Teen Challenge
Encyclopedia
Teen Challenge is a Pentecostal Christian
recovery program and a network of Christian social and evangelizing work centers. It is a 12-18 month program that serves drug addicts, alcoholics, gang members
, prostitutes
and people with other characteristics that the program considers to be "life-controlling problems", such as homosexuality
. It is a mission of the Assemblies of God
.
, an Assemblies of God pastor who left a rural Pennsylvania church to work among teenage gang members and socially-marginalized people in New York City
. Teen Challenge was launched from a small office on Staten Island
. In 1960, the Teen Challenge headquarters was relocated to a large historical house in Brooklyn, New York. From its humble beginnings, Teen Challenge has grown through the entrepreneurial establishment of independent centers affiliated with either Teen Challenge International USA or Global Teen Challenge. They may be organized as a network of cooperating centers having one central governing board or as stand-alone, autonomous centers.
Currently Teen Challenge International USA is headquartered in Springfield, MO. They charter and grant accreditation, develop curriculum for and refer clients to Teen Challenge centers in the United States. Global Teen Challenge is headquartered in Columbus, GA. By late 2008, Teen Challenge USA had grown to include 231 locations, including residential programs and evangelical outreach centers, in the United States.
Global Teen Challenge helps provide materials and training for centers located outside of the United States. Global Teen Challenge represents more than 1000 centers in 82 countries, and is headed by Jerry Nance, President and C.E.O. Global Teen Challenge is divided into seven regions with a director or representative for each region. The seven regions with their directors and basic residential statistics as of 2009 are below. Global Teen Challenge is also represented by additional non-residential Teen Challenge ministries such as coffee houses and evangelistic centers and efforts. The regional breakdown with its leaders as of November 2010:
Latin America and Caribbean - Duane Henders; 1,250 beds in 102 centers in 17 countries.
Europe - Tom Bremer; 892 beds in 58 centers in 28 countries.
Africa - Doug Wever, 1,034 beds in 14 centers in 9 countries.
Asia Pacific - James Lowans; 357 beds in 51 centers in 9 countries.
Northern Asia - 30 beds in three centers.
Eurasia - Kevin Tyler; 11,600 beds in 370 centers in 14 countries.
North America - Jack Smart, 7,536 beds in 223 centers in 2 countries.
Tellingly, founder David Wilkerson incorporated the first Teen Challenge as a church. "The mission of Teen Challenge ministries is identical in purpose to mainline evangelical churches: the evangelism and discipleship of people. It must be emphasized that Teen Challenge pastoral counselors are facilitators of work which is actually occurring by agency of the Holy Spirit as understood in evangelical Christian circles. Teen Challenge counselors seek to be guided by the Holy Spirit for the good of the student. Hence, it is the primary responsibility of the Teen Challenge counselor, "to provide the most conducive environment for the work of the Holy Spirit in the student's life." The cause of compulsive deviant behavior as defined by Teen Challenge is man’s separation from God which is the result of his self-centeredness. Sinful behavior, including compulsive deviant behavior, is engaged in to fill the void of meaninglessness in life. When man becomes Christ-centered, his symptoms of meaninglessness and compulsive deviant behavior are replaced by a meaningful life in Christ that enables him to realize his fullest potential."
All Teen Challenge ministries in the U.S. are required by accreditation standard to have and implement an annual evangelism strategy. Not only should evangelism be a central and perpetual activity of individual centers, a sustained Great Commission life-style, including soul winning is a key component of discipleship and should be taught and practiced by all Teen Challenge students. "Teen Challenge was founded on a pure model of evangelism."
Prayer is also a key part of Teen Challenge ministry. As Don Wilkerson stated, “In the beginning prayer was more important than the program. In fact prayer was the program. Prayer was the therapy session. Prayer in the morning, prayer in the afternoon, prayer in the evening..."
The foundational structure of Teen Challenge is the ministry of evangelism followed by the provision of discipleship to converts generally in a residential setting. The TCUSA Board of Directors approved a "Phase" system to explain core structures of Teen Challenge. All centers of any Phase are expected to be involved in Phase I. The phase ministry is as follows:
Phase I - Evangelism and Outreach - All centers of any phase are expected to be active in Phase I. Some centers don't minister much at this Phase, others are extremely and perpetually active in evangelism and outreach, and see such activity as an essential defining component of being Teen Challenge.
