Young Life is a faith-based non-profit organization providing high school students positive role models and the opportunity to come as they are while having fun with friends, making memories and living life to the fullest.
The Start of Young Life in Henderson
Young Life in Henderson first started in 1997 by a group of volunteers—two of which were Chris and Holly Hartman, owners of Elite Downtown. Their love story came full circle all because of the Young Life organization. In 1998, Chris was asked to come on staff as Henderson’s first area director.
Holly is originally from Newburgh, Indiana and Chris grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. She was involved in Young Life in high school, and she attended club every Monday night. “It was the place to be,” Holly said. Chris was a new believer in high school, but he was involved with Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Chris went to work in Wisconsin at a ranch with juvenile delinquents after he graduated college. It was there they started taking their houses at the ranch to Young Life camp in Minnesota. One group went and had a great experience—so they raised money to send all three groups to camp. Holly was a volunteer leader in Evansville, and it was this particular camp that brought the two of them together. Their groups were partnered up as soon as they got off the bus. Chris and Holly kept in touch via writing letters and talking on the phone. In December, she needed a male leader to go with her to Colorado for a Young Life ski trip. He came with her on the ski trip to volunteer, and they were engaged shortly after.
In 1997, Young Life was doing a campaign to expand the number of clubs. Evansville had been around for many years, but there had never been one established in Henderson. At the time, Chris was teaching at Henderson County High School—so it was a perfect opportunity. As word started to get around, the momentum built with so much support to bring this organization to Henderson. The volunteers who helped Chris and Holly start Young Life in Henderson were Mitch Norwood, Mark Weaver, Willie Curry, Michael Cochran, Kelly Gibson and Shannon Yeary.
The weekly meetings were always high energy for the Hartmans. Holly had a background in skits and music, and Mark Weaver played the guitar. It was always a great program. They had 10 volunteer leaders. “We had young, active, consistent leaders and that was really important. It makes it fun for the leadership, volunteers, kids and missions community. The crazier the better,” Chris said. They had a mix of kids who went to church and those who didn’t. There were around 100 kids coming to club on Monday nights.
The Hartmans were blessed by the students they were able to get to know through their leadership and this organization. There are so many kids they had in Young Life who are now on staff or have been volunteer leaders at some point. They watched right before their eyes how this organization truly changed the life of one student in particular. She had been a student in Chris’s class. She was going through a hard time in her life, and Chris and Holly took her in to help. She began coming to Young Life when Chris became area director, and her life was changed forever.
A New Beginning
Young Life has remained in Henderson for 25+ years blessing students and families across the community with wonderful area directors and volunteer leaders until the previous area director retired in 2020. It was February 2023 when Collin Morton received a call about the opening for the new area director position. They invited Collin and his wife, Faith, to come and visit Henderson. Collin and Faith left that day really convinced this was a town they believed would be great to be established in and start a family of their own someday.
Collin and Faith are from the Brentwood/Franklin, Tennessee area. He attended Young Life because that was the thing to do in high school, and he was attending for the social aspect.
Young Life offers a fall weekend camp, and Collin decided to attend. They have a camp speaker who is there to preach the gospel at the end. Collin said he ignored it, but kept going with his friends just to have fun. He then attended a trip in Colorado, and that is when he heard the gospel. “I really heard it for the first time and gave my life to Christ.”
During Collin’s senior year of high school, the conversation began to change to how he could serve within Young Life. He quickly found the Young Life group at Western Kentucky University and started volunteering/leading at South Warren High School. He served there for two years. The first few months he was volunteering, and then came on as part-time student staff.
The Roles within Young Life
As area director, Collin is the only staff member for Henderson Young Life but falls under the volunteer committee. They are adult leaders who have a passion for the ministry. They meet once a month to discuss operation fundraising efforts, event planning, ministry updates, and high-level planning of Young Life. Danielle Crafton is the committee chair. Collin’s role as area director is to oversee direct ministry with high school students, ministry to volunteer leaders and handle all administrative operations of running Young Life in the area.
Collin said, “If you came to an event and saw adults—they would be our volunteer leaders. We go through training in August and get them familiar with the ministry of what our values are and what we believe. They are the heroes of the ministry. You can do Young Life without money, without a committee, without a staff person but Young Life isn’t Young Life without volunteer leaders who really spearhead and step into the lives of kids. They take the time and spend the money and invest in their lives,” expressed Collin. “Right now we have a small team of volunteer leaders, and we are always looking for more!” The Hartman’s legacy continues as their daughter, Hattie, and son-in-law, Mason, are currently volunteer leaders for Henderson Young Life.
