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Turning the Tide of Risky Teen Behavior

Ours is a lovely community in Pittsburgh, with lovely people living in it, and—by God’s grace—we have a hope-filled future. But due to years of racism, poverty, oppression, and neglect, decay set in and put a tight grip around our community’s throat. This resulted in street violence, gang warfare, drug traffic, prostitution, and abuse. Caring and well-meaning individuals, parents, families, and neighbors lost their abilitiy to live above the risk factors. This resulted in kids raising themselves—and making decisions they weren’t capable of making.

Often the decisions were poor ones.

But one young man—I’ll call him Kevin—had a very bright future. I cared a great deal about him and spent my Saturdays mentoring him one-on-one. He had great leadership potential and was winsome, despite tragedies in his life: His father had been killed, several of his uncles were in jail, and his older cousin jumped from a second-story window to his death because of drug-related hallucinations. But even with all his potential, Kevin was eventually blinded and lured to the power that comes with gang membership in powerless, poor urban communities.

The first Saturday that we couldn’t spend time together (I was running a retreat), Kevin was involved in a gang-related scuffle, which took his life.

Four days later, I did his funeral.

Why do certain kids fall prey to the downward pull of high-risk behavior while others are able to resist or overcome it? Even after making a decision to follow Christ, why do many kids continue to get drunk, get high, get pregnant, get lost, and get killed?

These are perplexing questions that serious youth workers must wrestle with. My own humbling journey in youth ministry (which began in 1978 and took me from rural, to suburban, and—since 1985—to urban settings) has forced me to face these questions with a furious passion.

Although my work allowed me to meet thousands of kids who participated with me in ministry—and hundreds of kids who made professions of faith—only a small number were transformed in ways that were obvious by the quality of their relationships, behaviors, and outlooks.

So, for years I was terribly concerned about the choices kids made and the "disconnect" between what they believed and how they lived. For years I battled teen pregnancy, drug use, gangs, and school failure. And for years, I lost these battles.

Kids came to Jesus and to Bible study, but they remained trapped in the grip of destructive, life-diminishing behavior. It came down to this: Either the gospel had lost its power to transform lives, or I was missing some important links that help connect the gospel with the lives of my students.

I wanted—and still want—them to grow like Jesus did, in wisdom, in stature, in favor with God, and in favor with people. But how?

A Holistic Approach
Our Christian worldview calls us to apply the redemptive work of Christ to all dimensions of life, including the home, school, community, church, work, friendships, preferences, money, body, time, and future. But this same Christian worldview discourages us to separate life into smaller compartments—which we’ve individually ranked as mattering greatly to Christ or not mattering at all.

But because Jesus is Lord over all of life, we must look to all available resources in order to equip our kids to yield all dimensions of their lives to his Lordship—and to demonstrate that commitment in changed lives.

Assets to Growth
One such resource is a recent study, conducted by Search Institute (Minneapolis). This study surveyed 250,000 American teenagers from a wide array of cultural, ethnic, social, economic, and geographic backgrounds in order to learn who was and was not involved in high-risk behavior—and to learn if there were any essential, discernable differences in the backgrounds of both groups. The survey defined high-risk behavior concretely, including smoking, drinking, drug use, sexual activity, violence toward others, violence toward self, dropping out of school, and driving recklessly. It also attempted to learn as much as possible about the kids’ personal, family, and social backgrounds.

The survey found 40 basic, foundational building blocks present in the lives of those who resisted high-risk behavior—but they were absent from the lives of those who fell prey to risky behavior. These building blocks are called "assets." Also discovered was a direct correlation between the number of assets and the likelihood of students’ involvement in high-risk behavior: As assets increased, high-risk behavior decreased; as assets decreased, high-risk behavior increased. Naturally students most likely to avoid destructive behavior altogether possessed a majority of the 40 assets.

Some of these assets:

• Family love and support
• Positive family communication
• Family boundaries, rules, and consequences
• Parental involvement in schooling
• Caring relationships with other adults
• Adults who model pro-social behavior
• Friends who model responsible behavior
• Regular involvement in religious activities
• Regular involvement in positive activities
• Regular involvement in community service
• Regular involvement in the arts
• Schools that set and enforce boundaries
• Doing homework at least one hour daily
• Reading at least three hours weekly
• Placing a high value on helping others
• Placing a high value on social justice
• Standing up for what they believe
• Telling the truth even when it’s costly
• Building crosscultural friendships
• A positive view of one’s future

There’s nothing revolutionary or highly complicated about this research. Search Institute was able to empirically document what many of us have known all along: Kids need parents, other adults, friends, church, school, and their neighborhoods to work together in a consistent, whole-person-centered way in order for kids to grow up in healthy, responsible, successful ways.

But still, these findings turned on a light in my mind. They helped me see that my focus on the litany of high-risk behaviors that attract so many kids is misguided.

It dawned on me that rather my focus should be on strategically building up these assets in the lives of my kids—so they’d more easily be able to resist the downward pull of unhealthy choices. In other words, I needed to attack the problem...not the symptoms.

