Category: Youth Ministry

The Four Spiritual Habits for Teenagers

Posted on by Elle Campbell

The Four Spiritual Habits for Teenagers
The Four Spiritual Habits for Teenagers

If you’re an adult (or even a “professional” Christian), then the idea of spiritual habits is probably pretty familiar to you. Spiritual disciplines, quiet time, devotions… whatever you call it, you’ve probably established a few rhythms in your life to help you grow spiritually.

Or, at least, you’re working on it.

Maybe you…

  • Start your day with a quiet time.
  • Follow a Bible reading plan.
  • Listen to worship music while you drive.
  • Subscribe to sermon podcasts.
  • Go to church, attend a small group, or serve somewhere.

If you’ve been following Jesus for a while, you’ve probably figured out a few ways to grow spiritually. Since you’re a grown-up, you’ve had a little time to figure out this whole “spiritual growth” thing.

The teenagers in your ministry, on the other hand, aren’t grown-ups, so they might need a little help from you to figure out how, exactly, to grow spiritually.

So, what should spiritual growth look like for teenagers?
And how can you help them develop spiritual habits?

When I (Elle) oversaw small groups in the middle school ministry at my church, this question came up pretty often—like the time I was meeting with one of my brand new small group leaders, Peter. Peter was a college-aged guy, brand new to leading small groups, and was really, really, excited to start serving. During our first orientation meeting, while I was showing him the ropes of being a small group leader, he stopped me and asked this question:

“Okay, but… how do I help my small group grow spiritually? What’s my goal?”

It was a pretty good question. And since Jesus always answered questions by asking another question (but mostly because I needed a second to figure out what to say next) I asked Peter, “Well, what do you think your goal should be?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe my goal could be to get every guy in my small group to read the Bible seven times a week?”

Considering Peter was leading a small group of sixth graders, that was a pretty big goal. And when I say “big,” I actually mean “definitely not going to happen.” So, although I kind of loved that he was dreaming big, I said, “No, getting twenty eleven-year-olds to read the Bible seven days a week was maybe not the right goal.”

But it was a great question.

How do we help teenagers grow spiritually? What should our goals be?

Before we can answer that question, we should probably start by agreeing on how anyone grows spiritually.

This is where spiritual habits come in. Spiritual habits are the decisions, behaviors, and rhythms that help us grow spiritually over time. If you’re like most people, the first things that pop into your head when you hear “spiritual habits” are probably…

  • Reading the Bible.
  • Praying.
  • Going to church.

Sure, reading, praying, and going to church are important spiritual habits. But they’re not the only spiritual habits that matter.

So what is the complete, final, definitive list of spiritual habits? Well, there isn’t one. Not officially. You can organize, categorize, and define spiritual habits in a number of ways, but feel free to steal our list if you think it’s helpful. It’s a list of the four spiritual habits we use inside Grow Curriculum to help teenagers, and their leaders grow spiritually. Here they are…

1. SPEND TIME WITH GOD

This is an obvious one, right? It’s so obvious, in fact, that sometimes it’s the only spiritual habit we can name. After all, isn’t “growing spiritually” synonymous with “spending time with God”? Well, not exactly. Spending time with God is a big part of growing spiritually, but it’s not the whole picture. That’s why it’s just the first of four spiritual habits.

Spending time with God may not be the only spiritual habit, but it’s still a pretty important one. After all, if teenagers are ever going to make their faith their own, they’ve got to start spending time with God on their own. It means opening the Bible on their own, having conversations with God on their own, and discovering how they best connect with God through worship on their own.

HOW CAN WE HELP TEENAGERS SPEND TIME WITH GOD?

I’m so glad you asked. Here are a few ideas…

  • Give them a Bible. Preferably one with words they can understand… and written in ways they would actually say. Personally, I love the NLT, the NIV, The Message, and The Voice translations. They’re all written in language that’s easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to remember.
  • Help them memorize Scripture. Your students might be good at memorizing movie quotes, song lyrics, and whatever viral quote is happening now, but memorizing Scripture probably doesn’t come quite as naturally. That’s why it’s so helpful for us to give teenagers simple, practical tools for memorizing Scripture. For teenagers, maybe that means starting a texting or social media campaign, creating wallpaper for their phones, or even handing out a good old-fashioned note card.
  • Teach them to pray. If you’ve been talking to God for a while, it’s easy to forget how strange prayer can seem to someone who hasn’t been talking to God for an entire lifetime. No matter their age, teenagers need us to model conversations with God and teach them how to have conversations of their own. So, regularly pray out loud with your group, teach them about prayer, and give them opportunities to talk to God alongside you. You might even give them simple strategies to pray, like my four favorite prayer prompts: Please, Thanks, Sorry, Wow.
  • Help them discover their spiritual wiring. Gary Thomas’ book Sacred Pathways is one of the best resources I’ve found for helping people identify the unique ways they are wired to connect with God. Some of your students will connect with God by going outside. Others will love to worship through music, or dance, or the arts. Some will love to learn, some will love to serve, and some will love to sit quietly with God in solitude. If we want to help our groups grow spiritually, it’s so important that we teach them to connect with God in the many ways they are uniquely wired to connect with God — not just in the ways we prefer to connect.

So, spending time with God is the first of four spiritual habits. This habit is all about developing a personal friendship with God. Because, just like any friendship, we can only grow closer if we’re spending time together. But if we want to grow spiritually, spending time with God isn’t the only spiritual habit we need to develop.

2. SPEND TIME WITH OTHERS

Yep, engaging in healthy community can—and should—be a spiritual habit we help our teenagers develop. But “healthy community” doesn’t just mean hanging out with Christians. This spiritual habit is about growing in Christlike relationships with … well, everyone. Christians and non-Christians, too. Because sometimes, it won’t be another church potluck or Bible study with our fellow Christians that will grow us the most. It might be a friendship, an investment, or a challenging conversation with a non-Christian that makes the biggest difference in our faith.

We see this most clearly in Jesus, of course. When he discipled his followers, he didn’t disciple them in one-on-one conversations in the privacy of their homes or the nearest Starbucks. He discipled them in real life, in the context of relationships that were real, and messy, and challenging, and imperfect.

In Jesus’ ministry, it was often his disciples’ interactions with each other, or with people who didn’t follow him, that prompted some of his most significant teaching opportunities.

SO HOW CAN WE HELP TEENAGERS SPEND TIME WITH OTHERS?

Here are a few ideas …

  • Create consistent small groups. If you know anything about me, you know that I’m pretty convinced small groups are the answer to just about everything. But when it comes to helping teenagers develop community … well, small groups are a pretty obvious first step. In small groups, students are given opportunities to grow closer to their peers, to an adult who cares about them, and grow in community with people who believe like they do and with people who don’t.
  • Offer opportunities for connection. I get it—when it comes to your weekly environment, you’ve got a lot to do and probably not enough time to do it. When you’ve got to pull off worship and small groups and announcements and your sermon, letting students “hang out” might seem like a waste of time. But it’s not. It’s really not. If spending time with others is a spiritual habit, then creating opportunities for teenagers to connect with each other—and with the adults who lead them—should be a priority. So, whether it’s before your service, after your service, during the week, or at your events, prioritize relationships. Create space, through unstructured time, for students to hang out, play, talk, and connect.
  • Make your environments visitor-friendly. Sure, we all say we want visitors to show up to our programs. We all tell our groups to bring their friends to church, but if we’re not working behind the scenes to create environments that are welcoming to and mindful of, first-time guests… well, we can’t really expect those guests to show up (or come back). If you’re not sure if your environments are visitor-friendly, ask your group this question: “What is it about our church that makes you not want to invite your friends?”
  • Encourage students to engage in their communities. Sometimes, we make the mistake of believing our community is the only community that can help teenagers grow spiritually. But that’s not true, is it? We might be ministry leaders, but we don’t own the market when it comes to healthy community. In fact, if the only community our groups see as “healthy” community are the ones our churches offer, then we’ve actually done them a pretty big disservice. If we really want our groups to grow spiritually, we should probably think of creative ways to help them build relationships (with both Christians and non-Christians) in places outside our church—like their schools, their neighborhoods, and their sports teams.

