How can we nurture teenage faith?

If you want to see teens grow in faith, help them have adventures with God, writes Olly Goldenberg.

“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams,” says Peter in Acts 2:17, quoting the prophet Joel.

There are two things to note here: first, there are the two generations strengthening each other – the youth with the energy and zeal to drive things forward, and the older people with the wisdom to temper them.

Second is the confident vision of young people’s faith.

The question for us, then, is how do we help nurture this type of faith? Part of the answer is to help young people have spiritual adventures with God.

For teens to have deep, powerful faith they need to see that God is real and that their faith has legs.

They need to see God working through them as they pray for the sick, share prophetic words or serve in church.

There are several examples that demonstrate this in the Bible – the most famous being David confronting Goliath.

OK, it’s an extreme example, but David has a spiritual adventure – something he could look back on in the years to come and think, “Remember when I stepped out and God did this!” I’m not suggesting we put our teenagers in unsafe situations, but we do need to do things that will stretch them.

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