The Donut Isn’t the Point

Rethinking our on-campus presence at West High

by Jodie Swee, Young Life staff

Last year, we had Lunch Club at West High School. It was good. Kids came, leaders showed up, and there were meaningful conversations.

But as we looked toward this year, I kept coming back to a question:

Is this helping us meet kids we don't already know? Not really.

Lunch Club tended to attract students who were already connected to Young Life, already Christians, or at least comfortable walking into something that felt like a Christian gathering. There was nothing wrong with that. But if one of the reasons we're on campus is to go where kids are and begin relationships with kids who might never come looking for us, I wondered if we could create a wider front door.

Enter: Dunk & Donuts.

The idea is ridiculously simple.

Twice a month at lunch, we'll take over a little space in the pavilion at West. We'll bring 10 dozen donuts and have a basketball shooting challenge. Every kid gets one shot. Make it, win a $5 gift card. If nobody makes it, another $5 gets added to the pot for next time.

And the first time you take a shot, you get a free T-shirt that says:

DONUT DO LIFE ALONE.

That's pretty much it. No program. No message. No requirement that you know what Young Life is.

Grab a donut. Take a shot. Hang around if you want.

Because the donut isn't the point.

The point is this:

"Hey, what's your name?"

Young Life is relational ministry, and relationships have to start somewhere. Sometimes they start at Club or camp. Sometimes a kid gets invited by a friend. And maybe sometimes they start because a teenager saw free donuts at lunch and wandered over.

Dunk & Donuts gives us a reason to be there and gives kids an easy reason to come near us. There's no big social risk involved. They don't have to decide whether they're interested in Young Life or Jesus. They don't even have to stay.

But while they're there, somebody can notice them. Somebody can learn their name. And the next time they walk by, we can remember it.

That's the beginning.

Students are leading it.

This may be my favorite part.

I met with our West student board as we were developing the idea, and they're the ones who decided we should do it at lunch in the pavilion. And they're going to run it.

Our Young Life leaders will be there, but the students will facilitate the fun. They'll hand out donuts, run the basketball challenge, invite their friends, welcome the kid who walks up alone, and introduce people to our leaders.

We're not just asking Christian students to invite their friends to Young Life. We're giving them a simple way to practice relational ministry themselves: notice someone, welcome them, learn a name, make an introduction.

Sharing Jesus doesn't always begin with knowing exactly what to say about Jesus. Sometimes it begins with becoming the kind of person who notices who's standing on the edge and lets them know you're glad they're there.

And then we see what grows.

That's an important piece of this experiment for me. We're not assuming that handing a teenager a donut means we've built a relationship with them. We're not claiming that a free T-shirt creates a sense of belonging.

We're creating an opportunity for a first interaction.

Then we have to do the actual work of relational ministry.

Maybe the kid comes back two weeks later and one of our leaders remembers his name. Maybe eventually he comes to Club. Maybe we see him at a football game, grab food together, or learn what's going on at home.

Maybe somewhere down the road, that relationship creates space for a conversation about faith. And maybe one day he hears from someone who has taken the time to know him that Jesus knows him even more deeply.

That's what we're after.

So we're buying a lot of donuts.

About 2,000 of them, actually! And 100 T-shirts. And a stack of $5 gift cards.

On paper, it could look like we're spending a bunch of ministry money to give teenagers free stuff. But we're really trying to create a wider front door, a place where the barrier to entry is almost nonexistent.

A reason for our leaders to meet kids we don't know yet. A chance for our student leaders to practice loving their peers well. And then we're trusting God with what grows from there.

Because the donut isn't the point.

Jesus is.

The donut just helps us meet the kid.