Phase II - Crisis Center - This may or may not be residential, but generally these centers involve Phase I activity, as well as providing pastoral counseling and referral. Many of these ministries also coordinate or directly provide the non-residential expression of Teen Challenge: Living Free (formerly Turning Point). Living Free is small groups based. The Phase II centers that are residential are typically very short term until a more permanent discipleship bed can be located.
Phase III - Induction Center - This phase is generally four months and the introduction into the one year discipleship ministry. It is here that residents are often clean for the first time in a long time, and their days are highly structured and involve intense discipleship.
Phase IV - Training Center - This phase is eight months, and all residents are graduates of Phase III induction centers. Now that the resident has been living clean for some time, his or her discipleship continues, but focuses more on being a Christ follower after graduation from Teen Challenge.
Phase V - Re-entry - generally for those graduates needing additional assistance in securing jobs or job skills, but can involve other reasons.
Phase VI - Restoration - for graduates who have returned to old behavior patterns. Phase VI is a rare ministry as a center, and is more often co-located with a Phase IV.
Another major component of the Teen Challenge structure is the Teen Challenge curriculum by Dave Batty. This is known as the Group Studies for New Christian and the Personal Studies For New Christians. All centers in the USA are required to use Teen Challenge curriculum, and there is an extensive certification process for teachers. The details of this curriculum may be viewed at the TCUSA web site.
approach at a Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution therapeutic community, and with a third group who received no treatment. While the numbers of subjects was small (17 in each group), he found evidence to support his recommendation that, while Teen Challenge was an "effective" treatment (with a drug recidivism rate after 29 months of 32%), Transactional Analysis was a "very effective" treatment (with a comparable 16% rate), suggesting that perhaps the lower recidivism rates were a result of TA changing the addiction concept of the self-image more thoroughly and at a slower pace. He hoped that Teen Challenge would incorporate some psychotherapy into their treatment model.
Aaron Bicknese tracked down 59 former Teen Challenge students in 1995, in order to compare them with a similar group of addicts who had spent one or two months in a hospital rehabilitation program. His results, part of his PhD dissertation, were published in "The Teen Challenge Drug Treatment Program in Comparative Perspective" Bicknese found that, while Teen Challenge graduates reported returning to drug use less often than the hospital program graduates, they were no less likely than those hospital program graduates who continued attending Alcoholics Anonymous support groups.
His results also showed that Teen Challenge graduates were far more likely to be employed, with 18 of the 59 working at Teen Challenge itself, which relies in part on former clients to run the program.
Much of these results were to Teen Challenge's benefit, and the high success rates (up to 86%) he found have been quoted in numerous Teen Challenge and Christian Counseling websites.
According to a 2001 New York Times item, it is the opinion of some social scientists that the 86 percent success rate of Teen Challenge is misleading, as it does not count the people who dropped out during the program, and that, like many voluntary NGO's, Teen Challenge picks its clients. The item quotes the Rev. John D. Castellani, then president of Teen Challenge International U.S.A., as saying that most of the addicts have already been through detoxification programs, before they are admitted. In the program's first four-month phase, Mr. Castellani said, 25 to 30 percent drop out, and in the next eight months, 10 percent more leave. In their testimony before the United States House Committee on Ways and Means
, the Texas Freedom Network
Education Fund, have similarly testified that the much quoted success rates "dramatically distort the truth", due to the lack of reference to the high drop out rate. Doug Wever, author of, "The Teen Challenge Therapeutic Model" has stated, "I would respectfully suggest that the Texas Freedom Network's position here is overstated in that it's not unusual at all for the research design of effectiveness studies to look only at graduates; therefore the outcomes of these independent studies do provide a legitimate and dramatic basis for comparison given the results. At the same time, Teen Challenge must be careful to communicate what has actually been measured."
Bush then created a state Task Force on Faith-Based Programs, to identify and lift regulatory barriers for faith-based social service providers.http://www.twc.state.tx.us/svcs/charchoice/faithful.pdf. The task force included J. Herbert Meppelink, the Executive Director of South Texas Teen Challenge.http://www.twc.state.tx.us/svcs/charchoice/faithful.pdf. The resultant 1997 and 1999 Texas legislation exempted Faith-Based Programs, such as Teen Challenge, from state licensing and the health, safety and quality of care standards that accompany that licensing.
Later, when Bush became US president, Teen Challenge was cited in public policy debates as an example of why such programs merit the federal funding of faith-based organizations. Its documented success rates played a role in the establishment of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
in 2001.
