Incorporating Mental Health Awareness Into Youth Ministry

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Trigger Warning: The following blog post contains mentions of suicide, self-harm, school shootings, anxiety, and substance abuse.

Before we explore incorporating mental health awareness into youth ministry, I think it’s important we set the stage for how we got here. Several years ago, Netflix released a groundbreaking show called 13 Reasons Why. It told the story of a high school student who, before taking her life, recorded tapes exploring the reasons why she had decided to end her life.

Whether you were engrossed in the world of youth ministry back in the mid-2010s or not, you probably heard about it. Some have felt the show’s explicit approach to the conversation around mental health was problematic. That is a completely fair discussion to have, but for better or worse, the show certainly contributed to bringing mental health issues to the forefront of teen culture–and the forefront is where it has remained.

A Glimpse Into The Youth Mental Health Crisis

It’s fair to ask the question: Why are today’s students struggling so much with mental health challenges?

The reason that’s a fair question is because while much has changed over the past few generations, much has stayed the same, too. Growing up has always been a difficult experience at times. Kids and teenagers have always had to navigate a home life where parents don’t get along or don’t pay them as much attention as they ideally should. School has always been challenging both academically and socially. Teenagers have always felt the pressure to discover core pieces of their identity and excel where performance is required. Because much has remained constant about the challenges of growing up, it can be easy to dismiss today’s young people as “soft” or “weak”.

Much has changed over the past few decades, too. And those changes are leading today’s teenagers and young adults to place a far higher value on mental health awareness than the generations before. Firstly, addressing the elephant in the room, technology has drastically advanced over just the last 30 years. The evolution of social media has put teenagers under a constant microscope–one that didn’t exist in previous generations.

As a result, teenagers today don’t go to school for 8 hours and then come home to relax in a safe space. Today’s teens are far less likely to feel that home is a truly safe space because they spend their hours at home still “on” for their friends, followers, and the broader (and harsh) world of the internet.

A Heightened Awareness Of Local Existential Threats

Beyond technology, today’s teenagers are living with a heightened awareness of local existential threats. In some ways, it’s a fair chicken or egg question of whether the rise of school shootings sparked significant mental health challenges for teenagers, or whether significant mental health challenges for teenagers sparked the rise of school shootings.

Either way, though, we can’t ignore the toll that a background fear of school shooters takes on today’s middle and high school students. And, to get back to technology, the immediate spread of information across the globe means that information spreads like wildfire. Thirty years ago, a teenager may not have heard about a violent school incident that happened thirty states away. Today, they hear about it before their school day ends.

Heightened Levels Of Anxiety And Depression

Another factor leading students toward heightened levels of anxiety and depression is the pressure to perform. Our country has, over time, significantly raised the bar for what is required and expected of a high school student aspiring to get into a good college and succeed in life. Beyond just the raised academic pressure, students are facing more pressure than ever to do more to excel in the sports or extracurriculars they enjoy. If you’ve been a youth leader for more than a year or two, you’ve noticed how extraordinarily busy teenagers are with extracurriculars. Teenagers are expected to do more in school, more in extracurriculars, and still hold a job.

An Economic Factor

This list is far from exhaustive, but one final factor affecting the mental health of today’s young people is economic. Now, I get it. Most thirteen-year-olds can barely spell the word “economic.” They’re far less likely to have a grasp on the ins and outs of modern-day economic struggles. But students pay attention. They know that college is expensive. They know that their older sibling had to come back to live at home after college. They know that their cousin never found a strong, entry-level job in the field they studied for. And they know their parents are stressed about money.

It used to be that a high school student could feel pretty confident they’d be able to work their way through college with a minimum wage job and a little bit of work ethic. With the way the economy and education have gone over the past three to four decades, it’s absolutely impossible for an eighteen-year-old kid to work their way through college in a reasonably timely manner. So if a student wants to get an education, and their parents can’t afford to pay fully for tuition, then their only option is to take on massive amounts of school debt, crippling their future.

