Vocational Missionary Update Scott Moore @ YU

Here at Spring Garden we support several local missionaries. Each month we will be highlighting a different missionary so that you can hear about how they are serving God. This month we hear from Scott Moore. Scott serves Youth Unlimited as its Executive Director in the CEO role. He is responsible for the strategic direction of the organization, as well as leadership, team and resource development. Central to his responsibilities, Scott provides spiritual leadership to YU, caring for the well-being of his staff as they reach out to the young people of the GTA. You can learn more about YU by visiting the YU website at www.yugta.ca.

Youth Unlimited has been reaching young people in Toronto for more than 75 years. What started as large rallies in Massey Hall has adapted over the years to have become what we are today - grassroots initiatives partnering with local churches and organizations across the city. We currently have 61 active initiatives, a staff team of over 70 and more than 300 volunteers. We are rooted in the person, teachings and work of Jesus as we bring wholistic care to young people through long-term mentoring relationships. I have been serving with YU since February 2008 and am grateful to have been a missionary of Spring Garden for all my time! I was YU’s North York Area Director for 5 years and have been serving as Executive Director for over 8 years now. My role is to bring strategic and spiritual leadership to the organization

I was living in Victoria and was planning to build a life on the west coast in business after a career as a national team athlete. 5

To make a long story short, God very clearly spoke to me one night through a picture of being a pastor. Soon thereafter, I returned home and studied at Tyndale seminary to complete my Masters of Divinity. It was a serious life turn! I expected to be pastoring a church when I graduated but once again God redirected my path. When John Wilkinson invited me to consider joining YU, it was so clearly the right place for me to exercise the gifts God had given me. And here I still am - joyfully - after 14 years.

Wow! I read a lot so that’s hard to narrow down. I do remember Dallas Willard’s book The Divine Conspiracy being very formative while I was living in Victoria. It opened my understanding to who Jesus was and what he taught.

Our vision is to serve the one million youth of the GTA! Right now, we serve a broad spectrum of youth aged 10 to 25(ish!) - from young Christian leaders to those on the most vulnerable margins of our city. Our primary organizational focus is having staff rooted in neighbourhoods across the city - and these are often communities that are under-served.

It looks flexible, adaptive, and innovative! I’m so proud of how our staff demonstrated their love and care for young people over the past 20 months by doing whatever it took to connect. Some of our programming, like the LAUNCH leadership course went online and flourished. Our care to the most vulnerable remained in person however we could do that safely - often through personal care packages and groceries delivered to doorsteps (and encampments). Then there was a whole bunch of ‘in between’ work from parking lot hangouts, outdoor skating, podcasting, and more.

Wow! All of our teams have shared tear-inducing stories of how God has given us the privilege of coming alongside youth in the midst of a tumultuous year. I have seen God moving by bringing our largest intern cohort and 10 new staff to our team over this past year - 6

during the pandemic! I have seen God moving by the faithful and committed generosity of our more than 3,000 ministry support partners - each one we cherish and celebrate. God continually draws me to the cross. Whenever I’m ‘wanting something to happen’ or wishing God would intervene in a situation as I would like, He reminds me that His power is made perfect in weakness and His power was most fully displayed when He gave himself over to us on the cross. It’s so humbling and brings me always to the point of focusing on self-sacrificial love as the hallmark of our lives.

We know how much Spring Garden supports YU. So I want you to know how grateful we are for you.

Join our prayer team! You get a short daily email to pray for a specific ministry need. We cannot fully fathom the impact of God’s people praying, but I know from the bottom of my heart and from the stories of Scripture that it makes a world of difference. There are so many ways to participate in our vision of seeing transformed youth transforming our city. Any one of our YU’ers would be happy to chat about that with you!