Project Director: Dr. Russell Dalton. Recent studies measuring religious trends among American Christian teenagers indicated a curious disconnection between the spiritual practice of prayer and feelings of spiritual commitment. A high majority of American teens prayed frequently, yet barely half of these characterized their faith as "very important." These same studies also indicated that many teens who identified themselves as "Christian" had adopted a peculiar deist belief system far removed from most traditional understandings of faith. The practice of prayer in the United States has not informed the faith for many Christian teens and has become merely a reflection of the consumer culture in which they exist. Not surprisingly, the evangelical church in North America, during this same time, has lost the ability to meaningfully instruct students in the practice of prayer, mainly because student ministry has abandoned the Psalms, the "Prayer Book of the Bible."
The project sought to determine if reintroducing the Psalms as a tool for teaching prayer could help Christian teens at the First Baptist Church of Oklahoma City as well as others in similar contexts: 1) Develop and demonstrate a more healthy theological understanding of God as personal and close; 2) Demonstrate confidence, comfort, and proficiency in the spiritual discipline of prayer; and 3) Develop a healthy spiritual outlet for anger and hatred. A prayer retreat for teens utilizing the Psalms was developed. Various concepts from the Psalter and methods of prayer were adapted for use with teenagers. Data was collected through comparisons of pre- and post-retreat questionnaires, interviews, and students' prayer journals from the retreat.
The results indicated that the Psalms did aid in giving voice to many of the emotions teenagers were experiencing. Prayers resulting from the retreat suggested new intimacy and comfort with God. Participants realized, through the example of the Psalms, that they could share with God the full scope of their feelings, both positive and negative. Students discovered new styles of prayer with which they connected. Developing future opportunities for students' prayer to be informed by the Psalms should continue the growth of healthy theological practices and understandings.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TCU/oai:etd.tcu.edu:etd-03162010-105409 |
| Date | 16 March 2010 |
| Creators | Fetzer, Jeffrey Chadwick |
| Contributors | Russell W Dalton |
| Publisher | Texas Christian University |
| Source Sets | Texas Christian University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf, application/octet-stream |
| Source | http://etd.tcu.edu/etdfiles/available/etd-03162010-105409/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to TCU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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