YouthWorks  Info

1.Core Purpose and Values for Youthworks! (www.youthworks.com)

The most common question people ask us is: Who or what is YouthWorks!? Well,
we are incredibly excited about what God has been doing through YouthWorks!,
and want you to know all about us.

Our Purpose

Quite simply, our purpose is to provide life changing, Christ-centered youth
mission opportunities. This is our reason for being. We create
extraordinarily fun and significant mission adventures, targeted to the
needs and capabilities of youth, ages 12-19.

By crossing borders of race and culture, and by placing students outside
their comfort zones, we find something wonderful happens: God gets their
attention! Without the distractions of everyday life, God uses YouthWorks!
to work in the lives of thousands of teenagers. By attempting to be faithful
to our purpose, we find God is also at work in each of the communities we
serve. Yea God!

Our Values

It is important for people to know what we value and why. We have six things
we consider to be our core values. These are our essentials:

Youth Minded

We love teenagers! You've probably guessed it - it's in our name. All that
we do is focused on providing life-changing mission experiences for 12-19
year olds. We design our trips to meet the needs of this age group - and we
create ministry experiences that will challenge them. We do not believe
youth are the church of tomorrow - they are part of the church today. They
too, can do God's work if we invite them to join us.

Servant Leadership

The world is thirsting for leadership - the kind the church can provide. We
need selfless, humble, obedient, servant leaders who follow Christ. We
desire to emulate the model of Christ, our servant leader (John 13). By
serving the church, youth ministers and adult leaders, we believe servant
leadership will be contagious. Adults will serve teens, teens will serve
communities, and communities will serve the world. By serving these, as
Christ commands, we also serve Christ Himself.

Relationship Oriented

Our ministry philosophy is a relational one - one that has at its core a
ministry of presence. It is our deep desire to create and be in relationship
with the people we serve. We believe that by following Jesus' example,
loving as He loved, and embodying a "Christ-in-the-flesh" model, we will
make friends. We believe it is in real friendship that we give and receive
without demeaning each other or stripping one another of dignity. The work
we do on our trips is focused on the work of building relationships.

Life Change

We believe the message of Christ is about life change. It was impossible for
Jesus' disciples not to have had the direction of their lives changed
forever! We desire to present the message of Christ and challenge of Christ
in all aspects of our mission trips. We trust God will work powerfully to
create life change in our lives, and in the lives of every student that
participates in a YouthWorks! mission trip.

Multi-Denominational

Our ministry organization is ecumenical. What does that mean? Let's just say
we love the church! We believe it is God's plan to reach the world. There is
so much that divides and separates us in the church today. The strange thing
is that the focus on denominational similarities and differences tends to be
an adult thing. Most teens don't seem to care. So we bring denominations
together, adults and teens, to share the experience of serving Jesus
together. We believe Jesus is smiling when we do it!

Ministry Focused

Our primary work is ministry. Although we use the building and repairing of
homes as a way to see the love of Christ (1 John 3:18), this is not an end
all. We also love community children and elderly, and serve with local
ministries. We do not call our trips "work camps." We do not spotlight new
or repaired houses, or highlight what we've accomplished during our stay.
The "works" in our name are the "works" God will do in our hearts and lives
if we allow it. Needless to say, all we are and all we hope to be, is
Christ-centered.

Our Past, Present and Future

YouthWorks!, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation, was created in 1994 by
a youth minister in Minneapolis, MN. With a Christ centered board, guiding a
skilled group of youth workers as staff, we have seen incredible growth. The
first summer, 35 churches brought over 400 participants to two sites. In
2002, over 1600 churches and youth ministries brought over 27,000
participants to 58 different mission sites. In the summer of 2003, we
estimate having as many as 30,000 participants in over 70 different
communities. God is so good!

We've also made a commitment to deepen and enrich our youth ministry by
investing in permanent, year round youth workers in a number of communities
we serve. We believe God will leverage the work of our summer mission trips
with the work of these faithful, youth ministry missionaries. Because of
what we see God doing through YouthWorks!, we plan on offering more
opportunities for churches and youth in the future.