Premise. These guides are not a "read it and talk about it" guide. Most youth are smart enough to do that themselves and will certainly know if that is how you teach a lesson. This guide only gives you a starting point. It is up to you to read, study, and research the suggested topic and to create a lesson that specifically applies to your youth and their lives.
As a class leader you should know your students, what is happening in their lives at home, school, and where they live. You are in a prime position to teach them and to learn about and discuss their spiritual and temporal growth - where they are and where they are going. For example, a class of mostly middle school students would be very different from a class of high school seniors. Focus on who they are, where they want to be and how they want to live their lives as Christian believers.
Guide: Walking through the Bible. The walk through the Bible was inspired by members of my youth Sunday morning class. One year at the start of a new session, I asked what they would like to study in the coming year. One of the students (who rarely said much) suggested we talk about teenagers in the Bible. Members of the class agreed, and we started - somewhat randomly during that first year - to base weekly lessons on youth in the Bible. The interest shown by the students made me believe that other class leaders might want to use the same information. Following that first year several folks asked for the modified list of "youth" now included in Table 1. Some of the stories may be familiar although the story may have almost ignored the youth involved. For example, look up the story of Rhoda in Acts 12. I’ve heard this story many times talking about the disciples gathering and Peter’s miraculous release from prison. But do you know who Rhoda is and what an intriguing story this is from her life? How about feeding the 5,000 and the boy that had a little food. He didn’t get much attention; we don’t even know his name. The same things can occur with our own youth in events of their lives.
Guide: The Bible in 50 Words - And the World Changed.
*** 01/07/2025 Text to be added soon. Scheduled for released in Spring 2025. A sample lesson is included at the link above.
This is the second Leader’s Guide in the YouthTrack series. It was inspired by a short poem sent to me many years ago. A young minister from a Christian Church sent me an email that included a poem titled “The Bible in 50 Words.” For many years I have shared that poem with many young people and a few not-so-young. Only after publishing the first YouthTrack Leader’s Guide did the idea of writing another guide for youth using that poem occur to me. This Leader’s Guide focuses more on the changes to our world that followed Jesus’ birth and ministry - still focusing on a teenager’s perspective. I still have that email that is more than 25 years old. Thank you, David!
Summary: One of the most important things during each lesson was addressing what was going on in the student's lives and how the Bible might - and often does - relate to their daily experiences. They can relate their current culture and teen challenges to similar issues for young people for the thousands of years since the Bible stories were recorded. No two people will use each lesson in the same manner. But get involved with the youth; find out what is going on in their world. Relate their world and their beliefs to the Biblical background, always stressing their background relationship to the Christian story - of Jesus' sacrifice, blessing, and love for us all.