It’s hard to find good statistical numbers, but most youth leaders are concerned about the number of young people who graduate from their youth groups, head off to college, and drop out of church. Maybe in our efforts to make our youth ministries relevant to the needs of youth, we have failed to give them a faith they can build their lives on.

For my dissertation, I studied objectives that youth leaders in various countries about the world agreed to be essential to youth ministry. Seven essential youth ministry objectives surfaced in my study. This week, I’m thinking about Essential 5.

Essential 5: Guide youth to build faith that will last for a lifetime.

I suspect there are a lot of components to this, but let me suggest three. First, youth need to gain a big-picture knowledge of the Bible. Learning to recite John 3:16 and to know what 1 Corinthians 6 says about sex are good things, but they aren’t enough for youth to build a lifelong faith on. Youth need to understand the story of the Bible and how their lives fit into God’s story.

Second, youth need to be invested in ministry. My friend Dr. Rick Yount is fond of telling his classes that the Dead Sea is dead because it takes in lots of water but never has any water flowing out. We were designed not just to receive ministry, but to give as well. Teenagers who invest in ministry will be better equipped to live out their faith as they grow older.

Third, youth need to learn to put their faith into words. American teenagers have difficulty talking about their faith in anything more than feelings. Youth need to be able to express what they believe and why they believe it.