How To Encourage Young People To Pray

No doubt that one of your aims in helping young people to go deeper in their faith with Jesus is the desire to see them pray. And not just a token prayer, but meaningful prayers. The kind of prayers that will have them being passionate and living strong in their faith.

 

In this article, we are going to give you several ways to take somebody from no prayer through to being confident in prayer. You could undoubtedly adapt these ideas to be delivered in a stage/front led program. Still, they yield the best results in small groups where round table conversation takes place.

 

These tips are aimed at helping them engage publicly in prayer, and it goes without saying that your young people need encouragement to make this a private practice too. The benefit of creating a culture of prayer in your youth ministry is that it sets the example and the expectation of this fundamental spiritual practice in their lives.

 

We’ve seen first hand that once a young person gains confidence in prayer they begin to proactively bring situations to prayer, they also expect answers! Which is awesome.

 

It’s also worth mentioning at this point that if a young person does not want to pray, then there is nothing you can do about that – except perhaps pray for them! For some, the reluctance to pray is that they simply do not know how to pray or what they should say. I’ve met very few young people who don’t believe in prayer. It’s just that for most, they have never been challenged to grow into this spiritual discipline.

 

You will typically have two categories of young people—those from a churched family and those who are unchurched. For the first category, they will be familiar with most prayer language. They will probably be engaging with prayer on some level.

 

Still don’t make assumptions.

 

It’s effortless for young people to let their families engage in spiritual practices of the Christian faith while remaining quiet. They still need a healthy challenge of being called into prayer.

 

The second group are unfamiliar with church. You might be engaging them in a program where they have come in through outreach, and they do not know the unspoken cultural rules that all churches have. You will need to help them navigate the ‘way’ in which this thing called prayer works.

 

It’s best to aim you’re teaching at the second group to not miss anybody. If you’ve got young people who feel the basics are like teaching them to suck eggs, then engage them as helping make this easy for others in the group. Discipleship of this kind can take place at every level.

 

Try not to see your student ministry as a place where you always put on the program for your young people. See it instead as a place where you help foster the growth and engagement of spiritual practice. We all natural gear towards presenting church, but instead think about giving opportunities to participate in church. The key is to always move them forward in spiritual practice, and prayer is one of those essentials for building the faith.

 

Make active prayers of your young people, and you will set them up for life.

 

So here are 5 tips that will help your young people move forward in prayer:

 

1) Teach them to pray

I always assume (even with adults) that the people I’m leading know nothing about the Bible or about Christianity. This will rarely be the case, but it means that you leave no person behind when helping them engage with their faith.

 

Even the disciples needed teaching how to pray, and this is after being with Jesus for some time. They would have seen Him pray and no doubt, as Jewish boys, would have been familiar with prayer. Yet, they still ask Jesus in Luke 11:1

‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples’.

 

Matthew 6:5-15 expands further on the Lord’s prayer. The beginning verses set the heart of prayer being firstly personal and a meaningful conversation between you and The Lord. You can use these verses as an example of how prayer is not about performing well in front of others, but a chance for them to go deeper in their faith.

 

You might also want to break the Lord’s prayer down for them and talk about how a conversation of prayer might go. You could even take a session to focus on each of these really driving home the purpose of prayer and slowly setting the expectation for them to engage with prayer as the teaching goes on. For example:

 

9 This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,’.

 

You could emphasise how the first part of this prayer is about acknowledging our relationship with God.

 

Jesus is most probably the first person to refer to God as ‘Father’ and in doing so, teaches us the role that God plays in our lives. In fact, the surrounding verses also talk about a father-son/daughter relationship.

 

Hallowed be your name essentially means ‘your name is holy’. We recognise God is holy and in many ways, this reflects a worshipful stance on our part. So then, you could say that the first thing we want to do in prayer is worship God. We want to acknowledge who He is and where He sits with our lives – as Father, as holy and as someone who is above it all.

 

10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.

 

After worshipping God, we then submit ourselves to Him. We declare that our lives and our wills are secondary to God’s will. As we pray, we want to think of things that have happened during our day or week and align them with God’s will. Did our week reflect carrying out God’s will here on Earth?

 

11 Give us today our daily bread.

 

In Jesus’ model of prayer, it’s not until we have worshipped, declared who God is and sought to align ourselves with Him that we come anywhere near making a request in our lives.

‘Give us our daily bread’ is as much about asking God for our daily needs to be met as it is about bringing any other request before Him. Recognise that God is our Father and might not give us anything we want, but He does want to provide us with good things as it says in Luke 11:11-13.

Don’t be afraid to bring what you want before God, but just be okay with the fact that God doesn’t always give you what you want, but He will meet you every’ need’.

 

12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

 

It’s at this stage that we want to say to God sorry for all of the things that we said, did and thought that were sinful. The Lord is quick to forgive, but Jesus notes on a few occasions that we also need to forgive others.

Invite everyone to recall to mind anyone they might be harbouring bad thoughts towards. Who have they got a grudge with? Who are they bitter towards? It’s in this time of prayer that we ask God to help us forgive as we have been forgiven.

 

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

 

The final part of prayer is asking for protection, strength, self-control, and continual encouragement to live our lives for Jesus. Going stronger in the faith means we fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith as it says in Hebrews 11.

