(This is based on our own camp director reports as to how many Bibles we gave out, how many kids went on new believer walk, and those who stood at ‘Say-So.’)”[4] The organization was started in Gainesville, Texas in 1941 by Presbyterian minister Jim Rayburn and is currently led by president and CEO Newt Crenshaw.

[6] As of 2021, Young Life was under investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for allegedly failing to protect its employees against sexual misconduct and racial discrimination.

[7][2][8] One alleged victim of sexual abuse reported that she informed more than a dozen people about the harassment she faced, being told at one point that it was "God's plan" for her.

[citation needed] The Young Life website credits the beginning to Clara Frasher, an elderly woman who around 1933 recruited friends to help her pray for teenagers attending Gainesville High School.

The Young Life approach is to go where teenagers are and care for them, thereby earning “the right to be heard.” In the late 1940s at Wheaton College in Illinois, the organization developed its combination of using both paid staff and volunteers.

(This is based on our own camp director reports as to how many Bibles we gave out, how many kids went on new believer walk, and those who stood at ‘Say-So.’)”[4] According to a 1994 Vancouver Sun newspaper article, out of 350 students attending one particular week-long session at the Malibu Camp in British Columbia, Canada, more than 100 publicly testified during the informal ceremony of “Commitment Night” on the final night saying they had committed their lives to Jesus.

In November 2007, Jeff McSwain, the Area Director of Durham and Chapel Hill, along with others, publicly took issue with the organization's presentation of the concept of sin.

He was not satisfied with the wording of the theological principles and felt that they sounded “more Unitarian than Trinitarian by drawing a sharp contrast between the holy God and incarnated Son who ‘actually became sin.’”[20] Tony Jones felt that Young Life's Statement of “non-negotiables” encouraged telling staffers that “they must not introduce the concept of Jesus and his grace until the students have been sufficiently convinced of their own depravity and been allowed to stew in that depravity (preferably overnight).”[21] .

Local leader Pam Elliott stepped down after being asked to remove a photo from her Facebook page showing her support for the LGBTQ community.