Summer School For Youth Workers: Dealing With Teens In Crisis

I ended Last Friday‘s post by saying this week will focus on summer school for youth workers, and so here we are. This is your syllabus for the week.

• Show up to class every day and and comment  “Here!” for roll.
• Bring your Bible, a pencil, and a desire to contribute.
• Answer the questions given.
• Do your home work and turn it in by commenting

Oh, and no sticking gum under your computer.

Class Notes

Last week I asked youth workers what youth ministry course they would take if it were available right now and I got some really great answers. Today we’ll focus on the first course:

Ministering to a Generation in Crisis suggested by my friend Georg Lynch

Crisis and teenagers go  hand in hand. Most of the crisis’ are small, to us, but they are huge to them. Feeling like they have no close friends or any friends is a crisis, not having a boy friend or a girl friends is a crisis, not having anything to do is a crisis, but these are micro crisis’. Oh, and every one of teenagers is in a different crisis all at the same time to boot.

The mico-crisis is what we, as youth workers are used to dealing with.  Macro-crisis, or a national crisis, is where most of us scratch our heads and say things like “What am I supped to do with this ?” Like this latest story Adam McClane sent me about smoking alcohol. Smoking Alcohol? Really? Alcohol and drugs are a macro-crises’. Smoking alcohol may just be a micro crisis.  I live and work in a small town, but I bet there are kids affiliated with our youth ministry who are googling this up. Here’s a question:

Macro Crisis’ are things like

Suicide

Bullying

Drugs and Alcohol

Education/Dropping Out

Homelessness

Hunger

Gang Violence

How does a youth ministry (which is micro in nature) tackle macro-problems? How does your youth ministry deal with macro issues beyond teaching about them?

Which teenage crisis, do you think is most pressing on this generation and why?

What are your “go to” scriptures for dealing with teens in crisis?

Home Work

Search for youth ministries that are dealing with the macro crisis in a micro way and come back and leave your comment and link in the comment section. What did you learn? How could you implement a micro-strategy in your youth ministry?

Class dismissed. See you tomorrow. Don’t be tardy.

Oh, and here is my  5 Step Crisis Strategy

On to Lesson 2 : Equipping Parents To Lead