BACKGROUND
Jonathon Gorny is one who understands the power of showing up in a place where someone knows your name. It is a thread that weaves its way from his humble beginnings to his high school days where a stranger showed up, befriended him, and cheered for him by name during his games, to his current work with Young Life, where the value of knowing a kid’s name is a big deal.
Born and raised in Toledo, he is the grandson of Polish immigrants. At age three, Jonathon experienced what many kids in his neighborhood experienced, his parents’ divorce. His mom became the sole provider, which ultimately led her to a twenty-year career as a firefighter. Funds were scarce and because of her long shifts, his older brothers were often left in charge and Jonathon learned the value of brotherhood and hard work.
Jonathon didn’t grow up with a silver spoon – or a silver anything for that matter. He grew up in a racially diverse and economically limited community. Though he loved it, he learned that others viewed it and his friends through a different, less welcoming lens. As he saw his black friends treated differently than he was being treated, he developed a sense of shame, feeling that stayed with him as he entered Toledo’s Springfield High School and found himself surrounded by a wider variety of kids from different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds.
“Wrestling with economics, where I lived, and the people I knew are all part of my story and it shapes what I hope to do in ministry,” he says.
Sports became a place where Jonathon found belonging. Through his high school soccer team, Jonathon met Chris Lucius (“Lu”) who drove the half hour from Bowling Green State University (BGSU) to attend Springfield’s soccer games. Though he was in college and not from their community, Chris knew everyone on the team by name and befriended Jonathon as he had other team members for years. Later Jonathon learned he was a volunteer leader for Young Life (YL), but at the time, Lu just represented a source of encouragement to the team, cheering them on, getting to know them, and hanging out after games.
Lu became a mentor and friend, driving Jonathon on his magazine delivery route for an hour each Tuesday for the next four years – a route he had previously biked at night, as one of two part-time jobs. He biked at night out of shame at his own need to work while the kids at the houses he delivered to seemed to live charmed lives.
Slowly, through those car rides with Lu, Jonathon experienced the gospel, and it broke his shame and captured his heart and life.
There were two other things that captured his heart those years – first, another leader in YL named Carrie (who later became his wife) and second, the non-profit Young Life organization itself. YL became like part of his DNA. He volunteered after high school graduation while attending BGSU, turning around to help
others just as he had been helped. He and Carrie fell in love as they drove together 40 minutes each way to an inner city high school where he coached football and she coached the cheer team – thus car rides, once again, deeply shaped his life.
In addition to the volunteer coaching and leading Young Life, Jonathon studied telecommunications, earning a bachelor’s degree in television and film.
“The power of the combination of audio and video is super interesting and almost visceral to me,” he says. “I went to movies as a kid and remember being powerfully moved.”
College taught him that directing, editing and vision-casting for a team lit him up the most, and those are skills and talents he continues to press into in his career with YL. Since college, he has also earned a Master of Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary, an endeavor that helps him tell the story of faith in a more robust way.
“One of my favorite quotes is ‘those who tell the story shape the culture,’” he says. “I may not make movies but I still direct and edit by building relationships and telling stories; I still vision cast by inviting volunteers and staff into living out bigger stories, and we still change kids by telling powerful gospel stories.”
After college, Jonathon and Carrie started a new Young Life effort on the southwest side of Chicago – “at the intersection of white flight and gentrification,” he says. After growing the YL at Riverside-Brookfield for 10 years, they spent another five developing YL across the Chicagoland area, building diverse teams and joining multi-ethnic communities in their Gospel impact efforts.
“Watching the gospel impact kids as they wrestled with the same things I did was so powerful,” he says. “YL is a place where the gospel intersects with shame -- the shame evaporates. I got to tell kids, ‘you may only see shame here, but I see deep value.’”
While working for YL, Jonathon began to learn from members of the Black and Latino community how the Gospel could also impact communities economically through Christ-centered entrepreneurship. In 2018, he and a friend started a small business in the area to combat the problem of deindustrialization. Their coffee roasting enterprise, Southpaw Coffee Roasters, was built on the model of training employees to start and grow their own businesses locally through hands-on learning. Growth exploded during COVID and Jonathon questioned whether to leave Young Life and devote himself to the enterprise and its potential to help others.