So, we’ve got to help our students practice the habit of spending time with others, both inside the walls of our churches and outside those walls, too. Because when we engage in community, listen to different perspectives, and process our faith with others, we get a bigger picture of who God is… and that helps us grow.

3. SHARE YOUR STORY

Our students need to learn how to talk about God. But this spiritual habit is way bigger than just knowing how to share the story of your salvation—although that’s part of it. Sharing your story is the spiritual habit of making faith a regular, everyday, go-to topic of conversation in our lives.

It’s about discovering God in every aspect of your story…

Your past, your present, and your future –
The good times, the bad times, and the in-between times –
And then sharing what you’ve found with other people.

Because when we talk about God and God’s place in our story (or, more accurately, our place in God’s story), it helps us believe, understand, and take ownership of our own faith. That’s why sharing our stories is such an important part of growing spiritually.

SO HOW CAN WE HELP TEENAGERS SHARE THEIR STORIES?

Here are a few ideas…

  • Create consistent small groups. I know, I know, I already said this. But I also said that small groups are the answer to pretty much everything. So, yes, they’re an answer to helping teenagers develop healthy community, but they’re also an answer for helping teenagers have healthy conversations about their faith. When small groups are done well, they become safe places for teenagers to process their beliefs, their questions, and their experiences.
  • Share your stories. When you teach, be intentional about sharing stories from your own life and faith journey. In fact, you probably want to tell one personal story in every message you ever teach. When you share your stories and how God used those stories to help you grow spiritually, you give your group a model for what it looks like to find God in their stories. And when you share your stories of failure, disappointment, or mistakes, you let them know that God can work even in the toughest situations—and that they’re not alone.
  • Invite students, and volunteers to share their stories. Your stories, dear ministry leader, are really important, but they’re not the only stories that matter. When you invite students, and volunteers to share their stories regularly (maybe on stage, in a video, or on social media), you help your group connect with even more people and even more stories.
  • Create space for hard questions. If you want teenagers to get comfortable having conversations about their faith, it is absolutely essential that you help them have healthy conversations about their doubts, fears, and questions. The truth is, your students do have doubts, even if they’re not expressing them. So, if you want them to have a healthy faith, give them the opportunity to talk about those things openly.

Help your students share their stories because they’ll grow spiritually when they make it a habit of talking about their faith.

4. USE YOUR GIFTS

Here’s the fourth and final spiritual habit: your group needs to know that God made them unique and special with really specific gifts, talents, passions, and resources. Then, they need to use those gifts to love God, love others, and influence the world around them.

When we use our gifts, we acknowledge that the things we’ve been given weren’t given to us by chance. They were part of God’s design. Using those gifts really can be a spiritual habit because when students begin to discover who God made them to be, they grow. And when they use their unique identity to make a difference in the world, they serve others and give back to God who made them.

SO HOW CAN WE HELP TEENAGERS USE THEIR GIFTS?

Here are a few ideas…

  • Create opportunities to serve. It’s one thing to tell students to serve others and to use their gifts. But it’s another thing entirely to actually create opportunities where they do that. Maybe you need to restructure some things in your church so that it’s easier for your groups to serve. Maybe you need to move away from an adult-led worship band, so more students can help lead. Maybe you even need to let go of some of your desire for “excellence” in your programming so your group can take ownership and help create your weekly environments. Mission trips are a great solution, too… but if mission trips are your only avenue for them to serve, you may want to rethink your serving strategy.
  • Showcase their unique talents. In ministry, we often accidentally communicate that the only way to serve God in ministry is from a platform. Speaking and leading worship are great ways to help students serve, but they’re not the only gifts they can use to serve God and others. Whether it’s art, or science, or baking, or sports, your groups are overflowing with talents. They may just need your help to discover how those talents can be used to love others in new and creative ways.

So those are the four spiritual habits that help teenagers grow spiritually.

  • Help them spend time with God.
  • Help them spend time with others.
  • Help them share their stories.
  • And help them use their gifts.

But before we wrap up, a few things to remember…

  • Your students won’t all grow in the same way. God made them unique, after all.
  • They won’t grow at the same pace. They’re all on a unique journey.
  • But they can all grow just a little bit more. You can’t force spiritual growth, but you can help them take one more step toward a faith that’s growing.

And hey, thank you for the investment you’re making in the spiritual growth of the students in your ministry. I know it’s not always easy. Actually, it’s really hard sometimes. But as you get ready for another day, or another week, or another year of youth ministry, we really hope you remember this: what you are doing is making a difference.

I know that’s hard to remember when the seeds you’ve been planting seem to be taking so long to grow, and you know there’s a pretty good chance you may never even see the end result. But keep going.

-Elle Campbell

The Four Spiritual Habits for Teenagers
The Four Spiritual Habits for Teenagers

An Olympic-themed Event for Your Youth Ministry

Posted on by Kyle Barrett
A Free Resource from Grow Students
World Record! A Free Olympic-Themed Event
Bring home the gold with this free resource. Inside you'll find all the activities, graphics, and guides you need to host your own Olympic-themed event.

The Olympics have started, and we want to give you some free gold from Grow! ?

Okay, it’s not gold, but great events are basically gold in ministry. So, to help you celebrate the Olympics with your group, we’re giving away one of our favorite student events, World Record, for free! Just download the PDF to get your copy.

And if you’re looking for our kids event, Go For the Gold, head here!

Inside this event, you’ll find everything you need to feel the spirit of competition in your youth ministry. We’ve designed a series of challenges to make you think, work, and laugh together. Your students will compete with hobby horses, pool noodles, and lightsabers in this fight for glory!

Want a rundown of each event? You’ll get activity guides, shopping lists, and more for these events…

  • MAKE YOUR OWN JAVELIN TOSS: Teams will compete to construct and throw their own javelin as far as they possibly can.
  • NO WATER POLO: A dehydrated version of this classic Olympic sport of throwing the ball into the net.
  • BALLOON TENNIS: Teams will compete to score points without bursting any balloons in this simplified take on tennis.
  • LIGHTSABER FENCING: Teams will display their lightsaber-wielding skills in this free-for-all game.
  • THE BALANCE BEAM: Teams will win points by being the best at keeping their balance as they walk with books on their heads.
  • DISCUS GOLF: Teams will take turns throwing Hula Hoops to try and wrap their hoop around the target in fewer moves than the other teams.
  • SUPER CURLING: Teams will work together to try and get a giant exercise ball as close to a target as possible while the other teams work together to throw it off course.
  • LONG JUMP CHALLENGE: Teams will roll tennis balls over a ramp and try to get them to land in the furthest bucket possible.
  • HOBBY HORSE OBSTACLE COURSE: Students will race on hobby horses through a customized obstacle course to win team points.
  • ULTIMATE TRIATHLON: A scooter swim, three-legged race, and tricycle ride make up the three stages of this final event!
A Free Resource from Grow Students
World Record! A Free Olympic-Themed Event
Bring home the gold with this free resource. Inside you'll find all the activities, graphics, and guides you need to host your own Olympic-themed event.

But the Olympics are about more than just the games. It’s the environment and energy that helps it all come to life! Inside this free youth ministry event, you’ll also find tips for decorating your space, Olympic-themed giveaways, and themed ideas for snacks and food.

So, if you’re ready to show off your Olympic spirit, here’s what to do next.

1. DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE EVENT. Grab your copy of World Record and take a look at all of the activity guides, graphics, and other resources we’ve included.

2. CHOOSE YOUR EVENTS. Browse through each event and make a list of all the supplies you’ll need. (Pro Tip: You can host World Record as a single event or pull apart the activities to make it an ongoing competition!)

3. COLLECT YOUR DECORATIONS. Plan out your environment and buy all the decorations you need for your Olympic party.

4. SET YOUR DATE. This might be the most important step! Choose your date and let your group know what’s happening!

5. SET A WORLD RECORD. Play some games and make new memories with your students!

We can’t wait to see how you use World Record in your youth ministry, so be sure to tag @stuffyoucanuse on social media!

