Kara Powell - Sticky Faith, Youth Worker Edition: Practical Ideas to Nurture Long-Term Faith in Teenagers

I guess for a high school student I had an okay understanding of my faith, but in college I was really forced to own the values that I thought I had and make my own decisions I would definitely not say Ive arrived by any means, but I feel a lot of growth going on at this point.
Becca

After Young Life and my youth group at church and everything like that I graduated and went off to college, and I didnt hear back from those people again. They didnt make any effort to stay in touch. So that was kind of a disappointing experience.
Trevor

I (Kara) have two favorite professional football teams.

One is the San Diego Chargers. Im from San Diego and have been following my beloved Chargers through their ups and downs for three decades.

My second-favorite team is whoever is playing the Oakland Raiders.

My love for football has been passed on to my son, Nathan. His top team is the San Diego Chargers ('atta boy!). His second-favorite team is the New Orleans Saints, a team hes rooted for since our family went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to build homes for displaced families.

For Nathans birthday a few years ago, we bought him a Chargers pennant and a Saints pennant. Being a Type-A mom, I suggested we tape his two new pennants to his bedroom wall that night. So Nathan and I put Scotch tape all over the back of the pennants and positioned the two flags on his wall right where we wanted them, staggered about 12 inches apart. They looked great.

For a few hours.

By the time Nathan woke up, both pennants were in a heap on the ground. The tape hadnt held.

Since the Scotch tape had failed, we decided to upgrade our tape selection. Before he went to bed that night, Nathan and I rummaged through our office supplies and found masking tape. Once again, we covered the back of each pennant with tape and hung them both up on the wall, hoping they would stay there.

The next morning, both pennants were still up. Nathan and I gave each other high-fives, excited that the masking tape had worked.

To our chagrin, when we got home that evening, both flags were back in that same dreaded heap on the ground.

So we pulled out the big guns. We grabbed our duct tape, plastered it across the back of the pennants, and for a third time hung both flags on Nathans wall.

Both pennants were still hanging on the wall the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that. In fact, its been over three yearsand the duct tape has held. The pennants stuck.

Brad, Cheryl, and I wish we could say the same was true of the faith of teenagers in youth groups across the countryincluding the groups each of us works with. We wish we could say that the faith of these youth is so strong that even three years after high school graduation, they were still sticking with the Lord and with the church.

But we cant. To be honest, weve talked with countless high school graduates whose faith hasnt stuck three months, let alone three years.

The more that we at the Fuller Youth Institute study and talk with youth leaders and kids, the more we see that kids faith is usually

From the first Sunday she walked into our high school ministry when she was in ninth grade, Tiffany plunged into every activity. She was deeply committed to knowing Jesus and making Jesus known. Any event we offeredyouth choir, beach days, weekend service trips to TijuanaTiffany was there. Not only was she there, but she usually showed up at least 30 minutes early to see if she could help.

And help she did. She was especially good at making posters. She and I would spread paper across our youth room floor and try to come up with creative images to promote upcoming events or reinforce the teaching topic for the next week. When we made posters together, we talked about our mutual desire to know Jesus and help others know him too.

Around eleventh grade Tiffany started to change. She began to wear lots of dark, heavy makeup.

Her skirts grew shorter. A lot shorter.

She stopped arriving early for youth ministry events. She rarely signed up for anything. When I asked if she wanted to help with posters, she said she was too busy. Throughout Tiffanys senior year, her involvement at church grew more and more sporadic.