Theologians and practitioners discuss the importance of supporting and walking with LGBTQ+ youth.
Pastoral Care & Mental Health
Youth ministry offers the unique gift of providing youth with a network of adults who care deeply for their health and well-being.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. [Isaiah 43:2]
What is the role of the youth worker in tending to the spiritual and mental well-being of young people? Youth ministry offers the unique gift of providing youth with a network of adults who care deeply for their health and well-being. Given the relational nature of working with youth, youth workers can often be on the front lines to identify a problem and react quickly to prevent a crisis or tragedy. In the longer term, youth workers are pastors to our children and walk with them as they form their identities as people of faith.
Training Modules
Theologians, psychologists and youth leaders discuss the importance of cultivating resilience in youth.
Leading theologians and youth practitioners explore the importance of sabbath-keeping for both youth and youth workers.
Leading theologians and pastors explore adolescent mental health and the role of youth ministry and the youth minister in supporting youth.
Theologians, philosophers, and pastors examine the importance of pastoral care to youth and their families as part of a robust youth ministry.
Curricular and Sample Materials
Articles and resources on the mental health issues facing adolescents.
Rev. Dr. Dori Baker and Dr. Patrick B. Reyes present a lecture on violence.
This lesson will help youth to develop spiritual practices that can help to prevent self-destructive behaviors.
This lesson will focus making youth aware of the injustice in the world.
In this lesson, youth will learn to appreciate their own intelligence as well as the gifts of others.
In this lesson, we will introduce young people to the idea of prophetic imagination.
In this lesson, youth will learn how faith can help them to deal with anxiety.
This lesson will focus on how sharing your biggest concerns with God can lead to a sense of hope.
This lesson will help youth to recognize joy in light of other emotions.
This lesson will help youth to see the Bible as a source of support when walking through depression.
This lesson is designed to bring youth awareness to injustice in the world.
This lesson will help youth identify how faith values establish guidelines for a sexual ethic related to relationships with themselves and others.
This lesson is designed as a bible study with youth around the question of “Who Am I Before God?”
This lesson asks youth to focus on the self that God gave them.
This lesson will focus on how substance abuse can impact youth’s ability to experience joy.
This lesson focuses on the important concerns of depression and suicide among youth.
This lesson is designed to help groups become more intentional about communicating equitable, healthy, and positive sexuality education grounded in faith values.
This lesson will explore creating a welcoming environments for teens of all sexual orientations and gender identities.
In this lesson, youth will explore the culture of social media against a Christian vision of creation and image-bearing.
Articles and Readings
A collection of books, websites and podcasts compiled by the Rev. Heidi Carrington Heath to support your work with LGBTQ+ youth.
An essay by Allan Hugh Cole, Jr. and Philip Browning Helsel on anxiety and adolescents from the Joy and Adolescent Faith and Flourishing project.
An essay by Nadja Reilly, Sarah F. Farmer, and Katherine Hyde on adolescent mental health from the Joy and Adolescent Faith and Flourishing project.
An essay by Sharon Galgay Ketcham on the impact of family instability from the Joy and Adolescent Faith and Flourishing project.
An essay by Elizabeth Conde-Frazier on youth, poverty and finding joy from the Joy and Adolescent Faith and Flourishing project.
An essay by Dori Baker and Patrick Reyes on finding joy and flourishing from the Joy and Adolescent Faith and Flourishing project
Articles and resources on the importance of pastoral care to youth and their families as part of a robust youth ministry.
Articles and resources on the mental health issues facing adolescents.
Dr. Rodger Nishioka, Benton Family Associate Professor of Christian Formation at Columbia Theological Seminary looks at understanding the neuroscience of adolescents development.
Dr. Lisa Miller, Professor and Director of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University, looks at the relationship between joy and depression in adolescence.
Matthew Kuan Johnson looks at joy during adolescence from a cognitive science perspective.
David White, C. Ellis and Nancy Gribble Nelson Professor of Christian Education and Professor in Methodist Studies at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary on whether adolescence constitutes an aesthetic or joyful stage in the life cycle.