A Free Resource from Grow Students
World Record! A Free Olympic-Themed Event
Bring home the gold with this free resource. Inside you'll find all the activities, graphics, and guides you need to host your own Olympic-themed event.

5 Board Games for Youth Ministry

Posted on by Amy Lindberg
5 Board Games for Youth Ministry
Free PDF Resources
5 Board Games for Youth Ministry

If you’re looking for a way to help your teenagers and volunteers grow together, a great board game might be what you need. Keeping a few board games around your meeting space is always a good idea. While a board game might not be our first thought when it comes to fostering relationships, they’re an important piece of the puzzle. (Get it? Puzzle? ?)

A board game in youth ministry can do more for a teenager’s relationships than you might be able to pack into your object lesson or small group time. They might seem simple, but they’re great for …

  • Helping teenagers collaborate and make decisions with their friends.
  • Letting volunteers build new relationships with the teenagers they serve.
  • Giving teenagers a quiet way to take a break from the rest of their environment.

Plus, with board games in youth ministry, teenagers can play and work towards a common goal. We tend to overlook it, but play is an essential part of how teenagers develop. Play helps them …

  • Use their creativity
  • Operate within set boundaries
  • Work on their communication skills

Each of these can help them grow as individuals and in their faith.

So, if you’re looking for a few more board games for your youth ministry closet or if you’re ready to start building your own collection of games, we’ve put together a few of our favorite board games for youth ministry.

5 Board Games for Youth Ministry
Free PDF Resources
5 Board Games for Youth Ministry

WAVELENGTH

Wavelength is the perfect party game to get your teenagers talking. In this “social guessing” board game, two teams compete to place a dial in the middle of a hidden target zone. In each round, teams are given a card with a scale such as “Hot” and “Cold.” Then, one player gets to look at the secret location of the target and offer a single clue to their team that will help them pinpoint the target’s exact location. So, they might say “coffee” or “milk,” depending on where the target is. Teenagers will love guessing, discussing, and competing against each other as they see which team is on the same wavelength! Check it out here.

EXPLODING KITTENS

This card game places two to five players against one another as they try to outlast one another by dodging exploding kittens. Players draw from a deck until someone pulls an exploding kitten card. They’re safe if they have a defuse card, but it’s game over if you don’t. Players will need to avoid exploding kittens and collect and play action cards that can help avoid the exploding kittens or force a player to draw more cards than normal. Learn more here.

SUSHI GO PARTY!

Up to eight players compete to make the best sushi platter in this expanded version of the beloved card game. In each round, players are given a hand of cards. They must choose one card to keep before passing their cards to the player next to them. Some cards are worth points on their own, while others need to be collected in sets to earn their highest point values. At the end of each round, players tally their points, moving their game piece on the scoreboard before another round of card selection begins. After three rounds, the player with the most points wins! Check out Sushi Go Party! here.

CODENAMES

In Codenames, teenagers get to play as spymasters on the search for the secret identities of 25 different agents. Two players know all 25 identities and must offer one-word clues to help their team make contact with each of their agents. They’re not just competing against each other, though. If either team touches the hidden assassin card, their team loses! The first team to contact all of their agents wins the game. Check out Codenames here!

TACO CAT GOAT CHEESE PIZZA

If your teenagers are looking for a game with a bit of a challenge, then Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza might be what you need. In this card game, the group must take turns saying this game’s title, one word at a time, while playing a card from their hand. If the spoken word matches the card played, players must slap the pile of cards and avoid being last. The last player has to take all of the cards played in the round. The game goes on until someone runs out of cards! Find out more about Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza here.

These are just a few board games for your youth ministry that can help build engagement and foster new relationships between your teenagers and volunteers.

And if you’re looking for even more games, check out Grow Games! We’ve put together a list of over 500 different types of games for your youth ministry.

Each game comes complete with instructions, editable graphics, and a supply list, so you can start playing right away!

So, instead of searching online the next time you need a great game, download the Grow Games App instead.

5 Board Games for Youth Ministry
Free PDF Resources
5 Board Games for Youth Ministry

5 Apps for Youth Ministry

Posted on by Amy Lindberg

5 Apps for Youth Ministry
Free PDF Resource
5 Apps for Youth Ministry

There’s probably no greater duo than teenagers and their phones … except maybe youth ministry and pizza. Phones and technology are where teenagers go in their freetime, and no matter how you feel about it, it’s not going away any time soon. Tablets, computers, and web-based learning are a large part of education. Apps and social media fill teenagers’ few minutes when they’re not doing homework, playing sports, or joining in their other hobbies outside of school.

For so long, phones and technology have come across as a distraction from service and ultimately, an opponent to ministry.. Maybe you’ve felt like the teenagers in your ministry were too connected to their devices. Maybe you’ve even been tempted to lock up phones in a box before your weekly meeting.

We get it. Teenagers really can be distracted by what’s happening elsewhere on that tiny little screen. But technology is such a core part of how teenagers learn, create relationships, and make sense of their world.

So, what if you could help teenagers learn to use their phones and devices to practice spiritual habits and grow their relationship with God? What if, instead of pushing against technology, we helped teenagers learn to use their phones as a tool to keep growing?

It might seem more difficult than the most impractical Impossible Shot, but it’s as easy as helping teenagers find an app that connects with them, their personalities, and how they learn.

To help you get started, we’ve put together this list of our favorite Bible apps for your youth ministry.

Dwell: Audio Bible

Dwell is a great app for youth ministries looking to help teenagers listen to the Bible. Dwell lets you choose from 20 different voice options and 12 different translations of the Bible, so teenagers can customize what they hear. Plus, Dwell includes over 75 listening plans to help teenagers build a habit of spending time with God. You can learn more here.

Verses

If you know a teenager looking to memorize the Bible, take a look at Verses. This Bible app is designed to help teenagers memorize passages of Scripture through quick and easy games. Each game helps teenagers remember passages through listening, reordering, typing, and eventually speaking the passage out loud. With seven different translations, teenagers can choose their favorite and start memorizing Scripture on their own or with friends. Learn more here.

YouVersion Bible App

Chances are, your teenagers already have YouVersion on their phones. This is one of the most commonly downloaded Bible apps, but it’s so much more than a place to read Scripture. Teenagers can find the verse of the day, follow reading plans with their friends, and even export their favorite verses as images to share with others. You can even find Grow Students devotionals! Check it out
here.

BibleProject

Teenagers often have more questions about the Bible than their youth pastor can answer on their own. So, what if you set them up with an app that could help them explore the Bible with helpful resources and information? That’s where the BibleProject app comes in. This app helps teenagers develop new skills and tools to understand the Bible through podcasts, videos, reading plans, and more. The BibleProject app is a great resource to have on hand for you, your teenagers, and your team of volunteers. Learn more about the BibleProject app here!

Habits by Grow

Asking a teenager to start a new habit is an uphill battle — especially without the right support, encouragement, and system for tracking. That’s why we created Habits by Grow. With this youth ministry app, teenagers and their friends can help each other grow closer to God by tracking activities that help them work through four spiritual habits — spending time with God, spending time with others, using their gifts, and sharing their stories. It’s all part of our discipleship strategy (which is yours to steal!) Teenagers can choose from pre-selected habits or create their own that match how they’re trying to grow. Check out Habits by Grow here.

(iOS & Android)

This is just a small list of our favorite apps for youth ministry. Chances are you have your own list of favorite apps that help with discipleship. Apps like these can do so much to help teenagers grow in their faith by helping them make spending time with God a regular part of their week. It’s all about engaging with teenagers in ways that are helpful and make sense to them.

5 Apps for Youth Ministry
Free PDF Resource
5 Apps for Youth Ministry

That’s one of the things we focus on in Grow Students Curriculum. We wanted to provide youth pastors with helpful, engaging tools that can help their teenagers grow closer to God. In every volume of Grow Students, we include …

  • Editable graphics
  • Printable posters
  • Annual Strategy Guides
  • Room design ideas and instructions
  • Worship & background music playlists
  • 50 weeks of lessons with outlines and editable lesson guides
  • Access to all of our apps, including Habits, Slides, Hubs, and the Grow Games Apps
  • And so much more!

