Moving past the cliches in youth ministry
Youth pastors, how do you respond when crises–school shootings, divorce, rape–strike the kids in your youth group? Your kids have heard all the cliches already; even if there’s a kernel of truth in those cliches, they aren’t enough to answer the spiritual questions your youth will ask. So how do you move past the cliches and provide real answers and spiritual support for hurting kids?
A new article online [PDF format] at Youth Specialties offers an overview of the different challenges you’ll face, along with ideas about how the author has approached a wide range of crises in her ministry. Your youth ministry might not have to deal with every single one of these issues, but you’ll run into one of them eventually–so give some thought to how you’ll respond without resorting to comfortable but tired cliches!
