Bringing Lent into Youth Ministry

I gotta be honest…for most of my years in youth ministry, I didn’t do a very good job of bringing our youth group into Lent with an appropriate sense of this incredible season.  But come to think of it, I never heard other youth leaders discuss the critical lessons of Lent or share successful  activities or resources either. Anyone got ideas or proven lessons to bring youth actively into Lent?

I’ve tried various lessons around fasting.  These have had some success, but often students simply choose to opt out of the fasting. I am also very cautious around fasting with youth with the possibility that some students may have eating disorders. So if anyone has figured out a successful and safe way to bring a lesson with fasting to their youth group, please share it.

I’ve shared daily devotionals with our youth groups that focus on Lent and these have been pretty successful, even though they were not youth ministry resources.  I do think that sometimes we fail to give credit to our students and assume they need simple, youth-focused resources.  There are so many good devotionals out there.  Even though we are well into Lent, consider bringing your students into a daily devotional.

Mostly, I wanted to simply ask readers for ideas around youth ministry and Lent.  Please share ideas and opinions if you have some.  We need to help youth understand that this season is far more than just a couple of extra church services.