This isn’t a political opinion one way or another. The purpose of this blog post certainly isn’t to posit fixes to our education system. But as we try to wrap our minds around what’s got today’s generation so anxious, the astronomical cost of higher education (which feels, to most teenagers, like their only viable pathway toward a successful life) is certainly a contributing factor!

If that’s a glimpse into the why of the mental health crisis among teenagers, here’s a brief overview of the what (these statistics are from the organizations Mental Health America and Compass Health Center):

20% of teenagers have experienced at least one major depressive episode in the past year
Nearly 10% of teenagers report engaging in substance abuse in the past year
42% of teenagers experience persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness
22% of teenagers have seriously considered attempting suicide
Youth mental health hospitalizations increased by 124% from 2016-2022

How Does Mental Health Awareness In Youth Ministry Help?

Too often in church world, we have acted as if teenagers are just physical and spiritual beings. In church leadership, we have acted as if a teenager’s sin problem exists completely in a vacuum–that there isn’t context behind their poor decisions or unwise attitudes. This is what leads us to address symptoms of the issues teenagers are dealing with rather than the root issues behind the symptoms we’re seeing. The teenagers in our youth ministries are whole human beings. They are not solely physical beings, emotional beings, or spiritual beings. All three of those factors play a vital role in the functioning and development of the teenagers within our pastoral care.

So if you want to minister to your students holistically, incorporating mental health awareness into youth ministry is a must. It’s a given that your students are going to have spiritual support in your ministry. It seems intuitive to all of us that giving them spiritual support and guidance will lead them to make healthier, more Christlike choices in the way they live in their physical bodies. But if we want students to fully become, on the inside, emotionally healthy individuals, our churches need to be places where students can find mental health support–or at the very least awareness.

In terms of what this will do in your youth ministry, you should expect that developing a holistic approach to helping your teenagers grow in Christlikeness would lead them to be more excited to invite their friends. You should expect that creating safe spaces for them to talk about what matters most leads them to develop stronger feelings of attachment toward the church as they transition into young adulthood.

It only makes sense that students who feel understood and truly seen by a community take on higher levels of ownership within that community. All of the good things you want for your students? You take a giant step toward those things when you incorporate mental health awareness into the youth ministry strategy of your church.

A Gospel Lens Before You Start

We’re almost ready to jump into practical ways to incorporate mental health awareness into youth ministry, but before we do, I want to offer a gospel lens for the way we approach the mental health crisis as youth ministry leaders.

For every era of Christianity, human beings have had different defining problems or issues we were hyper-focused on. In Paul’s letters, we see him addressing various issues each church was having (idolatry, conflict, persecution, etc.). We know from recent American history the problems that have plagued our country (poverty, war, drugs, sex, and now mental health). The problems humans navigate change, but one thing remains the same: God meets us where we are.

God doesn’t scoff at us for struggling. He doesn’t blow off the things that trip us up. He meets us where we are and walks with us toward redemption and Christlikeness. So for those of us engaged in gospel-centered leadership of our middle and high school students, a helpful gospel lens is to remember that in Christ, God meets us where we are. And today’s teenagers, whether we totally get it or not, agree or not, think it’s fair or not, are struggling with their mental health. So let’s meet them where they are in the context of youth ministry.

How To Start Incorporating Mental Health Awareness In Your Youth Ministry

Be The Change

Before we launch into shifting the way we approach our jobs, it might be worthwhile to shift the way we approach our hearts when it comes to mental health awareness. The truth is, mental health issues are not just a Gen Z / Gen Alpha problem. All human beings deal with mental health issues. The next generations are just more aware of theirs than us old people are of ours.

So spend some time over the next few weeks digging into this for yourself.

Is anxiety something you deal with? If so, what’s behind that anxiety?
When was the last time you felt depressed? Not just sad, but truly numb over an extended period of time?
What external stimuli trigger an unusually strong physiological response from you? If you find yourself responding harshly, angrily, or overly sadly to certain things, it’s possible you have some unprocessed trauma in your past harming your mental and emotional well-being.

