Team interlínc

Editor’s Note: This is one of a series of 30 Stories that appeared in the 100th edition of Youth Leaders Only. Make sure you check out the other great stories  from this special edition celebrating 30 years of YLO. 

Team interlínc is the largest creative collective of youthworkers, artists, worship leaders, film makers, record and book company peeps, and other creative types committed to the effective development and use of popular media to reach the 8-18 age group students with the Good News of Jesus Christ. Over 5000 strong, from every major denominational and parachurch ministry in the US and from over 25 countries, Team interlínc equips “in the trenches” youthworkers to use music-media effectively in ministry.

The interlinc staff in 1999

When I first started editing the materials that make Youth Leaders Only way more than a music club, I learned something that may surprise you: most youth leaders are lousy writers.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. Most youth leaders are gifted communicators. We are a creative lot, and value effectiveness, energy, and enthusiasm over stuffy, plodding, and grammatically correct. Our untamable and boundless creativity is one reason we are good at what we do. Just don’t expect us to be excellent writers.

So, I approached Allen
 Weed, the founder and head 
of interlínc, with an idea to
raise the written 
communication bar for our materials. I floated the idea of forming a smaller cadre of youth leaders who also happen to be pretty good writers, and leaning on them to help make Youth Leaders Only as good as it could be.

Once a youth leader, always a youth leader …

That’s when the ‘WriteGroup’ was born.

Since then, the WriteGroup has functioned as I imagined it—and more. It has become interlinc’s premiere youth ministry “think tank”. As members of Team interlínc they have come up with far more ideas than we could ever implement. They have helped shape the direction that YLO has taken. The WriteGroup has collaborated to create an amazing body of effective youth ministry materials built around thousands of songs, videos and movies.