Webinar: Mental Health and Youth

Rev. Dale Kuhn

Mental health issues affect the lives of young people and families across our country and congregations. It is a difficult topic to tackle whether a parent, pastor, church worker, volunteer youth worker, or a Christian who cares for a young person moving through adolescence. Mental health concerns can affect a young person’s ability to succeed academically, socially, physically, and spiritually. In addition, unfair stigmas abound around mental health issues and too often force young people and family members to carry additional burdens through life.

This webinar serves as just a start to the conversation about mental health and its relation to young people and their families. Topics include: a theological understanding of mental health, support for parents, role of the pastor/church worker/volunteer worker in the process of Christian care, and congregational support for young people with mental health concerns.

Rev. Kuhn is an LCMS pastor and Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the State of Missouri. He is the former executive director of Care and counseling in Creve Coeur, Missouri, and now serves there as senior staff counselor. After graduating from seminary in 1973, he held a position in youth and family ministry at Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in Saint Louis. His work with youth and their families gave him the desire to serve youth and families in a clinical context, and he has now served in that context and in St. Louis for over 35 years.

His clinical professional accreditation also includes a Diplomate of The American Association of Pastoral Counselors, of which he also served as president. His specialties in counseling include: adolescents, families, depression, anxiety, divorce, parenting, blended families, phase of life issues, and illness in family issues.

About the author

View more from

Related Resources

Why Build Resilient Youth in Youth Ministry?

Why Build Resilient Youth in Youth Ministry?

What is a resilient identity in Christ and why is it important for a healthy youth ministry? Check out this blog from the Seven Practices of Healthy Youth Ministry to find out more.

The Habits That We Make – Fundraising

The Habits That We Make – Fundraising

Should youth ministry, or any other ministry for that matter, rely on fundraising to significantly support their ministry functions? Sometimes the habits of fundraising get youth ministry into trouble. This article is designed to help you think more strategically about fundraising.

The Habits That We Make: Parents

The Habits That We Make: Parents

We all have harmful habits, even in our churches. This article helps us think about how we might have habits where parents are not growing in their own Biblical education or even expecting the church and its workers to be the primary teachers of the Christian faith for their children. By identifying these kinds of habits, we can see how we might change them.

The COVID-19 Pandemic: Change or Experience?

The COVID-19 Pandemic: Change or Experience?

As youth workers, we need to remember that this cohort that experienced the COVID pandemic during their younger years experienced it differently than adults. Through research, Dr. Tina Berg has been able to identify key learnings that can help us care for young people, particularly confirmands, in the wake of the pandemic.

The Habits That We Make – Isolation

The Habits That We Make – Isolation

We all have habits, some intentionally developed and others not. Knowing our habits in ministry can be important. For example, we may tend to isolate kids and/or youth from the rest of the congregation. This article talks about how to identify this habit and push against it.

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

How do I know if our youth ministry program is healthy and properly caring for our teens?

Discover how you can enhance your youth ministry and serve the youth in your church with Seven Practices of Healthy Youth Ministry.

Share This