“My biggest lesson from those I worked with in Chicago was that people are capable. I wasn’t bringing something to a community that didn’t exist -- it was already there. Our hope with YL and with Southpaw was helping people grow in knowledge and make connections,” he says. "What better use for my knowledge and connections than to give them away? That’s the definition of leadership to me – giving away as much as you can so others can stand on their own.”
As Jonathon was contemplating his future with YL and whether or not to go all in with Southpaw, he was encouraged to apply as Regional Director for The Raceway Region of Young Life (so named for the Indy 500 and Kentucky Derby). After a lot of wrestling, prayer, and encouragement from trusted friends and pastors, Jonathon and Carrie accepted the position with YL, sold the business to his partner, and left Chicago for Indy in June 2021.
As Regional Director, Jonathon is responsible for the culture, direction, and development of ministry across the Raceway Region, which he leads through a gifted, nine-person Regional Lead Team.
Leading one of the largest regions in YL nationwide, Jonathon is most encouraged by the staff he works with and their relentless, Christ-centered pursuit of every kid in every corner of the region. Currently in Indiana and Kentucky, there are 110 YL staff and over 700 volunteers that know 15,940 kids by name. Each month, 2,782 kids attend weekly or biweekly Clubs -- “parties with a purpose” where the gospel is shared. Nearly 2000 kids attend a Bible study monthly, and the number of summer campers has increased by about 34% over the past four years, to 2,344 this season.
Such growth takes incredible staff, a substantial amount of money, and many volunteers. It is no surprise that YL has historically struggled to sustain a presence in communities with the fewest.resources. This requires new thinking, new partnerships, and new strategies, says Jonathon, and he is eager to work with Citizen7 members who share the vision for reaching kids in these areas. As they expand, YL is especially interested in growing its presence at Ben Davis and Warren Township high schools and joining those who are making a difference in those communities.
Jonathon and Carrie have three children and attend Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Indy. They are also deeply connected to the community through The Oaks Academy, where their kids attend and he coaches volleyball, and through his relationships with men in Citizen 7.
“The folks that we’ve met through the Oaks and at C7 have become dear friends and have made Indy feel like home quicker than we anticipated,” he says.
JONATHON GORNY’S IDEAS FOR A BETTER INDY
- Don't despise your own day of small beginnings. “Christ has given me specific gifts, experiences, and privileges and I want to use those to help advocate for others. I have been lucky enough to see the beauty and power of diverse communities and have been generously welcomed into a number of Black and Latino communities and value the lessons and relationships that have come from those communities.”
- Get involved with more than your career. “When onboarding our new staff to Young Life, I tell all of them that those who tend to have the longest careers and impact in our ministry are those who have life and community outside of it.”
- Focus on what you bring to the table, not what you're missing. “When focused on our own needs, it’s hard to see what we bring to the table for others. But in an Acts 2 sort of way --my favorite picture of community --when we take stock in what we do have, and give freely to those who need, we begin to see a new community arise. I am naturally curious about people and have a lot of coffee and lunch dates with people I don’t know, offering to be someone they can call on. I try to be quick to connect with new folks to the city or new to the C7 room, not as a means to my end but to create a warmer room for everyone.”
- Eat, both literally and metaphorically, at C7. “C7 is a platform for connecting, but it’s not a sufficient and living thing. If you simply show up on occasion and don’t invest relationally, C7 is nothing more than coffee and conversation every couple of months,” he says. “C7 just sets the table for us to eat (metaphorically and literally).”
JONATHON GORNY TRIVIA
Favorite hobby (besides work): I love to play basketball and volleyball and am heavily invested into the NBA … like way too much!
Go-to snack & beverage: Chips and salsa and depending, on the occasion, a nice cup of coffee or a bourbon
Favorite restaurant, locally: BODHI Thai Bistro, Massachusetts Avenue
Favorite places for a vacation: No favorites, but I’m most alive exploring a new city or lakeside or mountainside
Secret Dream: The Lord has called me to ministry for now, but the sports world is also a sweet spot for me. A mentor once told me that they could see me as a coach or GM of a pro team and I think that would be awesome.
Please reach out and connect with Jonathon at Jonathon@ylraceway.org
