Today we’d like to introduce you to Walker Johnson.
Walker, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I began working in the non-profit world while I was still in college. While attending Abilene Christian University, I was a volunteer with Young Life – a relational outreach ministry for students across the globe – while I was studying to go into the medical field. One day, Chuck Rodgers, my mentor and the Area Director of YL Abilene, asked why I wanted to go into medicine. I told him it was the pressure of having someone’s life in your hands. He asked, “why do that when you could deal in eternal life?” I then moved from a volunteer to a student-staff position for the rest of my time at ACU and planned to work for Young Life afterwards.
Once I graduated, I moved to the great city of Arlington, Texas! I spent a few years as a Staff Associate, running a ministry at a high school, overseeing a junior high, and learning under the leadership of Holly McLean. In 2016, I became the Area Director of YL Arlington, overseeing and stewarding our $450,000 budget, fundraising operations, 15 ministries, 15 staff, and 120+ volunteers. Outside of Young Life, I have had opportunities to speak at events, banquets, galas, and conferences for different organizations and communities. Speaking on fundraising and leadership is something I did not plan to be doing in my life but have thoroughly enjoyed.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
This has been, and continues to be, a road full of ups and downs. Working in this arena brings many unique challenges and requires a lot of personal and familial sacrifice. There have been many moments when we’ve had to pause and decide whether to continue on such a strenuous path… But knowing it is a purposeful one for the good of others, seeing the way Young Life changes people’s lives and having a community who does all they can to help us has allowed us to keep going.
One of the largest challenges we continue to face each year is funding. Young Life Arlington operates solely through the generosity of our community as we fundraise all of our operating budgets every year. We have the MOST caring community of people here in Arlington, but raising funds for such a large ministry year after year is a great challenge! There are months where we have to scale back pay in order to continue running programs at full speed. Thankfully, our staff also cares so much for these kids that they selflessly continue working on reduced pay, but it’s extremely difficult to ask them to do so when they already give so much of themselves and their own lives. It’s also not lost on us that all time we spend raising money is time we could be using for kids across our city.
Please tell us about Young Life.
Young Life is all about the lives of kids. We go to them on their turf, learn their names, hear their stories, build bridges through authentic friendship, show up for them, tell them about Jesus, and love them regardless of their response. Here in Arlington, we have 15 ministries, six high schools, six junior highs, Young Life College, Young Lives (our ministry for teen moms and their babies), and Capernaum (for our friends with special needs). In each of these, we do life together with our friends and show them they are known and valued and loved unconditionally.
There are many parts to Young Life, but perhaps the two we are most famous for are Club and Camp. Each ministry in Arlington has their own “Club,” a party with a purpose, where we invite our friends to come, be greeted by name, and to have a break from the world to just be kids. They laugh, sing, play ridiculous games, and then hear about Jesus, why he is an advocate for them and wants a relationship with them. In the summer, we go to Young Life Camp, where kids experience “the best week of their lives or their money back.” They have a week in immaculate camps, on beautiful properties, away from the stressors, pressures, and noise of everyday life, to be a kid. They experience GREAT adventure, food, programs, and hospitality. They hear about Jesus and get to have real conversations with their leaders who came with them, then go back to Arlington with their leaders and continue to do life together. Young Life is the standard for relational ministry and everything we do is done to the best of our ability for the sake of our community’s young people that we get to call our friends.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I’ve learned a lot through this process, but if I had to start over, I would have focused on my weaknesses more than my giftings. Working on some of the things that come less naturally to me may have helped me be a better servant and Area Director to the people of Arlington. Being quite young, I continued to lean heavily on the things that I knew I could do well. Those giftings helped me in a lot of ways but I wish I also would have challenged myself more by facing what I was less confident in executing or concerned about messing up.
Contact Info:
- Address: Office: 2805 W Arkansas Lane, Dalworthington Gardens, TX 76013
- Website: http://arlington.younglife.org
- Phone: 817-899-8484
- Email: ylifearlington@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/younglifearlington/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YLarlington/
Suggest a story: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
