Resources: Faith Nurture for All Children, Youth with Mental Illness, Disability's Impact

In my position I receive suggestions about many excellent resources from generous people. Here are three that I heard about this past week.

Blog about faith nurture: Shannon’s (no last name listed) blog entry for May 23, “Only sharing the Gospel with 5/6 of our children? Not an option” asks whether we would consider it good enough to nurture 83 percent of our children in the faith. Sounds like an absurd idea, yet she asserts that churches do so when they do not devote energy and resources to helping children with developmental disabilities grow spiritually. For the sake of all of our children, churches go the extra mile to engage in faith formation of 100 percent of their children.

Report on youth and mental illness: Mental health issues account for 45 percent of all disability among youth ages 10 to 24 including depression, bi-polar disorder, and schizophrenia according to a new study by the World Health Organization. Because mental health issues generally respond well to prevention, early detection, and treatment in youth, churches can be of great help in the lives of your young people who are struggling. The first step is recognizing the kids who are dealing with mental health problems and surround them with support.

Report on disability worldwide: The World Health Organization also just released an extensive report (349 pages) on disability worldwide. This report addresses issues including environment, education, work and employment, and recommendations. In coming weeks I’ll review some major findings on this blog.