I once had a colleague who flat-out declared that she HATED receiving emails containing moral spiritual do-goody 'inspirational' touchy-feely stuff. She prefers getting dirty jokes, anti-Coke ads (like how your teeth can dissolve if you put them in Coke after a while), IQ/EQ/sexuality/personality tests, sensational news or e-tabloids, weird pics and so on.

Confession: I'm not that much different from her.

I think there's a part of us which resents being lectured on morals and 'how to live our life'. I suspect even the most spiritually in-tuned people tend to say, "Enough" on more than a few occasions. Maybe for too long spiritual talk has been overly abstract, generalised, impractical, familiar, logic-driven, Head-&-Heart focused without much Hand relevance.

A student from my school complained that when he talked to a Christian teacher about his problems, the teacher advised him to, well, pray and read the Bible more. I'll be blunt: I don't this advice helps hormone-crazy teenagers who are bombarded with peer ego challenges, electronic music, lust-inducing sights and the latest in high-tech multimedia almost every other moment of their free time.

Early Stage (Give):
Listening, Accomodating/Adapting Scriptural instruction and principles with contemporary media and art forms, walking with them through their problems, being there, etc.

Must first gain their trust, convincing them that there is someone to go to in times of pain, ambiguity and decision. "Come unto me, all who are weary and I will give you rest...my burden is light and yoke is light", "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven".

Middle Stage (Build):
Developing accountability, generating more intense personal reflection (on right/wrong, important/unimportant), questioning worldly anti-God norms with Scripture, training/mentoring in spiritual disciplines (still with heavy emphasis on reigning cultural symbols, building lifestyle changes in major life-areas (family, work, finances, etc.). 

This introduces them to the life of discipleship, the need to 'do business' with God, stripping away self-pity and indiscipline, seeing clearly the challenges ahead. "Count the cost of discipleship."