6 Best Youth Activities That Focus On Spiritual Growth

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The last youth group I led involved playing a game of Poetry for Neanderthals and then turning off all the lights in the church for a game of hide and seek. But it also involved diving into scripture, opening up about life, and loving God. Yes, there was a whole lot of laughing and a smack (or ten) upside the head with an inflatable club, but there was also excitement and collaboration about how God can and does work in our lives.

See, youth ministry done well involves both time for fun and games and helping young people develop a deep, meaningful relationship with God. It involves empowering young people to choose to follow God in a time when the world wants them to follow themselves. As youth leaders, you have the chance to foster spiritual growth in your church youth group, creating lasting change in the lives of your students. By incorporating intentional youth activities that focus on spiritual growth, you can help them engage with their faith in a way that’s both accessible and transformative.

Prioritize Spiritual Growth In Your Church Youth Groups

Spiritual growth is the foundation of any successful youth ministry. It’s the point of ministry. Without pointing back to God, you may as well just be a hangout spot or youth center (not necessarily a bad or unnecessary thing, but there’s more for us to do!). Youth pastors and leaders have the responsibility of creating environments where students can connect with God, explore their faith, and find a sense of purpose. This looks like intentional Bible studies, engaging youth group activities, and creating space for real conversations about God’s Word. When spiritual growth is prioritized, you help shape young people’s lives beyond the church walls, preparing them to carry their faith into adulthood.

While their faith is going to be tested on the battlefield of life (and for many of them, they’re already in the thick of battle), youth ministry is the training ground to help them be prepared. Youth ministry provides the space for teens and preteens to know that they are not alone. It gives them a safe area to share struggles, concerns, insecurities, and fears. It gives them the opportunity to celebrate triumphs with others who understand the unique difficulties of being a Christ follower in a post-Christian society.

One of the notable things about this generation of teens and preteens is that they have more self-awareness than just about any of the previous generations. They recognize faults and are willing to admit them. Yes, they can sometimes be stuck in the “I have a diagnosis of _____, so this is just who I am,” which is where you, as the youth leader, come in. As you cultivate a real relationship with your young people and emphasize spiritual growth, you help your teens and preteens take their gift of self-awareness and apply it to recognizing who they are in Christ and seeking to reflect Him in their daily lives.

Every Spiritual Journey Will Look Different

Your relationship with God probably doesn’t look like your parents’ or grandparents’ relationship with God. The teens and preteens in your youth group will have a relationship with God that looks different from yours. Every generation’s spiritual growth looks different from other generation’s, and that’s perfectly okay! Every individual has different experiences and personalities that shape them into the beautiful unique person God made them to be.

Because teens are exploring their faith in new ways, youth leaders should be flexible in their approach to helping them know God and reflect Him. The teenage years are a unique season of their lives, so by offering activities that meet them where they are while still pointing them toward Jesus, you’re helping them embrace their God-given identity. It’s okay if this is hard for you – resist the temptation to transform their walk so it looks like yours did as a teen and embrace the challenge to help guide them on their path. Adjust your plans to prioritize their journey, and recognize that every student’s spiritual path will look a little different.

An Easy Way To Get Started Today

Before even interacting with your youth, the best way to have a spiritual growth-minded ministry started is with yourself. Take time to pray right now for the students who are currently in your sphere and for those who might be part of it further down the road. Spend time in the Word – not preparing your next lesson or talk, but for yourself. Prioritize your spiritual life and have someone that you can talk to about your own questions and struggles. If you’re feeling stuck in your own growth and relationship with God, I recommend reading and applying the book/course Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero.

On a more practical level, getting started on a spiritual growth-focused youth program doesn’t have to be overwhelming. It’s okay to start small by incorporating just one or two youth group activities that emphasize spiritual development. Start your next youth meeting with intentional time in prayer, scripture reading, or small groups. Provide a safe space for students to ask questions and explore different ways to deepen their faith (and have clear expectations so that everyone knows that they are safe to ask any question, even if they feel it might be “dumb,” without being mocked or ridiculed by their peers). It’s all about being intentional and giving them the tools they need to grow spiritually.

