Downtime: Helping Teenagers Pray

"You know the reality: teens don’t have much downtime in their lives. Between school, extra-curricular activities, jobs, friends (and youth group!), students these days barely have enough time to do all the things they need to do in a day. It’s no wonder that quiet, reflective time in prayer with God is not high on their priority list. With years of experience helping teens encounter God in quiet, contemplative ways, Mark Yaconelli will give you the tools and insights needed to help teens understand why and how to pray, and to guide them towards a life of prayer. You’ll find several prayer exercises in this book, based on the praying tradition of the Christian church, along with instructions to help you introduce the prayers to students. Not only are there explorations of classical methods of prayer that involve silence, solitude, and scripture, but you’ll also discover more recent forms of prayer that use creative media, music, writing, movement, and acts of compassion. As you help teens bring prayer into their everyday lives, your students will find that they long for those times when they can step away from it all and find rest and comfort in God."