Tag: spiritual rhythms

Planning Ahead: Empowering Students to Participate in Lent

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If you’re like me, you grew up in a church tradition that did not incorporate participation in Lent. It wasn’t until I was in college that I learned Lent wasn’t just something for Catholics, and that many of my Protestant friends also participated. Still, Lent wasn’t something I considered participating in until I heard a podcast on the topic, and felt challenged to join.

For the past several years, I’ve found different ways to participate, each one bringing more depth and understanding to my relationship with Jesus, and my yearly journey toward Easter. I’ve learned that Lent is about so much more than just “giving up” something. It’s about engaging in rhythms that prepare our hearts for the Christian life and our calling to follow Jesus wholeheartedly.

I think Lent can be meaningful for our students, too, if they are empowered and equipped to participate well. If this isn’t something your ministry is already doing, let me encourage you to consider it. I also want to share some ideas, which I hope are helpful whether you’re already doing Lent as a student ministry initiative or considering it.

Reimagine intentional fasting.

Fasting is typically the “big” aspect of Lent that we think of, and it can be a beautiful rhythm to engage in intentionally. When it comes to our students, I think we have to treat fasting with care as some students’ relationships with food can be complicated.

Rather than simply focusing on fasting from food, I would encourage you to challenge your students to ask themselves, “What thing has the potential to be, or has become, an idol in my life that I can give up during Lent?” Help your students drill down on the things that most often draw their attention away from God, or that they use to self-medicate, that they can feasibly fast from for over a month.

Students might be tempted to list things like school, friends, sports or other activities, which they can’t realistically take a break from. So you may need to offer guidance and help them determine what can be removed. Maybe it’s social media and using that as their primary way of connecting with friends. Maybe it’s intentionally stepping away from homework for 15 minutes each day to read the Bible and pray in a quiet space.

If a student does want to fast from a food item, encourage them to choose something that isn’t good for them, or has the tendency to become an “emotional support” food. This could include fasting from desserts and candy, soft drinks, or junky snack foods.

While they’re fasting, students should be encouraged to turn their thoughts to God, especially if they’re struggling with it. The reminder in fasting is that we desperately need and depend on God, more than the thing we’re fasting from and missing. In those moments of struggle, they can choose to engage in a spiritual rhythm. (More on that below.)

Include an intentional “feast day.”

When I was learning about Lent, I liked the idea of making Sundays a “feast day.” And while that meant indulging in something I was fasting from, more importantly, I loved the idea of celebrating the goodness of God. So rather than just having a day of indulgence, I wanted it to be intentional.

If students are creatively fasting, feast days may look different for them. Maybe it makes sense for them to fast the whole Lenten season, or maybe they can intentionally allow engagement on Sunday.

Another way to look at feast days is doing something as a group if you gather on Sunday mornings. Open up the floor to a time of sharing what students are learning, how they are celebrating God, and what they are thankful for. You could also provide treats that provide a physical feast element for students to partake in.

Do a group study.

I have loved doing daily studies throughout Lent that help me focus on the themes of the holiday season. Doing one as a group can help students engage on their own, but also feel part of a larger community participating in Lent together.

The YouVersion Bible app often has a Lent study or two available, which can make it easy to participate as a group if you initiate the study and invite the students to join. Another option if you have time is to create your own study, which affords the ability to cater it to your specific group. Just make sure to give yourself plenty of time to create it if you go this route.

Focus on spiritual rhythms.

Lent is also about engaging in other spiritual rhythms, not just fasting, though they can go hand-in-hand. I grew up hearing that prayer was an integral part of fasting, as it helps us remain strong. Lent is also an opportunity to pray for something consistently for a set period of time and watch for God’s answer.

Another spiritual rhythm I love to engage in during Lent is meditation on Scripture. I frequently choose one verse to focus on or memorize. Before I get out of bed in the morning, I read the verse and pray to start the day.

Another traditional part of Lent is giving. This can be monetary, and you can find a ministry, organization or person to support as a group. Or, if your students don’t have money to give, you can help them identify needs of others and find creative ways to participate. Maybe they can give of their time to help with childcare or service projects. Or they can give of their talents to play music or create art for homebound seniors.

These are just some of the rhythms you can direct your students to engage in during Lent. They can also journal, practice intentionally sitting in silence, or create something based on what they are learning (art, poetry, a story, a song, photographs, etc.).

Incorporate observances into your weekly programming.

If you’re doing Lent as a group, can you tie it into weekly meetings? Think of lessons that dig into the themes of Lent, or a series that follows Jesus’ ministry and journey to the cross. Maybe you want to incorporate communion into one or more of your meetings.

You can provide unique ways for students to engage during lessons with quiet time to meditate, pray in color, or memorize a passage as a group. You can also turn Sundays into a time of celebration where students worship, sing, and create art together.

