Sticky Faith Service Guide: Moving Students from Mission Trips to Missional Living

Anyone who serves teenagers today knows that more and more young people are eager to make a difference in the world. When students participate in short-term missions, service, and justice causes, parents and youth leaders hope these experiences will lead to real transformation. But research shows that our efforts don’t always stick.

If we truly want short-term work to translate into long-term change, leaders and students must spend more time before, during, and after service projects preparing for and processing their experiences. The sessions in this leader’s guide will help you create experiences that stick—both for the students you take and the communities you serve. This guidebook offers a host of practical and field-tested exercises for each phase of your experience, whether it’s a half-day local service project or a two-week trip overseas.

Participants will engage in hands-on experiences to gain new insights about themselves, their relationship with God, their teammates, and the world we’re called to love and serve. Each of these steps is a catalyst in helping students apply what they have learned in the field to their own lives back at home. Also included are ideas to help get parents and the whole church engaged in service together. A companion student journal is also available to boost the potential for personal application throughout the journey.

 

Dr. Kara E. Powell is an educator, professor, youth minister, author, and speaker. She is the Executive director of the Fuller Youth Institute and a faculty member at Fuller Theological Seminary (see fulleryouthinstitute.org). Kara also serves as an Advisor to Youth Specialties and currently volunteers in student ministries at Lake Avenue church in Pasadena, CA.  She is the author of many books including Sticky Faith: Everyday Ideas to Build Lasting Faith in Your Kids (with Chap Clark) and The Sticky Faith Guide for Your Family. Kara lives in Pasadena with her husband, Dave, and their children, Nathan, Krista, and Jessica.


Brad Griffin serves as the Associate Director for the Fuller Youth Institute where he coordinates FYI's team, writes, speaks, and consults with youth workers. Brad has co-authored Can I Ask That? Volume 1 and 2 (Leader and Student Guides, the Sticky Faith Launch Kit, Sticky Faith: Youth Worker Edition, and Sticky Faith Teen Curriculum. A native Kentuckian, Brad now lives in Pasadena with his wife Missy and their three children. After 20 years in youth ministry, he now serves as a volunteer youth pastor at Mountainside Communion and teaches undergraduate youth ministry as an adjunct at Azusa Pacific University.