The theme for the upcoming Rooted Conference in Atlanta on October 10-12, 2013 focuses on Hope in a Time of Suffering.
If the that phone call or that text message has not arrived on your iPhone yet, it will. The day is coming.
You will wake up on a Saturday morning to discover that one of the girls in your youth group died last night. You stand with a student as his dad dies of cancer. You sit in the halls of a school after a car full of students died in an accident. You console a parent whose child has died from an overdose. You try your best to answer questions following a teen suicide.
If you have been in youth ministry for six months, that day likely has come. If not, it’s on its way at some point.
How do you reassure young, impressionable people of the goodness and sovereignty of God when tragic and traumatic experience suggests neither is true? How do you prepare students for their future suffering? These are the toughest challenges in youth ministry.
While there is no formula or playbook for navigating suffering, Rooted 2013 will explore and tackle these issues. As a person with nine years of youth ministry experience, I still find myself feeling anxious and inadequate when the “shattered glass” moments occur.
Having been behind the curtain of this conference, I can say that some of these themes will be covered in the talks:
1.) Preparing students for future suffering
2.) Difficulty as the norm rather than the exception
3.) The relevance of God’s suffering for ailing people
4.) Suffering as a gift
5.) Ministering to those in affliction
6.) Comfort for our own suffering
….and more. Register today by clicking here.