 

This is by no means a comprehensive way to pray, but it gives people the elements of prayer. They can say those specific words in Matthew 6 or Luke 11, or they can riff and use the parts of prayer as a guide for the kind of things to be praying into.

 

Either way, you’re young people need a guide for prayer and what better guide than the same prayer that Jesus taught the disciples?

 

2) Give them the language

 

The first time you ask them to pray, the chances are they won’t know what to say. A great in-road to helping them pray as a group out loud is to literally give them the words. You could print off one line prayers and invite them to say a line each as you go around.

 

Help them know what prayer should sound like. When you pray for your young people, keep it simple. We often tell them to just say thank you, Jesus, if they don’t have anything to pray about. This is a straightforward way of participating but not getting super anxious when praying in a group.

 

Your aim is to see them move on in prayer, but everyone has to start somewhere. Our words are powerful, and even knowing a phrase, to begin in prayer can be an excellent tool for helping them get the ball rolling.

 

Instruct your young people just as Jesus instructed the disciples.

 

3) Create the tension

 

Often you’re small groups (and even large youth crowds) can be seen as a safe space. But you need to know how to push them enough to create the right tension under which they grow. A guitar with no tension in the strings makes a terrible sound. Wind the strings too tight, and they snap. Put them under the right tension, and you can make a beautiful sound. In the same way, you are trying to get your young people to make a beautiful sound.

 

Asking your young people to do anything out loud in a group will undoubtedly create tension in the room. Pay attention to your young people and learn to spot if what you’re asking is too much or too little. It’s okay for them to feel a little bit uncomfortable, that’s where they grow.

 

Equally, you don’t want to alienate them and make them feel foolish. When they pray, champion them and thank them. Even instruct your group to champion each other. Nobody wants to feel like a muppet in a group and inviting a championing culture will really help boost confidence.

 

You’ll know when it’s time to give up (for that week only) and move on. Don’t try and crack this in one night. Aim to inch them forward over the year, and if you even have 50% of your group comfortable in praying together, you will have helped them go deeper.

 

4) Lead by Example

 

Often I hear youth leaders feel frustrated that their youth groups are not passionate, proactive or responsive. Equally, I see as many youth leaders take the back seat and play ‘overseer’ rather than a participator.

 

Forgive me if that sounds too harsh, but your youth adore you! You might not realise it, but they really do look up to you. When they are in your group, you are a source of confidence for them. They will want to follow your example.

 

If your example is to sit back and just oversee the group, don’t be too shocked if they are unwilling to jump in with both feet. They will copy you – that includes ways in which you express your faith.

 

Your influence as a leader is more substantial than you think. Be active and passionate in your prayer so that you model something for them. Pray for them every week privately and publicly. Tell them that you pray for them. Tell them things that God drops into your heart as you pray for them.

 

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1

 

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. Model prayer.

 

In fact, model all aspects of the Christian faith for them!

 

5) Make it fun

 

Take yourself less seriously and God very seriously. Prayer does not always have to be intense. Allow them to be good-humoured in prayer.

 

I’m not saying you should be irreverent and disrespectful in prayer. I certainly don’t want you to be overly casual, but take the edge of intensity off by speaking to God like He really is your Father. Allow affection, humour, compassion and warmth to inform your words.

 

We even allow running jokes like when we say ‘assume prayer positions’ everyone holds a random pose as a nod to the weird phrase of what we are asking them to do. If there has been an appropriate joke running through the night, we (or one of our youth) will even drop it into prayer as a nod to the evening.

 

As long as it is respectful, allow your range of emotions to play a role in prayer.

 

6) Create expectation

 

If prayer can be summed up as a conversation with The Lord, then that has to be two way, right?

 

If we pray, then we believe somebody hears us. If somebody hears us, then we should expect an answer. Now, it may be that you need to dig into this aspect (and perhaps other elements mentioned) for yourself. Demonstrate in prayer that God does, in fact, answer.

 

My wife and I keep a book of answered prayer. This book is not just for our everyday prayers, but areas where we are continually praying and seeking God for a breakthrough. We keep track of all the ways in which God responds to our prayers.

 

Help them to recognise that God speaks and what His voice sounds like.

 

It’s interesting that when we go to some major Christian events, God seems to be speaking all the time. I genuinely think the only significant difference between God speaking at those major events and our ordinary every day is that our expectations are sky-high. When we take time to listen for the answers and expect God to respond, it is outstanding what we start to notice.

 

BONUS TIP

7) Create Space

You already know this, but your young people want to take their faith seriously. If you teach them, show them and create the space then they will start to show up.

 

As you help them move deeper, maybe even throw a prayer night and create 6-7 different reflective prayer spaces and make a worshipful evening of it. You will be amazed at what The Lord starts to show your young people!

 

If you’ve made it this far, it is clear that you love your young people and want them to become disciples of Jesus. Don’t lose sight of that goal. Jesus called us to make disciples. Our programs are essential tools for helping create environments where going deeper in their faith and living strong for Jesus can happen.

 

Make prayer, worship and reading the Bible critical parts of the inner circle of your youth ministry. When you do this, you will not just be engaging young people, but making Jesus-following disciples who have a strong and robust faith. Don’t be afraid of asking them to pray and recognise that it will take time to build a culture of prayer within your youth ministry.

 

Go deeper. Live Stronger. Be empowered.

May the grace of God be over you.