What is Sticky Faith?
A powerful strategy to show parents and ministry leaders how to actively encourage their young people’s spiritual growth so that it will stick with them into adulthood and empower them to develop a living, lasting faith.
Giving seniors a “graduation Bible” and hoping for the best just isn't cutting it. Roughly 50% of students walk away from the church after they graduate high school. That’s the bad news. But here’s the good news: research shows that parents are one of the primary influences on their child’s faith.
Sticky Faith is an innovative, research-based, and extensively field-tested movement designed to equip parents and ministry leaders with insights and ideas for nurturing long-term faith in children and young people. Because of the Fuller Youth Institute’s six years of research with more than 500 young people, 100 churches, and 50 families, our Sticky Faith resources are a “must have” for churches and families eager to point their young people toward long-term faith.
It’s never too early or too late to start developing faith that continues to grow and lasts. Sticky Faith resources offer a theological framework along with a host of practical relationship and programming ideas that develop long-term faith in teenagers.
Sticky Faith Resources
The following books and films are designed to help you implement our Sticky Faith insights in your ministry and home.
What creates Sticky Faith?
Intergenerational Relationships
Despite the age segregation that exists in our churches and broader culture, each young person is greatly benefited when surrounded by a team of five adults. We call this the new 5:1 ratio.
Whole Gospel
Many young people see faith like a jacket: something they can put on or take off based on their behavior. We seek to help students develop a more robust understanding of the gospel, one that integrates faith into all aspects of life.
Partnership with Families
Research demonstrates that parents are the #1 influencers when it comes to spirituality in young people—yes, even teenagers. We help leaders develop new ways to partner with parents, empowering them to nurture faith in their families.
A Safe Place for Doubt
Doubt is not toxic to faith; silence is. Young people want conversations in response to their hardest questions, not just answers. We offer tools and training for these discussions that deepen the faith of everyone involved.
Faith Beyond Youth Group
If you're tired of youth ministry that fails to change lives, it's time to change youth ministry.
Building on two decades of the Fuller Youth Institute's work and incorporating extensive new research and interviews, Faith Beyond Youth Group identifies the reasons youth ministry often flops both short-term and long-term, and offers five ways adult youth leaders can cultivate character for a lifetime of growing closer to Jesus rather than drifting away.
Sticky Faith Innovation Online Team Training
Teenagers are constantly changing, and so is the world around them. Our ministry approaches need to change with them.
Our 6-session, self-paced online training will guide you and your team as you compassionately listen to your young people, respond creatively with fresh ideas, and take courageous steps to implement a new, purposeful approach in your ministry.
We believe no parent should go it alone.
Filled with brand-new research and real-life stories from remarkable families, Growing With shows you how to close the family gap, giving parents courage to take the next faithful step on a mutual journey of intentional growth that trusts God to transform you all.
Discover strategies to help you invite doubt, rather than avoid it. Growing With will show you how to help your kids keep their roots, even as they spread their wings.
Bulk orders available.
3 Big Questions that Shape Your Future
Every teenager wants to know: Who am I? How will my life matter? Where do I fit? Young people struggle to find satisfying and life-giving answers to these questions on their own. They need caring adults willing to lean in with empathy, practice listening, and gently point them in the direction of better answers.
Articles and Blog Posts
To get you started with Sticky Faith right now
