ministry to dr. cleveland houser, prison ministry consultant north american division prison ministry...

MINISTRY

TO

Dr. Cleveland Houser, Prison Ministry Consultant

North American Division

Prison Ministry Department

MINISTRY TO

SOCIAL DATA

2.3 Million persons are arrested by police each year.

A higher percentage of crimes go unreported.

Most juvenile crimes are committed early in their lives.

In the last 15 years the number of juvenile offenders under the age of 15 increased by 94%.

MINISTRY TO

Statistical Itemization of Juvenile Crimes

• Simple assault up 98%• Aggravated assault up 64%• Carrying a weapon up 50%• Murder up 39%• Robbery up 37%• Auto theft up 17%• Arson up 17%• Rape up 20%• Burglary down 17%• Larceny up 11%• Vandalism up 15%

MINISTRY TO JUVENILES

Ruthlessness Among Juveniles

• 270,000 guns are taken to school by juveniles each day.

• More and more incidents of disruptive behavior are being reported by teachers each year.

• Unruliness in the work place.

• Unruliness in the home.

Factors of Juvenile Behavior

I. Poverty

• 22% of the children under the age of 18 live in poverty.

• Poverty is more common among children than any other group.

• Adolescents from a lower socioeconomic status commit more crimes than children from a higher socioeconomic status.

Factors of Juvenile Behavior

Poverty continued

• Social isolation and economic stress are the main two products of poverty.

• Pervasive poverty undermines the relevance of school and upward mobility.

• Poverty breeds conditions that are conducive to crime.

BEHAVIOR FACTORS cont…

II. FAMILY FACTORS

• One of the most reliable indicators of juvenile crime is the number of fatherless children.

• The decline in marriages. There was increase of 18 million single parents in the last decade.

• 50% of American marriages end in divorce. Divorce among Americans is the highest of any society in history.

• 33% of children are born out of wedlock.

• Social factors are to complex to generalize.

…BEHAVIOR FACTORS cont…

III. ENVIROMENT

• Fighting

• Gangs

• Drugs

• Crime

• Homicides

• Peer and friend choices

BEHAVIOR FACTORS cont

IV. Media Influences• Television

• Movies

• Music videos

• Video games

• Rap and hip hop music

• Computer games (Doom and Quake)

BEHAVIOR FACTOR cont

Media Influences Continued

• Children will have watched 19,000 hours of TV by the completion of the 12th grade.

• At the age of 18, children will have seen 200,000 acts of violence, 40,000 murders and witness 6-8 acts of violence every hour.

• Music videos/rap music lyrics led to 144 law enforcement officers being killed in 1992.

BEHAVIOR FACTORS cont

Media Influence cont

• Rap songs, like Cop Killer, influenced 4 juveniles to wound a Las Vegas Police Officers.

• A Texas patrolman was killed by a juvenile who was influenced by 2 Pac’s anti-police lyrics.

HOW SHOULD JUVENILES IN TROUBLE BE HANDLED

I. Public Health Solution

• See juveniles as the victims of an anti-youth culture.

• Not just parents, but adult society appears to be increasingly angry, hostile and punitive toward youth.

• Pseudo-self-esteem = self-esteem is tied to achieving affluence.

• The real enemy is the environment (forces that shape their culture) and the agent = violence, firearms and access to firearms.

…JUVENILES IN TROUBLE…

II. Law Enforcement Solutions

• Law enforcement methods = investigates, arrests, prosecutes, convicts.

• Proponents of law enforcement embrace a national crack down on crime and a get tough on juvenile crime policy.


Common Law Enforcement Solutions

1. Waivers of Jurisdiction

• Transfers a case from Juvenile to Adult Courts. Denies some offenders the rights and protection afforded in Juvenile law.

• 35 states permits the execution of juveniles regardless of their age.

• The USA is the only country in the world that execute children under the age of 18.

• 300 juveniles have been executed in the USA. The youngest was 13 years of age.

…Juveniles in Trouble…

2. Scared Strait Programs

• Usually have a backlash

• Are usually transitional in effect.


3. Juvenile in Correction Facilities

• Over 42,000 juveniles are in custody.

• Most youth are held in semi-secure facilities.

• They are designed to look like high schools rather than prisons.

• Each state has at least one juvenile facility.

• The rest are boot camps and transitional houses.

MINISTERING TO JO’SSocieties Response

• Call them super predators.

• Out of fear and frustration society pressured law makers to revamp the whole Juvenile Court System.

• There has been a significant transfer of juvenile cases to adult courts.

• Studies show that when juveniles are sentence to adult prisons, they revert to a life of crime more quickly when released and commit more serious crimes than when they were released from juvenile facilities.

…MINISTERING TO J O’S…

Christian Efforts to Reach

• Law makers call juveniles confined to adult prisons short adults, but these are kids and you can’t minister to them the same way that you minister to adults.

• Many Christian efforts to reach trouble teens have been misdirected.

• The problem is not that at risk youth don’t want God but they are disillusioned with society.

MINISTERING TO J O’SChristian Efforts to Reach cont.

• Surveys show that the majority of at risk youth are vastly more spiritually aware than the general population of youth.

