Do you have a plan in place when something goes wrong in youth ministry? Im not talking about your message not going the right way, someone throws up during the game or you run out of pizza before 7th grade Billy got his slice for the night. I am talking about the unforeseen serious issues that will inevitably happen at some point. Are you ready?
Here is a list of things you need to at least have thought about before they happen: Student has a seizure -call parents, keep them posted on whats happening, communicate clearly and often with them until they arrive at your church or at the hospital -call paramedics -someone on your team needs to go with to the hospital, if not you then an adult team member -if you do not go to the hospital initially, you need to go after programming to check in and be with the family Student confesses addiction (drugs, alcohol, porn, etc) -If they are confessing addiction in their life, they are more than likely at a point where they want help, this is your chance to love them where they are and make sure they know you are in their corner. -Encourage them to talk to their parents, go with them if need be -Do not let them off the hook with telling mom and dad (unless your wisdom and discernment tells you that it shouldn't happen because of the family circumstances) -Get them and their parents outside resources (counseling, addiction centers, books, etc) -Walk with them, they will need encouragement as well as challenged to continue taking steps towards health Student hits head/breaks arm/physical harm happens -call parents, keep them posted on whats happening, communicate clearly and often with them until they arrive at your church or at the hospital -call paramedics -someone on your team needs to go with to the hospital, if not you then an adult team member -if you do not go to the hospital initially, you need to go after programming to check in and be with the family Student has a panic attack -call parents, keep them posted on whats happening, communicate clearly and often with them until they arrive at your church or at the hospital -call paramedics -someone on your team needs to go with to the hospital, if not you then an adult team member -if you do not go to the hospital initially, you need to go after programming to check in and be with the family Student admits sexual/physical/verbal abuse -bring another caring adult into the conversation so there is accountability on your part, especially if is with the opposite sex -you need to ask the right questions when you get into these conversations: -Is it on going? How long ago did this happen? -Do you feel safe at home? -Have you ever told anyone else about this? -how often is it happening? -Depending on your relationship with the family, you need to meet with them that night to talk -Depending on the severity of the abuse, you may need to call the authorities. -Sexual Abuse Crisis Hotline -police -If you are in a state that is a mandatory reporting state, you will need to call child protective services to report the abuse -You need to be ready to walk along side this student/family -This means having conversations about this with your leaders so they are not blind sided by this either Student runs away during youth group -there is no way to prevent this situation entirely but you should be looking at how safe your programming is so that students can’t easily slip out a door -get with your leaders to see if any of them remember seeing anything -call parents, keep them posted on whats happening, communicate clearly and often with them until they arrive at your church -call police -do not stop looking, calling, searching until the student has been found -following up with the student and family may be just as important as helping them look Student has an allergic reaction/anaphylactic -call parents, if you are not aware of allergies, let them help you handle the reaction and let them tell you what they want done, stay on the phone with them -in the case of serious reaction keep parents posted on whats happening, communicate clearly and often with them until they arrive at your church or at the hospital -call paramedics in the case that it is a serious emergency (parents make the decision, if you cant get a hold of parents you make the best decision you can with the information you have on hand) -someone on your team needs to go with to the hospital, if not you then an adult team member -if you do not go to the hospital initially, you need to go after programming to check in and be with the family Natural Disaster (Tornado, Hurricane, Earthquake, Thunder Storm, etc) -Stay up to date on the weather, you should have plenty of time to know when bad weather is going to hit -if its a pop up storm know where you should go in your building in the event of an weather emergency -have an adult team member monitor the weather for you so you can focus on the students -make sure your adult leaders know what to do in the case of an emergency, talk to them about it and train them on the response -Have a plan in place to communicate clearly to parents in light of an emergency Family Emergency for one of your students -when someone reaches out to you with information about the family of one of your students -be ready to help and do whatever the family needs -this one is tough to have a plan for but you at least need to think about it Does your process change because its one of your adult volunteers? Please do not put off figuring out how these situations play out in your ministry. This doesn't mean you will be 100% prepared for every circumstance but at the very least you will be able to react in a prepared way that is rational and in your students best interest when something does happen. Your students deserve a youth pastor who isn’t going to wing it in a moment of crisis.
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