Anybody's teens have experience with Young Life?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm probably younger than most of you and was in YL during the current century For the record:

- I did not grow up in a church
- I did not want to drink, do drugs or be sexually active in HS
-YL gave me a group of friends with similar values and it was a great safe place to NOT have to fit in with the fast crowd.
-my experience was positive and kept me out of trouble and never put me in a situation that I was uncomfortable in.
- The YL kids in my high school were definitely the "good kids" who were never in trouble.

I'm very grateful that YL allowed me a safe social setting to be a kid and not feel pressured to do grown up things.

Exactly the experience I had with YL in the 80's. I could very easily have gone down a different path, as I had started hanging out with kids who drank, smoked, and hooked up casually on the weekends. Luckily, a friend from one of my classes invited me to YL one night and I never looked back. The kids as a whole were so fun and welcoming and non-judgmental. I felt I had finally found a group of people who I did not have to impress or act differently around. I spent most of my four years of high school with this group and can honestly say it kept me sane and safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At a couple of my companies, I've worked with a number of young adults (20's) who were involved in Young Life as teens. They are some of the nicest, most well-adjusted, kind, positive, giving people I know. Just good people.
My kids are still young, but I will encourage them to check it out when they are teens. I'm in the Midwest fwiw.

OP again - thank you, this is reassuring. I've lived in the Midwest and my current area in PA reminds me of my time out there. Lots of farms, slower pace of life, people hunt and fish. Big change from the DMV where we lived for several years and the NYC burbs where I grew up.

For the PP who is a YL leader in Frederick, thank you for chiming in; we are in southeastern PA and I was able to find the leader info. Question for you - when you have kids who are already Christians and learned about Jesus in their own churches, what is the goal for them in part of the group?

I'm not that PP, but I was involved in YL all through high school, and was already a Christian, as were many of my friends. But it was the kind of Christianity that we just took for granted, having grown up with it. In YL, I was able to really explore Christianity and see how Jesus works in our lives. It's basically a great way to hang out with other like-minded kids - those who aren't particularly interested in partying, etc. I *never* experienced anyone asking me to "accept Jesus," though I definitely feel I grew stronger in my faith simply by attending YL. I found it to be a happy, welcoming, fun, and wholesome experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, my parents were wary of YL too bc it was very “born again” fundamental-heavy on literal interpretation. Was raised Methodist and had a very active youth group so I was involved in that instead but overall it is a bunch of good kids who peer pressure each other into not making stupid choices (binge drinking, etc) and will give your daughter something fun to do with a safe group of friends. A lot of my friends were in it and the boys in it were very big on abstinence which made them really awaken to date bc it took the pressure off—even if the angle they pushed on that was “God’s desire for us to be pure” and to look on the girls as someone’s future wife and honor her and her future husband by respecting her purity. It’s a bit patriarchal to that degree, but hey—there were also no teen pregnancies out of that group so there’s that....

Or the girls were just shamed into hiding them (I have 3 friends who had this experience &/or were knew someone who did).

[Anonymous]

^^ PP again. I also want to stress how much FUN Young Life is. I think people who are unfamiliar with it think all the kids do is pray and talk about Jesus. That's not the case at all. For the most part, there are hilarious skits, games, singing, zaniness, food, etc. Retreats are the absolute best - Saranac in the summer was an experience I'll never forget.