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When a student confides they've been self-harming, what's your role as a youth pastor? Where does spiritual care end and professional intervention begin? Licensed counselor and youth pastor Jordan Francis unveils the complex reality of youth mental health today, offering wisdom that both relieves and challenges ministry leaders.

Jordan discusses how today's students are learning the world is evil at much younger ages through constant digital exposure. This early disillusionment drives them into technological escapism, creating a dangerous cycle of disconnection from their bodies, emotions, and the natural world God created. The conversation explores how youth readily adopt mental health labels found online, using them as identity markers without understanding their true meaning.

What makes this episode particularly valuable is the practical guidance for youth workers. Jordan outlines exactly how to respond when serious mental health issues arise—involving parents while giving students agency in the process. He challenges conventional youth ministry approaches, suggesting we've replicated the world's frenetic pace when students actually need spaces of slowness and authentic connection.

Most powerfully, Jordan reframes spiritual disciplines as mental health support. Prayer, scripture study, and contemplation expand what he calls the "window of tolerance"—our capacity to cope with life's challenges. This episode provides a comprehensive roadmap for youth ministers seeking to support students' mental wellbeing while maintaining appropriate boundaries and pointing them toward the healing power of Christ.

Here are some of the resources Jordan recommends:

• The Rise and Triumph  of the Modern Self: The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution by Carl R. Trueman
• Seculosity: How Career, Parenting, Technology, Food, Politics, and Romance Became Our New Religion and What to Do about It by David Zahl
• The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt

There are also several resources available through Jordan's company, Reframe Youth, that touch on issues of mental health:

• The Gospel According to Mental Health
• Resilience
• Flourish
• Good Grief

Last, but certainly not least, check out RLTK wherever you listen to podcasts!