SHHH!

If you're going to have a Lasting Student Ministry you need to teach your students how to spend time with God on their own. They need to have a personal, growing relationship with him.

If they don't have this, and all they have is the "worship-God-in-youth-group" relationship, then they will probably lose their relationship when they graduate from youth group.

Their relationship with God has to be established as something they have on their own - separate from youth group.

That means we need to teach them how to spend time with God daily. They need to know how to quiet themselves and hear God's voice.

The hard thing about this is that many students nowadays don't know what it's like to sit quietly and focus on one thing.

They're used to multi-tasking. They watch TV, while being on the internet checking out a site, while IMing their friends, doing their homework and talking on their cell!! :)

We need to provide opportunities for them to "practice" being quiet.

In your discipleship times, you can have 10 minutes where the students go off to different corners of the room and just spend time with God (praying, reading the Bible and journaling).

On your retreats you can schedule in devotional times where the kids take 30 minutes and do the same thing.

We need to help them build spiritual habits that they will continue for their rest of their lives. This is a huge challenge for todays students, but with your help they can do it.