As you set out to begin figuring out how you can help teens in Christ, it’s worthwhile to ask how you can find help in Christ in the area of mental health. Before you begin recommending all kinds of mental health resources to the youth, what mental health resources should you consider accessing for yourself?

Contextualize Scripture To Today’s Verbiage

The truths of Scripture never change. God’s Word is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. But it is also true that human language evolves over time, and sometimes students miss the significance of what’s said in the Bible because the words change. When the Bible talks about worry, anxiety is 100% included in that broad term “worry.” It’s just that when Jesus was speaking to His first-century audience in Matthew 6, He didn’t express Himself in 21st-century buzz words. He spoke to them according to their cultural sensibilities at the time.

So when you teach to your students, contextualize Scripture for them so they’re able to fully connect the dots. No, Scripture doesn’t talk about self-harm. But it talks about hatred (self-hatred is included), our value as God’s creations, and how to live from a place of hope. When we take these gospel ideas expressed so clearly in Scripture, and contextualize them for teenagers living in the 21st century, we’re taking massive steps in incorporating mental health awareness into youth ministry. For many of us, that’s potentially a big shift in the way we write messages and lessons. For an easier pathway toward incorporating mental health awareness, utilize a solid, relevant youth ministry curriculum like G Shades.

Emphasize Safe Spaces Over Covering Content

Because you’re an incredible youth leader, you have a whole lot of good, faith-forming, biblical content you want to cover with your students. For that reason, it can throw you off when a student unearths a mental health struggle in the middle of your lesson discussion time. In that moment, you’ll be faced with the dilemma of choosing between that student’s particular thing and the overall biblical education of the teenagers who are present.

There’s no hard and fast rule with this. You’ll have to use spiritual wisdom and listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. But generally speaking, it’s become best practice in youth ministry to emphasize creating safe spaces over covering content. If you’ve already created a space safe enough for a student to talk openly about a mental health struggle, the last thing you want is to unintentionally send the message that their mental health issues don’t matter at church.

So as you’re navigating lessons and discussions with students, give priority to the mental health conversations that arise. You aren’t cheating your other students when you do that. Statistics suggest there’s a high chance they’re also struggling with some mental health issues, and it’s entirely possible those students don’t feel ready to open up to their family members (worse yet, it’s entirely possible the primary external factor leading students toward mental health issues is abuse and neglect from family members).

So sometimes, maybe more often than not, the best thing to do is put “the topic” of the night on hold and talk through the things that are taking up the most space in the hearts and minds of your students.

Ask, Don’t Assume

It’s uncomfortable. You don’t want to bring it up. There’s something inside of you that might be afraid to open that can of worms. But one of the best things we can possibly do for our teenagers’ mental health is to just ask them about it. Too often, we assume that because we aren’t seeing any alarming signals during the 90 minutes per week we see them, all of our students must be totally fine. Studies would suggest, though, that this is not the case.

In fact, what the research suggests is that even if your students actually are in a good place in terms of their mental health, asking them about it proactively is still important. It’s part of what’s called early intervention. If we can begin talking about mental health with students while their issues are still mild or not yet present, we can get ahead of that snowball before it rolls too far downhill.

So don’t assume that just because your students seem good, they are. Ask them if they’re dealing with anxiety right now. Ask them if they’ve had thoughts of self-harm or suicide lately. Ask them about substance abuse and depression. We’re not assuming they are dealing with those things. We’re not assuming they aren’t dealing with those things. We ask because we care, and because if they are dealing with any of those things, we want to begin walking with them through that as early as we can.

