YES Welcomes New Executive Director
April 182011
The Board of Directors is pleased to announce that Rob McRay has been named the new Executive Director of Youth Encouragement Services. Rob has served on the Board of Directors of YES and since last August has served as the Interim Executive Director. “Rob’s passion for the children of YES, his previous experience, and his Christian leadership in the community made our decision very easy” said Barry Elkins, Board President. “We are extremely excited to have Rob join YES as its new Executive Director.”
Rob has served for 30 years as the senior minister of churches in a variety of urban settings, including Chicago, Milwaukee, and Houston. Most recently he served 6 years as the preaching minister of the Donelson Church of Christ in Nashville. An active community servant, Rob has also served as a member of other nonprofit boards, on the decision-making council of a public school, as a volunteer chaplain at the Nashville Airport, and president of the Donelson-Hermitage Ministerial Association. He is also an adjunct instructor at Lipscomb University, where he regularly teaches a class on Jesus.
He and his wife Judy, who is a registered nurse at Summit Medical Center, have always had a passion for serving the needs of people in the city. That passion led them last year to leave their work in Donelson, move to a transitional neighborhood downtown, and begin planting a new network of house churches. “The focus of our new church,” Rob related, “is on serving the underprivileged and on reaching those who aren’t followers of Jesus. We are anxious for our church to work with YES to change the lives of inner city children.”
Rob tells that he learned about YES through the involvement of the Donelson church in the Christmas Store and backpack drives. “When my daughter Melanie served as a summer intern at YES, I got to know YES much better and became convinced that YES was one of the best and most effective inner city ministries I had seen. The comprehensive approach to meeting the needs of children, the partnerships with churches, and the active involvement of volunteers who love children make YES a unique and vital outreach to Nashville children.”
The future for YES will be full of opportunities and challenges, and Rob says he is excited to be part of the YES team. “We have a lot of work to do together. We must engage the Nashville business community more effectively to provide opportunities and resources for the children we serve. We are going to build more dynamic partnerships with churches, especially in the spiritual development of our teens. We need to develop a broader, more consistent stream of donations to support our ministry, including child sponsorships and gift planning. And we will find exciting ways to tell our story—we can’t afford to be one of Nashville’s ‘best kept secrets.’ For 55 years, YES has been transforming the lives of inner city children. We want the whole city to know and celebrate what we do.”