The transition from parenting kids to leading teens is a difficult one in our culture. But there is still hope!

Many parents have heard that maintaining a strong relationship and shaping the direction of their teen is nearly impossible today. However, our time and research with teens says differently.

Shepherding Your Teen helps parents transition from parenting children to fostering the development of young people who will thrive spiritually, socially and practically beyond their home. This series combines research YTN has conducted with over 1,500 teens, high school student video segments and an eye opening look into Jesus' approach to shepherding His disciples.

We look deeply into the issues that are discouraging teens at school, church and home, helping parents better understand the perspective of their teen. This understanding along with the shepherding content helps parents improve and maintain strong, healthy relationships with their teens.

Parents who have attended Shepherding Your Teen:

"Jeff Schadt changed my son through me!" -Rick Rablin

 "I saw my daughter’s heart come back to life." -anonymous mother

 "It changed my walk with God and helped me understand why my son did not want to go to his youth group anymore"  -Debbie Branson

Shepherding Your Teen can be formatted to expose parents to the issues and challenge them to engage or go deeper into the issues, helping parents reevaluate and assess the need to change their approach with their teen.

Format:

1) A one-hour session, designed to expose and engage parents of pre-teens and teens formatted for a Sunday School Class hour.

2) A weekend conference or retreat with four to eight sessions offering the opportunity to delve more deeply into the research related to teens and four key principles of Shepherding that transform the relationship between teens and their parents.

3) A Shepherding Your Teen & Reboot four-day retreat. This incorporates our teen "Reboot" content around teens' faith issues and the Shepherding content for parents. The material parallels each other and creates non-threatening points of discussion between teens and parents designed at building a strong relationship and approach to the teenage years and their future together.

4) Reboot Retreat for teens is a three or four-day conference/retreat that covers the central issues that confuse and discourage the hearts of our teens related to their faith in a open dialogue, discussion and self-discovery format. Each session approaches the students through their own experiences and stories helping them internalize it in a more real and experiential fashion.

Click here to contact us about booking a seminar at your church today.

Here are the "official"  endorsements of the book.  I would like to hear what you thought of it in the comments below.

Parents play a far bigger role in the lives of their teens than society would have us believe. The tragedy is that even as parents love their children and desperately desire to see them walk with Christ, they may fail to realize that some of the very things they do to help them follow Christ may ultimately drive them away from the church and even Christ Going, Going, Gone! is a must read for any parent who wants to see their young adult children succeed socially, academically, and spiritually when they graduate from high school!
—Val Nordbye, Mom and National Director of Campus Ambassadors

The information found in Going, Going, Gone! significantly improved my relationship with my teenage son. The change in me was so obvious that my son sent me a thank you letter during his freshman year of college. He thanked me for changing the way I approached him in high school and listed the changes that greatly impacted him. He credited the changes for being the reason he was walking with the Lord in college!”
—Rick Rablin, Father and Senior Systems Analyst, Alaska Airlines

Today it is clear that we are not connecting with many of our young people. Going, Going, Gone! is an insightful and challenging look at the reasons so many teens are distant from their parents and church! It will challenge you, alter your perspective, and change the course of your relationship with your teenager!
—Tom Scott, COO Association of Christian Schools Intl.

Anyone who lives or works with teenagers must read this book. Over 70 percent of young people make a departure from their faith after they graduate from high school. But parents and youth pastors can help change that if they act now, before their kids go off to college or work life. Jeff Schadt has spent thousands of hours interviewing and counseling students. In this book, he paints a vivid picture of how to approach teens using the discipleship model that Jesus employed. It’s all in your Bible, but Jeff expertly directs the reader and overlays the context of today’s youth culture. This provides guidance for shepherding our young people before they’re gone.
—Brian Raison, Author & Founder of College101.org and youth development educator at The Ohio State University

University campuses can be very perplexing for freshmen. With freedoms to do what they want like never before, they need wisdom. How do we prepare them for such an onslaught of temptations and trials? Jeff Schadt’s research into this culture will help guide you in guiding them. This is a book that needs to be in the hands of parents, youth pastors, and most importantly, youth themselves.
—Dr. Darryl DelHousaye
President of Phoenix Seminary

Watch one parent's story about how Shepherding for the Future inspired him to change the way he approached his son going into his senior year of high school and how his son's relationship with Christ flurished in college as a result.