So, if you’re looking for new ways to engage with your teenagers and help them grow in their faith away from their phones and devices, we’d love to help you! Just check out our free trial!

13 Ways to Teach Teenagers More Effectively

Posted on by Amy Lindberg

13 Ways to Teach Teenagers More Effectively
Free PDF Resource
13 Ways to Teach Teenagers More Effectively

If you’ve spent any time in youth ministry, you’ve probably asked yourself this question—Are they learning anything? It’s a question that drives youth pastors everywhere to adjust and refine their programs.

It’s pretty easy to tell when teenagers are having fun. We can see it in the ways they laugh, play a game, or participate in the activities we design for them. It’s not always easy to tell if they’re learning and growing, and we all want to help teenagers grow.

To teach students effectively, we can’t just open the Bible and teach. We need strategic and age-appropriate teaching methods if we want them to remember, personalize, and apply what we teach.

In Grow Students Curriculum, our teaching time is designed to answer three questions. We didn’t invent these questions. Rather, they’re the questions teachers and communicators from every discipline agree are answered by every compelling sermon, talk, lecture, or lesson.

  • WHAT? What are we talking about?
  • SO WHAT? Why does it matter to God and to us?
  • NOW WHAT? What should we do about what we just learned?

When we teach, every element should help teenagers process through and answer these questions. The problem is we often hear “teaching” and start thinking of sermons and talking at teenagers, but remember that thing about age-appropriate teaching methods? For most teenagers, listening to a sermon isn’t the best way for them to learn. Sure, sermons are great, and they’re an important part of how we tell them about who God is, but if we want to be effective communicators, we’ll want to incorporate other strategies too. So, here are 13 ways (with examples from Grow Students!) you can make your teaching effective—by using something other than just a sermon.

SCRIPTURE

Reading passages from the Bible is a big part of how we teach about who God is. Scripture can be an effective teaching tool when we …

  • Read passages of Scripture together as a group.
  • Invite a volunteer to read to the group.
  • Invite a student to read to the group.

QUESTIONS AND POLLS

These two methods give teenagers the chance to share their opinions and thoughts, which keeps them engaged and helps us better understand their perspectives. You can ask things like …

  • “Which son are you?” to help teenagers start to identify with characters from a Bible story.
  • Use a poll about following through to help teenagers relate to one another.

PERSONAL STORIES

Our own stories and experiences can give teenagers real-life examples of faith, doubt, and difficulties to learn from and remind them they’re not alone. You can use stories to …

  • Talk about a time when a friend challenged you to grow in your faith.
  • Tell about a time when we needed help to set up our Scripture for the week.

IMAGES, VIDEOS, AND MUSIC

We all know how hard it can be to keep the attention of teenagers. Images, videos, and music work to engage their eyes and ears, and help us recapture their attention when it wanders. You can use these three modules to …

  • Teach about the importance of checking in on your friends with a video clip of two superheroes taking care of each other.
  • Show what happens when we strip away all of our distractions with an image of the dark and not-so-dark sky at night.

OBJECT LESSONS

Even though teenagers are able to grasp more abstract ideas, it can help to teach them with concrete examples. Object lessons give concrete experiences to help them understand or remember these ideas. You could use object lessons to …

  • Demonstrate what happens when we give our fears to God by dropping written fears into a bucket of water.
  • Show how friends can grow together and protect each other by planting beans, corn, and squash together in the Tres Hermanas method of farming.

ACTIVITIES

Activities help engage teenagers by getting them moving and interacting in ways that will help them better remember what they learned. Activities are effective because, at the end of the day, teenagers don’t just hear a lesson—they experience it. You can use activities to …

  • Play a game from the Grow Games App.
  • Help teenagers connect with the power of God’s words through a simile shuffle game.

MOMENTS OF REFLECTION

It’s important to give teenagers a chance to sit quietly, write, think, or pray, so they can better process what is being taught. Reflection moments can look like …

  • Having teenagers write down how they plan to respond to God on a plant marker for their garden.
  • Filling out a handout reflecting on the changes they could make to grow in their relationship with God.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR RESPONSE

A response helps give teenagers a chance to do something about what they’ve learned, like make a commitment or choose the next step. Responses can look like …

  • Building a sculpture that reminds the group of the ways God rescues us.
  • Creating a photo booth for teenagers to take pictures together as they remember the ways they can support and care for each other.

PRAYER

Prayer helps teenagers connect and talk with God on their own or as a group. You can use prayer to …

  • Show teenagers how to pray and talk with God.
  • Create short, memorable prayers for teenagers to build into their spiritual habits.

DISCUSSION

Discussions create space for teenagers to process out loud and learn with their peers. To be most effective, discussion questions shouldn’t only summarize a lesson but should also ask questions that get teenagers thinking and personalizing what they’ve learned like …

  • What’s one step you’re going to take to be a catalyst for change?
  • If a friend was struggling to forgive someone who hurt them, what words of advice or comfort would you give them?

If you’re looking to make your teaching more effective for teenagers, consider adding some of these modules into your teaching time. With a weekly teaching strategy and a little creativity, you can teach in ways that capture the attention of teenagers and get them to learn and grow.

13 Ways to Teach Teenagers More Effectively
Free PDF Resource
13 Ways to Teach Teenagers More Effectively

And hey, if you’re using Grow Students Curriculum, we’re using these 13 teaching modules already! For every week of every year, we provide teaching content designed by real in-the-trenches youth pastors who understand how to teach teenagers effectively. And we give you everything you need to make it happen!

4 Game Structures Used in Youth Ministry

Posted on by Amy Lindberg

If you’ve spent any amount of time in youth ministry, you’ve probably played a few incredible games. Games are a central part of youth ministry. They give us a chance to make new connections with teenagers and help them relate to their peers. Games are more than just a way for us to drain teens of their energy before we head into the quieter, more reflective parts of our weekly environments. They’re a way for them to build genuine relationships based on a shared experience. So, what are some ways you can better help your teenagers make these relationships? Well, take a look at the structures of your games!

Every great game is built upon a structure. This structure provides the basic limits of how the game will work. Let’s take Angry Birds, for example. At first glance, you might only see a slingshot full of birds you can launch toward some pigs hiding behind wooden towers. But once you strip away that theme, it’s a game about launching objects at a target. Sometimes, when we see or hear about a game, we only focus on the game’s theme and not the structure. But as we pull games apart, we’ll find so many of them use similar structures. So, if you plan to build your own games for teenagers, you’ll want to grow familiar with some of these structures.

Here are a few of our favorites…

  • RELAY RACES. Relay races are a great way to get multiple groups of people involved. There are a couple of different ways to handle your relays. You can have players from each team race to complete the same action at the same time, like hula hoop five times in a row, before tagging their teammate. Or, you could have players from each team perform different actions like one player hoops five times, another whistles a Taylor Swift song, and the final player answers some trivia questions. No matter how you plan it, relay races are high-energy games that get the crowd cheering on their friends and favorite teams.
  • TRIVIA. Trivia games are great for those weeks when you want something with less energy. When you do trivia right, you can make connections with teens who might not want to join in with the louder, more active games. But just because trivia takes less energy than a relay race, that doesn’t mean it needs to be less fun. To build your trivia game, just choose a topic, come up with some questions (or Google them), and then throw them up on your screen. Group your teenagers by age, grade, or however you want, and have some relaxed fun. If you want to raise the energy, ask a question and give them 45 seconds to write down their answers and run them to the stage. There’s so much you can do with trivia, but just remember to pick a theme!
  • TIME TRIALS. In time trials, every player is racing the clock. The format is really simple—choose your players, give them a short amount of time, and have them compete against each other and the clock to determine a winner. You could see who can shake the most ping pong balls out of an empty box of tissue attached to their waist in one minute or grab a bubble machine to see which contestant can pop the most bubbles using a toothpick in 45 seconds. Just make sure all of your action takes place where everyone can see what’s happening and make sure the goal can actually be accomplished. If no one can see what’s happening or your game is too difficult to make any progress, your players and your audience will start to check out.
  • CONTESTS. These games can take a lot of different forms, but it might be best to think of them as ongoing challenges. A contest could look like the Impossible Shot, where you set up a trash can or hoop somewhere far from your stage, and players try to throw a ball into it. You could create a series of “On the Spot” contests where players have five minutes to paint the best picture, write the best song, or tell the best jokes. Contests are a good change of pace from your other game structures. They can be fast-paced, or they can take some focus, allowing you to build up the anticipation in your group.