Educate Parents

The hardest part about walking your students through their mental health issues is knowing that some of what they’re dealing with stems from what they’re experiencing at home. As youth leaders, our job is to be on mom and dad’s team in raising their kids, but sometimes you feel as though you’re diametrically opposed to the way they’re handling things at home. Since nobody likes being confronted about all of the things they’re doing wrong as a parent, one of the wise things we can do is be proactive, rather than reactive, in helping parents contribute positively to their teenagers’ mental health.

Parenting is the hardest job in the world. Most parents feel like they could be better at it, but most parents also feel that they’re doing the best they can–which is why they don’t appreciate being confronted about their parenting. When you take the time to host events or send out resources around teen mental health awareness, you give parents an opportunity to be better educated about how to spot the signs and own their part in the mental health issues of their child.

So maybe, moving forward, you could host a parent breakfast once per year, where a mental health expert in your church or local community comes in and speaks about mental health awareness issues like anxiety, depression, substance abuse, or self-harm.

There will, however, be times when direct action is necessary. If a child ever confides in you that they’re experiencing abuse of any kind at home, do not hesitate to report that to the proper authorities, beginning with your direct supervisor at church. Doing this is an important step in protecting the minors you serve because it allows their voice to be heard and their parents to be confronted by the proper authorities put in place by our government.

Under no circumstances should you directly confront a parent about their sexual or physical abuse of a child. Doing so may feel like a biblical extension of Matthew 18, but you potentially put the child at further risk by confronting a potentially violent person without any legal authority to protect the child from further harm.

Mental Health Resources To Check Out And Share

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

Book Description: The generation-defining investigation into the collapse of youth mental health in the era of smartphones, social media, and big tech—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood. This New York Times Bestseller is making waves in the youth ministry community. While Jonathan Haidt isn’t coming from a specifically Christian perspective, his insight into what’s behind the mental health epidemic is eye-opening and extraordinarily helpful. Find the book on Amazon here.

Two Series From G Shades

A few sermon series are far from sufficient in addressing the ongoing journey of mental health awareness with your students, but if you’re looking for resources to help you start the conversation in your youth ministry, G Shades has a four-week sermon series on Anxiety called Veiled Heat and a four-week sermon series on Stress called Fractured. These two series include video messages, teaching manuscripts, and discussion questions, so you’ll have a solid head start beginning a gospel-centered conversation with your students around their mental health.

Mental Health First Aid

This organization specializes in offering skills-based training to individuals and organizations that work with at-risk populations. If you know a significant portion of your youth ministry is dealing with severe mental health issues, becoming certified with Mental Health First Aid might be a good next step for you and your team.

Community-Based Organizations

As helpfully unhelpful as this suggestion is, consider Googling for mental health awareness resources local to your community. You may discover that your city has therapists, organizations, or experts who can be a resource to you and your church as you navigate this issue with your teenagers and families!

Meeting The Youth Where They’re At

There are many factors leading to the mental health crisis facing today’s teenagers, but our call as youth leaders is simple: meet them where they are. That means that we begin addressing our own mental health issues, contextualize the words of Scripture for today’s students, emphasize safe spaces over content, ask students how their mental health is from a place of loving curiosity, and educate parents.

An article like this can be discouraging to read. The statistics can make the problems feel too big for us to solve. But as you begin processing how you can help the teenagers in your church, I want to encourage you to remember that Jesus has not asked you to fix it. He has asked you to simply be a light in the community where He’s placed you. Even Jesus Himself, when He walked the earth, did not directly fix every bit of brokenness He encountered. He listened to the prompting of the Spirit, knowing that His death and resurrection would do the rest.

And that’s my final encouragement to you. Yes, mental health issues are a huge deal right now. No, you probably don’t have all of the answers on how to fix what’s going on in the life of every student. But follow some of the best practices in this blog post, listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and trust that Christ’s death and resurrection will cover the places in which your leadership and care doesn’t directly fix everything.

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Mike Haynes is the creator and owner of G Shades Youth Ministry Curriculum. Over the course of 10+ years doing youth ministry in churches of all different sizes, Mike has developed a passion for creating resources that help small church leaders thrive.