083: Helping Students Develop a Prayer Life and Relationship with God
Description
Spiritual habits are important—there’s not a Next Gen leader out there who will argue with that. We all agree we want students actively pursuing a relationship with God. But for most students, the idea of reading the Bible or having an active prayer life can feel unattainable or just plain boring.
On today’s episode of The Think Orange Podcast, we’ll talk about cultivating environments where kids and students can develop an authentic faith by focusing on four faith skills. We’ll hear from youth ministry veterans Crystal Chiang and Stuart Hall who will cast a vision and provide practical tools for helping students develop a prayer life and a relationship with God.
Topic Timeline
Stuart Hall talks about how the goal of spiritual habits is to bring about authentic faith in the next generation (3:57 )
Orange defines authentic faith as trusting in Jesus in a way that transforms the way I love God, the way I love myself, and the way I love others (4:09 )
As a ministry leader, your job is to provoke discovery and fuel passion (4:39 )
Summary of Orange’s Four Faith Skills (spiritual habits) (5:13 )
• HEAR from God
• PRAY to God
• TALK about God
• LIVE for God
Trusting Jesus is important if kids and students are going to develop a faith of their own (6:01 )
Jesus was a real person who lived, died, and rose again (11:47 )
The Bible didn’t create Christianity; Christianity created the Bible—the resurrection is our hope (13:15 )
When teaching the Bible to kids and students, start with Jesus (14:47 )
Practical things leaders can do to introduce kids and students to the Bible (15:52 )
Kids and students have to hear us praying for and with them (17:29 )
If you want kids and students to talk about God, you have to be ready for hard questions (20:29 )
The church should be the safest place for a kid or student to express their doubts (21:21 )
As a student pastor or small group leader, your most important asset is your emotional intelligence and ability to ask good questions (23:29 )
Providing service opportunities for kids and students should be built into your church’s DNA (24:16 )
Guest host Sarah Bragg interviews Crystal Chiang (27:47 )
As adults, we can make prayer less weird by owning that it isn’t like every other conversation we have (29:43 )
Our desire for immediate feedback can cause us to believe “prayer doesn’t work” (31:54 )
Recap of the Four Faith Skills (34:05 )
Leaders can guide and encourage students toward a thriving prayer life by walking with them through a specific experience in which they see results (35:33 )
Crystal explains the Thirty Challenge (37:21 )
Dave’s final thoughts (42:38 )
People, Places & Helpful Resources
Featured Guests
CRYSTAL CHIANG
Crystal Chiang is the Director of XP3 High School Curriculum. Before joining the team at Orange, she spent 10 years as a high school Spanish teacher and student ministry leader, doing everything from small groups to speaking to curriculum design.
STUART HALL
Stuart serves as Director of Student Leadership and Leadership Networking for Orange (ReThink Group) and also leads INFLUNSR, an organization whose mission is to fuel the next generation of leaders worth following. Stuart speaks to thousands of junior high, high school and college students, student pastors, parents, leaders, and coaches every year through camps, retreats, and special events.
He has co-authored three books: the award-winning The Seven Checkpoints: Seven Principles Every Teenager Needs to Knowand MAX Q: Developing Students of Influence with Andy Stanley, and the leadership edition of Wired: For a Life of Worship with Louie Giglio.
United States
