Chap Clark's groundbreaking Hurt: Inside the World of Today's
Teenagers revealed the hard truth about contemporary
adolescence: societal changes and systemic abandonment have left
teenagers struggling to navigate the ever lengthening and ever more
difficult transition to adulthood without caring adults.
When Kids Hurt offers these challenging insights to youth
workers and parents in a more accessible form, with greater focus
on how adults should respond. Practical sidebars and application
sections, contributed by other youth experts, provide additional
insights into youth culture and how adults can better guide
adolescents into adulthood. This book will be an important resource
for youth workers, parents, counselors, and others who work with
youth.
What's really going on in the hidden world of today's
teenagers?
To get below the surface, Chap Clark spent a year in a high school
and interviewed dozens of students about everything from their
families and social lives to their loneliness and insecurity. An
alarming picture emerged: adults have abandoned kids to navigate
the ever-lengthening and ever more difficult transition to
adulthood on their own, and the results are devastating. Unable to
cope with the pressures of expectations and hurt of abandonment,
teenagers retreat to their own world of youth culture to survive,
and few adults care enough to engage them there.
Here Clark and Rabey sum up the provocative research, which was
detailed in Clark's bestselling book Hurt, and lay out
practical ways caring adults can have a profound impact on teens.
This book is an essential guide for youth pastors and volunteer
leaders, educators, counselors, parents, and all adults seeking to
reach out to today's adolescents.
"When Hurt came out, it changed the landscape of youth
ministry. In When Kids Hurt, Chap Clark and Steve Rabey have
taken us on the next step of the journey--to helping us know how to
respond to kids who have been neglected and, in Chap's words,
'systematically abandoned.'"--Doug Fields, pastor to the life
development team, Saddleback Church
"Chap and Steve have done us all a huge favor--parents and
practitioners alike--by taking us deeper into the reality of
adolescent brokenness while providing us with practical suggestions
on how to move toward a 'fix.'"--Walt Mueller, president, Center
for Parent/Youth Understanding
"This book helps adults get inside the mind and life of adolescents
like no other."--Jim Burns, president, HomeWord, author of The
Purity Code
"Chap Clark and Steve Rabey have captured the pain of adolescents
better than anyone I know. The first time I read this book, I
couldn't put it down."--Kara Powell, executive director, Fuller
Youth Institute
"This is must reading for parents and youth workers alike."--Wayne
Rice, cofounder, Youth Specialties
Chap Clark is vice dean for the School of Theology and Regional
Campuses Master's Programs and professor of youth, family, and
culture at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is senior editor of
YouthWorker Journal and the author of several books,
including the award-winning Hurt, and Disconnected, a
book for parents.
Steve Rabey is an award-winning writer and editor who has authored
or collaborated on over twenty books. He is the editor of
YouthWorker Journal.
Chap Clark is vice dean for the School of Theology and Regional
Campuses Master's Programs and professor of Youth, Family, and
Culture at Fuller Seminary; senior editor of Youthworker
Journal; and the author of several books on adolescence,
parenting, and youth ministry.
Steve Rabey is an award-winning writer and editor who has authored
or collaborated on over twenty books. He is currently the managing
editor of Youthworker Journal.