YOUTH DISCIPLESHIP RESOURCES
Youth need a bit more help finding their way around the Bible? Here's a really simple game to get them knowing it a bit better. Get them to stand on a line taped on the floor in the middle of the room. Mark one side of the line as New and one as Old Testament. Shout out a Bible book. They step either New or Old Testament. Even if they make a slight move the wrong way, they're out. Eventually you have a winner. Not sure what that would look like? See it here.
7-day bible reading guides
The longer I'm in youth ministry, the more I realise that if I set our young people up to read the Bible and to pray themselves, they are more likely to still be standing as Christians in five, ten or fifty years' time. What I've done recently is produce some seven-day Bible reading plans. I've only made two so far. They're not rocket science, but they are easy for me to reproduce and easy for young people to use. You can download them below to give you an idea of something that you can recreate for your own young people.
sermon listening guide
So, you want your young people in the adult sermons sometimes, but how to keep them focussed?
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Rachel Bell, from Grace Church Highlands, North London has produced a really helpful fill-in sheet for young people (or adults!).
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She writes, "The idea is that the leaders will also take notes and then pop out to quickly discuss what we've heard in the last song. I did think that some adults may find this helpful too so tried to make it not too childish!"
one-to-one questions
It's great to spend time getting to know young people. Make space in your programmes for this. You could try Glow-Low-Hero. Find that and other ideas on the Small Groups Ideas page. You can ask a simple question like:
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"What have you been up to this week?"
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As I have continued in youth ministry longer, I have discovered that as a church youth minister, young people expect me to ask them important questions about their faith and life. I realised once as I filled in a reference form for a young person to go on a Christian mission that I couldn't answer where they were up to in their Christian journey. Take every chance you get, one to one, to ask,
"What do you think of what we talked about tonight?"
"How are you and God then?"
"How are you feeling about Jesus these days?"
"What do you make of what we talk about here?"
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Or ask how they are applying their faith with:
"How do you find talking to your friends about Jesus?"
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You may find yourself really encouraged as young people share God's work in their lives.
Dan Bright, Youth Pastor at Greyfriars, Reading has written some one-to-one questions, a small card of which, his leaders can carry in the back of their lanyards, to facilitate great chats with their young people. You can download the lanyard-sized questions here.
If you want to push things a little bit further (gently, of course), you can use something like Pip Wilson's Blob Tree communication tools. I've used lots of them and they always produce great conversations. Start with "Which one of these figures do you most relate to at the moment?" and see where the conversation leads you.
We include this list of helpful Bible verses in camp booklets.
Bible roller coaster
A Bible overview, using the ups and downs of a roller coaster, in under ten minutes. Enjoy!
Want to help the young people engage with the overview more? In teams, give them time to create a Bible Rollercoaster themselves with blu tack, string and bamboo skewers (that's a risk assessment right there). That's what Ewen Greenlees, Youth Worker at Chandlers Ford near Southampton, UK did. Thanks to Stefan for the photos.
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youth Struggling to read the Bible?
Give your youth a challenge - the Bible in One Year.
Impossible?
Not really. It'll take about 20 minutes a day.
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We've found a couple of the youth group here have just read through the Bible from start to finish: one doing an hour and a half a day until she finished it. One student here read it in six days because they had a quiet week!
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Too much?
Then encourage your young people to just do the New Testament readings. They will read through the New Testament in one year. That's pretty good.
"Raising the Bar gives a step-by-step explanation of what creating good youth ministry looks like. A manual of best practice, showing us that we can lead both a fun and Bible-centred ministry.
It’s the most complete ‘manual’ that I’ve seen written in the British context."
Ben Horrex, Assistant Minister writing for Premier Youth and Children's Work Magazine
CHECK OUT ON TIKTOK
I have not checked every post and they may not be to your taste, but I think some of your young people will find their content helpful.
@justin.brierley has short talks answering some big questions.
@liv.pearsall does quirky retellings of Bible stories.
@sean_mcdowell (there's an underscore in the gap!)
Sean McDowell has some great apologetics stuff.
@elijah.lamb
does short Bible talks.
@speaklifeUK
Glen Scrivener answers apologetic questions.
I know of these resources because someone told me about them, not because I spend all my time trawling through TikTok. If you know of another account that others may find helpful, let me know here.
ENJOYING THESE ONLINE RESOURCES?
Get more ideas for youth discipleship in the chapter 'Building disciples' in my book: "RAISING THE BAR: Nearly Everything You Need to Know about Christian Youth Ministry."
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