Conversely, such funding has come under attack through comments by John Castellani, the former President of Teen Challenge USA, during a House Government Reform subcommittee, examining the efficacy of religious social service providers. During the hearing, Castellani said Teen Challenge does not hire non-Christians as employees and, when asked if the group takes non-Christians as clients, he said yes, and boasted that some Jews who finish his Teen Challenge program become "completed Jews." Critics of faith-based funding cite this as an example of how religious intolerance could be publicly funded.http://waysandmeans.house.gov/Legacy/humres/107cong/6-14-01/record/foltin.htm#8 (The "completed Jews" phrase is often used by Christians and Messianic Jews to refer to Jewish people who become believers in Yeshua (Jesus). The phrase is considered offensive to many Jewish groups because it suggests Jews are "incomplete" unless they believe in the divinity of Jesus.)
Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism is a diverse and complex movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has an eschatological focus, and is an experiential religion. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek...
recovery program and a network of Christian social and evangelizing work centers. It is a 12-18 month program that serves drug addicts, alcoholics, gang members
Gang
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...
, prostitutes
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
and people with other characteristics that the program considers to be "life-controlling problems", such as homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
. It is a mission of the Assemblies of God
Assemblies of God
The Assemblies of God , officially the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, is a group of over 140 autonomous but loosely-associated national groupings of churches which together form the world's largest Pentecostal denomination...
.
History
Teen Challenge was established in 1958 by David WilkersonDavid Wilkerson
David Ray Wilkerson was an American Christian evangelist, best known for his book The Cross and the Switchblade...
, an Assemblies of God pastor who left a rural Pennsylvania church to work among teenage gang members and socially-marginalized people in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Teen Challenge was launched from a small office on Staten Island
Staten Island
Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...
. In 1960, the Teen Challenge headquarters was relocated to a large historical house in Brooklyn, New York. From its humble beginnings, Teen Challenge has grown through the entrepreneurial establishment of independent centers affiliated with either Teen Challenge International USA or Global Teen Challenge. They may be organized as a network of cooperating centers having one central governing board or as stand-alone, autonomous centers.
Currently Teen Challenge International USA is headquartered in Springfield, MO. They charter and grant accreditation, develop curriculum for and refer clients to Teen Challenge centers in the United States. Global Teen Challenge is headquartered in Columbus, GA. By late 2008, Teen Challenge USA had grown to include 231 locations, including residential programs and evangelical outreach centers, in the United States.
Global Teen Challenge helps provide materials and training for centers located outside of the United States. Global Teen Challenge represents more than 1000 centers in 82 countries, and is headed by Jerry Nance, President and C.E.O. Global Teen Challenge is divided into seven regions with a director or representative for each region. The seven regions with their directors and basic residential statistics as of 2009 are below. Global Teen Challenge is also represented by additional non-residential Teen Challenge ministries such as coffee houses and evangelistic centers and efforts. The regional breakdown with its leaders as of November 2010:
Latin America and Caribbean - Duane Henders; 1,250 beds in 102 centers in 17 countries.
Europe - Tom Bremer; 892 beds in 58 centers in 28 countries.
Africa - Doug Wever, 1,034 beds in 14 centers in 9 countries.
Asia Pacific - James Lowans; 357 beds in 51 centers in 9 countries.
Northern Asia - 30 beds in three centers.
Eurasia - Kevin Tyler; 11,600 beds in 370 centers in 14 countries.
North America - Jack Smart, 7,536 beds in 223 centers in 2 countries.
Identity
Teen Challenge is not a drug and alcohol program per se, despite its success among that population. The ministry intentionally serves the addicted population, occasionally resulting in a mischaracterization of Teen Challenge. The official Statement of Purpose of Teen Challenge is, "To evangelize and disciple those with life-controlling problems." The publication, "The Teen Challenge Therapeutic Model" states, "Traditional residential substance abuse rehabilitative structures clearly do not provide an analogy for the Teen Challenge model. Teen Challenge is, in all issues of therapy, direct and indirect, a purposeful comprehensive focus on the whole life of the student relative to that student’s functionality as a Christian disciple [after s/he is evangelized]... The deserved fame of Teen Challenge among addiction issues and the resulting inclusion of Teen Challenge in drug rehabilitation discussions is then limited to a reflection of who Teen Challenge ministers to." So, while Teen Challenge largely and intentionally ministers among an addicted population, Teen Challenge is the Church seeking to evangelize and disciple primarily among that population. Teen Challenge USA has been careful over the years to make sure it is understood in that context.Tellingly, founder David Wilkerson incorporated the first Teen Challenge as a church. "The mission of Teen Challenge ministries is identical in purpose to mainline evangelical churches: the evangelism and discipleship of people. It must be emphasized that Teen Challenge pastoral counselors are facilitators of work which is actually occurring by agency of the Holy Spirit as understood in evangelical Christian circles. Teen Challenge counselors seek to be guided by the Holy Spirit for the good of the student. Hence, it is the primary responsibility of the Teen Challenge counselor, "to provide the most conducive environment for the work of the Holy Spirit in the student's life." The cause of compulsive deviant behavior as defined by Teen Challenge is man’s separation from God which is the result of his self-centeredness. Sinful behavior, including compulsive deviant behavior, is engaged in to fill the void of meaninglessness in life. When man becomes Christ-centered, his symptoms of meaninglessness and compulsive deviant behavior are replaced by a meaningful life in Christ that enables him to realize his fullest potential."
