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A lot of small towns have drug problems, particularly where the economy is depressed. A lot of kids who get into crack are so messed up I am not sure a church, or a jail, or anything else can reliably "fix" them.
I live in a small town and there's PLENTY of liquor stores here for some reason... not sure if there's a drug problem though. I just moved here so I'm not sure yet. There's a lot of churches here though. I'm sure any church can have a program to help alcoholics/drug addicts... a priest can be a psychiatrist to them, or any person to that matter.
I live in Destrehan, a Parish right outside of New Orleans and I can tell you that the major meth labs are across the lake in the rural areas. Crack cocaine on the other hand is a major problem for the city of NO.
Heh - i remember my 7th grade "church dance" - we would have them for the younger kids sponsored by one of the local churches, you know to provide a nice monitored area
Which was cool if you didn't count the kids who were doing dust in the bathroom or show up blitzed
Drugs & alcohol are issues with teens - period. Throw in a rural area where some of the other conditions may not be so strong, there may be a little extra dispair, etc the thing just magnifies.
Problem with church is that it's just not cool - that is going to hurt their credibility when they reach out to kids who really don't care about authority are rebelious or just don't care.
The ones in my area that had the most success were those that engaged the community as part of their mission & outreach - but didn't treat it as a youth group or a chance to preach
For example, there was a friday night basketball game sponsored by the a church group - they would bring in the kids from the at risk home and the rest would be open gym. There were rules such as no swearing - first time got you subbed for the rest of that game. Second time sent home. No fighting, etc.
They would draw all sorts in. Especially in the winter months when it was hard to find an open gym. Games would run to about 9:30 on most nights. There would be a little prayer group at the beginning and end of each night which wasn't a big show or anything. Other than that it was just kids of different background playing ball.
I always felt those type of activities helped build up some sense of community & understanding while taking away some of the boredom, etc.
Heh - i remember my 7th grade "church dance" - we would have them for the younger kids sponsored by one of the local churches, you know to provide a nice monitored area
Which was cool if you didn't count the kids who were doing dust in the bathroom or show up blitzed
Drugs & alcohol are issues with teens - period. Throw in a rural area where some of the other conditions may not be so strong, there may be a little extra dispair, etc the thing just magnifies.
Problem with church is that it's just not cool - that is going to hurt their credibility when they reach out to kids who really don't care about authority are rebelious or just don't care.
The ones in my area that had the most success were those that engaged the community as part of their mission & outreach - but didn't treat it as a youth group or a chance to preach
For example, there was a friday night basketball game sponsored by the a church group - they would bring in the kids from the at risk home and the rest would be open gym. There were rules such as no swearing - first time got you subbed for the rest of that game. Second time sent home. No fighting, etc.
They would draw all sorts in. Especially in the winter months when it was hard to find an open gym. Games would run to about 9:30 on most nights. There would be a little prayer group at the beginning and end of each night which wasn't a big show or anything. Other than that it was just kids of different background playing ball.
I always felt those type of activities helped build up some sense of community & understanding while taking away some of the boredom, etc.
Thanks to you, and the other that have responded. I know that there will always be problems. That's just the nature of things. And as one poster said above, no way church can "fix" everyone. But I'm basically just trying to think about how a church can be of some help to not only the problem, but the families dealing with it as well.
That's some great feedback so far--I like the idea of a non-threatening activity of some sort. Wherever I go on to minister I plan on being a big part of the community--I want to get to know the people--the businesses, the schools, etc, instead of just waiting for them to come to the Sunday night youth group.
Thanks to you, and the other that have responded. I know that there will always be problems. That's just the nature of things. And as one poster said above, no way church can "fix" everyone. But I'm basically just trying to think about how a church can be of some help to not only the problem, but the families dealing with it as well.
That's some great feedback so far--I like the idea of a non-threatening activity of some sort. Wherever I go on to minister I plan on being a big part of the community--I want to get to know the people--the businesses, the schools, etc, instead of just waiting for them to come to the Sunday night youth group.
am living in a small town with a huge drug and alcohol problem---it is not being addressed by the many churches here of all denominations and i am not sure why-----since i volunteer at a local church---i try to address it in my sunday school lessons--but i see the priests,pastors avoiding it in their sermons-----they need to bring the families into the church community no matter what the financial status (especially if they are poor,struggling and broken)----instead they seem to cater to the older wealthy(those that give more financially to the church)--this is discouraging
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