Support Youth Becoming Leaders Institute

At Asbury University we believe that high school students can be great, Christ-like leaders in the church today… and in the future. Therefore, we have developed Youth Becoming Leaders to equip and train high school students for serving and leading in the Church. Youth Becoming Leaders trains leaders through immersion in Christian community, engagement in a community leadership project, and facilitating a mentor relationship in their home community.

The purpose of the Youth Becoming Leaders: High School Christian Leadership and Global Transformation Institute is to equip High School students for theologically guided living and decision making through immersion in Christian Scripture, theological texts, tradition and community to lead and serve in a complex global society.

The Need

• The world needs better leaders.
• The world needs leaders who can think, learn, and initiate change.
• The world needs strong leaders in the church to initiate this change from a theologically grounded and informed perspective.
• Many young people who are raised in the Christian faith are leaving the church when they graduate high school. 
• There is a shortage of young people in ministry and preparing for ministry. 
• The best and brightest are often turned away from pursuing ministry as a viable future because of: 
  • Lack of willingness by the church to engage in global and intellectual issues
  • Lack of strong role models in the church 
  • Lack of mentors to guide young people in the process 

In a world that desperately needs the church and strong Christian leadership, there is a coming vacancy. The world needs leaders who…. 

• think, learn, and initiate change. 
• withhold a theologically grounded and informed perspective in the church to initiate this change.

Institute Highlights

• Exposure to professors from Asbury University and Asbury Theological Seminary
• Focus on not just getting information but on using that information to lead change and make decisions
• Focus on the whole person
• Mentor relationship – each student selects a mentor from their home community
• Ministry project – Each student designs a ministry project to start in their home community/church.
• 10- day residential program is the START – students begin to implement the ministry project that they have designed during the camp. This ministry project happens in their home community/church. Asbury University continues to train, monitor, and support YBL students for three months post-residential program.

Church and Community Impact

Each student who is a part of Youth Becoming Leaders develops a ministry project that they take back and start in their home community. Each project partners with the student’s church, mentor, and community but is most developed under the student’s leadership. The projects help students learn to assess the needs of their community, partner with others, work with their gifts and dreams, and develop their leadership skills through the project. 

Some ministry projects from past years:

• Student started his own nonprofit organization to recruit other high school students to visit people in area hospitals.
• Student started a ministry to at-risk children and families in her neighborhood.
• Student started a ministry partnering area churches with refugees.

What kind of impact could a student have in your church or community?

Asbury is uniquely equipped to train tomorrow’s leaders

The mission of Asbury University, as a Christian Liberal Arts University in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition, is to equip men and women, through a commitment to academic excellence and spiritual vitality, for a lifetime of learning, leadership and service to the professions, society, the family and the Church, thereby preparing them to engage their cultures and advance the cause of Christ around the world.

We believe in young people. We believe that young people can be leaders both NOW and in the future. Asbury’s history is that of preparing and sending young people into the world to be leaders. From E. Stanley Jones, the famous missionary to India, to the Asbury revival of 1970, to the current wave of Asbury students serving Christ all over the world, Asbury has played a prominent role in the preparation of people for ministry to the significant issues of the world.

Invest in the Future

How do you measure the impact of great Christian leadership? Join us in investing in the leadership development of young people today for an exponential impact on the Church and the world.

There are many ways your community can partner:

• Pray – We invite you to join in praying for the young people who God is calling to leadership and this program.
• Send – Invite some of your high school students to apply to come to Youth Becoming Leaders.
• Partner – Scholarship 2 students for their registration fee cost to the program: one student who you will send from your own church and one student who cannot afford to come but is qualified.
• Sponsorship – The real cost per student and mentor for YBL is $4000. Sponsor a youth and mentor to come to YBL by donating that cost.

Check Donation

To donate to Youth Becoming Leaders by check, please send to:

Youth Becoming Leaders Partnerships
Asbury University
One Macklem Drive
Wilmore, KY 40390

Please add “YBL Partner” in the memo line of the check.

Online Donation

To donate to Youth Becoming Leaders by giving online, please use the form below.