Teen SpiriT - A Celebration of Teen Talent & Christian Faith

Teen SpiriT as a Resource
We don’t see Teen SpiriT as a show a specific group have done and have ownership of. We see the Teen SpiriT shows, songs, and reflections as a resource for the Church, a resource for parishes, pastoral areas, and schools.

If you are interested in using Teen SpiriT resource material, please contact us at info@teenspirit.ie

Click here for more info for parishes.

Ministry of Teen SpiriT
It is important to explain the purposes of the project in a ministry sense in that it is not just an entertainment show that involves teenagers performing.

Song choice:
A lot of thinking goes into the song choice and it has a purpose ministry-wise. By explaining the thinking behind our song choice we hope you can see what we hope to achieve with the shows in a ministry sense. The songs we choose are a mix of contemporary Christian, sacred, praise / gospel, traditional hymns, inspirational chart and fun songs. Also the teenagers have been involved in picking appropriate songs, which is very special and is a big reason why we pick a set of songs the teenagers love to sing.

• Fun songs: The fun songs are there to give the audience a spell of light entertainment and fun as a full show of reflective Christian or spiritual music can be heavy for your everyday audience member. So these songs are a very well received and entertaining break from the reflective element of the show. The choir love doing these funs songs also so it helps attract singers to the project. These would be well known classic hits like “Waterloo” (ABBA), “The Hucklebuck”, “Let’s twist again”, “Amarillo” etc. But even though this element of the show is not directly Christian, it does witness to the fact that it doesn’t have to be all Christian in a show – that we live in the world of chart hits, lively songs and that joy and fun are a gift from God too. We hope this sends a message to people that we are meeting people where they are at and that you can be a believer and still be part of today’s world of lively fun music. This is an important message to young people (and not so young) who may attach Christian faith to the stereotype of a serious, restricted life without fun. We want to witness that believing in God gives us ‘life to the full’ so these fun songs help break down such stereotypes.

• Contemporary Christian songs: The contemporary Christian songs we pick deal with real faith issues from a very personal perspective – you’d know it was written from the heart by the songwriter about a specific aspect of their relationship with God – in this way a teenager will know it’s the real thing and will have a better chance to take the song’s message in. These songs show aspects of young people’s living relationship with God in the context of life in today’s world. We take care to pick songs that are at a basic enough spiritual level for young people to understand, as some of this contemporary Christian music can be too advanced and devotional for teenagers. These songs are written by Christian artists mainly in the USA and Britain and have that sound like they are new out in the charts. Teenagers need to know what they sing has a very up to date sound – the ‘cool’ factor and we are simply meeting them where they’re at with this music, which has proven very popular with the teenagers.

• Sacred: We have a candlelit moment in every show and we usually do a Latin/Gaeilge/English sacred choral number or chant – this is a very effective sacred moment, we use it sparingly to have maximum effect when it does happen.

• Praise / Gospel: We include a couple of lively traditional/modern gospel or contemporary Christian praise and worship songs towards the end just to celebrate God and finish on a high note. Both audience and choir love this crescendo and build up to the end.

• Traditional / modern hymns: We use this category of song sparingly also in that in local Masses, in school Masses etc these hymns make up the vast majority of current liturgical music. Teenagers want new material and fresh sounding music as uniquely theirs. However we are mindful of the wide age group of the audience so we make sure that we include a couple of well known hymns as well and they are beautiful moments in the show.

• Inspirational / Spiritual Chart Hits: The inspirational and spiritual chart numbers that we use are hits from the last two decades. If any older they have to be reasonably edgy (like “Something inside so strong”) and not old fashioned – the teenagers are very quick to tell us what they’ll sing and if it’s old fashioned they’ll tell us!! The chart hits element is very important as the teenagers are quite insecure and need the ‘cool’ factor very much in order to be happy to do the show.

Ministry to teenagers involved
Teenagers learn so much about the Christian faith in a very practical sense through the process of doing a Teen SpiriT show.

• Group prayer - We pray before performances and if we know the group long enough we pray before and after rehearsals. The prayers are usually short enough, prayers of thanksgiving and asking God to help us make the best use we can out of our talents as a show of gratitude for the gift of music. We ask God to look after our families and friends and help us to be the best we can be. It’s brief but very God-centred and positive. It is probably the most powerful thing I’ve experienced praying with a large group of teenagers who all have heads bowed respectfully, eyes closed and in these moments I have seen the real potential our teenagers have for letting God into their lives. This is also a powerful time where the teenagers are safe from peer pressure and bravado, free to be themselves.

• Testimony - We talk briefly to the teenagers about the content of some of the Christian songs or the inspirational songs with a Christian theme. The team have picked the Christian / inspirational songs also because we relate to them so we talk about our personal perspectives of the songs. In this way we show that our work is coming out of our personal journey with God and how God is relevant in our lives. In this we hope teenagers get a sense that God can be relevant in their lives too.

• We volunteer – so the teenagers see the Christian value of service in action. That has been an important foundation to the success of this project. The teenagers know we care enough about them to give of our spare time, to do this work for them and they respond in kind. So volunteers from each pastoral area can have that same effect on their local teens.

• Positive outlook and approach to life - We promote a healthy outlook on life with our approach. We have great fun with the choir during rehearsals, the team are joyful, don’t argue (much), there is a real sense of we – i.e. the team and teens working together, we aim for high standards but without perfectionism – we challenge the teenagers to do their very best but we also reassure them that we are not looking for perfection and that mistakes are ok!!

• Trust in God - It is unavoidable that there are nerves in the build up to an event but we witness peace and calm and repeat the fact that we trust in God that He will look after us and our work and that everything will turn out just fine. And so far it has!!

• Song content – the modern nature and content of the songs witness that God is relevant, current and that people are experiencing a relationship with Him in their everyday lives in today’s world. The following are just an example of the songs and what they address re the writers relationship with God:

• ‘Perfect people’ – is about how we try to cover up our imperfections and flaws in case we come across as ‘imperfect’ but that God loves us and is working in us all the time, and most importantly that He just wants us to go easy on ourselves as there’s no such thing as a perfect person. God just wants us to try our best and leave the rest to Him.

• ‘About You’ – is about how the songwriter has learned not to be too hard on themselves and but to take the focus and pressure off themselves and look to God. That God is bigger than any challenge we face and by entrusting our challenges to God we feel less pressure, even peace and that God will look after us and the challenges in life.

• ‘Forgiven’ – is about how if our mistakes and sins are a burden and source of guilt, we can trust in God to be totally merciful, compassionate and will forgive our sins every time we say sorry and confess or sins. The song captures the sense of relief and liberation after God’s forgiveness and freedom to go on in life without the burden of past sins.

• ‘Walk on the water’ is about not being afraid to step out and take a risk in trying to do something good or something courageous. The writer uses the passage where Jesus invited the apostles to step out of their boat in faith as the foundation of this song and the writer asks us to step out in little ways in our own life, believing God will look after us and that we don’t have to be afraid.

The above songs are very relevant to a teenager’s life in that they may help with poor self-image, being afraid, peer pressure, guilt and loneliness / helplessness in the face of adversity. Other general themes covered in Teen SpiriT songs are that we are created and loved by God, we can do good things great and small with God’s help, that we don’t have to be afraid to say we are Christian, that our lives are a gift and not something to be taken for granted, and many more themes. So the very act of listening to, learning and singing these songs is a process that will allow the teenagers take in these ideas and values.