6 Youth Activities That Focus On Spiritual Growth

1. Bible Study And Discussion Groups

You can’t do battle if you aren’t prepared. It’s hard to hear God’s voice if you aren’t reading His word. You won’t recognize the devil’s lies if you aren’t sure of the Truth. You can’t grow if you aren’t being watered. The same is true of your youth, if not even more so.

It’s important to study God’s word together with your young people so that they can gain the tools they need to be able to study God’s word for themselves. By regularly studying scripture together and regularly returning to God’s word for wisdom and counsel, you provide your teens and preteens with the base they need to build their own spiritual growth. You help them find Christ and God’s Word as their firm foundation and the source of wisdom.

A good Bible study will provide an opportunity for students to dive into God’s Word, ask questions, and apply what they’ve learned. As the youth leaders, you can guide these discussions, helping young people understand Scripture in a deeper way. This is a great way to cultivate spiritual curiosity and a love for the Bible.

If you aren’t sure where to start, but would feel more confident using a premade curriculum, there are a wide range of resources at a variety of expense levels that you can pull from. You can check with your denomination, fellow youth leaders, your pastor, or the Small Church Ministry Facebook Group for suggestions. Keep in mind, however, that it’s a good idea to make sure that any premade resource or curriculum you want to use aligns with your church’s values and beliefs before you use it with your teens.

2. Prayer In A Variety of Ways

Prayer is powerful. And there are many different ways to throw variety into how you pray while still keeping that power. You can pair up students as prayer partners or organize small prayer groups to pray together. You can have a popcorn prayer or prayer circle where students who feel comfortable can pray out loud as they feel led.

If you want to give your kids a framework for how to pray, you can use a few different prayer structures:

ACTS – Adoration (worshipping God), Confession (admitting our sins and wrongdoings), Thanksgiving (thanking God for what He’s done), Supplication (asking for what you need).
PRAY – Pause (sit in silence, reflect on where your heart is), Rejoice (praise and thanksgiving), Ask (ask God for forgiveness and needs), and Yield (recognize God’s will over your own)
The Lord’s Prayer – use the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6 as a structure for your prayer. It involves worshiping God, trusting God, making requests, confessing sin, asking for forgiveness, and submitting to God’s will.
Breath Prayer – repeating a phrase with the rhythm of your breath. An example would be to breathe in while internally praying “fill me with your Spirit” and breathe out while internally praying “empty me of sin” over and over for 1-2 minutes. Many bible verses can be prayed with the rhythm of your breath.

Regardless of how you incorporate it, prayer allows young people to connect with God on a personal level while also building community within the youth group. Encourage students to pray for one another throughout the week, fostering a sense of spiritual accountability and support.

You can also have a prayer wall where kids can place sticky notes with prayer requests in order to encourage prayer for each other, too.

3. Service Projects

You can’t keep it unless you give it away. Teens are notoriously (and developmentally) self-centered. It’s totally normal. They think about themselves and their status. One of the greatest things you can do for your teens and preteens is help them to get their eyes off themselves. Cultivate an atmosphere of loving and helping others. Keep the why of sharing Jesus’ love with others front and center. Serving others is a practical way for students to live out their faith and see God’s love in action.

Teens, as they keep their thoughts on themselves, want to know if they matter – if they have a purpose. Giving them purpose by helping them get involved in serving others is a great way to help their spiritual growth. They learn where their gifting is and you can walk alongside them to help develop it.

Need ideas for ways teens can get involved? There are plenty of opportunities both in and outside the church.

In the church, teens can help with Sunday morning services. They can run the tech for your service. They can assist teachers in children’s ministry. They can play an instrument or sing with the worship team. They can greet. They can be parking lot attendants.

Outside the church, teens can do yard work in the neighborhood (or for individuals in the church who aren’t able to do it themselves). They can clean a park. They can serve together at a food pantry. They can visit individuals in a nursing home.

