Spiritual Journaling

Here's a great idea to start as you begin your fall program with youth or young adults to help foster some spiritual discovery and relationship building. We always want to grow closer with our youth and young adults, but is often hard to do and involves a tremendous amount of personal one-on-one time. Well here is an easy way to reach out to all students in a very intimate way as well as teaching them some good spiritual disciplines.

In order to do this you will need a bunch of one subject spiral-bound notebooks. (You can usually find these on sale at the beginning of the school year). What these one subject notebooks are going to become will be individual spiritual journals that each member of your group will be able to use.  At one of your first meetings, pass out the notebook and have your students decorate and personalize them. After they have done that, inform them that these are now their spiritual journals that they can use throughout the year to share or reflect on things happening in their life. Every time your group meets, have your students take about 5 to 10 min. to share what they're feeling for that particular week in their journals. It can be as simple as how they're week is going to reflecting upon a spiritual passage that you have written up on a board. Encourage them to participate as much as possible, even if they simply write in them, "I don't have anything to write this week."

 Inform them, that their mentor/counselor/pastor will be reading these journals and will be responding to their entries every week. Be very clear with them that only their mentor/counselor/pastor will be reading their entries and that they have been informed by the youth leader to keep what they read confidential. (Note: do not allow the students to take these journals or allow anyone the other than their mentor/counselor/pastor to read what has been written.) Tell your mentors/counselors/pastors to respond in the journals with supportive and affirming comments. If there student is not there on a particular week when you do this, have the mentor/counselor/pastor write a note saying that they miss them that particular week.

This can be a very powerful way to connect with your youth leaders and students. At the end of the year, have the students take the journals home. Good luck and happy journaling!