These are just a few of the game structures that exist, and they don’t always need to stand alone, either. You can create a timed trivia game or a trivia relay race. Each of these structures can be blended into the next to help you create something unique and fun for your youth ministry. Don’t be afraid to shake things up and try a new structure or combination of structures for your games. There are so many great games to create!

If you need help building a game on any of these structures, then check out our guide to creating games from scratch. Just remember you don’t have to do it alone! You can ask your volunteers for input or even empower a few of them to take over creating your games altogether. You never know what great games a volunteer has hiding in the back of their minds!

And if you’re looking for great games that you can plug into your youth ministry right now, then check out the Grow Games App. In the Grow Games App for iOS and Android, we have over 500 different games for your youth ministry. Each game comes ready to play with instructions, editable image files, and a supply list so you can get started right away. Plus, you can add your own games to build up a database of all the great games you’ve already been playing in your youth ministry. So, when you’re looking for a new game structure, you can use the Grow Games App.

4 Game Structures Used in Youth Ministry Games
Free PDF Resources
4 Game Structures Used in Youth Ministry

6 Ways to Make Youth Group Games More Fun

Posted on by Amy Lindberg
6 Ways to Make Youth Group Games More Fun
Free PDF Resource
6 Ways to Make Youth Group Games More Fun

One of our favorite ways to describe youth ministry is fun. We love having fun. We love fun activities, fun teaching, and fun people. No matter how old you are, we all gravitate toward fun. Fun isn’t only helpful for making friends and new memories, but fun can also help us create engaging environments for teenagers to experience Jesus.

The games and activities you play with your teenagers aren’t just a way for them to spill all of their energy before you get to the more serious parts of your service or event. These games allow teenagers to make connections and create memories around a shared experience. Ask a teenager about a fun memory from their life, and they’ll probably recite it in detail—who was there, what happened, and why it’s so important to them. Fun helps ideas stick. Fun builds relationships. Fun is an essential part of youth ministry.

However, you can’t just throw a bunch of teenagers in a room and say, “Have fun! See you soon!” Sure, that might create fun for the teenagers involved, but it would not be a fun conversation with your lead pastor about the new holes in the wall, broken light fixtures, and the gallons of paint on the ceiling. There are ways you can increase the fun in all of your games and for everyone involved, regardless of their role.

THINK IT THROUGH

You’re not alone if you’ve searched for “fun youth ministry games” the night before your service. There are certainly times when you’ll need to scramble to find a new game for your teenagers, but if it’s happening every single week, you’re not setting yourself up to have the most fun with them.

As you prepare your service, you’ll want games that help to level up your teaching and the other elements of your service. Don’t just pick random games from the internet and try them out. You can do a lot to help your teaching stick by thinking about how a game connects to your main teaching points or a worship song you’ll sing. When everything feels connected, teenagers have more fun playing games.

Don’t just think through the connection to your weekly environment, though. You can increase fun in your games by thinking about the different varieties of games, too. We can fall into a habit of playing a specific type of game each week, like all-play games, screen games, or outdoor games. When we think through a rotation of every kind of game or cycle out older games for newer ones, we can help teenagers have new experiences and new ways to have fun.

RESPECT YOUR AUDIENCE

What’s your first instinct when you’ve got a game and notice a few teenagers who aren’t participating? Most of the time, we’ll lead with encouragement. We want our games to be accessible and fun for everyone in the room, but occasionally, someone might need a gentle nudge to jump in. But what do we do when they still don’t want to play?

Your response in this situation is an important indicator of how much fun the group will have. No one wants to be forced to play a game. Encourage them to play. Gently nudge them and keep the invitation open for them to hop in when they’re comfortable and ready. Never force someone to play a game. Instead, focus on respecting your audience.

This strategy may seem different than what you’re used to. You might expect teenagers to respect you and the environment you’ve worked so hard to curate for them carefully. But respect goes both ways. If you’re out there forcing teenagers to play games they don’t love, embarrassing them, or forcing them to pay attention, that’s not respect—it’s control—and being controlled isn’t any fun.

When teenagers sense that you respect them, they can lower their guard. They’ll be more likely to take healthy risks and might even be willing to embarrass themselves for some fun. Take a small step in respecting your audience by allowing them to participate in games and other activities as they’d like. Communicate your expectations of alternate activities or responses. Focus your energy on creating a safe and respectful environment so everyone can have fun.

CONTROL THE ENERGY

Great fun can come from great energy. When planning out your games, remember to create an energy that matches what’s needed for your game. The first place to start is with your music.

Your playlist can level up the fun for your students. When you match music to the feeling you hope to get from your games, incredible things can happen. You’ll want to pair high-energy songs with high-energy and low-energy songs with low-energy games. But focusing on music is only part of controlling energy.

You’ll also want to make sure you have the right hosts for your games. A great host can harness the energy needed for a game and draw it from the group. They’re great at explaining instructions clearly and getting a whole room to cheer along, no matter the result. They’re also great at keeping things positive. Sometimes, a game doesn’t work out how you’d hope, or a student might struggle to reach their goal. A great host (and a respectful environment) can turn this situation around so everyone has fun.

INVOLVE SMALL GROUP LEADERS

Your small group leaders are essential to your ministry. They spend a lot of time having conversations with your teenagers. They bring support and structure to your services. They can also help set the tone for your environment by engaging in your games.

When you think back on your time in kids or youth ministry, was there a leader who went all out for games? Typically, this leader’s energy is infectious. They can rally a group behind a concept or help them find the courage to try something new. Their relationship with teenagers can make a difference in bringing out a new level of fun.

Set out some expectations with your volunteers about how they can get involved. Like your students, give them alternate options to care for teenagers who may feel shy or want to try an alternate game or activity. Don’t stop inviting them to participate in your games and build new memories with your students. Their experiences could open up a new path for conversations and connections that help teenagers grow closer to Jesus.

REWARD YOUR WINNERS

Prizes are an excellent motivator for games. When teenagers know ahead of time they’re competing for something, they’re more likely to get invested in having fun. As you plan games, create opportunities for your teenagers to compete for prizes and rewards. The trick is not to make things too competitive, though.

In the same way that a prize can motivate someone, too much competition can demotivate some. If your prize is so great that they are willing to do anything to win, that’s not very fun for the people involved. Try to choose rewards that are accessible but still fun, like a gift card, free snacks, or an ice cream party for a small group. Prizes like these can build up the fun in your games without guaranteeing a free-for-all competition.

You could even choose rewards and prizes that are strategic to what’s happening in your ministry. You could give away early entry or free admission to an event you’re throwing or give out a discount on camp. If you connect your rewards to your ministry strategy, you can create incentives for teenagers and their families to stay connected to what’s happening in your ministry and church!

PLAN YOUR TRANSITION

This last point is probably the most important. If you’re moving from a higher energy portion of your weekly environment to something lower energy, you’ll need to nail this transition. Smooth transitions aren’t just about harnessing your group’s energy but also about connecting each part of your environment.

As you think through your games, you’ll want to know what’s coming up next throughout your service. How will you move from one point in your service to the next? What can you say to ease the transition? What items can you set up ahead of time to help you move from one activity to the next? There are so many questions to consider when transitioning between parts of your service, but each of them is important.

Creating smooth transitions requires some strategy, which takes us back to our first point of thinking through your service. Each week, you’ll want to know which components make up your service and how they connect to the main point, or Big Idea, of your service. Knowing why you’ve included each element in your weekly environment, you’ll better understand how to connect and transition between the different parts. When everything connects seamlessly (or, let’s be honest, mostly seamlessly), you’ll be able to maintain momentum and fun for your students and your leaders!

