Working With A Generation In Crisis

Hope Dealers…

A term taken from the late 70's anti-drug culture, Hope Dealers is the perfect description for youth leaders and parents who work with young people and their wildly out of control culture.

I’m not sure if you have looked around at American life recently, but, this is not your grandmother’s world anymore.

We often portray our lives as perfect castles and ornate palaces. Where Kings and Queens rule. Where princes and princesses play.

But have we forgotten about the dragons and the Jesters?

Our palaces may resemble a fairy tale on the outside, but, they look more like a nightmare on the inside.

It’s not all about motes and steeples, and gardens and people.

In reality, we are really broken. I see it all the time in America. A machismo that says, "I'm okay, you're okay."

Pop psychology that cannot deal with the reality of the wave of crisis or hardship or suffering in our lives, so, it denies that crisis exists. 

A Better View of Hardship

What we need as youth leaders and parents is a new perspective.

As youth leaders or parents we will have to respond often to a teenager who has been hit by all kinds of problems.

Have you talked with a teenager lately? The stories of teens whose lives were torn apart by hardship, must be carefully put back together by skilled youth leaders and parents with necessary coping skills and a whole lot of hope.

We must all be ‘hope dealers’ to a generation who is buried by despair. Hope is something that I have used countless times in my work with young people.

Just look at the kind of things that teenagers are growing up with in a world that is wildly out of control:

·       At-risk behaviors like self-harm, suicide, cutting, and bullying

·       The broken family

·       The Sexual Revolution

·       A Social Media delusion

·       Post-Christian society

·       Violence in our schools

·       A broken government and angry society

Given this environment in our society and the teen world, here are some practical responses to handling teens in crisis:

1. When we speak with a suicidal teen…

We draw them to hope by communicating to them and getting them to talk. Ask questions that show them you really care about them.

Ask about their family, their friends, their hobbies, or their work.

The more they talk, the better. And this conversation will help you to extend their decision of harm and to see if they are willing to hang out with you the next day.

Oftentimes this can not only delay the action, but, stop it altogether.

2. When I speak with a young girl who is cutting and doing self-harm…

I draw her to hope by saying she is not the only one going through this. I love to tell the stories of other teens who were doing the same thing and they stopped.

There is something about hearing that someone else has gone through, and is going through, the same thing you are.

3. When we speak to a teenage boy living with a grandparent because his home is torn apart by divorce…

We have to find the positive in this situation. And there is plenty of positive. Try to get a teenager to see that a relationship with their grandparents is rare.

Many young people never get this opportunity to stop the effects of dysfunction by being with their grandparents. The wisdom and experience of grandparents is unmatched.

4. When we speak to teens about the condition of their world and of society…

We must speak to them about leadership. The emphasis must be placed on being producers and not consumers of culture.

Leadership traits are innate in Gen Z & Alpha Gen. They have been raised to think and to do as aspiring producers and writers and publishers and code-setters.

Finally

The role youth leaders and parents play in raising kings and queens requires particular care of total wellness of princes and princesses.

Our focus upon early total life care of our teenagers is critical to adolescent spiritual and social development.

Our understanding of their world is a virtue that could be the difference in them being a casualty to all kinds of at risk crises.

But in order to do this, we must have an understanding of the kind of things that impact the world of a teenager – social circles, mental health, wellness, media, entertainment, education, government, and faith.

I have often said that youth leaders and parents should be God’s sociologists. Just like the sons of Issachar in the Old Testament, “to understand the times and know what to do about it.”

And we must have the proximity and trust to be able to speak into their life and give them the necessary leadership skills to not only cope, but, to succeed.

You see, it is the role of youth leaders and parents to turn princes and princesses ultimately into becoming kings and queens.