Or you may decide to create an Easter experience for your students as Lent draws to a close. We’ve written a couple of posts along these lines, one about creating an Easter encounter and another about helping students engage with the holiday. This could serve as the conclusion to your students’ observance of Lent.

Trip Tricks: Post Trip Follow-Up

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It’s the end of your trip. You’re preparing your group to head home. You and your team are saying your goodbyes to camp staff, missionaries, and new friends. You’re taking group pictures, thinking about the ride or flight home. And when you finally get back, you can’t wait for those first few minutes of silence and stillness before heading home to see your family, take a nice long shower, and sleep in your own bed.

Sound familiar? I know I tend to feel all of those things during the end of our trips. But what about intentional follow-up with your students?

Students usually encounter Jesus in new and refreshing ways during trips and come away with a renewed desire to follow Him and grow deeper in their faith. The question we need to ask ourselves is this: are we intentionally leveraging and engaging in these moments to best steward and grow our students’ relationship with Jesus?

In my early years of student ministry I didn’t always focus on this. And it became painfully obvious that my students rode the “camp high” and then began to fizzle out as they simply went back to their old habits. But that doesn’t have to be the case.

We can avoid the “camp high” by helping our students to intentionally continue engaging in their relationship with Jesus and continuing in community with believers. We can help them see that there is more than simply settling for the mundane and typical life this world offers, and instead show them how amazing and grand it can be with Jesus.

One of the ways we can do this is by offering intentional steps our students can take to engage their faith and help them with follow up. Here’s what it looks like for us.

We sit our group down all together for ten to fifteen minutes at the end of the trip before we load up to go home and we take time to talk through intentional steps they can take.

We talk about continuing to be in biblical community, engaging with spiritual rhythms, next steps in their faith journey like baptism, joining a summer mission trip, serving in the church and their community, and sharing their story with others. Each of these steps are designed to eliminate the myth of the “camp high” and to help students continue to grow and flourish in their faith.

We also tried a new approach this year where we gave postcards to our small group leaders that were designed to give students a means of responding to their experience on the retreat. We realize that as our ministry has grown, the large group gatherings at the end are great, but with a discipleship format, having small group leaders engage in a different setting allows us to help our students grow and take steps of faith. The postcards can be fairly simple and should included space for contact information, and then some tangible check boxes. The check boxes could include things like, I followed Jesus, I want to get baptized, I want to serve, and I have questions.

We also try to be intentional in providing pathways for students to take after the trip that will help them grow in their faith. After our winter retreat we launch our summer trip sign-ups a week after returning home. We challenge students to serve by promoting opportunities during youth group in the weeks following our trips. We also try to provide thoughtful and intentional ways for students to share their stories throughout the year.

Providing intentional opportunities for follow-up with your students allows for continued growth and development of their faith. It also helps students to understand that their faith doesn’t simply ride the rollercoaster of jumping from event to event but is an ongoing journey they get to be a part of with Jesus. It also helps to ensure that upcoming generations don’t walk away from their faith after high school, but instead are committed to an ongoing transformative relationship with their Savior.

How to Help Your Students Want to Read the Bible

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Throughout my time serving in churches I have seen biblical literacy continue to decrease in student ministry and I have been astounded by how little students actually know about the Bible. Whether it’s attributing sayings and musing to God’s Word that aren’t there, not knowing where books of the Bible fall, or not even knowing Bible speaks into various topics, the state of biblical literacy is not looking good. Maybe this is just my experience, but I think this is indicative of a trend in younger people and is why we are seeing more and more companies focusing on students to help them grow in biblical literacy.

Now it would be easy for me to sit here and bemoan the circumstances and to be dismayed by the lack of comprehension and willingness to engage with the Bible. But that would be neither helpful nor beneficial. Instead, I want to be a part of the solution. In my role that means working with our upcoming generations and helping to train and equip them in how to use and interpret their Bibles in a way that helps them make real world applications.

Today, I want to look at how we can help our students not only read their Bibles but also seek to engage with and apply them. Students need to see that God’s Word is real and necessary, but they also need to understand why it is important and know what it means to them. This will allow them to be thoughtful and proactive in how they apply the Bible in their lives and in how it shapes them as Christ-followers.

Teach students how.

We have written on Bible study methods before but it is easy to assume our students know how to read the Bible when in actuality they have never been taught. So take time to show them how to read the Bible. Point out the different literary styles and help them learn basic hermeneutics so they can read it appropriately and apply it to their lives. Help them understand it is okay to have and ask questions. Teach them to be analytical and critical readers in order to think about the Bible in broader and deeper contexts. Doing this will help them grow not only in their knowledge of God’s Word but it will also affirm them and help them see that they can discern and interpret the Bible on their own.

Make sure they have a Bible they will use.