These are just a few ways to make the youth ministry games you play more fun. Best of all, these strategies work with every type of game—indoor, outdoor, screen games, all-play games, and more. And if you’re looking for new kinds of games for your youth ministry, we’ve got you covered. In the Grow Games App for iOS and Android, we have over 500 different games for your youth ministry. Each game comes with instructions, a supply list, and editable graphics so you can be ready to play with your group. Plus, you can add your own games to build up a database of all the great games you’ve been playing in your youth ministry. So if you’re ready to make your games more fun, just follow these six strategies and check out the Grow Games App!

6 Ways to Make Youth Group Games More Fun
Free PDF Resource
6 Ways to Make Youth Group Games More Fun

How to Create Simple Church Games for Teenagers

Posted on by Amy Lindberg
How to Create Simple Church Games for Teenagers
Free PDF Resources
How to Create Simple Church Games for Teenagers

 

If you’ve spent more than a few weeks in youth ministry, chances are you’ve played a lot of games. Games sit at the center of ministry because they give teenagers (and leaders) a chance to make connections. When you’re playing a game with a teen or watching them play with one of their peers, you’re experiencing connection in action. Ultimately, games are more than a way for us to empty our students of all of their energy. They help us create memories through common experiences.

Sometimes, we can fall into a pattern of playing the same handful of games in rotation. There are a ton of reasons why that happens, from our levels of comfort to our genuine enjoyment of the game. But what if you wanted to create your own game? What if you wanted to make something special just for the teenagers in your ministry? You might be surprised to find out it’s a lot easier than it seems. So what does it take? First, you’ll want to ensure you have the right host for your games, space, mood, and energy level. But once you’ve secured those things, you can follow this simple formula.

PICK A THEME

The first step to building a great game from scratch is to find a theme. You might want this to connect to what you’re teaching that week, but you might want something more universal that you could play every week. Regardless of how well your game does (or doesn’t) connect to your teaching content, you’ll need to theme to hold everything together. A strong theme is what draws people into the game.

Think about something like Angry Birds. It’s a classic game about launching birds toward some pigs hiding behind blocks of wood, ice, or steel. But most of what we know about Angry Birds is really related to the theme. If you took away the theme, you’d just have someone launching soccer balls at wooden structures. It might be fun, but having a theme on top of the gameplay is what makes the game compelling and fun.

So, start your game construction by choosing a strong theme. Maybe look to random holidays for inspiration and build a game off of that. You could look at the events in your calendar, like the Super Bowl and the Olympics. You might even be inspired to build a game based on a popular TV show, movie, or song. The possibilities for your theme are endless, but what’s most important is to choose a theme.

PICK A STRUCTURE

Once you’ve selected your theme, you’re ready to move on to the next step—pick a structure. Every game is built around a simple structure or framework. We’ll take a look at four different structures for your games, but this isn’t an exhaustive list by any means. There are so many structures for games, but these are just some of our favorites.

  • RELAY RACES: Relay races are a great way to get multiple groups of people involved. There are a couple of different ways to handle your relays. You can have players from each team race to complete the same action at the same time, like hula hoop five times in a row, before tagging their teammate. Or, you could have players from each team perform different actions like one player hula hoops five times, another whistles a Taylor Swift song, and the final player answers some trivia questions. No matter how you plan it, relay races are high-energy games that get the crowd cheering on their friends and favorite teams.
  • TRIVIA: Not every week needs to have a high-energy game! For those weeks, try out some trivia. When you do trivia right, you can make connections with teenagers who might not want to join in with the louder, more active games. But just because trivia takes less energy than a relay race, that doesn’t mean it needs to be less fun. To build your trivia game, just choose a topic, come up with some questions (or Google them), and then throw them up on your screen. Group them by age, grade, or however you want, and have some relaxed fun. If you want to raise the energy, ask a question and give them 45 seconds to write down their answers and run them to the stage. You can do so much with trivia, but just remember to pick a theme!
  • TIME TRIALS: In time trials, every player is racing the clock. The format is really simple—choose your players, give them a short amount of time, and have them compete against each other and the clock to determine a winner. You could see who can shake the most ping pong balls out of an empty box of tissue in one minute or grab a bubble machine to see who can pop the most bubbles using a toothpick in 45 seconds. Just make sure all of your action takes place so everyone can see what’s happening and ensure the goal can be accomplished. If no one can see what’s happening or your game is too difficult to make any progress, your players and your audience will start to check out.
  • CONTESTS: These games can take a lot of different forms, but it might be best to think of them as ongoing challenges. A contest could look like the “Impossible Shot,” where you set up a trash can or hoop somewhere far from your stage, and people try to throw a ball into it. You could create a series of “On the Spot” contests where players have five minutes to paint the best picture, write the best song, or tell the best jokes. Contests are a good change of pace from your other game structures. They can be fast-paced, or they can take some focus, allowing you to build up the anticipation in your teens.

Just remember to rotate your game structures at least every other week. When you play the same types of games over and over, your games can become predictable and less exciting for teenagers. Don’t be afraid to shake things up and try a new structure or even combine a few structures together. There are so many games you can create within these structures!

FIND SUPPLIES

Once you’ve established your structure and your theme, it’s time to get your supplies. Sometimes, your supplies can inspire your games, like Random Object Mini Golf, where players use anything but a golf club to play. But when it comes to creating your game, there aren’t many with unlimited supplies. Clean toilet plungers can become pool cues. A volleyball net can become a slingshot, pool noodles can become javelins, baseball bats, and anything else you can imagine. If your church doesn’t have a lot of supplies for games, ask your volunteer team what they have. You might even consider calling up another church in the area to see if you can borrow some of their supplies. You don’t need an enormous budget to create great games. You just need a little imagination (and maybe the phone number for the church down the road).

TEST IT

You’ve done it. You have a theme, you have your structure, and you found your supplies when you realized carrying the fake plants around the church could make a great relay. Now, the last step in creating your game is to test it. You should test every single game you ever play—whether you created it or not. You can make this easier on yourself by picking a few volunteers to test out each of your games during the week or before your weekly environment. When you test out your games before you play them, you can see what parts of your game need adjustment. Maybe you need more time during your time trial. Maybe one of your trivia questions is incorrect. Maybe the plants are too heavy for teenagers to carry safely. Whatever it is, testing your games before you let teenagers play them gives you the time to find the problems, make adjustments, and increase the fun for everyone involved. Plus, it makes for great social media content and fun staff meetings!

EMPOWER YOUR TEAM

Creating games from scratch can take a lot of time and energy. It might be something you don’t always have time to do. If that’s the case, consider empowering your volunteer team to help you in the process. We love it when churches ask their volunteers to invest in big ways (we think it’s the first step in creating a great volunteer culture). Asking your volunteers to help you create games isn’t just about your time and schedule, but it’s about pulling out incredible ideas from your team. Consider making a game creation a part of your volunteer meetings, or maybe you could set up a way for volunteers to share the random, silly game ideas that pop into their heads. Give them the space to be creative, have fun, and make something special just for your teenagers. You might be amazed at the great things they come up with!

And if you’re looking for great games to plug into your youth ministry right now, check out the Grow Games App for iOS and Android. Inside the app, we have over 500 games ready for you to add to your youth ministry. Each game comes ready to play with instructions, editable image files, and a supply list so you can get started right away. Plus, you can add your own games to build up a database of all the great ones you’ve already been playing in your youth ministry. So, for the times when you need a break from creating your games from scratch, you can use the Grow Games App.

How to Create Simple Church Games for Teenagers
Free PDF Resources
How to Create Simple Church Games for Teenagers

4 Tips for Leading Teenagers in Small Groups

Posted on by Amy Lindberg
4 Tips for Leading Teenagers in Small Groups
Free PDF Resource
4 Tips for Leading Teenagers in Small Groups

The first time you’re in charge of a small group of teenagers, you might feel pretty intimidated. It’s a big responsibility, and there’s so much to remember—names, talking points, and rules for your icebreaker. Beyond that, there’s the stuff you can’t always prepare for, like honest conversations, unexpected breakthroughs, and the deep, thoughtful questions teenagers can ask. There’s just so much small group leaders need to know.