I propose that we youth workers reconsider the role we play in kids’ lives. Typically we view ourselves as caring adults who—through the process of building healthy relationships—enable kids to grow in their discipleship journeys. We run programs, promote events, plan lessons, and model and communicate the Christian faith to students. By doing these things, we’re fulfilling the Great Commission—and providing some key assets as described by Search Institute.

This particular model for youth ministry, which has served us well for at least half a century, continues to be a vitally important and effective way of meeting and serving kids. But, while I make no apologies for it, I do recommend a slight shift in focus.

A New Way
Most child and youth development researchers concur that millennial kids are exposed to more experiences and information once available only to adults—and at the same time are protected less by the adults and communities that surround them. In other words, they’ve been dealt a double whammy. Many of the essential assets—which create strong foundations upon which they can build their lives—are missing.

Indeed the traditional model of youth ministry replaces a few of these missing blocks—namely, caring adults who provide introductions to Jesus and the development of relationships with him. I’ll never discount the eternal importance of this. But because of the position of asset deficit from which many kids operate, we must be strategic and diligent in helping them gain access to all of the assets in order to make wise choices, avoid destructive behavior, and build healthy and whole lives.

Here’s how I see the emerging role of youth workers: Conductors who orchestrate symphonies of people, services, and programs around their students. I don’t expect modern youth workers to become experts in the fields of parenting, education, counseling, art, prevention, motivation, service learning, abuse, communication, time management, literacy, social justice, character development, long-range planning, conflict resolution, and mentoring. But I do hope we’ll make it our priority to know who the experts in our community are—and to build bridges between them and our kids. Because our kids are exposed to more and protected less, I believe it’s our responsibility to help rebuild the walls of protection that ought to surround them, while at the same time, tear down the walls of division and hostility.

I also propose that we ask a new set of questions in order to evaluate the strategic importance of our youth ministries. For example, when our kids are with us, are they—

• experiencing love and support from their parents, along with clear boundaries, enforced consequences, positive communication, and parental involvement in school?
  
  
• relating to several caring adults who model positive behavior and who encourage them to do well and aim high?
  
  
• participating consistently in healthy and positive activities, community service, creative arts, and extracurricular programs?
  
  
• engaging meaningfully in their education and with their schools, doing their homework, and reading for pleasure regularly?
  
  
• choosing their friends wisely, spending time with peers who model positive behavior, and nurturing crosscultural friendships?
  
  
• building a clear sense of identity and hopeful views of their futures, making wise decisions, and feeling safe at home, school, and in their communities?
  
  
• applying what they believe to their daily lives, modeling restraint, taking responsibility for their actions, and caring for others?

The kids who are doing these things are almost never involved in high-risk behavior.

These questions can form the basis for a cycle of youth ministry programs. Furthermore I believe that they can serve as a sort of "bulls-eye" to help us determine if we’re hitting our targets and helping our kids build the necessary assets they need. I also affirm that these are "Lordship" questions that reflect truly Christian world views in which Jesus is allowed access to all dimensions of life without any reservation, hesitation, qualification, or restriction.

In order to flesh out this model of youth ministry, I recommend the following steps:

• Become familiar with the research. You can study the complete details of the Search Institute research mentioned previously (800/888-7828). Peter L. Benson’s All Kids Are Our Kids: What Communities Must Do to Raise Caring and Responsible Children and Adolescents (Jossey-Bass, 1997, 415/433-1740) is an excellent book that details research, its implications, and recommendations for implementation.
  
  
• Reflect on your own journey. Mentally and emotionally, walk back into your own ninth-grade experience. Enter your classroom, remember your teachers, recall your friends, relive your memories, and allow yourself to feel again the joy and the fear of being a kid. Revisit your home, your parents, your siblings, your bedroom, and your memories. Reflect on those who had an influence on you, for better or for worse. Examine your choices, actions, decisions, and priorities. Get reacquainted with your past.
  
  
• Evaluate your own assets as a youth worker and their impact on your choices. Determine which of the 40 assets you’re able to provide your students—and which might be available to them through your colleagues, church, neighbors, parents, and other resources. Ascertain which ones are available to your kids through other resources besides those that exist within your own circle. Discern which ones your kids lack.
  
  
• Define a comprehensive strategy that meets your kids where they are and provides the assets they need. Design two plans—one for the high-risk/low-asset student and one for the high-asset/ low-risk student. Commit yourself to remaining focused on this plan for as long as possible. Evaluate it regularly. Refine it as you see the need to.

And finally, trust God—without whom the builder of the house labors in vain. He is, after all, the chief cornerstone and the chief architect. Give your kids, their families, your church—and yourself—plenty of grace and time. "The One who calls you is faithful, and he will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

Because of the war in Beirut in 1976, Saleem Ghubril left his homeland with his family and moved to America. He's been in youth ministry for more than two decades, having served since 1985 as executive director of the Pittsburgh Project—an urban Christian community development ministry that seeks to restore the city by developing the local community, rejuvenating its residents, developing leaders for its future, serving the poor, and building the kingdom of God.