Springtime Update: Students Galore! 04/16/2012
WSU Catalyst student walking around campus during their TOM's "Day Without Shoes" Walk to raise money and shoes for those who don't have them. By the way, it snowed that day!
Friends, this has been an amazing season of "engaging young people as leaders for the transformation of the church and world." As you can see in the picture above, our WSU Catalyst students are busy with their ministry projects raising funds, donations, and awareness of issues in the world like poverty, shoelessness, and sharing Agape care for their peers in the midst of stressful finals! What a great crew, and this year we've been so blessed to welcome many new supprting churches of this re-established campus ministry in Detroit. Then we've also begun our amazing 2012 record breaking season of Motown Mission teams. This year we welcomed two Spring Break groups and will continue in June to welcome our 530+ Motown Mission participants for economic disaster recovery work alongside our wonderful Detroit neighbors and partners. Lastly we are celebrating the reboot of our Metro Youth Encounter program which, in partnership with the Detroit Renaissance District Youth, recently gave out $1000 in micro-grants to UMC youth groups metro-Detroit who presented innovative ministry ideas at the DRD Youth (re)Birthday Party. In follow up and support with these youth ministries we're excited to be reclaiming our role encouraging intercultural immersive experiences that lift young people up as transformative leaders in our local congregations and communities. This has really been a time of experiencing the wealth of young people, their energy and ministry ideas that is all around us in Detroit-area United Methodism. Thanks for all of you who support young people in your local churches and we invite all to find ways to continue that support and mentoring of youth and young adults as we continue in ministry together. Sincerely, Carl Gladstone Director of the Young Leaders Initiative Add Comment It is that time of year again when YLI begins our search for the next class of young adults ready to spend their Summer serving God by serving others in the City of Detroit. If you or someone you know might be a good candidate, please direct them to our shared INTERNSHIP APPLICATION. The other piece of this exciting puzzle that we're hoping to get a jump on this year is our intern housing options. We are looking for a house in which up to 12 interns can live, create intentional Christian community together, and interact with their neighbors. If you own a home, or know of possible housing options in the City, please let us know who we might contact about that. We've found that this intentional community portion of the intern experience is deeply transformational, and gives our interns a deep love for Detroit and all God's children who live there. Thanks for your continued support and we look forward to another awesome intern season! Carl Gladstone YLI Director In the midst of awesome. 06/30/2011
This year the Young Leaders Initiative continues in it's mission to engage young people as missional leaders for the transformation of the church and world. With the support of partner churches we have expanded our programs and plan to be an integral part of the emerging ecosystem of young people's ministries in the new Detroit Renaissance District. YLI's Motown Mission Experience roared into it's 7th Summer hosting 400 youth from around the country for weeks of Christian service in neighborhoods around Detroit. This program and the new Metro Kidz Day Camp at Metropolitan UMC were staffed by 10 amazing college interns serving through YLI's Transforming Leaders program. These young adults live in intentional community in Detroit, serve through various ministries, and participate in spiritual discernment about how God is calling them to serve throughout their lives. In the Fall YLI will continue with a third year of restoring United Methodist campus ministry among the students of Wayne State University. Now in partnership with the DAC Board of Higher Ed. and Campus Ministry, this program will be seeking sustaining partnerships with local churches who care deeply about supporting radical discipleship among college students in Detroit. Finally, both our Metro Youth Encounter and Emergedetroit/Detroit Villages continue to nurture young people as leaders for youth ministries and as creators of new local expressions of Christian Community. This year both will be looking at some transitions in method and focus to connect better with district youth and new church start initiatives within our Connection. We thank all our partner churches and donors for their dedicated support this past year and look forward to continuing to celebrate together the inspiring presence and leadership of young people in our church! Intern Team 2011 Shaping Up! 04/19/2011
Been a busy season, accepting intern apps from around the state and beyond. Happy to let all YLI supporters know that this year's crop of young people ready to serve and live in Detroit for the Summer are stellar. We'll have two great teams of Transforming Leaders and Motown Mission interns living in community together and working to serve God by serving others. One team will be coordinating Projects, Program, and Hospitality for Motown Mission weeks. The other will be helping launch a new neighborhood children's program with Metropolitan UMC in memory of Mary Ryckman - a long time member there and friend of us here at YLI who had a passion for nurturing young people in the faith and who passed away this past New Years. All this, along with our record breaking numbers for Motown Mission (400 or so participants over 7 weeks!) will make Summer 2011 a real watershed year in the ministry life of YLI. If you would like to support YLI by supporting one of our programs/projects I invite you to visit our Crowdrise page and either become a donor, or a viral fundraiser by starting your own project to support YLI. Thanks and peace, Carl Youth Encounter Weekends 2011-2012 02/02/2011
