Helping Youth Grieve

Suicide, depression, eating disorders, and other mental health illnesses have dramatically increased among adolescents in recent decades. Our American culture demands high levels of success and propagates a ""feel good"" attitude that denies pain, loss, and failure. Churches contribute to these distressing realities among youth. Our theology associates ""being happy"" with ""true faithfulness"" to God, overemphasizing praise and thanksgiving while neglecting lament, even though lament comprises the largest number of Psalms. There is much good in the lives of today's adolescents, but there is also much grief and woundedness.

Helping Youth Grieve exposes the warped view of God modeled and taught to our young people. This book portrays a God who yearns to hear the honest cries of our youth, even when that involves blaming God! Spiritual caregivers will discover good news in biblical lament for its role in pastoral care and faith formation of adolescents.


""Bob Yoder is a grief specialist and this book recognizes a broad spectrum of losses that can lead some young people today into quiet yet desperate despair. Some parents and youth leaders are aware of our need for empathy and understand basically some of the classic stages of grief. Yoder is taking us deeper, allowing for the kind of healing that lasts because instead of applying good humanistic and spiritual bandages, it allows for healing from the inside out.""
--Dean Borgman, Professor of Youth and Family Ministries, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary


""The care of youth has a new conversation partner. With compassion and wisdom Yoder empowers pastors and teachers to be a transformative presence to persons young in years but old in experience. His witness gives voice to the multiple losses and traumas youth know intimately. Lament is needed, more than ever. Helping Youth Grieve should be read, discussed, and lived. Hope will follow.""
--Jaco Hamman, Associate Professor of Religion, Psychology and Culture, Vanderbilt University


""Masterfully written, as well as pragmatic, Yoder calls the church to reconsider biblical lament. Like a wise friend, Yoder powerfully articulates the losses that teens face today, and accompanies us as we stand in the midst of their vulnerability offering tools and love. An absolute must-read for youth workers and parents of teenagers!""
--Rachel S. Gerber, Denominational Minister of Youth and Young Adults, Mennonite Church USA


Bob Yoder is Campus Pastor at Goshen College and also taught there as Assistant Professor of Youth Ministry for eleven years. He has served in ministry for more than twenty years in congregational, camp, conference, and college settings. Bob is editor of A History of Mennonite Youth Ministry, 1885-2005 (2013) and Youth Ministry at a Crossroads (2011). He and his wife, Pamela, reside in Goshen, Indiana, with their two children, Josiah and Mira.