Several years ago, a friend cut his hand badly. I took him to the hospital to have it sewed up. However, when I arrived at the hospital, I ran into the father of a member of my youth group. He seemed relieved I was there and explained that his son had overdosed on prescription drugs. He had rushed the young man to the emergency room and hospital personnel were pouring charcoal down his throat. I spent a few minutes praying with the father and then was allowed to go see the young man. He was scared, throwing up, and disoriented.

Most of us sign up for youth ministry because we want to help teenagers fall in love with God. The idea of dealing with crisis is seldom what motivates us to get involved. However, if you work with teenagers (or adults for that matter) long enough, you will encounter crisis situations. How do you deal with those times? How do you help a teenager in crisis?

While I can’t offer a total answer to that question in this article (and would not be the best person to do that in any case), let me offer a few suggestions.

• Involve the parents. If you discover that a teenager is in a crisis and his or her parents don’t know, tell them. Unless the parents is the source of the crisis, they need to know . . . even if the teenager doesn’t want them to.
• Get help. It will probably be irresponsible for you to talk to church friends about the crisis, but find someone who can help. Involve your pastor, a school counselor, or a local physician. Ask the family to let you involve someone who can help with the situation.
• Be present. Most of the time, you should not sacrifice your family, your job, or your personal devotional time for your ministry. However, when crisis grips one of the teenagers in your care (suicide attempt, drug overdose, rape, death of a family member, and so forth) make the time to be with the student. Your presence will mean more than anything else you can do or say.
• Be supportive. The moment of crisis is not the time to confront the bad behavior that may have put the teenager in danger. Let them know that you love them and want to help.
• Bring the presence of Christ into the crisis. Tell the student and his/her family that you are praying for them. If they will let you, voice prayer for God’s presence and care in the situation.

A teenager in crisis may try to shrug off the fact that their life has been turned upside down. They may want to pretend the crisis has not happened or that it is not that bad. Stay with them. Get them help. Make sure they are taken care of.

Dealing with crisis is never fun. But God can use you in significant ways when crises arrive.