(Copied and pasted from my blog)

I am planning to begin a ministry that meets youth (probably around the ages of 13-18) where they struggle most. I want to do so by finding people who can mentor kids for almost any struggle a teenager might have in the modern world. To do so, I need to know what teenagers in the states struggle with. I sat down and brainstormed, and before I knew it I had written down 17 different possible struggles for a teenager in America, each one being a category that I could make a half an hour long presentation about (if I cut said presentation short).

The only thing I've learned so far is that I've barely scratched the surface of what kids struggle with nowadays in America. So, I really would like your insight. What do you see kids around the ages of 13-18 struggling with?

Now, a word of comfort, because I am aware it doesn't seem like I've thought this through too much (probably because I haven't yet). Yes, I want to mentor to kids, but I refuse to allow anyone in this organization to be a mentor to a kid when the "mentor" doesn't actually understand what the kid is going through. The requirements I would establish for someone to be a mentor would be 1) The mentor needs to have struggled with what they are trying to help a child through (It's not even right to try and help a child with a struggle you yourself don't understand). 2) The mentor needs to have overcome the struggle with Christ and be able to share the story of how that happened (I don't want the people who are mentoring to be unable to tell a child what can be done to get through a struggle, and yes, the story of overcoming struggles has to be with Christ. It's a Christian ministry after all). 3) The mentor has to be someone who can relate to a kid in that age group (this does not mean that the mentor can be no older than 25 or something stupid like that, one of my greatest mentors in my teenage years was a great grandfather, but the mentor has to have the energy and passion to relate to a kid who is struggling in life). Also, it's important that any kid that we would be mentoring would be a kid who willingly came to us and asked us for advice and such.

And to reiterate, while this is a Christian ministry, it's not going to be a bunch of people gathering kids together to say "Jesus will make your problems go away." For one, that's a bunch of crap, surrendering yourself to Christ doesn't make life all sunshine and rainbows, and that method of ministry drives me crazy. Myself and the people I have on board with this actually want to come alongside struggling youth and show them that we understand what they're struggling through, give them an opportunity to be open about their problems, and help them to move past them.

Let me know what you see as the biggest struggles of American youth. I know that I've barely scratched the surface with 17 very broad subjects, and I want to be a part of a ministry that can reach any kid who is dealing with any struggle.

There can be struggles of spirituality itself. I once felt completely lonely as if I was forsaken bGod at one point of my life. The depression made me consider suicide for a second or two, but God came to my aid when I called out to him, so spirituality and depression

Depression, that ones a biggie.

523858Actually, yea, this and suicicde.

Pornography is definitely a problem, with a capital P. It's not like it used to be when people had to go looking for that kind of stuff - these days, pornography is practically reaching out towards today's youth in America. Addiction to that stuff can really screw you up as a christian, spiritually, emotionally, even mentally. Youth from 13-18 years of age who struggle with this need love, closure, and a lot of help.