It’s not easy being a teen today, especially a Christian or a new believer or a confused young girl. We’re watching the next generation be influenced and groomed by an evil deviant sexual community and so many of them are falling prey to the enticement and confusion of Satan. A recent survey from the CDC revealed that almost 3 in 5 or 60 percent of teen girls have reported an episode of profound sadness or hopelessness. This can translate to recklessness as depressed teens try to free themselves from their negative feelings by partying, drugs, sex, questioning their “gender identity,” even suicide!
The article posting this survey said, “safe and trusted adults—like mentors, trained teachers, and staff can help foster school connectedness, so that teens know the people around them care about them, their well-being, and their success.” They were referring to schools, but I’m talking about teens finding these safe mentors, trained teachers, and staff in our churches and church ministries.
In another article "Teen girls dealing with mental health crisis need 'connection' most, doctors say," Dr. Anisha Abraham of the American Academy of Pediatrics said, "Making sure that we take the time to get young people into resources before it becomes a life-threatening emergency is so key. Connection might be the most important. Fostering relationships, even having one or two adults that can really believe in young people and support them, can be really, really helpful."
Again, I suggest "resources" for these teens are the church, the Bible, and caring loving Christian women role-modeling the joy and peace of living for Jesus.
The Church Has a Responsibility to Minister to Teens
The ministry the Lord gave me almost thirty years ago is Woman to Woman Mentoring. At the time God called me to this ministry, I was disenchanted with Women’s Ministry in the church. Previously, I was a single, divorced, working mom and I never found acceptance or a way to be involved in the churches women’s ministry. Their activities usually were during workdays or in the evening when there wasn’t childcare, or I couldn't bring my teen daughter with me.
Which is why I told the Lord when I was in seminary that I would go anywhere He sent me EXCEPT women’s ministry. I didn’t like the way women, even in the church, treated each other especially those who didn’t fit a certain mold. Then, and now, I have no tolerance for gossip and cliques.
I hadn’t seen a women’s ministry that actually served as a ministry to address the things women were dealing with in their lives or as an evangelistic outreach to women and young girls searching for truth in a world so full of lies. I’m not saying they didn’t exist; I just hadn’t observed one. Often, they seemed more like social clubs to get a break from family responsibilities than a ministry to grow in faith as well as fellowship.
So imagine my surprise when God sent me straight into a ministry for women?! I’ve always said that’s why Woman to Woman Mentoring is still such a vibrant ministry in churches today because it wasn’t about me. It was founded on, and continues to be grounded in, Scripture.
I look at Titus 2:1-7 as the first Women’s and Men’s Ministry. Paul was writing to young Pastor Titus who had just started a church plant and in those verses Paul is instructing Titus to teach and train the older men and women so that they can teach and train the younger generations who will then go on to teach the next generations and continue the church to its present day. Those aren’t just “mentoring” verses; they’re also directives for the purpose of all ministry to men and women.
Here’s my point: We aren’t supposed to just rely on youth ministries to mature our young people. It’s the job of every man and woman in the church to be involved in the youth’s spiritual growth and act as role models for how to live the Christian life daily. I believe the teen generation should be welcomed into women and men’s ministries.
My first mentee was a young girl struggling with staying pure in a relationship with her boyfriend. She sought me out. It wasn’t how I expected to learn about mentoring, but she was who God sent me and I agreed to let Him guide me through the challenge of learning how to mentor her. I wasn’t an expert with a good track record in my own life or even as a parent, but God was giving me a chance to use what I had learned through my own experiences and studying my Bible to help her through the challenges she was encountering.
Many of you may have seen by now the movie Jesus Revolution. What an awesome movie! There were so many great lines. Memories. Lessons. But in one particular scene, I heard God speak directly to me when hippie Lonnie Frisbee was meeting for the first time Pastor Chuck Smith who was very skeptical about hippies and the “Jesus Freaks.” Lonnie said to Pastor Chuck, “There’s an entire generation right now searching for God. I can only walk through doors open to us. And in your church, that’s a door that’s shut.”
I wondered how many of our church doors today are shut to helping a searching generation find God and the hope they’re so desperately seeking? A generation bombarded with lies about gender identity confusion instead of Christ identity certainty.
In Mentoring for All Seasons, I have chapters on “Generation Gaps Are Not in God’s Plan,” “Mentoring Tween and Teen Season,” and “Mentoring Young Adults.” Every chapter is full of Scripture and tips on how to answer questions and mentor the next generation from God’s perspective, not the world’s perversion.
In 2015, I did a Facebook survey asking if teens were included in your churches women’s ministry events and if so how young. Someone recently challenged me that maybe it’s time to take that survey again. I would appreciate hearing from you at info@womantowomanmentoring.com or if you received this newsletter by email, you can simply reply and let me know what your church is doing to mentor and minister to young women and teens.
Look around your church this Sunday. Do you see a lot of young people or only a few?
Is your women’s ministry door open to teens or shut? When Pastor Chuck Smith opened his doors to an unconventional generation seeking God, a Jesus revolution blew off the doors of the church as they moved into a large tent with baptisms at the beach and that revolution changed the world. We need that kind of Jesus revolution to reach today’s young generations and it will spread to all ages.
Is your church an open or closed door to the next generation? Is your heart open or closed to letting God use you to disciple a young person?
"Even the scars of past abuse and injury can be the means of bringing healing to another. What wonderful opportunities to make disciples!" Chuck Swindoll
O God, you have taught me from my earliest childhood, and I constantly tell others about the wonderful things you do. Now that I am old and gray, do not abandon me, O God. Let me proclaim your power to this new generation, your mighty miracles to all who come after me. Psalm 71:17-18
We weren’t standoffish with you. We took you just as you were. We were never patronizing, never condescending, but we cared for you the way a mother cares for her children. We loved you dearly. Not content to just pass on the Message, we wanted to give you our hearts. And we did. 1 Thess. 2:7-8 The Message
About His Work with You,
Janet
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PSSSS: Please share with us a story from your mentoring ministry to encourage other churches.
