Author: Josh Packard, Ph.D., Co-Founder of Future of Faith and partner of TryTank.
When faith formation struggles, the issue rarely starts with theology or curriculum. It starts upstream with weak relational infrastructure.
When churches talk about discipleship, they often reach for intensity: more content, more programs, more commitment.
The research points somewhere else.
The recurring pattern: Across decades of youth ministry scholarship, one pattern keeps showing up: faith holds when relationships hold.
- Relational discipleship does not replace teaching or practice. It makes them work.
- Formation takes root when young people have space to make meaning alongside someone they trust.
Why it matters: That shift matters because it changes how leaders diagnose problems.
- When faith formation struggles, the issue rarely starts with theology or curriculum. It starts upstream with weak relational infrastructure.
- Without trust, teaching feels abstract.
- Without presence, practices feel performative.
The key finding: Strong relationships do not guarantee faith outcomes, but weak ones almost always limit them.
Go deeper: The “Relational Discipleship in Ministry with Youth” white paper follows this story closely:
- It traces the field’s move away from information-first models and toward approaches grounded in presence, trust, and shared interpretation.
- It also names what still needs attention, whose voices remain absent and which contexts rarely shape the conversation.
The bottom line: For leaders navigating low trust and high complexity, the implication stays simple: discipleship scales through relationships before it scales through systems.
Formation 