If you want a teenager to listen to your message, you have to make your love obvious long before that message is ever preached or taught. No teen will listen to someone they don’t think cares about them. One of the best ways to show love to your teens is to invest effort and time into creating a safe space for them. Here’s a few more ways to make your teen room extra:

Organize Your Layout

We currently have our chairs in a u shape around a very small pulpit. We found that this layout really helps our teens be inclusive. We will, however, try to change up our seating arrangement every few months to keep our teens (and ourselves) from getting in a rut. We learned this from our former pastor, who would purposely encourage people to sit in different seats for each service. We’re not interested in growing teens into “That’s-my-pew” kind of Christians. Our seating is always arranged neatly: having a set place for a lesson to be given encourages them to learn just as it would in a secular classroom.

We have a Wii system, a hockey table, and a pool table that are separated from our lesson seating. We organized the layout to promote learning when the time comes and it helps keep distractions at a minimum. You’ll also notice we don’t keep a clock in our room. Any distractions you can remove with your organization should be removed.

Use Color to Your Advantage

We’ll be the first to admit that maybe we went a little overboard with the color in our room. But we made it a specific goal to find ways to brighten up our teen room. You don’t have to have every color of the rainbow in your room to keep it bright and happy, but you should definitely have a color scheme in mind and understand how color can affect mood.

We used a gray color to balance our abundant colors around our room, but we specifically chose the bright colors we could find for our trim and decor. We wanted to send the message that joy was encouraged and that for at least a little while, our teens could let go of their hard stuff and their weariness. I’ve been in many teen rooms that were black and dark: they encouraged darker moods. I’ve been in many teen rooms that were completely white and plain: they did not encourage teens to be young and free to relax.

Think carefully about what kind of mood you want to set for your teen room and choose your colors accordingly.

To see the how-to directions that we followed to create our awesome cross, go here: http://katherinewandell.com/diy-geometric-wall-teen-group/

Have a Theme Verse and Make It Visible

I almost hesitated to give you this tip because I think too many youth workers get too caught up in the teen name/teen group theme verse and they miss out on the rest of the needs a teen group has when they’re starting out. But science has proven that a visible goal is a more likely to be reached goal. If you have a teen theme verse, which would be  goal for your teens, then you should have it visible in your room somewhere.

Your teen theme verse is a goal. By making it visual, you’re able to keep that goal fresh and new in the minds of your teens every time they see that goal. Our teens have seen our theme verses on the wall every Sunday and Wednesday since we put it up nine months ago. It is their constant reminder that God wants them to act new and not old in their thoughts, their choices, and their lifestyles. Having the theme verse visible also lets new teens know exactly what the teen group’s goal is. They know what they’re getting into the moment they walk in that room.

In the end, no amount of work you put into your teen room will matter if you’re not first and foremost putting your heart into the teens who enter that room. The room is just a tool to help you help them come to Christ and grow in Christ. I’d love to hear any other tips you may have for making your teen room extra!

Love, Meghan