History
a long but encouraging journey...
In the 1940’s and 50’s Youth for Christ sponsored large monthly gatherings at Bradley’s Fieldhouse, Trewyn School or at the old Woodruff Field where Billy Graham was even known to have spoken.
In the late 50’s and 60’s YFC offered Bible Clubs at numerous local high schools, where students, teachers, and YFC Staff members would gather before or after school to study the Bible and pray. The Supreme Court’s ruling in 1963 ended that activity.
In the 70’s & 80’s YFC conducted evening programs called “Campus Life” where Central Illinois teens could attend a club near their own school and play ridiculous games, laugh at fun crowd breakers, talk about life in high school, and learn where God fit into their lives.
In the 90’s and early 2000’s YFC offered area-wide Campus Life Clubs, which allowed teens from numerous high schools to gather in one place for fun, fellowship, teaching and be challenged to follow and grow in Jesus Christ. Today, at YFC, we believe that all Christians are full-time ministers. This means that accountants, engineers, bankers, artists, teachers, parents, coaches, insurance agents, business owners, tradespeople, and professionals all have a place in the lives of teens. So ... we mobilize dozens of local adults who gather with teens in large groups, small groups, on trips, at crazy events, and over coffee with hundreds of local teens to live out the Great News of Jesus Christ and raise up life-long followers.
Youth For Christ - National Movement
In the early 1940s, after World War II, Godly men were holding large rallies across the United States. Someone needed to coordinate this movement, providing leadership, strategy, speaker coordination, musicians and locations. YFC organized into a national movement fairly quickly and Billy Graham became our first staff member.
Saturday night rallies in the 40s and 50s turned into Bible Clubs in the late 50s and 60s. In the 60s and early 70s, Campus Life ministries rose up, to reach toward senior high students.
Since then, several ministry models have been created, like Youth Guidance, to reach at-risk and institutionalized teens. Teen Moms was developed to mentor and equip young parents with parenting skills and the love of Jesus Christ. City Life was born to reach millions of teens in major urban communities.
YFC/USA is a chartered program of Youth for Christ International. 1,800+ paid staff and 16,500+ volunteers serve in 100+ countries around the world.
YFC has an unwavering commitment to bringing Jesus Christ, and Bible-based Christianity to teens. One of our slogans years ago was "Anchored to the Rock, Geared to the Times"- the message of the gospel will never change and YFC is energetic and flexible to communicate this message of hope, grace and love in the context of constantly changing cultural settings.