When a student tells you they’ve lost a parent, or they’re being bullied at school or abused at home, what do you say? When a young person experiences trauma, what does effective ministry look like? Shane Pruitt’s wife, Kasi, joins hosts Paul, Shane and Lacey to talk about the Pruitt family’s recent traumatic experience and what pastors, ministry leaders and parents can do to show young people how God is good even when times are bad.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

1. Why now, more than ever, it’s important for Next Gen ministry leaders to be trauma-informed.
2. Insights on how to talk to young people who are experiencing trauma.
3. Strategies for partnering with trained, local Christian therapists.
4. How to balance fun activities with a ministry that points young people to the hope that can only be found in God’s Word.
5. Steps to take so you can be ready when trauma-induced ministry needs arise.

Helpful Resources:

• Next Gen leader: It’s time for mental health to be a part of student ministry article by Shane Pruitt
• America Has Reached Peak Therapy. Why Is Our Mental Health Getting Worse? TIME article
• Ministry Safe Online Training Library
• Find more resources to lead the next generation on mission at Gensend.org.
• Please subscribe to the podcast and leave a rating and review on iTunes.

Sharable Quotes:

Sometimes we can have certain demographics in our youth group that we think, “Oh, we’re good. Our kids are on the cheerleading squad and head football dude and doing these things or doing that.” But it’s just not the case. So many of them are experiencing things at home that they’re hiding.  – Kasi Pruitt

It’s not a silver bullet that fixes everything. But the ministries that have a really good equipping ministry of helping students get their eyes off of themselves and onto the cause of advancing the gospel, they tend to end up with healthier students. –  @PaulWorcester

The ministry of presence can be so powerful because every person is going to go through something traumatic, whether that’s with a Big “T” or a little “T”. That’s why I love what Jesus says in John 16. He says, “In this world you’ll have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world.” – @laceyeloisa

Sometimes we wait until something happens and someone needs help and then we’re scrambling trying to figure out what we’re going to do when that person really needs our immediate response. So I would say having a plan ahead of time is always going to be better. Don’t just go, “Hey, I’m here if you need me.” Be proactive. – @shane_pruitt78

Some of us, we want to just fix everything, when really the best approach in a lot of these situations is to slow down. If you don’t know the next step, take the humble approach and don’t seek to fix people. Love people. – @PaulWorcester