Christian Wilderness Programs for Troubled Youth

Jan 11th, 2010 by Trace

When it comes to Christian wilderness programs for troubled youth, Shepherd’s Hill Farm is the cream of the crop. Shepherd’s Hill Farm serves troubled teens ages 13-17 and helps the entire family grow as well. With an emphasis on Christian apologetics, Shepherd’s Hill farm offers troubled teens a unique approach to ministry. Few Christian wilderness programs for troubled youth stress the importance of adopting a biblical worldview for life to the degree that the staff at Shepherd’s Hill Farm do. Even fewer understand the spiritual nature of a human being from the biblical, as well as from the scientific, perspective.
Though most secular theorists would probably label SHF “old school” or “politically incorrect” because of our biblical emphasis, our experience has given overwhelming evidence to the fact that not just troubled teens, but all teens, even in today’s postmodern culture, are hungering for the kind of moral absolutes, relationships, and boundaries that are taught in Scripture. Because of SHF’s spiritual emphasis and intense discipleship and apologetic focus, it is not uncommon for a troubled teen’s entire family and extended family members, to accept and develop relationships with Christ as well. Other Christian wilderness programs for troubled youth would do well to be as diligent in taking their principles for mentoring troubled teens as strictly from Scripture as does the staff at Shepherd’s Hill Farm.

The principles God uses through the Holy Spirit’s work here at SHF are supported by a two year study by the Commission on Children at Risk. The commission was birthed out of the Dartmouth Medical School, which produced findings, with empirical scientific evidence, supporting the very biblical principles by which SHF has operated from the beginning. The commission put together a book on their findings called, Hardwired to Connect–The New Scientific Case for Authoritative Communities. The book supports, with science, all that Scripture endorses through faith and obedience—including a study that produced empirical evidence for a human being’s biological need for a relationship/connection with his/her biological parents. This same study produced similar evidence for an individual’s need for a relationship/connection with his/her Creator as well!

SHF is a proving ground, so to speak, for the effectiveness of an authoritative community model committed to living out the principles of a Biblical worldview and submission to God through Christ—especially when it comes to the transformation of troubled teens.