Structure
Teen Challenge USA is a department of the U.S. Missions division of the Assemblies of God USA, but maintains a governing board separate from the denomination. Some U.S. and foreign Teen Challenge missionaries are recognized by the General Council of the Assemblies of God. Global Teen Challenge maintains its own board and has no official relationship with the World Missions division of the Assemblies of God. Global Teen Challenge has its own independent Board of Directors and denominational relationships are voluntary and cooperative.All Teen Challenge ministries in the U.S. are required by accreditation standard to have and implement an annual evangelism strategy. Not only should evangelism be a central and perpetual activity of individual centers, a sustained Great Commission life-style, including soul winning is a key component of discipleship and should be taught and practiced by all Teen Challenge students. "Teen Challenge was founded on a pure model of evangelism."
Prayer is also a key part of Teen Challenge ministry. As Don Wilkerson stated, “In the beginning prayer was more important than the program. In fact prayer was the program. Prayer was the therapy session. Prayer in the morning, prayer in the afternoon, prayer in the evening..."
The foundational structure of Teen Challenge is the ministry of evangelism followed by the provision of discipleship to converts generally in a residential setting. The TCUSA Board of Directors approved a "Phase" system to explain core structures of Teen Challenge. All centers of any Phase are expected to be involved in Phase I. The phase ministry is as follows:
Phase I - Evangelism and Outreach - All centers of any phase are expected to be active in Phase I. Some centers don't minister much at this Phase, others are extremely and perpetually active in evangelism and outreach, and see such activity as an essential defining component of being Teen Challenge.
Phase II - Crisis Center - This may or may not be residential, but generally these centers involve Phase I activity, as well as providing pastoral counseling and referral. Many of these ministries also coordinate or directly provide the non-residential expression of Teen Challenge: Living Free (formerly Turning Point). Living Free is small groups based. The Phase II centers that are residential are typically very short term until a more permanent discipleship bed can be located.
Phase III - Induction Center - This phase is generally four months and the introduction into the one year discipleship ministry. It is here that residents are often clean for the first time in a long time, and their days are highly structured and involve intense discipleship.
Phase IV - Training Center - This phase is eight months, and all residents are graduates of Phase III induction centers. Now that the resident has been living clean for some time, his or her discipleship continues, but focuses more on being a Christ follower after graduation from Teen Challenge.
Phase V - Re-entry - generally for those graduates needing additional assistance in securing jobs or job skills, but can involve other reasons.
Phase VI - Restoration - for graduates who have returned to old behavior patterns. Phase VI is a rare ministry as a center, and is more often co-located with a Phase IV.
Another major component of the Teen Challenge structure is the Teen Challenge curriculum by Dave Batty. This is known as the Group Studies for New Christian and the Personal Studies For New Christians. All centers in the USA are required to use Teen Challenge curriculum, and there is an extensive certification process for teachers. The details of this curriculum may be viewed at the TCUSA web site.
Studies of Teen Challenge Effectiveness
In 1973, Archie Johnston compared results of Teen Challenge with that of a transactional analysisTransactional analysis
Transactional analysis, commonly known as TA to its adherents, is an integrative approach to the theory of psychology and psychotherapy. It is described as integrative because it has elements of psychoanalytic, humanist and cognitive approaches...
approach at a Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution therapeutic community, and with a third group who received no treatment. While the numbers of subjects was small (17 in each group), he found evidence to support his recommendation that, while Teen Challenge was an "effective" treatment (with a drug recidivism rate after 29 months of 32%), Transactional Analysis was a "very effective" treatment (with a comparable 16% rate), suggesting that perhaps the lower recidivism rates were a result of TA changing the addiction concept of the self-image more thoroughly and at a slower pace. He hoped that Teen Challenge would incorporate some psychotherapy into their treatment model.
