No Teenager Left Behind

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No Teenager Left Behind

10 Hard-to-Handle Teenagers and How to Break Through With Them

Copyright 2012 Leneita Fix

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Credits

Author: Leneita Fix

Executive Developer: Nadim Najm

Chief Creative Ofcer: Joani Schultz

Copy Editor: Rob Cunningham

Cover Art and Production: Riley Hall and Veronica Preston

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by

permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All

rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.


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Dedication

This book is dedicated to all of us who have muddled

our way through adolescence. It is for those of us that

struggled to believe that we could be anything more than

a mess. Then Jesus showed up with the truth and set

us free. It is for those kids who cannot nd and have not

found that freedom quite yet.

There are four sets of people who have been telling me

forever that I should write this book. Thank you. This book

is dedicated to you.

My parents, who love me in spite of myself.

My husband, who has the ability to see and cherish

the real me, no matter what.

My children, who inspire me daily to show them in

whose image they are made.

Finally, this is for my dear friends Craig and Lynn Ann

Bogard. Thanks for 40-plus years of service to those

kids. Your training and inuence changed me and

transform me still to see who each one can and will

be.


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Contents

Chapter 1: Who Is That Kid? ...........................................1

Chapter 2: Some Initial Thoughts ....................................15

Chapter 3: So Ive Heard About Jesus

The Unchurched Kid .........................................................21

Chapter 4: Im President of My Class, Valedictorian,

Captain of the Sports Team, and Oh Yeah, Theres Youth

Group

The Overextended Kid ......................................................29

Chapter 5: LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!

The Attention-Seeking Kid ................................................39

Chapter 6: I Dont Hate You; Im Just Mad at the World

The Defant Kid..................................................................47

Chapter 7: I Found Ya!

The Clingy Kid ....................................................................57

Chapter 8: My Hand Is Out; Fill It!

The Entitled Kid .................................................................67


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Chapter 9: Proud to Be a Pharisee

The Legalistic Kid ..............................................................75

Chapter 10: So What if You Really Believe in Me?

The Complacent Kid.......................................................... 83

Chapter 11: No Matter How Hard I Try, Im Just Not Cool

The Socially Awkward Kid .................................................93

Chapter 12: Im Dying Inside

The Hurting Kid ...............................................................101

Chapter 13: Moving Out From Under the

Green Sky ....................................................................... 109


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CHAPTER 1:

WHO ISTHAT KID?


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I have a question for you. Sit and think about it for a

second; close your eyes and ponder. Which student

makes you supremely uncomfortable to be around? The

one that you hope wont show up this weekand then

causes you to feel guilty when youre glad they dont.

The one who pushes your buttons and makes you want

to scream or quit or both. The one you dont know how

to reach so you avoidor maybe its the one you haventnoticed.

Now open your eyes. Were you laughing or sweating as

the name or names came to mind?

These are the students that you pretend you are too busy

for. They are the ones that are lost and you feel totally

unqualied to reach. Yet you know what they need is to be

loved.

I was that kid. You probably wouldnt have thought it,

though.

I always felt like problems needed to stay behind closed

doors. No matter what was going on at home, I would

never tell. I wouldnt tell you that my sisters disability

often made me feel like she was the one who got all of


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the attention. When my parents fought or when I fought

with them (which was often), you would never know.When my parents led for bankruptcy, life barely skipped

a beat. I genuinely thought that if I could at least get the

best grades, be well-behaved, and be a star of some kind,

then life would be all right.

No matter how I tried, I never thought the popularkids accepted me. I was entirely insecure all the time.

It didnt help that in elementary and middle school I

was notoriously teased and bullied. It only added to the

magnication of my perceived defects. Walking down my

schools halls, I was sure that the world was pointing and

laughing. If I even messed up a little, the secret would get

out that I was still that same clumsy kid who had bug

eyes and cried all the time. I wasnt about to let that

happen in high school. If you werent going to accept me

for who I was, at least I could learn to hide it well.

For a number of reasons, my family stopped going to

church when I was in middle school, but we started up

again for a brief time when I was in high school. I had

asked Jesus into my heart when I was 5. However, I

dont think I understood how to truly rely on him until I


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was about 20. By that time I had gotten really good at two

things:

1. Keeping everyone who might nd me out at arms

length.

