When you become a member of the YMCA, you are invited to join an association that works to strengthen the foundations of our community in spirit, mind and body. It’s not just a gym and place to swim, but a place for transformation, courage, resiliency, friendship, and belonging.
The Young Men’s Christian Association has continued to transform lives since it’s founding in the 1840’s in urban, industrialized London, England. In the 1850’s the Y planted in Montreal and Boston, and then across the United States. It’s mission is still transforming lives: to put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all.
The founding principle of the YMCA is from the gospel according to John 17, where Jesus is praying for his disciples -there around him and the ones to follow him in the decades and the many centuries to come. In it the founders of the Y focused on this part of the prayer: “…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Unity with fellow members, communion with Father, Son and Spirit – that’s the ground on which the YMCA was built.
As you know, unity is invitational, never coercive. Forging unity requires the ingredients of patient kindness, healing honesty, earnest respect, and loyal responsibility. These Christian principles are compelling, and they undergird everything the Y tries to do for it’s members and in the community. When we don’t get it right, we apologize and try harder next time; when we do get it right, we build on it to better serve all.
Everyone has their own reasons for joining the Y. That’s the beauty of the YMCA! We are for all! We open up our membership to young and old, men and women, Christians and people of all or no faith, rich and poor, neighbors of all tribes, nations, languages. We try put our Christian principles to work everyday to extend a warm-hearted welcome for all.
It’s the season of our annual campaign, where we connect with friends, family, and fellow YMCA members to give generously so that we can live our promise: the YMCA of Greater Fort Wayne has made a promise to our community to turn no one away due to the inability to pay. Isn’t that remarkable? What other membership association does that? We want everyone to join our mission, to come transform with us.
In his old age, the beloved apostle John wrote letters to Christians scattered around the Roman Empire, instructing them on how to live charitably in a hostile and complicated world. One of those instructions inspires our attitude and effort for the annual campaign – he writes: “If anyone has wealth in this world and sees a brother or sister in need, and has compassion on them, the love of God is in them. Dear friends, let us not just love with words, but with actions and in truth.”
If you think about it, Jesus, were he to be living in our community today, would not have the ability to pay for a membership at the YMCA. He was homeless, wandered across the nation, relying on friends and family for his provisions. We believe that when we open up our hearts to those in need, we are doing so to Jesus as well. When we give to the annual campaign, you make it possible for those that were in need like Jesus to join our association and all it’s benefits!
The YMCA is here for all – for those that have the ability to pay, and those that don’t. Isn’t that inspiring? We are here to strengthen the foundations of our community with great love. The Y is more than a gym and place to swim, it’s an association of mission-inspired members always inviting the community: come transform with us.
Watch this beautiful reminder of what the YMCA means to so many in our country and in our neighborhoods, why we want to be for all.