When we stop to think about it, small group leaders have some of the most important roles within youth ministry.

  • They learn about their lives.
  • They get to build deep connections with teenagers.
  • They hear their questions and help them make sense of their experiences.

With such an important role, how can small group leaders become the best, most helpful, and loving people in your youth ministry?

Well, if you’re a youth pastor, we’ve got a few ideas for how you can train your current small group leaders. And if you’re a volunteer, we’ve got some ideas to help you become a better small group leader right now.

Here are four tips that can help, no matter your role!

Tip #1: KNOW YOUR ROLE

Your overall role as a small group leader can be broken down into three parts:

  • You’re a guide. While not an easy role to define, you’re part mentor, pastor, friend, and teacher. But you’re not fully any of those things. Thankfully, you don’t need to have all of the answers. Instead, you get to help lead a conversation to help your teenagers find truth together.
  • You’re a facilitator. This is more than just knowing your material and the Scripture you’ll be talking through. You also have to know how to facilitate a conversation by drawing people in, asking different types of questions, learning when to push for more, and knowing when to back off. But don’t just fill time to keep the conversation going. You can use silence to facilitate conversation, too!
  • You’re a person. Being a small group leader means building relationships. You can’t lead the teenagers you serve without building connections with each person in your group. That means learning about the things they enjoy, asking them questions about their lives, and showing up to their important events as often as you can.

Because of their age, you might discover your group of teenagers is full of questions, deep thoughts, and unique experiences. So, whenever you meet with them, remember to stay flexible and adapt to what happens in each meeting. You may be surprised at how much teenagers grow when you create a space where they feel cared for and listened to.

Tip #2: KNOW YOUR GOAL

Your goal is to help teenagers take the next step in their faith journey.

You’re not there to have all the answers or solve their problems. That’s a great goal but not always realistic, so you can relax a little. Instead, help teenagers take the next step toward living out their faith. You’re helping your group learn how to take ownership of their faith as they grow into adults.

Plus, the teenagers in your group are going to grow differently. Spiritual growth is a journey, and no two journeys are exactly the same. As teenagers build up spiritual habits on their own time, they’ll grow in their faith differently, and that’s completely okay. It’s just important to remember as you help each of your teenagers explore what the next step in their faith can look like.

Tip #3: FOCUS ON HABITS

Remember your role, or … roles? You’re a guide, facilitator, and person. Most likely, you’re not the primary influence in a teenager’s faith. Their parents, caregivers, mentors, and family members might often fill that role than you. But you are a part of the discipleship process for every person in your group.

You’ve probably heard the word “discipleship” quite a bit, but let’s be honest—it’s a word many people have defined differently. We like to think of discipleship in terms of four spiritual habits. These are the decisions, behaviors, and rhythms that help everyone—teenagers included—grow spiritually over time. They are …

  • Spend time with God
  • Spend time with others
  • Use your gifts
  • Share your story

When we focus on helping teenagers build habits in these four areas, we give them chances to grow in new ways. And it doesn’t take a ton of forethought to do it, either.

You can help them spend time with God by assigning a Scripture reading or some prayer prompts. You can help them spend time with others by organizing a hangout or meal outside of your normal meeting time. You can help teenagers use their gifts by helping them take a spiritual gifts assessment or share what they think each member’s gifts are. You can help them share their story by challenging them to post on social media or practice giving their testimony to the group.

Helping teenagers build up their habits doesn’t have to be intimidating. If you want to learn more about the four spiritual habits and a discipleship strategy that can help, just check out this article.

Tip #4: KEEP LEARNING

Those first three tips cover some of the basics of being a small group leader, but that’s not where this ends. There’s no certification course for leading a small group that teaches you everything you need to know. There’s a lot of learning on the job you’ll need to do, like …

  • Learn from your mistakes.
  • Get better at asking for help.
  • Work on balancing deep conversation with fun bonding experiences.
  • Figure out how to engage the introverts while managing your extroverts.
  • Find resources to help someone experiencing a crisis you’ve never dealt with before.
  • Work on balancing deep conversation with fun bonding experiences.
  • Research the complicated questions, issues, and ideas your group members bring up.

Never stop learning. It’s well-known that leaders are more effective when they keep learning and growing. You might be the one leading the small group, but you can still grow while you do.

So many people in your church and your ministry would love to help you. Talk to your youth pastor. Ask people in other ministries for tips and advice. Leading a group is a big deal, and you don’t have to feel like you’re doing it alone.

It’s why we’re here to help. We make Grow Students Curriculum to help small group leaders like you be great at what they do. Inside of Grow Students, you’ll find …

  • Small group guides and questions
  • Volunteer meeting outlines
  • Monthly tip videos to help you be an even better small group leader
  • A volunteer handbook to help you know your role

And if your church doesn’t use Grow Curriculum, we have tons of other resources and strategies in our blog for you to steal. Take what’s there, tweak it to match your ministry, and make it your own. We hope it helps you be even better at running a small group and connecting with teenagers!

4 Tips for Leading Teenagers in Small Groups
Free PDF Resource
4 Tips for Leading Teenagers in Small Groups

Responding to Teenagers in Crisis

Posted on by Amy Lindberg
Free PDF Resource
Crisis Response Decision Tree
With just a few simple questions, you and your team of volunteers can know which response may fit your situation best and what steps to take in following up with your teenagers and their families.

If we asked you to share your favorite memories from ministry, it might take you a minute. Ministry is full of things to remember, from the funny, random things teenagers can say to the life-changing decisions they make for Jesus. You’ll have dozens of favorite moments throughout your time in ministry.

But if we asked you about some of the most challenging times in ministry, it would be a lot easier for you to name them. The hard seasons tend to stick the most. Our difficult seasons as ministry leaders are often connected to the teenagers we serve. When they struggle, experience tragedy, or find themselves in crisis, we’re often right next to them, helping them process and stay connected to God in the middle of it. We check in with our students and their families, take them out for coffee, pray for them, and help them walk through what they’re experiencing.

If you’ve ever found yourself in one of these situations, you may have not felt prepared. When we think of ministry, we tend to put our energy into teaching, building a weekly environment, and working with volunteers. Helping a teenager through a crisis rarely makes the list. What we do know is that teenagers have a complex spectrum of experiences. What one teenager experiences each day can be similar but pretty different from the experience of someone two chairs over. Two teenagers might not even interpret the same experience in similar ways. For the most part, developing a single, definitive strategy for walking with a teenager through a crisis may not be helpful. Instead, we can build a simple database of strategies to help lead us to something helpful for our teenagers, their families, and us.

To help you out, we’ve made you something to help you remember some of the potential responses to any crisis situation you face. Before we get there, though, let’s talk about what a crisis is.

WHAT COUNTS AS A CRISIS?

As an adult, when you talk about crises, some ideas probably pop into your head—natural disasters, major health scares, major international events, and a few other things. Because we have this larger scope and frame of reference, we can be quick to dismiss things we don’t personally view as a crisis. Teenagers might share a problem they’re facing, and we may think, “Just wait ’til you’re older!”

Sure, what the teenager in your small group is experiencing may not seem like a big deal to you, but it is a big deal to them. Their whole existence might feel like it’s wrapped up in this problem, and they need a trusted adult to help them through it. What counts as a crisis comes from your life experience, context, and resources. So, just because it doesn’t feel like a crisis to you doesn’t mean it’s not experienced as a crisis to a teenager to someone else.

A crisis can be any situation that feels like a threat or danger to ourselves or our situation, leaving us feeling like we may not have the tools to navigate through it successfully. Through this lens, we can be more empathetic to the experiences of the teenagers in our ministries. They don’t have as much life experience. They may not always know where to find their answers or how to start looking for them. They have less control over their decisions and finances than adults do, and they have a sense of more immediate social stressors pressing in on their experiences. With all this in mind, no wonder a teenager might have the same response to a breakup as they would to failing an exam or experiencing bullying. That sense of dread, panic, or confusion can cloud their ability to access the tools they need to overcome what they’re feeling.

