Praying with kids and teens

14 June 2023

Prayer can be one of the biggest stumbling blocks in children's and youth ministry.

How can we teach young people to pray? What happens if they’re struggling to catch from God? And what about prayer ministry amongst kids and teens?

In this Lunch with Leaders, we welcomed Rachel Turner to share insights into prayer from her vast experience of working with 0-18s and their families.

Rachel helpfully divided the topic into three different areas of prayer which we might encounter:

1. Enabling prayer

This is when we coach or train children to nurture their relationship with God in prayer. There may be ideas about God that need unwinding – for example, that he’s far away or only interested in really important things – or ideas about prayer that limit their expectations. As we introduce children to the idea of connection in prayer, we might use chat and catch techniques, drip-feeding the approach gradually by starting small, scattering it throughout our group time, or just focusing on chat to begin with.

2. Praying with children and young people

There is a simple model of prayer ministry with children that gives them help in connecting with God for themselves when it is new for them or when they find connecting on their own difficult. We help the child or young person to connect with God and catch his voice, while making sure we stay out of the middle.

3. Praying for children and young people

As well as helping children and young people to connect directly with God in prayer, it’s important that we teach and model intercessory prayer, to equip them to pray for others.

Watch the full training video for details.

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