If you’re a parent or a youth leader, you may be daunted by the challenge of engaging teenagers with the Bible. We long for the teenagers we love to hear the voice of their Good Shepherd: “Abide in my word” (John 8:31). Still, this can feel increasingly difficult as the din of competing messages grows louder throughout adolescence.
Learning to love Scripture is the work of the Holy Spirit, but adults can show a little Spirit-inspired creativity to help spark curiosity, eagerness, and reverence in young readers. Here are some recommended practices from a longtime youth minister and a mom of grown kids.
Work Through Books of the Bible
When our children are small, we read to them from children’s Bibles, introducing them to the significant people, places, and themes that connect the Bible’s overarching storyline. As children grow, they need more meat on the bones in their biblical diet.
While it’s tempting to assume that teenagers want short, digestible messages about Scripture, in reality, they often crave more substance. By working through whole books of the Bible together, we help them expand their understanding, encompassing more and more of the biblical narrative.
As children grow, they need more meat on the bones in their biblical diet.
When we engage larger sections of Scripture, we’ll naturally come across trickier parts of the text. This can cause adults some anxiety. For example, we might wonder, How will I answer if they want to know why God commanded the destruction of whole cities? Or, What if they ask questions and I don’t know the answers? When these feelings arise, take a deep breath and ask for God’s help to trust in the power of his Word.
Engaging difficult texts in an honest way will draw your teenagers to you, and more importantly, to God and his Word. It’s always OK to admit you’re not sure how to answer a particular question, and teenagers will grow along with you as you look for answers together.
There’s something about confronting the human messiness of the Bible’s story that God often uses to bring teenage readers into honest reflection together. But this rarely happens if we stay on the surface with short, predictable Bible lessons.
Engage Their Hearts
The Psalms can be an excellent entry point for teens with big feelings because this book encompasses the gamut of human emotions. Encourage teenagers to pray psalms back to God.
One helpful way to practice this is to open a notebook, write the words of the psalm on the left-hand page, and dialogue with the text on the right-hand page. For example, if the text says, “Blessed is the one who trusts in [God]” (Ps. 84:12), the teenager might write in response, “It’s hard for me to trust you when everything’s falling apart—help me, please.”
Remind them, too, that the Psalter is a songbook. A musical teen might write his own tune for verses he loves. An artistic teen might use a journaling Bible, or paint the scene she sees in her head when God comes to her rescue in Psalm 18. If a hymn in church resonates with your teenager, encourage him to look up the lyrics and hunt down the Scripture references in his Bible.
Let Teenagers Lead
Let’s face it—family devotions with teenagers can feel as awkward as a forced family photo. So can a small group with a quieter mix of teenagers, or with students who aren’t sure they wanted to come in the first place. One way to overcome these obstacles is to give teenagers ownership in the discussion. Rather than asking questions into a void of silence, hand over the roadmap and invite them to do the asking.
Suggest teenagers follow a simple outline for digging into a passage, such as inductive Bible study. In a broad sense, inductive Bible study helps us to slow down in our reading of a passage.
First, we observe what the passage says, noting the facts, choice of words, and any repetition. Next, we interpret, considering what our observations might mean. We might summarize a story or the main point of a teaching, consider why the author included this passage, or ponder what a specific turn of phrase is teaching. Finally, we apply the meaning of the passage to our lives, asking ourselves how God wants us to respond, change, or grow by his grace in response to what we’ve read. This is also a good time to consider how this passage lines up with other parts of Scripture.
Handing teenagers a simple outline for inductive Bible study and inviting them to lead the discussion is infinitely more compelling than expecting them to sit passively and answer questions the adults ask. Not only does this approach invite more enthusiastic participation, but we also know that leading or teaching others increases retention to as high as 90 percent. Students will remember only a small portion of what they hear. When we invite them to lead, on the other hand, their spiritual learning becomes personal.
Keep the Whole Story in View
I once heard a pastor confess that he’d finished his PhD work before the Holy Spirit opened his eyes to the fact that the Bible tells one story. For teenagers looking at Leviticus or Micah and wondering what on earth those laws or that poetry has to do with anything, knowing that every verse reveals God’s character and tells the story of our Savior Jesus can turn Bible study into a captivating puzzle.
The Psalms can be an excellent entry point for teens with big feelings because these verses encompass the gamut of human emotions.
Discussing our reading together, we might ask, Why is this verse here? Where does it fit into the one story of Jesus? How can I get to know him in Judges or Jude? How is God asking me to respond to this passage? Every believer spends a lifetime putting the pieces together, but when we understand that every verse contributes to a unified whole, the portrait we get of Jesus becomes a little clearer—and a little dearer.
Help teenagers make this connection by keeping them flipping back and forth between the Old and New Testaments so they can see the story’s continuity for themselves. (Much more concrete and visual on a physical Bible than on a phone!) When you discuss a psalm, check to see if Jesus or Paul quoted that psalm—and wonder why, together. Follow the trails of Abraham’s story into the Gospels and Epistles. Remind them that the story of Jesus includes them as young believers (Rom. 8:17). His story is our story; his gospel shows us how to live the life he has given us.
Pray, and Persevere
Passing on a love for God’s Word has a unique urgency. As teenagers live in this world with all its confusion and heartache, we want them to know that the Bible contains the words of eternal life (John 6:68).
Whether you’re meeting with resistance or have teenagers on fire to know God better, the best practice we can recommend is praying continually that God will draw them to himself through his Word.
