Youth for Christ

Youth For Christ (YFC) is a worldwide Christian movement working with young people, whose main purpose is evangelism among teenagers.

[1] Rallies were held in other U.S. cities during World War II, attracting particularly large crowds in Chicago led by Torrey Johnson, who became YFC’s first president in 1944.

[1] Former YFC staff have launched over 100 related Christian organizations, including the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and World Vision.

Youth for Christ rallies were first held in New York City in 1940, organized by Jack Wyrtzen, a young ex-insurance salesman who had also played the trombone in a cavalry band.

In 1944 Torrey Johnson, a Baptist minister and pastor of Chicago's Midwest Bible Church, staged "Chicagoland for Christ" and became the most successful advocate of this type of campaign.

Following the end of World War II, the movement expanded to other countries after Charles Templeton of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and Torrey Johnson met with a number of youth leaders from around the United States at Winona Lake, Indiana, in 1945 to form a working group that would become an international organization.

The Youth for Christ worldwide Staff and Leadership Conference (General Assembly) was held in Denver, Colorado later that year.