Creative Prayer with the teens at St. Bartz 2007

As i start to prepare our Youth retreat trip to St. Bartz this year I started to think back to last years experience which was such an amazing time. One of the highlights for me was during the middle evening when we provided space for the teens to pray. Now i don’t know about you but the experience of getting teens to sitting in a group and pray out loud has not been a good one. Which is why using creative ways works so well. This was the case last year when to their astonishment the young people prayed for well over 45 min. How did they do this, and stay in relative peace. We put on some very chilled music and made 4 different stations for them to approach in their own time:

Station 1:

At this station, thought of an aspect of God’s character that they want to praise him for – for example, loving, forgiving, just. As they prayed, they cut out letters from the headlines to create that word and stick it onto the sheet.

Station 2:

At this station, the young people wrote the things that they want to thank God for on strips of paper, and then make them into paper chains. Creating a chain of thanks.

Station 3:

We wrote Dear God… in large letters. Put post it notes and white board markers nearby. At this station, the young people thought of something they wanted to ask God. They then wrote a word (or even whole prayers) or drew a symbol to represent that thing

Station 4:

At this station, the young people had tie to sit and think about things that they need to confess to God, (this happened in a small prayer room off the main meeting room), writing them in chalks on the boards as they prayed. Then once they had prayed, they wiped the slate clean with the cloth as a way of receiving God’s forgiveness.

This material was taken from Energize, a fantastic resource.

I can only hope that i can provide something similar this year.