You don't tend to find too many conferences that deal with topics like this.
But in most of our lives and ministries there will be events or people that have given us days of pain. The young person in whom you have invested a lot of time or the event you had hoped would be significant that doesn't work out. I always thought the hardest to cope with was the young person who had appeared to be dedicated to the life of the youth group who decided, for reasons we don't often know about, to stop coming and turn their back on their faith.
It seems as though our ‘care for the flock’ (1 Peter 5.2) has gone seriously wrong. We ask ourselves questions like ‘How should I have dealt with that?’ or ‘Could there have been a more positive outcome?’. We may even challenge ourselves about whether our teaching has made sufficient impact. A few pointers may help.
