Virginia Church Promotes Suicide-Prevention Efforts

Hold a special event to support suicide prevention and raise awareness in your community, especially as World Suicide Prevention Day  approaches.

The youth group at Fairfax Presbyterian Church in Fairfax County, Va., worked with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to organize a candlelight vigil and 5K walk in late May 2011 to create a dialogue about suicide and raise money for the foundation’s mission. Seven teenagers in the area had taken their own lives in the preceding year, prompting the church youth group to want to do something.

The suicide prevention foundation held a discussion about suicide prevention and awareness and showed a newly released video. Event organizers urged people to ask questions about problems that are troubling them and to know they can talk to others at the church about thoughts of suicide.

“I can tell you because of that event, three students got help because of thoughts they have had about suicide,” says Nancy Stevens, Fairfax Presbyterian’s youth director.

Shyla Strickler, a teen who helped organize the event, felt the discussion “really touched” people who were struggling. “It is important to let people know who are struggling with thoughts about suicide that we are a family, and we are here for them,” she says.

Find more outreach event ideas »

Find more ways to serve your community »

Outreach Magazine
Outreach Magazinehttp://outreachmagazine.com

Outreach magazine publishes ideas, innovations, resources and stories to help church leaders reach their communities and change the world. Founded in January 2003 by church communications company Outreach Inc., Outreach is an award-winning, bimonthly periodical for church leadership and is available by subscription and on Amazon.com. Find out more at outreachmagazine.com

Reviving Personal Evangelism

If we are going to see more people saved in North America and more people engaged in personal evangelism, then we desperately need the Holy Spirit to work in all our hearts. Simply put, we need a mighty move of God in our land.

Oak Park Church: Outreach in the City

Rather than solely coming alongside communities following major natural disasters, the church decided to use the ministry’s life-saving—and life-giving—equipment year-round.

The Moment of Exposure

On Judgment Day, I won’t hide. I won’t run. Not because I’m innocent, but because I’m forgiven. Jesus paid it all.