Whatever the teens do to help, there’s a chance it won’t be great the first few times they do it. But by keeping the why of loving others and reflecting Jesus into their lives, you can help them grow spiritually and love others well through whatever gifting they have.

4. Worship Nights

Singing praise songs may be part of your regular youth group meeting, or maybe it isn’t. Either way, having a dedicated night of worship where students can come together and focus solely on praising God through music and prayer is an effective way for young people to experience God’s presence and engage in worship in a personal, meaningful way. It’s a fun way to create a spiritual atmosphere that invites students to connect with God deeply.

Want to make it even more meaningful? Involve them in the planning and execution of the worship night. This gets back into what we were talking about with service projects – when students feel like they’re adding value and have a purpose, they’re able to experience growth and are more likely to engage. Students can pick the songs, write meditations, read scripture, pray, sing, play instruments, etc. If you want to bring in outside talent (whether that’s someone local or you have the budget for something bigger), let the kids have input on who that is. When students are involved, they own it. They get more excited. They invite their friends. Their growth spreads to those in their spheres of influence.

5. Scripture Memory Challenges

Remember when your math teachers used to say “You need to know how to do this by hand because you won’t have a calculator in your pocket?” Now we all have smartphones and actually have a calculator in our pockets. It can be tempting to tell ourselves we don’t need to memorize scripture because we can just pull up the Bible app on our phone any time we need to.

But the truth is, memorizing Scripture is an incredibly important spiritual discipline that helps us battle against the dark forces that try to tear us down. When we store up scripture in our hearts, it helps us to not sin against God (Psalm 119:11). When it dwells in us, we can give each other wisdom and express our thanksgiving (Colossians 3:16). Imparting the importance of memorizing scripture with your youth is a vital part of helping them grow spiritually. The best part is, it doesn’t have to be dull or drudge work. Additionally, beyond just memorizing scripture, you can encourage students to share the practical applications of what they’re memorizing.

Create a Scripture memory challenge where students can memorize Bible verses and share what they’ve learned with the group. Offering incentives can make it more fun and engaging for youth. Students can recite verses to you or to the group. They can all memorize the same scripture or something different. You can pick it for them, give a list of valuable verses to know, or encourage them to pick something out of what they’re reading in scripture.

Want to bring Scripture memory to life for your teens? Turn it into a TikTok challenge. Encourage them to put the verse to music. Let them create a visual image of the verse. Make up hand motions to help them remember. Write it down on note cards and place them in places they’ll be sure to see them.

The options for a Scripture memory challenge are endless, but the long-term payoff of memorizing scripture is huge.

6. Youth Group Game Night

Game night is always a great way to have fun, and God can very much work through fun and laughter (He created them, after all). If you want a more straightforward scriptural application, you can take a popular youth group game and give it a spiritual focus. For example, you can play a trivia game where all the questions are based on Bible stories or characters. This makes learning fun and allows students to deepen their biblical knowledge in a way that’s interactive and enjoyable.

You can also do trust games or collaboration games where the teens have to work together to solve the problem or to win. Create an escape room or an obstacle course. Once you’ve completed the game, you can bring it back to scripture and how we are better together.

Games are an important way to build camaraderie and help kids know they can trust each other. It helps deepen relationships with each other so that there are fewer barriers in youth group to building a relationship with God. Games are a great way to make spiritual growth feel accessible and fun for young people.

At The End Of The Day, Remember The Purpose Of It All

While these activities are great tools for fostering spiritual growth, it’s essential to remember the bigger picture. Youth leaders aren’t just organizing events or leading programs; they are helping to shape the spiritual lives of young people. Every game, Bible study, prayer circle, or service project is an opportunity to guide students closer to Jesus, equipping them to live out their faith beyond youth group. Keep that deeper purpose in mind as you plan and lead these activities.

When focusing on spiritual growth within the community of your young people, youth pastors and leaders can help young people build a solid foundation for their faith. These six youth group activities are just the beginning of what can be a transformative journey for your students. Start small, be intentional, and remember that even the simplest efforts can lead to profound spiritual development. Keep leading with purpose, and watch how God works in the lives of your students!

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