There’s a reason why youth groups do camps, retreats, revivals, rallies, overnighters, concerts, and the like. Youth leaders know that sponsoring these kinds of events can ignite a flame of newfound enthusiasm in a teenager’s spiritual life. In fact, a recent survey of over 1,000 Christian teenagers revealed that kids rate "participating in spiritual retreats" as the top factor in helping them grow as Christians.¹

Next time a "spiritual retreat" has fanned the flame of faith in your teenager, try these family devotion servant adventures to help him or her put that fired-up faith into action.

Gather your family and read together the story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet (found in John 13:1-17). Then tell everyone that your family is going to follow Jesus’ example of servanthood by reaching out to the people who live around you. However, instead of washing your neighbors’ feet, you’ll be washing their cars.

Ask family members to approach this adventure with enthusiasm and attitudes of service. Then spend the rest of your time making plans for your servant adventure. You’ll want to choose an appropriate afternoon for the car wash, and make a list of the supplies you’ll need (such as sponges, buckets, and access to a hose).

You’ll also want to prepare a flyer announcing the FREE event to your neighbors. On the flyer, include the date, time, location where you’ll be washing the cars (your house or in the parking lot near your apartment). Add a note to the flyer that says your family is sponsoring this free car wash as a way to simply say thanks for good neighbors. Take a moment to pray for God’s blessing on your plans, then distribute the flyer to 20 or 30 people in your neighborhood.

After the big event, gather your family and read John 13:1-17 once more. Then wrap up the experience by discussing these questions:

How was the way we washed cars similar to the way Jesus washed his disciples’ feet? What’s your reaction to what we did? Why do you suppose Jesus wants us to serve others? In what ways does Jesus continue serving his followers? How can we continue serving God by serving others?

Read Ephesians 4:29-5:2 together with your family. Then have family members summarize the passage in one sentence. Ask everyone to share what they think would make following the advice of this passage either easy or difficult.

Next, encourage your family to try a one week experiment in acting out the instructions of Ephesians 4:29-5:2. First, have each person write down one daily chore he or she would prefer not to do (such as making a bed, washing dishes, emptying trash, feeding the dog, and so on). After everyone has written a chore, have family members volunteer to take over another person’s chore for an entire week—no grumbling allowed!

A week later, gather your family to debrief the experiment. Discuss questions such as these:

What made it easy or difficult for you to take responsibility for someone else’s chore? How well did we fulfill the instructions of Ephesians 4:29-5:2 in this experiment? Do you think it’s more difficult to serve a family member or someone outside our family? Explain your answer. What would our family be like if we always tried to follow the advice of Ephesians 4:29-5:2 in the way we act toward each other? What’s stops us from doing that?

Wrap up this servant adventure with a prayer asking God to help your family put faith into action by loving and serving each other.