I feel you on this one. Kids are often super sensitive to hypocrisy, and for good reasons. Your question and the answer to that question is pretty complex. I think it’s important to validate the students feelings. Jesus’ people hurt other people. There’s no way to avoid that. When I talk with others who have been hurt by his people I try to make a distinction between Jesus and his intentions for us vs. how we act in reality. Teens can struggle with separating the behavior of Jesus’ people and theJesus himself. Helping them navigate abstract is important.

As far as engaging them in the youth minsitry I wrote some thoughts about that here: If your child has struggled with self-injury of if you want to know more about this behavior you can read about it here: .