YLI is pleased to be leading an effort to build an online discovery, engagement, and crowdfunding tool for United Methodist connected ministries that place young adults in missional engagements around the world.  revGO.org will be designed to help these ministries:  engage THOUSANDS of young adults from HUNDREDS of United Methodist and other churches as they serve with DOZENS of UMC-related mission and service programs sharing God’s love and justice while discerning God’s call in their lives.   

If you'd like to hear more about revGO! please visit the site and sign up for our pre-launch email list.  Also, please let us know if you have suggestions of programs who might benefit from using the site to help their young adults raise support, tell their stories, and launch lives of ongoing missional engagement and deep discipleship.

YLI programs such at Motown Mission, Transforming Leaders, Detroit Villages, and WSU Catalyst all plan to take advantage of this new tool and we thank the Young People's Ministries of the GBOD for the DMYP Grant that has made this project possible.

Looking forward to supporting this movement of young people transforming our church and world.

The YLI Team

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Motown Mission Sets Eight Year Record

DETROIT, Michigan (August 12, 2012) - In its eighth year as a Christian mission trip destination the Motown Mission Experience has completed its largest service season to date. Between March and August Motown Mission hosted almost 600 participants from 35 churches around the country - a 200 person increase from 2011. Motown Mission, a program of the United Methodist Young Leaders Initiative located in the Detroit Renaissance District, has now contributed over $842,000 in volunteer time and project materials to neighborhoods and ministries across Detroit.

Begun in 2005 as a one week trip for Middle School students from Birmingham First UMC, the Motown Mission Experience has grown into a premier mission destination for United Methodist youth and others. While in Detroit, teams are housed at Metropolitan UMC and work with ministry partners around the city like the Joy-Southfield Community Development Corporation and the NOAH Project. Work projects include home repairs, green deconstruction of vacant buildings, tree planting and urban gardening, feeding work, and helping lead the Metro Kidz Day Camp at Metropolitan UMC.

This year 10 youth groups from Michigan Area churches participated in service weeks along with 11 other UMC groups from as far away as the Dakotas Conference. Fourteen other groups from various Christian churches helped fill out the Summer during which Motown Mission hosted its largest single week ever with 130 participants in mid-July. Plus, another 16 church groups donated and served meals to the Motown participants throughout the season.

Each afternoon Motown work teams were encouraged to explore the City of Detroit through excursions to Belle Isle, the Detroit Institute of Arts, La Gloria Bakery and more. Each evening Motown Mission staff led sessions about the history of Detroit and devotions to help participants connect their hands-on work to our scriptural calling to partner with the poor. Once each week all participants were treated to a Detroit Tigers baseball game or other fun cultural event.

With a grant from the United Methodist Union of Greater Detroit and a Crowdrise.com project that raised over $5,000 the Motown Mission Experience was also able to hire 12 interns to serve as coordinators for this ministry. These college students from around Michigan and beyond led projects, hospitality, and devotional programs during the Summer. They also lived together in an intentional Christian community house in the North End neighborhood of Detroit, and spent Friday afternoons meeting with ministry leaders in order to discern God's call in their lives.

In 2013 Motown Mission will be expanding both its Spring Break and Weekend Mission Trip offerings in order to welcome even more students to Detroit for "economic disaster recovery work in the love of Jesus Christ." For more information about Motown Mission please visit www.motownmission.org

Contact:

Carl Gladstone, Motown Mission Director info@motownmission.org
(313)718-2275 

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