Maybe I’m just odd but I have a ton of Bibles and they all serve a different purpose. Some are for studies, others for personal devotions, and I have others because they offer unique and significant insights. But most students aren’t like me. In fact, I have found many students don’t actually have a Bible they want to use or enjoy using. So take time to help students find a Bible that they can read and will want to read. This may mean having more Bibles on hand and having a broader knowledge of different types of Bibles, but it will allow you to help your students grow and engage with God’s Word on their own in a way they can understand.

Point them to helpful Bible study resources.

There are lots of great Bible Study tools out there and there are a lot of not so great ones. In fact, you have probably seen a lot of “teen Bible studies” that feel dated, or they talk down to students, or perhaps feel childish in their designs and studies. Finding helpful resources or Bible studies may feel difficult, but when you find ones that work for your students you will see them grow and gravitate toward reading God’s Word even more. We have written on some resources and you can find that information here.

Model it for them.

I think this is something the church needs to be better about as a whole. We should model what we preach and teach to our people, and not always in a way that shows us succeeding or doing the right thing. I think we need to model the very real aspects of what studying Scripture looks like, both the successes and difficulties. When our students see the impact that the Bible has on our lives it motivates them to want that for themselves. But they also need to see the moments this is hard for you. Let them know about times you’ve struggled to be in the Bible. Show them how you overcame that and highlight how you felt and what being out of God’s Word did to your life. When students see the real pieces of what the Bible does for our lives coming from people they trust, they will want to model that as well.

Set up reminders and show them how to do the same.

Reminders may sound trivial at first but they work. I love my Google calendar and my reminders on my phone. In fact, I have reminders set for all sorts of things not because I forget them, but because they are of high value to me and I don’t want to forget they are there if I’m scheduling other things. Students are incredibly busy and they have all sorts of things competing for their time and attention. If you can help them in prioritizing what is important and show them the benefit of reminders and scheduling, it will help them to see the necessity of staying in God’s Word.

Help students to set reminders, show them how to put things in a schedule, and help them carve out time to read God’s Word. But remember that this may look different than your schedule. Students may have to carve out ten minutes on a crowded bus to read the Bible or listen to a devotion. They may have to do it at night before or after homework. It may not be every day but it may be a few times a week. That’s okay because it is all about growth and consistency. And remember that reminders aren’t a fix-all, they are just a tool to help us. This isn’t a “you do this and you’re good” approach, but instead is a resource to help us grow as biblically literate Christ followers.

Show them why this is important and applicable to their lives.

I believe it is easy to take the Bible and its impact in our lives for granted sometimes. As western Christians, we live the good life where we don’t see the hardships and persecution that Christians around the world face. And I believe this is part of the reason we may not see the Bible as being helpful and applicable all the time: we live an easy life and we don’t see hardship that the Bible helps us through. However, for many of us in ministry we can point to moments when the Bible and our faith in God carried us through dark moments and how that was a turning point in our lives. Students need to hear that! They need to understand that the Bible has a place in our mundane lives and in the moments when life is at its lowest point. Our students don’t see the impact the Bible always has because we don’t show them how it impacts their lives at each moment.

We need to teach them how the knowledge of God’s Word helps to form and prepare us for those rocky moments. We need to show them how the truths of the Bible have a life-changing impact on our lives, our culture, and our world. We need to help model how we can be agents of good change in our world through being who God has called us to be. When we model this reality to them, it builds a spiritual framework for their lives from which they can live out their calling of being disciples of Jesus.

What are You Teaching: Spiritual Rhythms

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One of the questions I get asked frequently is, “What are you teaching students?” Whether it’s parents, church leaders, other student workers, or even students themselves, it seems at some point everyone is curious about what is being taught. This week I’m starting a new series we are calling “What are You Teaching,” which will focus on different types of teachings we utilize in our student ministry program.

Before I begin to talk about one of the areas we teach on, it is important to note that while we do focus on different teaching styles, themes, and topics, we also have to be aware of to whom we are communicating. Our program has two different days that we operate (Sundays and Wednesdays) and both draw very different groups of students.

Our Wednesday night program is more invitational in structure and is focused on discipleship and evangelism. This means when we teach on topics in this environment, we stay at an entry- to intermediate-level of understanding to make sure our teaching reaches the majority of those in attendance. In contrast, our Sunday morning programming is geared toward equipping and training our students to be disciple-makers. This means we often go deeper into topics and look at application that leads not only to heart transformation but outward replication.

While both programs are focused on discipleship, how we meet that goal looks different based upon who is in attendance. I would encourage you to think through those aspects of your programing in order to help you pick the right teaching for the group that is relatable, applicable, and transformational.

