Episode 39: Resources to Help a Defiant Teenager (with Andrew Held and Shane Knapp)

by | Jan 21, 2025

What advice do you give a family when they can’t find help for their teen? Many parents are at the end of their rope, they can’t resolve the bad behavior, the school system doesn’t want to deal with it, and they have nowhere else to turn.

As a pastor, this might seem like a daunting task to counsel parents of a teenage son and direct them to resources.

Joining me on the podcast are Andrew Held and Shane Knapp. They are both staff members at Salem4Youth, a year-long program that takes young men between the ages of 12 – 17 to overcome defiant behavior and better prepare them to function successfully in society.

In this episode, you’ll hear some of the resources you should utilize before considering a live-in program, how to best support a child in the program, whether Scripture can address complex issues facing our teens, and much more.

Resources:

Key Takeaways

  1. Parent involvement is key. Regardless of whether you are trying to deal with your teen’s issues at home or through a live-in program, you can’t solely rely on others to disciple your child. Too often parents rely on youth pastors and programs to disciple their children, when in reality that responsibility has been given to parents.
  2. The church should be a place of encouragement and mentorship. We should not be too quick to say a situation is beyond our abilities or send the “hard” cases away. In the same way that God has given responsibility to parents to disciple their children, He has also called the church to support one another through mentorship and encouragement.
  3. Scripture is sufficient to handle any situation. This is one of the core beliefs we stand on. No matter if your child has issues with anger, authority, drugs, pornography, or violence, God’s Word is sufficient to address those problems.

 

Meet Andrew & Shane

Andrew Held and Shane Knapp are staff members at Salem4Youth, a Christ-centered, environment where young men between the ages of 12 – 17 can learn life skills to better prepare them to function successfully in society.

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