“Can you recommend a good devotional for teens?” If you’re a youth worker, you’ve likely been asked this question by parents, pastors, and perhaps teens themselves. While it seems that the market is flooded with thousands of choices, but the challenge is to find one that’s “good.” “Good” is completely subjective: a devotional that connects with one teen ends up collecting dust for another.
So, from a completely subjective perspective, what makes a devotional “good”? A good teen devotional should have at least some of the following qualities:
- opens the scriptures
- connects with the teen “where they’re at”, be it in faith journey, interests, topic of interest
- finds the intersecting point between the reality of adolescent life and the Christian faith
- isn’t preachy or moralistic
- includes a reference to zombies and/or the moral decline of Katy Perry
Here are five teen devotionals that I have read, used, or given as gifts.
I Am Standing Up: True Confessions of a Total Freak of Nature - Luke Lang. I've used this in my student leader meetings. Lang humourously reminisces about his awkward child and adolescent history, and integrates great scriptural references.
The Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guide for Teenagers - Jonathan McKee. A whole book devoted to futuristic zombie apocalypse story as an analogy for living the Christian faith journey. Who wouldn't love this?
The Loser's Club - Jeff Kinley. Feel like you're a loser? You're in good company. Kinley knocks down the "heroes of the faith" a peg or two.
Devotions for the God Guy and Devotions for the God Girl - Michael and Hayley DiMarco. What does is mean to be a passionate young man or woman of God? Each one page devotional is a full years' journey exploring faith, identity, and life choices.
One Minute Bible for Students - Doug Fields. I've handed out the old copy of this to lots of junior highers. A year's worth of short and easy to read devotions.
What else is out there? What are some teen devotionals you would recommend?
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