That’s why we recommend you take every problem seriously. This doesn’t mean every problem is addressed with the same urgency, but every time a teenager tells you about an experience they’re having, they’re giving you a chance to support them, empower them, and lead them into a deeper relationship with God.

Now that we’re on the same page about what a crisis is and how it can show up in a teenager’s life, let’s look at a few ways you can respond whenever you encounter a teenager in crisis.

Free PDF Resource
Crisis Response Decision Tree
With just a few simple questions, you and your team of volunteers can know which response may fit your situation best and what steps to take in following up with your teenagers and their families.

5 CRISIS RESPONSES

1. ENSURE SAFETY

Any time a teenager starts to share about a crisis, it’s up to you to make sure the current situation is safe for them, others around you, and yourself. Safety for everyone involved is the theme of each of these crisis responses.

Part of ensuring safety means being upfront and honest about confidentiality. If a teenager asks, “Do you promise not to tell anyone?” you need to be clear that there are situations where you’ll need to inform others according to laws, church policies, and other factors. Most notably, situations involving abuse—physical, sexual, emotional, and neglect—are legally required to be reported in most states.

If you haven’t already, review your state’s mandatory reporting laws, and train your volunteers on how to abide by these laws as well. Add some crisis response resources to your Volunteer Handbook to make things easier for your team so they know what to do.

2. DE-ESCALATE

We’re not always ready for teenagers to share about their crises. Even if we’re caught off guard, we can remember to help de-escalate the feelings and emotions a teenager might be experiencing.

Your role in any crisis is to be calm and supportive. If you start to panic, the person in crisis might think:

  • “This situation requires panic.”
  • “I’m messed up.”
  • “Why would I share this if others are going to panic, too?”

Some situations might be harder for you to respond to based on your own experiences. Know your limits, but do everything you can to demonstrate calm to the teenager confiding in you.

De-escalating a situation might look like …

  • Moving from a crowded area to somewhere quieter that is still in public.
  • Speaking in a calm, regular voice. Your tone on its own can communicate a setting is safe.
  • Take notice of your reactions and the reactions of the teenager. Are you scared? Defensive? Are they?
  • If the situation is causing you distress, grab another adult they trust to step in for you.

3. LISTEN

A crisis is a time when our brains might snap into “fix it” mode. We have a distressed teenager in front of us and want to help them. As much as we might want to, we can’t just jump in with solutions. We need to give teenagers space to talk and express their feelings and experiences. After all, they are the experts in what they’re feeling. If you find yourself wanting to do something, remember listening is doing something important. No matter our age, we all need people to stand with us and hold space with us in the hard times.

Listening to a teenager means…

  • Don’t make it about you or offer advice unless specifically asked. It will be helpful if you can relate to what is being shared, but if we jump in before a teenager is ready to receive advice, we may come across as dismissive or uninterested.
  • Don’t try to convince them what they’re experiencing isn’t “that bad.” The teenage brain is in a developmental spot where it has stronger emotional reactions to things than an adult brain, which means it’s likely that the pain, anger, or sadness they’re feeling is “that bad.”
  • Empathize with them. Even if you don’t exactly understand or relate, you can still show empathy. Phrases like “That sounds frustrating” or “I can tell you’re hurt” can help communicate empathy.
  • Ask questions. Asking questions may not seem like you’re listening, but they’re a way to extend the conversation and show interest in what is being shared. Questions like “Can you tell more about that?” or “How did that make you feel?” can help them feel like someone is listening. At the same time, questions help you explore the details of the source of their crisis. Ask questions from a place of curiosity. You’re not interrogating anyone but trying to understand the situation more.
  • Silence is okay. Sometimes people just need someone to sit with them. A teenager may not always feel like talking about what they’re feeling. Actually, they may not even know exactly what they’re feeling or have the right words to express it. It’s okay to sit in silence and to just be present with them. And if silence makes you uncomfortable, that’s okay. Your comfort isn’t the only goal.

4. EMPOWER

When we have a teen confiding in us, our goal isn’t to fix things ourselves—it’s to empower them to take the next step. Remember how we defined a crisis? A crisis can be any situation that feels like a threat or danger to ourselves or our situation, leaving us feeling like we may not have the tools to navigate through it successfully. In a crisis, teenagers are reaching out for the resources and tools they need to handle the situation, so you can empower teenagers by showing them the options they can take as they navigate their experience.

Empowering a teenager can look like …

  • Affirming their decision to reach out to you in the first place. Talking about a problem takes a lot of vulnerability and can be scary.
  • Ask questions like “What are your options?” or “What do you want to happen?” to help teenagers start to put a plan in place.
  • Explore past situations where they’ve used their strengths, skills, and other tools to overcome a problem. Looking to the past might help them see a way through their current situation.
  • Help them explore their social supports. What friends or family members do they trust? Which of these people could they talk with?

The goal of empowering a teenager isn’t to come up with the solutions on your own. It’s to help guide them towards identifying the tools and responses that they find helpful for their situation. It’s about uncovering their strengths and helping them visualize the options that are in reach right now.

5. REFER

Making a referral might be one of the most important steps to take. You might not be a licensed therapist or counselor, so many of the crises your teenagers face might be outside of your scope. If that’s the case, it’s okay to tell a teenager or parent, “I’m not equipped to handle this, but here is someone who is.” All of us have limits to our expertise and what is appropriate to help with. If you haven’t already, put together a list of local counselors and other resources your teenagers or their families may need in a time of crisis. If your church offers services, include those, but be sure to have a few outside of your church as well.

We know that there are a lot of steps and details to remember, so to help you train your team in crisis response, we’ve created a decision tree. With just a few simple questions, you and your team of volunteers can know which response may fit your situation best and what steps to take in following up with your teenagers and their families.

BE AWARE OF WARNING SIGNS

When working with a teenager in crisis, there are a few warning signs you should watch for. These signs could signal a teenager who has or is currently contemplating suicide and who may need help. Not all of these signs need to be present for a teenager to be considering suicide, and the signs themselves may vary by age, gender, and cultural identity.

  • Talking about wanting to die or to kill themselves
  • Looking for a way to kill themselves
  • Talking about …
    • Feeling hopeless
    • Having no purpose
    • Feeling trapped
    • Being in unbearable pain
    • Wanting it to end
    • Not wanting to wake up
    • Being a burden to others
  • Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge
  • Use, or increasing use, of alcohol or drugs
  • Acting anxious, agitated, or pursuing risky behavior
  • Changes in sleep or eating patterns
  • Withdrawing or feeling isolated
  • Displaying extreme mood swings

If you happen to encounter a teenager displaying one or more of these behaviors or thoughts, take it seriously. Don’t immediately assume they are a threat to themselves, but ask follow-up questions. Start a conversation and explore what is sitting underneath their thoughts and feelings.

It’s also important to know the stories of your students. Knowing these behaviors and thoughts is only one part of preventing suicide, but personal experience also plays a key role in whether or not a teenager is considering suicide. Teenagers who are bullied, or abused, have experienced a stressful situation, or who have access to a means such as pills or a weapon are more likely to think about or attempt suicide.

Remember to always take any mention of suicide seriously. Ask follow-up questions, know the signs, and refer for help whenever you need to.

RESOURCES

You don’t need to handle all of this on your own. One of the best things you can do for your teenagers is to know that you don’t know it all. You don’t need to have the perfect response ready to help a teenager in crisis. You just need to help them find the tools to make it through another day. That could look like being willing to listen to them, helping them troubleshoot their problems, or pointing them to a new resource.

Below, you’ll find some helpful resources from national organizations. These organizations have tools, training, and ways for students in crisis to seek help for various issues. Consider researching the resources your city, county, and state may offer for teenagers experiencing a crisis. These resources can help you guide a teenager toward safety and develop a safety plan. When you don’t know what to do, turn to these lifelines for help.

Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Text or call 988

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741

Self-Injury Outreach & Support

Free PDF Resource
Crisis Response Decision Tree
With just a few simple questions, you and your team of volunteers can know which response may fit your situation best and what steps to take in following up with your teenagers and their families.