Design for Life Youth: Identity, belonging and purpose

Editorial Assistant Major Lynne Shaw finds out about DFL Youth.

Design for Life (DFL) is a weekend retreat that helps people discover God’s design for their lives. Earlier this year – and following the launch of DFL for Children last year – a pilot of DFL Youth expanded the course in a format geared towards young people’s developing identities, sense of belonging and unique purpose.

Captain Berri McKenna (Liverpool Walton), who was territorial candidates officer at the time, introduces the new version of the weekend:

How did you develop the course?

We worked in partnership with the Children and Youth team, which was brilliant because they’re experts in their field. We spent time working through the distinctives of Design for Life and DFL for Children and what we wanted to keep hold of.

We want DFL Youth to be transferable to different areas of the territory, but tested it in London, based at William Booth College.

Who is it for?

The course isn’t necessarily for new Christians. It probably wouldn’t be for your young people who come to youth group on a Friday. It’s designed for those who are intentionally wanting to push deeper with their discipleship and figure out what God is saying to them in this season.

There are three themes, which the Children and Youth team use in other programmes, such as Terrain: identity, belonging and purpose. We also took the questions from DFL, which tie in with those themes: Who am I? Where do I fit? What am I here for?

We framed that around the three characters we’ve used in DFL: Jesus’ mother, Mary; David, before he became king; and Saul, who became Paul after his experience on the road to Damascus. Through these characters we learn we’re so much more than one story or thing we’re known for – that there is a journey we go on, and that things can be flipped to use for the Kingdom.

What is different about DFL Youth?

We use the story of Miles Morales, the main Spider-Man from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. For instance, the scene where Miles is walking down a school corridor and anxiously wondering: ‘Why are my thoughts so loud?’ That’s the ‘who am I?’ part.

Another clip has Miles asking: ‘When will I know I’m ready?’ The answer he receives is: ‘You won’t. It’s a leap of faith.’ One of the things we did to explore that was to hire an inflatable base jump and do a leap of faith.

We also explored spiritual gifts and where we fit. We went around London doing different tasks, like litter picking and praying around social justice. They also had to draw pictures of people without looking down at the paper, which helped them consider what their eyes are focused on.

Territorial Youth and Children’s Secretary Captain Jonny Whitmore designed a custom escape room around spiritual gifts. And we went out stargazing, with the help of Sports Mission Specialist Rob Moye, from the top of Territorial Headquarters, which was just amazing. We also had an unplanned praise party with the help of acoustic guitars – the weekend was full of those kinds of spontaneous moments where God took over.

At the end of the weekend, rather than get the young people to say what they’d seen in each other, we surprised them with letters from either corps leaders or somebody close to them. The letters encouraged and affirmed them, helping them see themselves through someone who really knows them.

Then we challenged them to write a letter to themselves. We gathered the letters in and sent them about a month later, so that the young people could be reminded of what they’d experienced during the weekend and what they sensed God was saying to them.

We created space for God to move by not heavily timetabling the weekend, and God did move. I think the most precious moments were the ones we didn’t plan.

• To find out more about Design for Life, DFL for Children and DFL Youth, email vocation@salvationarmy.org.uk.