[Purple Haize]

Soo. Anyone know of a good set of curriculum for a Youth Group? Our church just had someone take over the youth group who isn't up to date on any of that sort of stuff. I'm not even sure he's got a clue!

[PAmedic]

ask SJ. he is your man for that stuff.

and good luck

[Cider Jim]

Is he an old guy who used to play professional basketball?

[Purple Haize]

Is he an old guy who used to play professional basketball?

That's what he says.

[flamehunter]

So, the dark side will be spreading it's influence to the next generation. Those poor parents won't have any idea what hit them.

[Purple Haize]

So, the dark side will be spreading it's influence to the next generation. Those poor parents won't have any idea what hit them.

Just goes to show how desperate our church is/was for a Youth Director.
But in all seriousness any help would be appreciated!

[SuperJon]

I never liked curriculum. We would always write our own stuff. One of the best that I've seen though is this:

http://www.simplyyouthministry.com/reso ... culum.html

[Sly Fox]

Paging rueful ...

[Purple Haize]

I never liked curriculum. We would always write our own stuff. One of the best that I've seen though is this:

http://www.simplyyouthministry.com/reso ... culum.html

Ill check those out, thanks. As I just got another job this is a labor of love.....or arm twisting by my Pastor. Who knew Pastors could affect the size of your heavenly mansion!

Anyways, I'm focusing more on the leaders/workers who are in place and just trying to get them all going in one direction. (No not the band)

[Sly Fox]

Congrats on the new job!

I'm curious to hear from TDDance as well. Our student pastors write new curriculum every year like SJ's church. So I haven't had much exposure recently. The Navigators always used to have solid material but it has been a few years since I have used their stuff. Orange seems to be popular with some of my friends who teach students. But I have no personal experience.

[TDDance234]

We have used Student Life in the past. It's a six-year rotation but we only made it through three before our teachers asked for a change. The first three deal with Christ, Character (Old Testament based) and Community (mainly focused on Acts). Our students enjoyed it but we've gone the route of writing our own lately while supplementing from various sources.

If you're looking for something loosely based that is easily adaptable, try the Complete New Testament Resource for Youth Workers (http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Testamen ... r+resource). I've used them before as basic outlines for both sunday school and our Wednesday evening program.

[ALUmnus]

And you could always supplement with this



I've heard it's good source material.

Just tear out the bits you don't like.

[Purple Haize]

And you could always supplement with this



I've heard it's good source material.

Just tear out the bits you don't like.

Does it come with pictures?

[NotAJerry]

I spent a decade in youth ministry and can say that most curriculum is horrible. I stopped using any after the 2nd year and developed my own. Depending on the size of the group, I'd suggest putting something together for each grade level so that you're just doing maintenance work on it after that.

Use something like Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology, or his Christian Beliefs, and start developing interactive studies/discussions by topic for each grade level.

[Cider Jim]

And you could always supplement with this



Just tear out the bits you don't like.

Nice Thomas Jefferson reference.

[alabama24]

Soo. Anyone know of a good set of curriculum for a Youth Group? Our church just had someone take over the youth group who isn't up to date on any of that sort of stuff. I'm not even sure he's got a clue!

If you want an excuse to grab coffee at Panera and talk about it, let me know.

[rueful]

Just saw this thread. I run Youthmin.org, and though our site has a very heavy push against curriculum, we also sell it on our marketplace. We're aiming to get it to be more like the Campaigns that Mars Hill Church does, where we give you everything you would need to write your own sermons.

We have several Facebook Groups that operate as forums, the main one is https://www.facebook.com/groups/youthmin.org/ if you ever want to just talk Youth Ministry.

[Purple Haize]

Just saw this thread. I run Youthmin.org, and though our site has a very heavy push against curriculum, we also sell it on our marketplace. We're aiming to get it to be more like the Campaigns that Mars Hill Church does, where we give you everything you would need to write your own sermons.

We have several Facebook Groups that operate as forums, the main one is https://www.facebook.com/groups/youthmin.org/ if you ever want to just talk Youth Ministry.

I like where you are at if you are dealing with full time Youth Pastors. But for those of us volunteering to lead volunteers its a bit much which is why I'm looking at going curriculum based. I will be checking your site out! Gotta support our own and all.

[rueful]

Yeah I realized that after I read it and everything. It really depends on what you are going to do. Live is great in that its the easiest way to get the curriculum out to all of your volunteers, has a 4 year plan and really sets you up to just show up and go as the Youth Pastor. Its just wicked light on the Bible/doctrine. Until they released their most recent one year add on, I think they had a 6 year curriculum plan that only focused on Jesus for 3 weeks. It's a great option to just let your other leaders add their depth to. If you have a large group service/setting, you'd have to do more work to write your own sermon based off the small group curriculum.

pro:simple, easy to get to volunteers, integrates well with other simply youth ministry tools
cons: $500 to start, $99 a year after that. Won't challenge growth in students who are already Christian.

XP3 can be expensive but is another great option. Whats great about this curriculum is that each week's lesson has like 19 pages, because it includes background on the message, the message text for the speaker to use and adapt, as well as small group lessons for both sr. high and middle school. Also gives a list of songs they recommend to carry the theme, songs to play before youth group/after, as well as worship songs, as well as other environmental stuff, stage designs, games, videos, and what not. Although you might not need all of this stuff in your setting, in my mind, this is the best curriculum out there. I know the guys who write, and the Orange team are amazing people.

pro: fully packaged youth service each week, small groups + big group plans, biblically grounded and accessible to non-christians at the same time.
con: You'd have a lot more work done for you, but youd have to do more work getting it out to your volunteers, compared to Live at least. Priced to meet your group needs/size. Also much more willing to work with small churches with little to no budget (dont know what your church is like).

I can give you other options, but these are the two Id recommend most. You can find a great 6 week series here or there, but these two would lay out more of a plan.

[Purple Haize]

BUMP

Ok, so I'm prepping for the Youth Service coming up in October. What I'm looking for is a skit or video I can have some of the kids put together that will tie in with the Sermon. Is there a site (Couldn't find anything on Orange) that has 'Thematic Skit Scripts'. Which is tough to say 10 times fast!

[alabama24]

BUMP

Ok, so I'm prepping for the Youth Service coming up in October. What I'm looking for is a skit or video I can have some of the kids put together that will tie in with the Sermon. Is there a site (Couldn't find anything on Orange) that has 'Thematic Skit Scripts'. Which is tough to say 10 times fast!

1. By "Youth Service," do you mean a Sunday Morning service where the students take over? Something else?
2. Do you have an idea of what the sermon will be about, or are you looking for direction for that as well?
3. Who is delivering the sermon?
4. Do the students have experience with drama and/or making videos?
5. Do you want it more funny or serious?

[Purple Haize]

1. By "Youth Service," do you mean a Sunday Morning service where the students take over? Something else? the Youth Department is doing it all
2. Do you have an idea of what the sermon will be about, or are you looking for direction for that as well? Yes the topic is there details aren't filled in
3. Who is delivering the sermon? You would be frightened if you knew
4. Do the students have experience with drama and/or making videos? possibly and yes
5. Do you want it more funny or serious? its me, what do you think?

[rueful]

Im super active on this board as you can tell. Skit guys would have been a good recommendation

[Purple Haize]

Im super active on this board as you can tell. Skit guys would have been a good recommendation

Yeah, thanks for that HA. We did our thing this past Sunday. But I eollkeep it in mid for next time