Aaron Bicknese tracked down 59 former Teen Challenge students in 1995, in order to compare them with a similar group of addicts who had spent one or two months in a hospital rehabilitation program. His results, part of his PhD dissertation, were published in "The Teen Challenge Drug Treatment Program in Comparative Perspective" Bicknese found that, while Teen Challenge graduates reported returning to drug use less often than the hospital program graduates, they were no less likely than those hospital program graduates who continued attending Alcoholics Anonymous support groups.
His results also showed that Teen Challenge graduates were far more likely to be employed, with 18 of the 59 working at Teen Challenge itself, which relies in part on former clients to run the program.
Much of these results were to Teen Challenge's benefit, and the high success rates (up to 86%) he found have been quoted in numerous Teen Challenge and Christian Counseling websites.
According to a 2001 New York Times item, it is the opinion of some social scientists that the 86 percent success rate of Teen Challenge is misleading, as it does not count the people who dropped out during the program, and that, like many voluntary NGO's, Teen Challenge picks its clients. The item quotes the Rev. John D. Castellani, then president of Teen Challenge International U.S.A., as saying that most of the addicts have already been through detoxification programs, before they are admitted. In the program's first four-month phase, Mr. Castellani said, 25 to 30 percent drop out, and in the next eight months, 10 percent more leave. In their testimony before the United States House Committee on Ways and Means
United States House Committee on Ways and Means
The Committee of Ways and Means is the chief tax-writing committee of the United States House of Representatives. Members of the Ways and Means Committee are not allowed to serve on any other House Committees unless they apply for a waiver from their party's congressional leadership...
, the Texas Freedom Network
Texas Freedom Network
The Texas Freedom Network is a Texas organization formed to protect religious freedom, defend civil liberties, and strengthen public schools in the State of Texas...
Education Fund, have similarly testified that the much quoted success rates "dramatically distort the truth", due to the lack of reference to the high drop out rate. Doug Wever, author of, "The Teen Challenge Therapeutic Model" has stated, "I would respectfully suggest that the Texas Freedom Network's position here is overstated in that it's not unusual at all for the research design of effectiveness studies to look only at graduates; therefore the outcomes of these independent studies do provide a legitimate and dramatic basis for comparison given the results. At the same time, Teen Challenge must be careful to communicate what has actually been measured."
Public policy effects
In 1995, auditors from the Texas Commission for Alcohol and Drug Abuse (TCADA) demanded that Teen Challenge obtain state licensing and employ state-licensed counselors. As a result, (then) Governor George W. Bush publicly defended Teen Challenge and pursued alternative licensing procedures for faith-based organizations. “Teen Challenge should view itself as a pioneer in how Texas approaches faith-based programs. I’ll call together people, ask them to make recommendations... licensing standards have to be different from what they are today,” then-Governor Bush said.Bush then created a state Task Force on Faith-Based Programs, to identify and lift regulatory barriers for faith-based social service providers.http://www.twc.state.tx.us/svcs/charchoice/faithful.pdf. The task force included J. Herbert Meppelink, the Executive Director of South Texas Teen Challenge.http://www.twc.state.tx.us/svcs/charchoice/faithful.pdf. The resultant 1997 and 1999 Texas legislation exempted Faith-Based Programs, such as Teen Challenge, from state licensing and the health, safety and quality of care standards that accompany that licensing.
Later, when Bush became US president, Teen Challenge was cited in public policy debates as an example of why such programs merit the federal funding of faith-based organizations. Its documented success rates played a role in the establishment of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, formerly the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is an office within the White House Office that is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States.-Under George W. Bush:OFBCI was...
in 2001.
Conversely, such funding has come under attack through comments by John Castellani, the former President of Teen Challenge USA, during a House Government Reform subcommittee, examining the efficacy of religious social service providers. During the hearing, Castellani said Teen Challenge does not hire non-Christians as employees and, when asked if the group takes non-Christians as clients, he said yes, and boasted that some Jews who finish his Teen Challenge program become "completed Jews." Critics of faith-based funding cite this as an example of how religious intolerance could be publicly funded.http://waysandmeans.house.gov/Legacy/humres/107cong/6-14-01/record/foltin.htm#8 (The "completed Jews" phrase is often used by Christians and Messianic Jews to refer to Jewish people who become believers in Yeshua (Jesus). The phrase is considered offensive to many Jewish groups because it suggests Jews are "incomplete" unless they believe in the divinity of Jesus.)