Colorado Springs-based ministry to release research on youth and relationships

By Steve Rabey
Religion Correspondent

Six years after the pandemic shuttered its camps and hammered its budget, Colorado Springs-based Young Life is thriving.

Revenue for the Christian youth ministry jumped 17% from 2023 ($497 million) to 2025 ($584 million).

U.S. programs are seeing modest growth, with 567,698 youth attending weekly Young Life Club meetings, and 293,462 attending its Campaigners meetings designed to deepen kids’ faith through Bible discussions and community.

Meanwhile, its international work in 114 countries is booming. In 2014, Young Life hosted 74,527 campers outside the U.S. Last year it hosted 253,193 international campers, about five times more than U.S. camp attendance.

The work is growing rapidly in Africa, where Young Life says it reached 3,115,625 kids last year.

Marking 85 years

Young Life was founded in 1941, moved from Dallas to the Springs in 1947, and celebrates its 85^th anniversary this year.

“We’re right up there with Bob Dylan,” said editor and writer Jeff Chesemore, who has worked with the ministry for 35 years.

In addition to 25 U.S. camps, there are now seven around the world, including the Dominican Republic, Scotland, the Philippines, Brazil and Canada.

In Armenia, youth learn about Jesus at a former Russian camp that indoctrinated young people in atheistic Communism.

The oldest camp is Frontier, near Buena Vista. Opened in 1951, Frontier “is showing her age” and has been in “hibernation” since the pandemic. At present, it can host only small groups while undergoing a major restoration. It could reopen in full by 2028, depending on the success of the “Restore Frontier” fundraising campaign.

Wilderness Ranch, situated between Creede and Lake City, is open but is adjusting its wilderness camping and backpacking activities when smoke from the Aspen Acres fire is heavy.

The ministry has 224 employees in the Springs, including local field staff and workers who serve national and worldwide efforts.

Timeless principles, timely research

Young Life’s central focus — building relationships with young people — hasn’t changed in half a century, but it offers group leaders and camp counselors up-to-date research on the ever-changing contours of youth culture.

In 2023, “The RELATE Project” surveyed more than 7,000 Gen Z youth aged 13 to 24 in eight countries, asking them about their relationships, sense of belonging, identity, agency, and beliefs.

The RELATE results show how society has changed since founder Jim Rayburn, a Presbyterian minister, devised the ministry’s peppy, friendly club meetings.

The key causes Gen Z youth care about are mental health; health, diseases or medical issues; personal safety; climate change and pollution; and having enough job opportunities.

Drilling deeper, RELATE research found that half of teens and young adults are stressed by school and finances, and nearly 40% are concerned about mental health.

Relationships under stress

When it comes to relationships over 40% of Gen Z don’t feel worthy of being loved, and a third say they turn to social media when anxious, not face-to-face relationships with other youth.

The RELATE findings were sobering for Young Life and illustrate the challenges today’s youth culture poses to building deep relationships:

“As teens get older, their access to personal devices increases. The result is that in-person communication declines, and texts and calls increase.

“It seems likely that as teens stop seeing their friends in person as much — texting instead of hanging out — their feeling of security and closeness with others declines too.”

For years, Young Life camps have fostered relationships by requiring campers to turn over their phones and devices when they arrive. The devices are returned at week’s end.

On Sept. 10, Young Life releases its latest version of RELATE research. This time, surveys revisit Gen Z while bringing in the younger Gen Alpha.

The research explores new challenges to deep human relationships brought by AI companions, which are used by one-third of global youth.            

Chesemore says Young Life makes its RELATE research available to help other ministers serve Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Find it here: https://relate.younglife.org/