A Culture of Prayer in YTH Ministry
What is the dominant culture in your YTH ministry?
It can be easy to talk about prayer. All of us can agree that prayer is the critical component to YTH ministry. But developing and building a prayer culture in YTH ministry takes a lot of time and work.
YTH ministries in our country have a lot of emphases. That might be evangelism, discipleship, worship, school access, or other philosophies of building a YTH ministry. And you can see this and feel it in the DNA of the YTH program. So, how do you build a culture of prayer in YTH ministry?
Here are two principles to build a culture of prayer in YTH ministry:
Personal
I believe it begins with the personal spiritual discipline of a YTH leader and the adult and student leadership team. The Impact that a personal prayer ethic can have on others around us is undeniable. It can be instructional and inspirational. A personal prayer ethic begins with the following:
A set time of prayer - Don’t let your schedule run you. You run your schedule. Create time and do not let anything get in the way. If you will do this for a few weeks, after awhile, it will become practice.
Bible Reading - This is the spiritual fuel that leaders need every week. Sometimes when I am struggling with prayer it helps me to read the bible. The word of God can be a powerful tool for a YTH leader. One of the outcomes of bible reading is an increase in your wisdom and counsel. Your YTH ministry is going to sense it.
Fasting - Do not underestimate the value of fasting. This is a great way to control yourself. Even if you are fasting a meal, a day, or seasonal emphases, fasting can be a revolutionary personal discipline. If you go to the Instagram page @TheAmericanChristianTeenager you can sign up to fast with us every Friday from 11 am-1 pm through the lunch hour!
If we can develop this personal prayer ethic in ourselves and our team of adult and student leaders, it will result in the spiritual maturity that it takes to develop a culture of prayer in the YTH ministry also. You will not be able to promote what you're not producing.
This leads me to a second principle that will help build a culture of prayer in YTH ministry.
Public
If we do not place a high priority upon prayer in the corporate setting it will never happen. People do not just wake up and want to pray. It is a discipline that requires consistent time, repetition, and emphasis. Once we have placed a high priority on developing prayer, it will happen quite easily. Here are a few ways you can place the offices of prayer in the youth ministry:
Rip up the outline you’ve been using - That's right, you heard me. Get rid of your planning center, your flow, and your service order or whatever you call it. That is where we began. Now, place two sections of prayer in your cue (I call the service order or the flow a cue).
Now you have to build everything else that you are going to do around those two moments of prayer. Give 5-10 minutes of prayer either before or after worship, message, or small groups. You could place these two moments of prayer at the beginning and the end of the service. Just make sure you create a space of prayer twice in the evening!
Teaching and Preaching on payer - This second principle must be taught and caught. Sometimes teaching is a great way to increase something. However, sometimes it takes preaching for certain things to be caught. When is the last time you taught or preached on prayer? Again, you will get what you produce and promote.
When I was a YTH pastor, I repeatedly told my students that if I did not teach them how to pray, I have failed them. What are we doing? Why are our students coming back? Why are they not coming back? What are they taking with them into their future? The statistics have already proven that the millennial and Gen Z sets have a poor Biblical worldview (9% for Millennials and 4% for Gen Z). We can stop this slide by systematically teaching and preaching on spiritual disciplines.
Finally
Take the time to see if you have placed enough emphasis on building a culture of prayer. We're going to have to model prayer at the personal and corporate level to see a consistent prayer ethic in our YTH ministry. Remember, Jesus said in Matthew 21.13 “It is written, My house will be a house of prayer.” If we could define your house, your YTH ministry, what would it look like? A house of games? A house of food? A house of fun? A house of conversation? Or, would your YTH ministry look like a house of prayer?