Over the years YLI's Metro Youth Encounter has sought to gather youth from various churches around metropolitan Detroit, give them intercultural experiences, and help them develop as leaders for the church and world. We're excited today to announce a new plan to accomplish these central components of the Metro Youth Encounter. Starting this Fall, a new series of 3 larger YOUTH ENCOUNTER RETREATS will take the place of our smaller MYE convenant group experience. These retreats will gather youth together, give workshop space for different ministry tracks (Connectional & Local Church Leadership, Missional Life, Ministry in the City, and Hearing God's Call), AND feature ministry project grant awards of up to $500. It's our hope that these retreats will be able to celebrate and nurture the already-present energy of youth in ministry in our area and provide a space for hundreds of youth each year to gather, and towitness to the ways in which God is calling them to lead the church right now. Click here to read more about the new Youth Encounter or email us to register your group today! So glad to be officially kicking off our search for this Summer's team of talented and dedicated college students to serve as Transforming Leaders and Motown Mission interns. This is a great opportunity for college students to spend a summer doing missional work in the Motor City, living in intentional community, and participating in vocational and spiritual discernment. If you know of a college student who might be interested in serving with us, please send them a link to the 2011 Summer Internship Application or to the TL and Motown Mission page at emergedetroit.org. Each year since 2006 YLI has hosted an amazing group of students for this important and life-changing work, and we're excited to offer 2011 as another banner year for service in this city. Thanks and peace, Carl Gladstone YLI/Motown Mission Director Back to the Mission. 01/14/2011
Friends, the holidays have been a great time here in Detroit. From our book release party for Shane Claiborne's "Common Prayer" with the Detroit Villages, to Motown Mission weeks getting filled up, to Catalyst gearing up for a great semester of missional entrepreneurship - the participants in YLI programs continue to inspire me. We've also been joined in this exciting work by U of M, Semester In Detroit student Hannah Rodriguez. Hannah will be serving this semester as a coordinator of projects and volunteers for Motown Mission and we're really grateful to have her. If you happen to be one of those elite few who've been on the Motown Mission summer staff, please jump on the Facebook page and welcome her too! In other news, our Catalyst team will be receiving their $100 seed money for their mission projects around the city. Starting Monday, you too can participate in these missional ventures by contributing to the Catalyst fund through Crowdrise (our new social fundraising system). This program has proven to be a great way to help reinstate a United Methodist campus ministry presence here in the City of Detroit. Many churches have received our letter explaining this new ministry and inviting partnership so it can continue. I hope your congregation will prayerfully consider the students you may already have attending WSU, and the opportunities we might celebrate together through future partnerships. All in all, this is an exciting new time for the Young Leaders Initiative and we're so glad to be on this journey with you, our volunteers, participants, and future partners! Thanks for all you do to engage young people as leaders for the transformation of the Church and World. Sincerely, Carl Gladstone New look. New links. 12/16/2010
As you may notice if you're visiting the YLI site for the first time in a while - we're making some changes to the look of our web presence. For a while now we've wanted to revamp this space to better focus in on our various programs with young people. Hopefully on each page here you'll get enough info to know what each program is about, some links to find our more, and a chance to donate directly to that program through our new CROWDRISE fundraising effort. CROWDRISE is a site that enable you to supprt YLI's mission not only with dollars, but also by engaging you own social network in support of one of our ministries that you care most about. So, please explore the new site. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Give us a call if you have any questions or suggestions. And most importantly - have a great holiday season and try to take a young person out for coffee at least once during the break from school to hear how they envision the church living our radical discipleship for the world! Carl Welcome to YLI! 12/15/2010
The Young Leaders Initiative is a collection of programs designed to create a "culture of call" which engages young people as Christian leaders in the Metro Detroit area for the transformation of the church and world. Primarily YLI focuses on the Metro Youth Encounter & Motown Mission Experience programs for Middle School and Senior High students and the Transforming Leaders, Catalyst, & Detroit Villages/emergedetroit.org programs for young adults. Please visit each of these program pages for more information. Partner churches and individuals make the programs of YLI possible by volunteering their time, supporting YLI financially, and most importantly praying for the participants of the program and the people they are helping. Please visit our donations page to find out how you can give. | Mission of YLIEngaging young people as missional leaders for the transformation of the church and world.  DONATE to YLI.   ArchivesApril 2012 |
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