Left of the line.

The vast majority of mentoring programs or discipleship program focus their attention to the right of the threshold line. Most programs ask kids or people to opt in, which inherently means they have a desire to succeed. The number of people willing to ‘mentor’ or ‘disciple’ kids increases exponentially as you move to the right.

Young Life’s heart beats for kids left of that line.

There is a scarcity of people willing to do the work on the left side of the line. Left of the line requires patience, courage, time, willingness to ‘fail’ often. Young Life leaders must live on the left side of the threshold line. There is a relative abundance of people willing to invest in those who want to be invested in.

Due to the scarcity of people left of the line; YL leaders and staff should spend the majority of their time with kids left of the line. People who have reached independence in their walk with Christ should come back and join us on the left side.

I believe that mentoring programs that live on the right side of the line provide value in the Kingdom. Most of them exist for ‘at risk’ kids, but every mentoring program that I am aware of (especially in urban settings) involve kids choosing to opt in. The most ‘at risk’ kids’ do not have a desire to succeed in life and therefore will never choose to opt in to these programs. Cycles are not broken if we only work with people who opt in.

I recently heard a national columnist give a speech encouraging kids to “show people you are worth being invested in.” I understand the point she was making, however our role is to help kids believe that they are worthy of being invested in before they believe it themselves.

When Jesus was questioned about who he was spending time with he said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick,I have not come for the righteous but for the sinners…” This is who we must spend time with.

Luke 15 tells a story about a shepherd who leaves the 99 to go and find the one lost sheep. This is what we must do

There is an important role for people on the right of the line. It just isn’t our role.

Young Life leaders must resist the temptation to do the relatively easy work and live into our unique role in Kingdom work.