in his or her spiritual journey and therefore Young Life is needed. It creates even more space for our kids to explore their faith and celebrate it with new leaders in community. 

If Young Life is new to you, they do this in four unique ways:

CLUB 

Club is a giant, weekly youth group. Everyone is invited and included. Timothy Club meets most Wednesday nights in the high school at 7:37pm. (Side note: It’s not meant to compete with your churches’ youth group, but to supplement it.)

SMALL GROUPS (Called “CAMPAIGNERS”)

This is optional, for kids looking to go deeper in their faith. It’s a space to take what they’re learning in their own church community (and in classes at Timothy) and apply it to their day-to-day lives. This is also a fantastic space to ask all the tough questions. 

CAMP/RETREATS

Young Life camp is unlike any other Christian camp you’ve ever attended. The schedule is unreal with events like midnight obstacle courses, crazy zip lines, and shaving cream wars. Young Life camps have a schedule of mind-boggling activities that represent the adventure of our life with Jesus. 

RELATIONSHIPS

Timothy Young Life has its own staff and team of volunteer young adult leaders. It’s an incredible team of twenty-somethings who want to connect with our kids, build friendships, and help them process their faith lives. At Timothy, our programming is run by Samantha and Matthew Greathouse (who I can only describe as the most energetic and adorable newly married couple I know.) Sam, Matthew, and about ten other twenty-somethings lead the Timothy Young Life events and support our kids by attending every single event in the high school. My kids love these leaders. As Katy so eloquently said, “My Young Life leader is someone I can talk to about my faith who is—ahem—much closer to my own age.” (Translation: Sometimes Christian people 4-5 years older than our kids can have a much deeper impact than ancient people, like us parents.) 

If you’re a parent, that’s my description about what Young Life is, why I love it, and why it could never be redundant at our Christian high school. 

However, my daughter was quick to tell me that my thoughts were rather parent-focused. Apparently, I did not spend enough time talking about how Young Life does an amazing job at rising above friend groups, including EVERYONE, and providing a space to meet people you might not already know. According to my daughter, Young Life is a place where “everyone is welcomed, loved and included.” 

Also, it appears I didn’t talk about Camp in a way that helped people grasp how incredible it is. “Mom, I was put in a group that barely included any of my friends and I somehow walked away with NEW friends that meet for breakfast every Friday we are able. That just doesn't happen anywhere but Young Life Camp."

Our Timothy Young Life is still new, so if you’re interested in supporting this ministry or volunteering, feel free to reach out. Also, the excitement for Young Life has been so contagious that Timothy WyldLife, Young Life’s middle school ministry was just launched. In fact, all middle school students are invited to the Young Life summer camp (8/1/2022 - 8/5/2022) at Timber Wolf Lake. 

One of A.W. Tozer’s most well-known quotes is, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” I couldn’t agree more. I want my life with God to be a great adventure and I want the same for my kids. This is what Young Life does best. 
 

Young Life (all high school students) meets every Wednesday at 7:37pm. 
Wyldlife (all middle school students) meets once a month and their next meeting is March 18 at 7pm in the elementary school cafeteria 
Click here to view the schedule. 
Contact Timothy’s Young Life leader Sam Greathouse (sgreathouse@ylchicago.com) for more information or with any questions!