Youth Prayer Journey

You might not know that I have taken on a leadership role with the youth at my Church here in London. For the last few months we've been meeting once a month after Church for lunch, teaching and worship. It's been really fun and a great way to get to know the teens in the Church.

On Sunday we had the September meeting and this month I decided it would be cool to encourage the youth to go on a little prayer journey; to engage with God on a personal level. A lot of them have been at a Christian youth festival called Newday over the summer and have come back really fired up and passionate about spending time with God. So this was a little exercise to help them to keep that alive.

We had 8 different stations with different activities and Bible verses which ranged from praising God to confessing sin, affirming our identity in Christ to praying for the persecuted Church. 

The stations were:
#1. Praise God (by listening to worship music, reading Psalms, writing own Psalm)
#2. Confess Sin (by reflecting on our failures and how we want to change, taking a stone and dropping it in water to signify sins being taken away)
#3. Affirm Identity in Christ (by looking in the mirror and assessing what is seen. Reading post-its with truths from Freedom in Christ book on - taking any that are particularly meaningful)
#4. Give worries to God (by writing worries on post-it and then screwing up and throwing in the bin as an act of giving them to God)
#5. Thank God (by having a wall of thanks that people could write on)
#6. Prayer wall for friends/family (by having a "wall" that people could write in the bricks for people)
#7. Pray for persecuted Church (by having an Open Doors booklet which youth could read and then pray for countries)
#8. Pray for Lewisham/London (by having a big map of Lewisham and some prompts to pray for: Police, Mayor, Councillors etc)

We ended the session by sharing communion together. It's so interesting being able to be a part of the spiritual journey of these young people! Like the questions they come out with are so unpredictable and yet are really key in building solid foundations. 

I think I took a lot away from the session too - I think sometimes giving space to really engage with God is what I need. There are so many distractions in everyday life and having some prompts and time to commit to spending with God is always really beneficial for me. 

If you are a youth worker or want to use this prayer journey let me know and I'll send you the full resources I've created.