Faith isn't just learned. It's lived.
Many young people aren’t rejecting Jesus; they want a faith community that reflects His words and ways.
The TENx10 Faith and Service Project builds on the Faith Formation Framework by exploring how integrating service and justice helps young people internalize and apply their faith.
We call this exploration Embodied Faith Practice.
Why Service and Justice Matter
One of the Church’s credibility challenges is the gap between what Christians say they believe and how that faith is lived.
Service and justice give young people meaningful opportunities to put faith into practice. When connected with spiritual practices, biblical learning, relationships, and theological reflection, these experiences can help young people develop a more holistic, lived faith.
Embodied Faith Practice
TENx10’s Faith Formation Framework identifies five drivers of relational discipleship. TFS explores the relationship between two of them:
- Faith is internalized through spiritual practices and learning.
- Faith is applied through service and justice.
Embodied Faith Practice explores how these dimensions of formation work together over time.
Faith
Faith is living and active trust in God—rooted in God’s goodness, hopeful for God’s restoration now and in the future, and cultivated through spiritual practices and learning.
Faith inspires service.
Faith, defined as a living, active trust in God, creates in the believer a desire to serve others. This trust in God and God’s kingdom compels us to respond by using our time, talents, and resources to tangibly love and care for our neighbors.
Little children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. 1 John 3:18
Service
Service is faith in action, using our time, talent, and treasure to love God and neighbor.
Service reveals justice.
Service addresses the immediate, practical needs of our neighbors and can also reveal injustices. Justice digs deeper to confront the systemic root causes that create those needs in the first place. Together, they represent a holistic commitment to both caring for people in the present and fostering God’s comprehensive wholeness and peace for creation
Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Isaiah 1:17
Justice
Justice is partnering with God to restore wholeness where people, systems, and evil powers have caused harm.
Justice deepens faith.
Faith and justice are inseparable because justice is a natural expression of participating in God’s redemptive work of restoration. By pursuing justice, we act on our faith, partnering with God to repair broken relationships and seek the flourishing of all people and all communities. This Jesus-shaped practice forms us as disciples.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:10
What We're Learning
Across diverse ministry contexts, several themes are emerging:
- Practice makes faith experiential.
- Relationships deepen formation.
- Theological reflection helps young people make meaning.
- Youth agency strengthens ownership.
TFS is helping the Church learn from what happens when young people have meaningful opportunities to live, reflect on, and grow in their faith.
Explore Stories & Learnings
A Multi-Year Learning Journey
Through the generous support of Lilly Endowment Inc., TENx10 has invested in ministries across the country to experiment, deepen, and sustain this work.
Year 1 — Catalyze: Explore new possibilities.
Year 2 — Deepen + Scale: Strengthen and expand promising approaches.
Year 3 — Sustain + Multiply: Make the work an enduring organizational priority.
Join the Journey
Helping young people develop a lifelong, holistic faith belongs to the whole Church.
Explore stories, research, resources, and practical tools from the Faith & Service community—and consider how faith formation, service, and justice can be more intentionally connected in your context.