• Question? How should we minister to them differently if we want to be more effective. What make them so different?

• Paul writes in 1 Cor. 4:15, Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the gospel. Corinthians had a bigger need for a father than a teacher, so do trouble kids. This verse lay the ground work for effective ministering to juvenile offenders.

…MINISTERING TO J O…II. Hatred for Authority

• Why? Absent of a father or an abusive father. When the teacher say sit down the youth may stand up. The youth hates the principal, police, boss at work and even you if you become an authority figure.

• They have been hurt and before they will be hurt again, they will dish out the punishment.

• Speaking negative to young people create mountains in their lives that are to high to climb.

…MINISTERING TO J O…

Hatred for Authority cont.

• Ministry to juveniles requires patience.

• Don’t give upon them.

• They have to outlive the role of negative authority in their lives.

• Slowly positive outlooks take place in their lives and they begin to accept authority figures.

• God comes in.


III. Deep Seated Anger

• Usually results from rejection experiences in early life.

• Anger thermometer – a study was done where in kids were asked to imagine that they had an anger problem. On a scale from 0 – 10, 0 = no and 10 = over the edge, most of them said that their anger problem was never below a 7 or 8.

• If they are at a 7 or 8 and someone on the street gave them a dirty look, their anger thermometer would be raised 2 or 3 degrees which would push them over the edge.


Deep Seated Anger cont.

• Where is this anger coming from?

• The most deep seated anger comes from youth feeling rejected from some one close and usually from childhood.

• They suffered abuse and threats on their lives.

• If rejection is the problem then acceptance is the solution.

• Kids don’t need the old cliché, “ I accept you as you are “, which is closer to apathy and indifference.


Deep Seated Anger cont.

• They need the kind of acceptance that God extends to us.

• He knows us at our worst and yet loves us completely, enough to change us.


IV. Failure Complex

• They have failed so much until they don’t believe that they can succeed at anything any more.

• They are apprehensive

• They feel that they were born to lose.

• They need to know that they can do all things through Christ who strengthens them. Phil. 4:13


Failure Complex cont.

• Phil. 1:6 What God has started he is able to complete.

• Isa. 43:1,2 When you pass through the water and fire he will be with you.


V. Use A Discussion Based Format

• Discussion rather than preaching and teaching is more effective.

• They need to interact with positive adults.

• Juveniles need to see what a Christian is close up.

• Ask kids the right questions and lead them toward making the right conclusions.


Use A Discussion Based Format

• Sitting in a circle make them feel important..

• Kids lack communication skills because of excessive media exposure. They are a remote control generation with a short attention span.

Ground Rules

• One person speak at a time

• Each persons opinion is respected.

• No one is allowed to talk about a person who is not present.

…MINISTERING TO JO…

Bible Study Format

• Subjects are to be topical in nature.

• Have open discussions.

• Establish common grounds among youth in issues that they face.

• Help them to conclude that they can’t handle their situations by themselves.

• Address questions that youth are struggling with, don’t answer questions that they are not asking.


Bible Study Format cont.

• Use stories or illustrations to further state the problem under discussion. Help create a need for a solution.

• Scripture creates the need for a solution.

• Reemphasize that scripture is the solution for all problems.

• End the study by asking for prayer request and praying for each youth in the study.


VI. Remember Where You Are Attempting TO Minister.

• Juvenile facilities are based on the foundation of treatment rather than punishment.

• You will be ministering to youth who refuse to take ownership of their behavior.

• In some juvenile facilities religious programs are not allowed. This does not mean that effective ministry cannot occur.


Primary Issues That Concern Treatment Officials.

• Programs must be voluntary and not mandatory.

• Avoid controversial doctrines.

• Don’t criticize other denominations.

• Be positive and don’t condemn.

• Be consistent in your ministry.


VII. Take Opportunities To Celebrate The Lives Of Juvenile Offenders.

• Ron Hutchcraft termed this generation as a paper plate generation. You use them and throw them away.

• Celebrate birthdays and all of the significant events in the lives of young people.


VIII. Believe In Them Even If They Don’t Believe In Themselves.

• Help them to believe that they are not cursed.

• Assist them in overcoming their inferiority complex.

• Give them compliments.

• Instill dreams.

• Lead them to believe that God makes a difference.


IX. Teach Them To Realize Where Their Power Comes From.

X. Create An Atmosphere Where Juveniles Can Receive A Personal Encounter

With Jesus Christ.

• Teach them how to establish a relationship with Jesus and to know that he is real.

…MINISTERING TO J O…• Create an atmosphere of prayer and worship.

• There is no greater ministry than ministering to hurting youth.

• Throughout scripture God seeks out at least 5 different types of people:

1. The poor

2. The sick

3. The Orphan

4. The widow

5. The imprisoned

On any given evening in a juvenile facility, you will meet 3 or 4 of these.

• If you want to be where God’s heart is, what better place than a juvenile facility.

ministry to dr. cleveland houser, prison ministry consultant north american division prison ministry...

Documents

quake slide

behavior factors cont

social factors

family factors

juveniles ruthlessness

products of poverty

pervasive poverty

number of juvenile offenders