One of the things I love about being a youth worker is the times you get to pray with young people. But I bet we have all been in one of those situations where it is time to pray and all the young people go quiet and none of them want to volunteer to pray out aloud and you’re left in a really awkward position and just end up doing it yourself and it just one of those things that is just added on to the end of the session and no planning or prep has been done for it. I’ve been there a number of times and the way that I have found really helps to engage the young people I work with is creative prayer.
Creative prayer has always been something that I have enjoyed participating from a young age and as I grew up it is one of the things I remember about praying. It isn’t the times where we sat around in a circle and said our prayer out loud or the times in church where it just feels like list upon list of prayer requests. It’s the times where prayer was presented to me in a creative way, be that via prayer stations or understanding God hears our prayers whether we say them out loud or just say them in our heads, if we write them down or just sit in silence, God hears them all. So I find myself being inspired to create opportunities for young people to pray and learn about prayer in a creative way, that they can take away and be inspired to connect with God in prayer.
For the past year creative prayer has been part of the weekly youth sessions and it has been part of my role to create creative ways to pray and allow the young people to connect with God during this time. The youth group I work with is made up of a mixture of different young people from different backgrounds, some have grown up in Church, others are from our community and have little faith experience and we have some with additional needs. With all that, how can each young person be taken on a prayer journey each week. I’ve found by setting 10 to 15 Minutes aside in each weekly session the young people start to get into a rhythm with prayer and enjoy the time to stop and reflect, they start to understand and respect that time too.
So let go on a journey and make a word from God a reality to share and create more creative prayer resources for young people that others can use. You may already be thinking that there are lots of creative prayer ideas out there and I have used many of them over the time. This past year I spent some time creating more for the young people I work with and want this to be a place where I can share them and encourage creative prayer to be used on a regular basis in your youth session.
Join me as I share ideas and help you out by creating some new prayer resources for you to use in your setting, be that a weekly youth session, a one of prayer event, a wider church setting, I would love to know where you may use one of prayer resources. To keep up to date with new resources you can follow me on Instagram or send me your email and I will personally let you know every time I upload a new prayer resource to this page.
The Life of a Lily Rose 