2. Waiting for the world to call me out on how awed I

really was.

When we went back to church, the youth pastor didnt

have time for me. I tried to go through the motions of

being the good kid, and he bought it. I was hungering

for him to see through the faade, but he didnt. I

remember opening up to a volunteer on a ski trip we oncetook. It felt so good to nally get out my feelings. The

volunteer promised to follow up but never did. It left me

feeling vulnerable and exposed. Obviously I was too much

of a mess for that person, too.

Who was I? I was the overextended kid who hid in

activities. I was the hurting kid. I was the legalist keeping

my list of dos and donts. I saw myself as socially

awkward. The students you had in mind a few moments

ago? I was a bunch of them wrapped into one.


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God eventually brought me into a youth ministry career.

My heart was drawn to those kids like me, the ones whohung on the fringes. Somehow those deemed unlovable

ended up being the majority of the students attracted to

my groups.

I successfully entered an arena where I never had any

idea what I was doing. There were kids that left metongue-tied, kids who left me feeling helpless, kids I

didnt like, and kids I hoped to never see again. I had no

idea there would be a kid I didnt want to see.

The age-old debate over why we are the way we are

is often called Nature vs. Nurture. Where do we

place blame? Is it the way we were born or the way

we are raised? In his book Hurt: Inside the World of

Todays Teenagers, Chap Clark talks about systematic

abandonment. Many adolescents today feel like they

have been deserted by every adult and by a system

that was meant to keep them safe. Parents push their

children to excel in everything from sports to academics

to community service. Coaches and teachers want them

to get ahead. Extended family and mentors are rarely

present. Kids are dropped off at youth group, where they

can get Jesus. These adolescents feel they have been


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systematically passed off to a bunch of grown-ups with

agendas for envisioned success. The result is that kids

believe there are no safe adult relationships. In short, if

these children just had better care, then they would be

different.

But then I met some students who were nurtured well.

Two loving parents loved them, and it felt like everyonetried to lift them up. Yet it still seemed to be in their wiring

to be different. Could it be just be their nature? Psalm

139:13-14 certainly could point us in that direction.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and

knit me together in my mothers womb. Thank you for

making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is

marveloushow well I know it.

In the midst of all of this is the very real developmental

stage of adolescence. This is an age that spans anywhere

(depending on who you talk to) from 9 to 22 years of age.

This time of life is marked by insecurity and awkwardness.

Some hide it behind risk-taking while others muddle

through with barely audible communication abilities.

The Bible told me to love all of these students as myself.

Yet often this was a challenge. I wish it were as simple as


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No one ever said ministering to teenagers was easy. (Actually, one person didsay thatbut he didnt last long.) But working with certain teenagers seemsespecially challenging, difcult, stressful.

How can you best connect with deant, clingy, or complacent students? Howdo you build bridges to unchurched, hurting, or socially awkward teenagers?Drawing on two decades of youth ministry experience, Leneita Fix offerspractical insights and strategies on effectively connecting with 10 groups ofteenagers that we can overlook, ignore, or avoid all too easily.

In No Teenager Left Behind, Fix paints a picture of students who can fallthrough the cracks of our youth ministries, a picture rooted in her ownteenage struggle with insecurities and doubt and low self-esteem. These are

the students that we pretend we are too busy for. Theyre the ones that arelost and we feel totally unqualied to reach.

But what they need is to be loved. Instead of avoiding these teenagers, we cansee them as Jesus sees each of themand each of us. And we can commit tothe vision of leaving no teenager behind as we minister to this generation.

ISBN 84421pod

ISBN 978-0-7644-8442-1

Leneita recently celebrated

her 20th year in ministry.

Her responsibilities have

included Bible-based program

direction for children ages 5-18,

curriculum writing, staff training

and recruiting, discipleship,

and speaking to national audiences. Her passion is

multiplying ALL youth workers (full time, paid, unpaid,

volunteer, or bivocational) by aiding them to become

better trained and equipped. She is honored to be

a part of a family that ministers together, with her

husband John, a niece, and three beautiful children.

leneita fix

Everyday Youth Ministry

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No Teenager Left Behind