Dan Webster (with Tony Schwartz) will be leading HIM’s Helpiing Teens in a Confusing World.” The half-day workshops will be Saturday, Nov 6, 2010 on Oahu, and Sunday, Nov 7, 2010 on Kauai. We caught up with Dan to see what ticks his tock. What sparked the idea that blossomed into a half-day workshop for equipping parents and youth workers?
Since coming to Christ as a senior in high school I have had both a passion and gift for helping others find their way in life. This has been true as a dad, youth worker and mentor to hundreds of leaders over the years. For more than 30 years I've been a dad to three sons. As they grew up I had a passion to help them sort themselves out and discover who God made them to be. Add to that, 20 years as a director of two different large student ministries where I discipled hundreds of young leaders seeing them find God's will for their lives. Add to these two experiences, working intensely in life process with leaders over the last 15 years, and you can see almost an obsession with helping people sort themselves out while finding God's will for their lives. Whether the leader is young or old, two of life's most important questions are “Who am I?” and “What is the life I should be living?” Helping people get clear on these issues is what my life is about.
What has been your most challenging experience as an adult working with teens, and how did it change you for the better?
My oldest son was 15 when he got arrested for possession of marijuana. I went through a two-year period of time when I felt lost as his dad. It took great humility and courage to sit down with him and resolve the resentment that he felt towards me. But it was worth it. We talk about this in the workshop I'll be leading. He's 31 years old today and we have the most amazing relationship. But it wasn't always that way.
What were you like as a teen?
I weighed 185 lbs. and was 5'5" tall when I entered high school as a sophomore. That put me on one end of the social continuum. As a senior I was 6'3" and weighed 175 lbs. while playing on a basketball team that went to the state championship game. That put me on the other end of the social continuum. So, as a high school kid I was insecure, spiritually sensitive and longing for acceptance by the right friends. I understood what it was like to be on both the outside and on the inside. That experience helped me understand how kids all along the social continuum feel and think.
Do you think teens have changed significantly since your adolescent years? If so, how and why? If not, why does it “seem” harder today?
I think there is a predictable developmental process that we all go through when we are young. How smoothly that evolves for a kid varies with a kid’s family of origin and childhood experiences. More bad things interrupt that developmental process for kids today than 50 years ago. This occurs from the demise of the family, technology (and what it exposes kids to), and the loss of a moral center within our current culture.
You obviously do this because you love teens. Tell us what you see in teens that drives you to help equip their parents, church youth-workers, and other significant adults in their lives?
First, I see in kids a people group whom God loves. I see unreleased potential in kids. I see a longing in kids to contribute and live meaningful lives. But I also see in kids a deep sense of abandonment by the adult generation. Kids feel deeply hurt by an adult generation that has left them to raise themselves. And yet, while kids are lonely at their core and angry, they long for trusting relationships with adults who authentically care about them. Last, in kids I see the future of the world.
Learn more about the Helping Teens in a Confusing World workshop here.
Great for parents, youth workers, teachers, and all who care about our teens.
The half-day workshop is only $20 pp when you register by Oct 29, 2010.
Register now.