I didn't have great confidence in the transformative potential of this experience for Amanda. Yet during our initial debrief the night before we packed up to head home, Amanda shared about a profound faith experience.

The previous evening Amanda had lain awake for several hours praying and wrestling with God's presence in all she'd seen and experienced—and then offered her life to God. She confessed to us that she was anxious about what that might mean for her back at home. Our team prayed with her, reminding her she was not alone in her faith journey.

Amanda's stumble into faith had occurred in her own sleeping bag, at night, by herself. If we hadn't scheduled time for initial debrief, we never would have been able to join with Amanda in her justice journey.

Ongoing Transformation

If most youth groups lack an effective preservice framing time, even more have difficulty facilitating proper ongoing transformation. Two realities fight against effective learning transfer. First, most of the significant growth in a service experience takes place in an environment very different from home. Second, the students themselves don't know how to apply the learning to their own lives. That's why we need to help them connect the dots between having lunch with a homeless man in Detroit and having lunch with new kids in their school cafeterias.

A month after a trip to Mexico last summer, a team from Brad's church gathered to share a meal and watch a DVD of photos and video from the trip. We also spent time in prayer and reflection about ways our trip could impact our lives at home. We each picked out a 5x7 photo that stirred a specific memory or emotion in us and took time to pray and journal about ways that significant memory compelled us to engage our local community. In our sharing and prayer for one another, students offered hopes for engaging in local homeless ministry and reaching out in new ways at school.

Fully engaging this Before/During/After process probably requires cutting other ministry events to create space in your calendar for more time with students. For most youth workers we talk to, that's welcome news. We're convinced you'll be more likely to change the world and your students when you do less, but do it more intentionally.

Photo by Sean Smith. Used with permission from Adventures in Missions.

Going Deeper

One of our primary research objectives during the past three years at the Fuller Youth Institute has been to lead students and adults deeper into their service and justice work. Like you, we believe God has called us to serve the poor, oppressed, sick and anyone in need, and that God invites us to share the good news of Jesus Christ with them in very tangible ways. We also have heard and observed that youth workers struggle to engage students effectively in life-transforming, long-term commitments to live out God's heart for justice.

We have listened to the needs and concerns of youth workers across the country and around the world and filtered them through a theology of Kingdom justice based in Scripture. As a result, we have created Deep Justice in a Broken World, as well as the Deep Justice Journeys curriculum and the Deep Justice Journeys Student Journal. The subtitle of Deep Justice Journeys captures our deepest prayer: that students would move from mission trips to missional living. Check out more resources at fulleryouthinstitute.org.