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Taking Chances in Charlotte!
As Young Life continues to look for ways to reach every kid, we’re asking questions like, “How will we care for kids outside of our established ministries? How will we provide spaces for them to show them they’re safe, known, and loved?” In Charlotte, North Carolina, Young Life staff and volunteers are stepping out in faith and introducing new, specialized ministries for those kids looking to find out where they belong.
Emerge
By Mike Slaughter, Urban Area Director
Two years ago, James*, a kid on the verge of homelessness started coming around our virtual learning center. He connected with one of our volunteer tutors and ended up graduating from high school — something not even on his radar.
After graduation James didn't have a dream of going to college; that wasn't his thing. But he wanted to stay connected to Young Life. The problem? We didn't have any offerings for young adults not involved in college.
After a year passed, he reached out and wanted to go to summer camp. I had to have a tough conversation with him and say, "Hey, you’ve aged out of the opportunity to go." On top of that I also knew he wasn't in a place to be a leader. It seemed like there were no options for this young man caught in the middle.
James was understandably upset and proceeded to curse me out. "Y'all never really loved us anyway. And you especially don't love us now when we don't do what you want us to do. If we don't go to college, you're not going to do anything for us."
In that moment I was convicted, knowing many kids who grow up in inner cities may not see college as a possibility. That's part of my story, and I could see how he’d gleaned that from the situation.
That week I shared with our staff and committee, "We need to do something for these kids. What does that look like?"
We wanted to be very intentional about helping them grow spiritually, and sometimes that means also helping them learn life skills. So, we have a practical aspect in every meeting like interviewing for a job, balancing a budget, etc.
We knew all the reasons why a new ministry shouldn't work. “How are we going to find and gather these friends?” “How are we going to create community?” “We need to keep our attention on high school students.”
But at the end of the day, our mission is to introduce adolescents to Jesus Christ and help them grow in their faith. And this was an opportunity to continue to do that.
So we took a chance on creating a ministry for this demographic. We started by hiring Noah Nealley to lead this ministry we called “Emerge.” Noah was a young man whose family couldn’t afford to send him to college, but he’s found great meaning and purpose in bringing Jesus to many others in his same situation.
We started our Emerge ministry with James and reached out to others who had graduated to see if there was an interest in going deeper in their faith. A dozen young adults showed up to that first gathering.
We wanted to be very intentional about helping them grow spiritually, and sometimes that means also helping them learn life skills. So, we have a practical aspect in every meeting like interviewing for a job, balancing a budget, etc.
The group started to get some legs under it. Some of the folks said, "I'm still wrestling. I don't even know if I'm a believer, but I do love the atmosphere of Young Life. You've earned the right to be heard in my life, and here I am.”
*name has been changed
TEEN DADS YoungLives Club
By Janasha King, YoungLives Director
Charlotte has the highest teen pregnancy rate in North Carolina by a long shot. Every year there are almost 1,000 girls between the ages of 13 and 18 who become pregnant in Mecklenburg County. And so, we’re just trying to meet as many as we possibly can.
From the beginning of starting YoungLives, though, one of our prayers was that we’d also be able to reach teen dads. We weren't sure what that would look like, but we knew it's not just the moms who are affected or would benefit from having this community.
These dads also need a space made specifically for them. I often hear, "Can’t these dads just go to Young Life club at their high school?" They could, but the reality is their high school friends often can’t relate to what the dads are experiencing.
In our fourth year of YoungLives, Mike hired Brion Barnes to serve on his team. Brion and his wife, Melanie, were themselves teen parents, and passionate about ministering to teen parents. Melanie always said, "Oh, I want to be a mentor. This is right up my alley." When I asked Brion about spearheading the ministry for the dads he said, "Absolutely. It would give me so much joy to be able to do it."
We decided we’d have separate clubs for the moms and dads because it's important for them to have their own individual spaces to grow and develop as people.
I thought, "Man, this club is for guys like him, who are crying out, ‘It's hard, and I'm trying, and I don't know what I'm doing, and I feel like I'm messing everything up.'"
At the first club for dads I poked my head in because I didn’t know what to expect. Are these guys going to think this is weird? I remember walking in, and it felt like somebody had sucked the air out of the room. It was real.
This 21-year-old guy with a 6'4" linebacker build is literally in a chair weeping to Brion saying, "It's just so hard. And I'm trying, but she doesn't get it. And I don't feel like I have anybody I can talk to." I thought, "Man, this club is for guys like him, who are crying out, ‘It's hard, and I'm trying, and I don't know what I'm doing, and I feel like I'm messing everything up.'"
Now this young man has a space where he can share that, with men who love him well, and tell him, "We’re all there. We all don't know what we're doing. It's OK." It's hard trying to navigate being a 17- to 20-something, on top of figuring out how to keep somebody else alive and how to have a healthy relationship with a person you’re now connected to for the rest of your life. All of these things are hard and complex. So to have a space where they can say, "I don't know what the heck I’m doing," and not feel stupid or judged?
It’s truly special.
Want to see more of the Charlotte experience? Check out their video series on YouTube!