Over the new few weeks, I plan to talk about the importance of a well planned teen room. When it comes to the space you’re going to use for your teens, you have to be “extra.” Beyond the pastor, I think the person most criticized in a church is the teenager. They endure a great deal of criticism (some deserved, most undeserved) so if you want them to stay, you have to have a safe place where they can escape the critiques. A place they can call their own. And that place cannot look like a storage room. If you want your teens in the church to know that you love them, you have to put effort into their space.

Our teen room had dingy white walls, an unfinished wooden platform (not the pretty kind of wood), no pictures on the walls, three tv’s that didn’t work, a couch straight from the 60’s in its orange plaid glory, a giant pulpit from the 90’s, and chairs and tables that were strewn around the room. Not exactly the welcoming safe space teens could call their own.

We’ve spent the past several months updating our teen room, but today I only want to show you the entrance. Now, I know that most people don’t have an entrance hallway going into their teen room, but the ideas can still be used in a single room instead of with an entrance and hallway. Here we go!

The Blessing Board

The first thing our teens see when they go into our area is the blessings board area. We placed a couple of chairs, a stool, some post it notes, and some pens. We specifically have a place for the teens to write out grateful thoughts and answered prayers. We know that that gratitude is an important development of a growing Christian so we give them a very visible form of expressing their gratitude to God. This also serves as a reminder for them in later months of what God did for them.

We started this a couple of months ago and I have to say: it’s been [awesome] to see new post-it notes added every week. To the left of the blessings, we place a calendar where we put our events and where teens can write down their activities that they’d like my husband and I to attend. It’s an easy way to keep up with what our teens care about and to support them in their dreams and goals for their futures. We know exactly when the next basketball game, musical, or competition will be and for whom. We track new birthdays on the calendar as well. Underneath our calendar, I have a small section where I try to write an encouraging verse or quote every week.

Visible Goals

The second area our teens see when entering the teen room is the hallway. We kept it mostly plain in order to highlight our teen name (to the left) and our teen goals (to the right). 

We read several research studies that basically came to the conclusion that if you don’t have visual goals, people are less likely to be successful in their ventures. The sayings you see on our signs are not original to us: we found them on Pinterest. We also have our teen group theme verses written out in the main room. But these signs very much represent the goals we have for our youth group. We want them to find Christ, grow and change, serve in their local church, and witness to theirs peers. Having visual, written goals for your teens will greatly encourage them to achieve the goals you have for them.

Take away these two thoughts for your teen room:

1. Have a way for your teens to show their gratitude to God.
2. Have visible, written goals for your teens to achieve.

Come back next week for more ways to make your teen group “extra!”