YOUNGLIFE BEGINS MINISTRY IN JACKSON

While prayer before football games may have been taken away from Jackson and other American communities, the Christian spirit is hard to regulate.

Kim Brown of YoungLife and four volunteer workers have been visiting the Jackson High School campus since school opened, planting the seeds for a ministry to area teens.

"We're still doing contact work, being at school, at lunch, at games; anywhere high school kids are, we're going to be there," said Brown, director of the new Jackson YoungLife Club. "I talked to Mr. (Rick) McClard and he said we were very welcome on campus."

YoungLife is a non-denominational youth ministry, based in Colorado Springs, Colo., which has been in operation since 1940. It has a staff of 1,837 people, but 9,430 volunteers, serving more than 700 communities.

"The staff gets three weeks of training in Portland, but YoungLife is really fueled by the volunteers," Brown said. "It's a very relational ministry. Friendships with kids are the basis of sharing the Gospel."

Brown said 60 to 100 youths attend the weekly meetings (held in homes) in Cape Girardeau, where a YoungLife club has existed since 1982. A Jackson club is her eventual goal. She hopes to start one late this semester or during second semester.

"We just want to have a presence in Jackson and get our name out," she said. "We'd like to meet every kid in the high school although I realize that's a fairly lofty goal."

Brown, a Jackson, Tenn., native and a graduate of Lambuth University in Jackson, has been with YoungLife since 1996. She moved to Jackson (Mo.) this summer.

The YoungLife mission statement of "introducing adolescents to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their faith" is to be carried out by going where youth are, building personal relationships with them, winning the right to be heard and providing experiences that are fun and life changing. This will hopefully allow the staff and volunteers to share the Gospel with youths. Those who make commitments to Christ are then "nurtured" in the faith and encouraged to become active in a local church.

"During the past year there has been interest in Jackson," Brown said. "Parents have been meeting and praying. We're developing a core group of adults. I'm excited about the possibilities of what's going to happen in this area. I've talked to a lot of people who have said 'We need YoungLife in Jackson.' So here we are."

Brown said YoungLife works "pretty much on our own," although she would like to connect with local churches.

"Part of the ministry is being able to plug kids into a church," she said. "We're not here to take away from what the churches are doing. We're here to partner alongside them and plug kids into programs that they have."

"It's a para-church organization which strengthens a youth's personal relationship with Jesus Christ and keeps them involved in their local church," said Rev. Grant Gillard, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson. "It's a ministry that strengthens the local church, but it's often misunderstood as competition with the churches. I'm behind it 100 percent."

The organization was founded in 1940 by Jim Rayburn, a Gainesville, Texas, youth pastor. Rayburn sought to reach out to local teens who were not likely to be attracted by traditional church services. He began visiting the local high school and eventually launched the in-home ministry. Meanwhile, a group of Gainesville women, unaware of Rayburn's work, had been praying for the local high school students. That connection has become a foundation in the program.

"A local committee is formed that is committed to pray for the ministry," Brown said.

Brown works out of the Cape Girardeau office with Todd Moseley, area director and head of the Cape Girardeau club.

Upcoming activities include a banquet at Centenary United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau Nov. 6 and a golf tournament. The tournament date has yet to be finalized. YoungLife is also involved in summer camps.

Once the club is organized, the meetings, held in homes, will begin.

"We'll do a lot of interactive singing and humorous skits," Brown said. "The last 10 or 15 minutes a short Gospel presentation will be made, in which the Gospel will be presented in very clear and simple terms. It will be right there, easy to grasp and take hold of."

Brown and Moseley can be reached at 335-8300.

Kim Brown (center) with two of her YoungLife volunteers, Mitch Ogles and Julie Hogan.