This week I want to talk about spiritual rhythms and why teaching on them is important. I believe it is easy to assume these rhythms are taught at home and/or in “big church.” But assuming this puts both our students and families at a disadvantage. It is also unhelpful to assume that your students are not being taught or equipped at home in these rhythms. All that to say, don’t assume either direction. Instead view this as an opportunity to explain spiritual rhythms, allow those who haven’t engaged with them to do so, and help those who already engage with them to broaden and strengthen how they do.

Teaching on spiritual rhythms is something that can be taught to students who fall across all parts of the spiritual spectrum. But we must be aware of which rhythms we are teaching to each group to make sure they are translatable and applicable. For instance, I wouldn’t necessarily teach on fasting and meditation on a Wednesday evening. Instead, I would begin by talking about prayer and spending time in God’s Word.

But the real question is what type of spiritual rhythms should we actually teach our students? I have found in my experience most students are not aware of rhythms outside of prayer and devotions of some sort. This may be a broader narrative about what is actually being taught within our churches and how that is reflected in families, but that is another conversation for another day. I think for many youth programs it would be helpful to start with more entry-level spiritual rhythms and then scale upward as you see your students growing and maturing in their walks with Jesus. With that said, here are some spiritual rhythms I believe we should be teaching our students.

Prayer: I believe it is important to teach our students about both personal and corporate prayer. You can show them different postures of prayer, different prayers styles (like thanksgiving, confession, supplication, lamenting, etc.), different communication styles, silence in prayer, journaling, and more.

Scripture reading, meditation, and memorization: Helping your students not just know how to read Scripture but also to meditate on it and memorize it will help them deepen their relationship with Jesus and give them greater opportunities to navigate the difficulties of this world. Take time to teach how to read Scripture and also how to study it. Utilize different strategies and resources to help students learn in different ways. Highlight different tools for memorization and meditation so student don’t just read but also apply the Word of God by allowing it to permeate their lives.

Fasting: This isn’t something that Protestant churches often talk about, but it is something every Christian should engage. Fasting is something that our current culture isn’t acclimated to because we don’t often have to do without for any reason. But training our students about what fasting is, why we do it, and the results of it will help them to not only grow as followers of Jesus but also as young adults.

Communion: There have been many times where I’ve preached and handled officiating communion in our church services. One of the things I love to do is explain what communion is and then encourage parents to walk their children and students through it. It’s a beautiful opportunity for parents to lead their families and also for students to see how and why we share in this moment with each other. This can also be accomplished in student ministry gatherings where you can go deeper into the remembrance, repentance, and restoration (there’s alliteration for ya!) that comes from this sacred moment.

Giving and service: I think talking about finances is often a difficult conversations for churches overall. Asking for money never feels great. But if we frame it from the perspective of giving and service it allows us to focus not just on the monetary piece but the heart motivation. Students may not be able to give monetarily but can give of their gifts, time, and talents. So look to explain why we give and serve, how we can give and serve, and what that accomplishes for the person and the body.

Journaling: I’ll be honest, I am really bad at journaling. I can write messages, blog posts, devotional guides, and emails, but for some reason journaling escapes me. Elise is fantastic at journaling and has a way of truly putting her heart onto paper. When we journal as a spiritual rhythm it helps us share our hearts, put our thoughts about our faith journey to paper, and see how we have progressed in our relationship with Jesus as one of His disciples.

Worship: Worship is one of those things we believe everyone who becomes a Christian knows how to do. For some reason we assume that everyone knows what worship is and we don’t often teach about. But if we don’t teach our students how to worship, they will never understand it nor why it matters. Take time to make sure your students know worship extends beyond just music and singing. Highlight that different worship styles exist. Help students find their way to worship and show them how to make it a part of their everyday lives.

Sabbath: I’ll be perfectly honest and tell you until recently I really struggled in this area. I didn’t know how to intentionally pause and take time to spiritually refresh. I would assert the majority of our culture doesn’t know how to do this well either. We are so busy and so overwhelmed with everything that exists at our fingertips that we don’t usually find space to just refresh and be in the presence of Jesus. So create the opportunity for your students to experience these moments. Train them in what sabbath is and why it is necessary. Show them how it can be a full day, a week, a season, or even just a few hours carved out of a day. Help them to see what it does for their heart and soul, and how it draws them closer to Jesus as they are encouraged and refreshed.

Community and fellowship: I believe community and fellowship are spiritual rhythms that at times can happen naturally. But even as they occur naturally, they can become tribalistic and alienating to outsiders. Part of training our students in this rhythm is helping them see the beauty within the body of Christ that comes from diversity and differing opinions. When we highlight that the kingdom of heaven is made up of believers from different backgrounds, races and ethnicities, theological positions, and political views, it will help students understand the beauty of diversity and how they can have healthy, God-honoring relationships with believers who are different from them. This will also help our students understand how important fellowship and community is for the church as a whole and prayerfully help them stay connected with a local community of believers.