3 Tips to Help Students Take Ownership of Their Discipleship Journey

In my undergrad, I had a professor that would pray us out of class every week. No matter how hard the topic in our systematic theology class, he would grin really big, give a deep sigh, and pray, “May we keep our ears to the ground and our eyes open to the ways God is moving around us.” Even today, this opening line of prayer reminds me that discipleship isn’t simply a matter of the mind but it consumes our senses while drawing us deeper into the ways of Jesus. How, then, are we to instill our students with a sense of ownership in their personal discipleship journey?  

1. Name It and Practice It

The average student isn’t going to know what the word discipleship means, much less think about its inherent importance in their day-to-day lives. In our ministry conversations–just as we help students define words like love, mercy, grace, confession, and judgement–we have to help them understand what discipleship means.  

Crucially, we must help our students practice personal disciplines and discipleship when we are with them. How can we expect them to pray on their own when we don’t offer a prayer before meals with them? Who’s to say they’ll pick up and read their Bibles by themselves if we don’t read the Bible with them? How can we expect them to see where God is calling them if we don’t encourage them to keep their eyes and ears open to him? We must name and practice discipleship with our students so that they can practice it in their lives.  

2. Connect the Dots

Think about all of the noises in the lives of our students. There are coaches, teachers, parents, friends, and influencers who are all calling for their attention. Whether we like it or not, the church and youth ministry have become additional noises. But we can approach them differently—we can call our students to peace, patience, mercy, and love, rather than competition, deadlines, cancel culture, and hatred. However, this won’t happen because we host a service each week just for them. We have to show up throughout their weeks. We can take what we teach in youth ministry and spread it out throughout the week. We can create moments of pause for students to reflect and think about faith. For example, we can take our message and create six posts that call students to remember and reflect on the teaching. Post them, one a day, to a preferred social media account or group chat. These posts act as reminders until we gather together the next week. Extending our teaching and interactions beyond our church services becomes crucial in helping our students hone their personal discipleship practices.  

3. Let Them Lead  

There are very few things that help students more in their discipleship than asking them to lead. These should not always be spur-of-the-moment asks but more of a planned, “Hey, could you read this passage of scripture for us next week?” Students will practice the things that they take seriously, so we must take them seriously as leaders of the church. Instead of wishing they’d practice their faith more, we must grant our students avenues to practice leading from faith. It’s in their leading that they will find value in their own discipleship. 

However, we can’t just make the ask without being ready to equip. Sharing tips and tricks that help us as leaders gives our students a sense of empowerment will help them as they lead. 

I’m sure there are more ways to help students take ownership of their discipleship journey, but these three have worked well for me. More importantly, they help me point to a relationship with Jesus that isn’t just listening to a lesson or singing some songs but is active and enriching, filling all of our senses.  

So, I’ll leave you with this prayer:  

May we be youth leaders who keep our ears to the ground and our eyes open as we seek to show your love, Lord. May we find ourselves bound up in your ways with hands and feet ready to usher in students to the Way. 

Dustin Dimitri
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