After 11 transformative summers, Asbury University’s Youth Becoming Leaders program concludes its residential experience while expanding its impact through a new digital resource library for churches and ministry leaders.
For more than a decade, Asbury University’s Youth Becoming Leaders (YBL) program has helped high school students discover God’s calling, develop Christ-centered leadership, and build lifelong relationships rooted in faith. As the program celebrates its final summer, YBL leaves behind a legacy that will continue shaping churches, communities, and future generations through a new digital library of ministry resources.
Since launching in 2015, YBL has welcomed 226 students from across the United States and around the world, including South Africa, Haiti, Alaska, Hawaii, California, Colorado, Kentucky, and numerous East Coast states.
The world needs better leaders, and the church needs better leaders. We see God calling young people, such as Samuel, David, and Mary, all throughout Scripture, so we are joining God’s work in young people’s lives today, valuing and equipping them as capable ministry leaders in their churches and communities.”
This summer, the program welcomed 31 additional students, bringing together young leaders for ten days of worship, theological study, service, mentorship, and vocational discernment. More than half of all YBL participants (52 percent) have gone on to attend Asbury University, reflecting the program’s lasting influence on students’ educational and spiritual journeys.
YBL intentionally created an immersive Christian community where students lived, learned, worshiped, and served together. Participants engaged in daily prayer, small groups, leadership development, challenge courses, service projects with Natalie’s Sisters, Common Good, and Refuge for Women, as well as Sabbath retreats and ministry project presentations designed to equip them for leadership in their home churches and communities. Throughout the experience, students explored what it means to respond faithfully to God’s call while developing practical ministry skills that extend well beyond the summer program.
For 11 years, Youth Becoming Leaders equipped hundreds of young people to discern God's calling, serve the Church, and emerge as student leaders both at Asbury University and in communities around the world.
We define Christian Leadership as joining Christ in creating space for people to live into their God-given gifts, dreams, and calling for the sake of the Kingdom of God.”
Many YBL alumni have continued their leadership journeys at Asbury, serving as influential campus leaders, including recent graduates Haven Emery, Kaitrin Boiling, and Jackson Feeback.
The program also generated more than $900,000 in funding through a Lilly Endowment grant, along with generous support from churches, donors, and ministry partners who shared its vision of investing in the next generation of Christian leaders.
The program’s defining characteristic was its emphasis on belonging. Students formed friendships across cohorts, developed meaningful mentoring relationships with faculty and counselors, and often reunited years later as classmates at Asbury.
These connections reflected YBL’s broader vision of the Church: a community where individuals create space for one another to discover and faithfully pursue God’s unique gifts, talents, and calling.
Although the residential program concludes this year, its mission continues. Thanks to a Lilly Endowment Leadership and Connection Grant, the YBL team is developing a free digital resource library that will launch on Asbury University’s website this fall. The collection will include devotionals, mentor workbooks, prayer stations, ministry planning guides, testimony resources, and practical tools designed to help churches and ministry leaders cultivate Christ-centered leadership in their own communities.
As one chapter closes, another begins. The legacy of Youth Becoming Leaders will continue through resources that empower churches to create spaces where young people are known, discipled, and sent to live out God’s calling for years to come.