A Week in Young Life
Monday night is when club is held. Collin laughed describing club as, “Controlled chaos. It’s a party with a purpose.” He said students sing goofy songs with friends, play funny games, do skits, etc. “At the end of the night, someone will give a proclamation of the gospel in a way that makes sense to them and in a way that they’ve heard like never before.” There has been an average of 85-90 students coming on Monday nights but they have had as high as 105 students. Club isn’t a formal club. It’s open to everyone to come and feel welcomed. There is no fee. It’s an evening of fun for all high school students.
Thursday night is when Campaigners is held, which is a Bible study for those students who are interested. It has been anywhere from 5-20 students because it fluctuates based on student schedules. There is always food. “It is a lot less of being taught and just conversational.”
Outside of those two weeknights, volunteer leaders are meeting students and being a friend to students. They are hanging out with students—whether it be grabbing coffee or going to Rockhouse for Trivia Night. They are walking alongside kids and pouring into them.
Young Life is going where the students are and stepping into their world. The first couple of months when Henderson Young Life was starting back up, Collin, Faith and their volunteer leaders were at school, sporting events and Senior Sunrise. “We have established a great relationship with the administration. They are awesome. We have badges that get us into sporting events for free. We took a course at the board office. It allows us to be at more things without it being a financial burden for our volunteers. Their willingness to let us be there and be a friend to the students has been really great. I am blessed to have developed the relationship with the administration that we have.”
Students learn about Young Life through word of mouth, but Young Life also uses social media to connect. They have an account on Facebook specifically for parents within the area to update them on what’s happening within the organization and an Instagram account geared more towards the students. It is less informational and more interactive for the students. “If we as a mission want to step into their world then we have to do that with excellence,” stated Collin.
Young Life Camps
“Young Life has a way of doing camp,” Collin expressed. Family Camp will be taking place Labor Day weekend. It is very unique in that it is for the entire family—newborns to teenagers. It will take place at SharpTop Cove in Georgia.
In the summer, there are two trips. One is for freshmen and the other is for sophomores-seniors. The freshmen go to Gatlinburg and stay in cabins. They go to Dollywood, explore downtown Gatlinburg and do a trail at the Great Smoky Mountains with talks throughout the week.
The sophomore-seniors trip is to SharpTop Cove in Georgia from June 30-July 6. A former regional director once said, “Camping is not the best thing we do at Young Life but the thing we do best.” This camp is resort quality with roundtable meals and all you can eat.
There is a fall trip to Camp Illiana. It’s a week of fun with paint ball, zip lines and more.
“Camping is expensive—so we have a $10,000 goal for our camping fund to bring the cost of camp down to make it more accessible for students.” This will allow students to go for half price and will include transportation, t-shirts, etc. Anyone wanting to support the organization can go to their website to donate to the camping fund at henderson.younglife.org.
Future Plans
A Young Life banquet is planned for March, and their hope is for this to be a large, community event so parents can come and hear the mission of Young Life. At this event, Collin said they will talk about their goals and vision moving forward for Henderson.
Young Life is the high school outreach ministry. Wyldlife is the middle school ministry for 6th-8th grade. They hope to start this up next school year, but what would inhibit that from happening is not having enough volunteer leaders. “We know it’s needed and wanted, we just need leaders for that,” Collin stated. Capernaum is the special needs ministry led by Andrea Dickens. She is on the committee and spearheads that ministry with Collin, Faith and other volunteers. “She has kept it going since 2020. It was the only one that remained in that three year hiatus,” expressed the proud area director. They meet once a month on Mondays after school.
Young Lives ministry is the ministry for teen moms. “Andrea Dickens was also part of that in previous years. We are praying we can get it started. It’s a special ministry.”
“It’s a fantastic organization. It’s not church. People that might see it as another youth group—it’s not. It’s not competing with the church. When we were getting started that was one of the things we had to overcome was some thinking we were trying to take away from their youth group. We are trying to build their youth group. That’s why we loved having church kids because they could say, ‘Hey, why don’t you come with me,’ as they grew in their faith journey,” Chris explained.
Watch for details about the upcoming Henderson Young Life banquet. For more information, you may visit Henderson.younglife.org or reach out to Area Director, Collin Morton at [email protected].
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