I recently started to read a great book that provides wonderful insight into the world of teenagers. Hurt: an inside look of today’s teenager by Chap Clark is a great book so far. The writing is packed full of study and insight into the reality of teen culture, which has been wounded by neglect and adult-driven focus in many institutions. For those of you who work with teens, I strongly recommend you joining me in reading this book. I would love to share comments and have some insightful conversation from the reading. Here is the way Clark ends chapter 1 (this should give you a great snap-shot of the content of the book):

“I wrote this book because I believe that adults understand very little of the inside life of the American teenager, especially the midadolescent…I am more convinced than ever that adults need to be more astute students of the kids we are mandated by society to nurture.

- Most adults intuitively believe that things are different for today’s adolescents, but they hold on to rhetoric and attitudes that support the fantasy that little has changed.
- Academics and social science researchers are divided over what is different, but little work has been done to see inside the hidden lives of midadolescents.
- As I study students and culture, I came to believe that we as a society have allowed institutions and systems originally designed to nurture children and adolescents to lose their missional mandate. In other words, society has systemically abandoned the young.
- Young people are desperate for an adult who cares. Certainly, some adolescents have been so wounded that rebuilding trust may appear almost insurmountable. Yet those who serve them with tenderness and respect will testify that even the hardest young soul cries out for someone who authentically cares.”

So, my question to you is: what needs to change in youth ministry?  I don’t know about you, but I often feel we can spend so much time preparing something for the teen, that we forget simply about nurturing, mentoring or caring for that teen.  I think this book will help me to continue to focus on what is real…to take a step back from the program and realize WHO is most important in this “thing” called youth ministry — the kids that God has entrusted us with.

Again, I would love to hear your thoughts on this writing, or on youth ministry in general.