Creative Meetings Bible Lessons And Worship Ideas

Nearly 200 ready-to-use ideas for hard-hitting Bible lessons and relevant worship services for teenagers! - Bible Study Meetings . . . Techniques and approaches for making any Bible lesson -- topical or scriptural -- appealing to unchurched teenagers as well as to preachers' kids. - Creative Bible Lessons . . . 'Martha and Mary Malpractice' (page 67), 'Noah and the Ark I. Q. Test' (page 43), and 70 more very different, very fun, and very solid Bible lessons. - Theme Lessons . . . Build an entire lesson on a specific theme. Try 'Feet Meeting' (page 118) -- foot games followed by a lesson on the symbolic importance of washing each other's feet. You aren't into feet? Okay, what about the hands of Jesus? Or the light versus darkness? They're all here! - Bible Games . . . These won't speed your kids into seminary, but they certainly go a long way toward making the Bible interesting to your students -- and fun, too! - Worship Services . . . Some are informal, others have a liturgical feel -- and all are innovative. Here are the ideas for communion, confession, music, prayer, and Scripture reading. And More . . . Full lessons (all the components are here, from opening mixers to closing prayers), board games (with reproducible game 'boards'), and ideas for using guest speakers and special projects. Whether you're a youth worker or a recreation director at a church, school, club, or camp -- Creative Meetings, Bible Lessons, and Worship Ideas is your storehouse of proven, youth-group tested ideas.

The fourth volume of the best-selling Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks series delivers all-new, lively, effective illustrations, stories, parables, and anecdotes from the files of many of youth ministry's best speakers.

These twelve studies about the people of Corinth and their founding pastor Paul pave the way for youth workers and Sunday school teachers to teach junior high and high school students about conversion, transformation, failure, leadership, authority, and God's constant, saving love even in the midst of people making a mess of things. 12 lessons.

Let your students experience the raw faith and rich praise in Israel’s national songbook--the Psalms.The 12 sessions in Creative Bible Lessons in Psalms (the latest in Youth Specialties’ Creative Bible Lessons series) unwrap this Old Testament book so your students understand the passion, anguish, and joy expressed by David and the other Hebrew songwriters--and then learn to love the same God that the ancient Jews loved.The meetings (which are perfect for high schoolers and middle schoolers alike) are arranged around kinds of Psalms, including—Torah Psalms Seeing God at work in your personal historyComplaint Psalms When you’re attacked, is God always your bulletproof vest?Royal Psalms Jesus in the PsalmsTrust Psalms The God who really knows you, inside and outPenitential Psalms Shedding old skin--forgiveness and renewalThanksgiving Psalms Gratitude is next to godlinessOracle Psalms How to hear GodTaunt Psalms Battle lines are drawnAnd each session is loaded with options galore: clips from easy-to-get videos, games for mixing and games with a purpose, in-depth and ready-to-use questions for small-group discussions, original role plays, low-prep scripts, talks for you to give--activities to choose from that give your students not only a memorable time in youth group, but a taste of both the quiet trust and the boisterous celebration that the Psalms overflow with.Perfect for Sunday school teachers, youth workers, volunteers, CE directors, DREs, associate pastors--whoever wants to minister to real teenagers in a real world.

Here are 12 active Bible lessons for junior high Sunday school classes or youth group meetings, each one based on one of the 50 pictures of God presented in Wild Truth Journal: Pictures of God--energetically, relevantly, and scripturally. The lessons are loaded with off-the-wall and easy-to-do discussion starters, video ideas, scripts, and games with a point. And of course, there are plenty of Bible passages and studies to springboard junior highers from the abstract into the concrete as (open Bibles in hand) they explore the nature of God in a lively, relevant way — then begin practicing the traits of God in their own lives. 12 lessons.

Cultivate Intimacy and Honesty in Your Youth Ministry’s Small Groups Here are 31 small-group meetings about--well, small groups. After all, the kind of honest sharing, perceptive silence, compassionate boldness, and mutual growth that are the marks of an effective and attractive small group don’t always come naturally. With the complete sessions in Talking the Walk--all of them customized precisely for small groups--—you can lead your small group of teenagers from just getting comfortable with kids they don’t usually hang with, to talking honestly, listening carefully, and understanding themselves and each other. The first five meetings are a gradual, gentle introduction to the idea of communication, confidences, and listening skills--the mechanics and heart of small-group dynamics--then on to more than two dozen topical meetings about issues that matter most to adolescents: how to face life’s tensions; self esteem; change; sexuality; giving and receiving love; clarifying future goals; friends; family; forgiveness; diversity; conflict; moods; priorities--and more, all of them based in Bible passages . . . appropriate for mixed groups of churched and unchurched kids . . . and each session with more than enough creative and quirky ideas, so you can select those that best fit your style and your small group’s temperament. Perfect for outreach and evangelism groups, discipleship groups, Sunday school, midweek cell groups--any time you want small groups of your students to grow together in community, in intimacy, in faith. (Previously published as Honest to God) 31 sessions.

Start Discussions That Matter to Your High Schoolers About God. About themselves, their, beliefs, their questions, their lives.[Burst: More than a quarter-million copies sold in this series!]More High School TalkSheets—Updated! contains the same kind of provocative, compelling, discussion-starting questions that are hallmarks of the best-selling TalkSheets series—now updated for new-millennium high schoolers. Here are 50 more creative discussions that focus on relevant, real-life topics:The FutureDeathPrioritiesAIDSHeaven & HellPremarital SexPrayerKnowing GodHomosexualityMaterialism & Consumerism. . . and 40 more subjects of perennial interest to teenagers.TalkSheets are convenient, effective one-page reproducible handouts with intriguing questions that will get churched kids and unchurched kids alike talking and thinking about the Bible—and how its principles affect their daily lives.Use TalkSheets to launch your own lesson—or use them as stand-alone Bible studies. Each TalkSheet comes with detailed information and suggestions for discussion leaders: Bible references galore, Internet resources, further group exploration, and activities to pursue during and after the meeting.More High School TalkSheets—Updated! is the perfect discussion-starting resource for youth meetings, small groups and cell groups, Sunday school, and camps and retreats.

A first-of-its-kind study of Protestant youth ministers reveals the hopes, frustrations, and effectiveness of today’s youth workers.Of the 7,000 youth workers assembled in 1996 under Atlanta’s Georgia Dome, a sample of 2,130 full-time youth ministers from dozens of Protestant denominations and parachurch organizations answered a battery of exhaustive, deliberate questions covering:What they liked best about youth ministryWhat particularly pleased them in their work with youthWhat they found most encouraging or discouragingTheir biggest obstacle to an effective youth ministryTheir biggest concern in youth ministryTheir answers revealed a dedicated group of professionals, concerned a out the students in their ministries, but troubled with a variety of perplexing issues. And their answers form the backbone of Youth Ministry That Transforms, a comprehensive analysis of this groundbreaking study (funded by the Lilly Endowment) focusing on the hopes, frustrations, and effectiveness of today’s youth workers.Spearheaded by Merton Strommen--one of America’s most exemplary and influential thinkers and authors in youth and family ministry--the research-writing team is joined by Karen E. Jones and Dave Rahn of Huntington (Indiana) College’s Link Institute for Faithful and Effective Youth Ministry, and acknowledged leader in the task of undergirding youth ministry with a research base. These three deliver thorough analysis and sound interpretation regarding the state of youth ministry at the dawn of the 21st century.Youth Ministry That Transforms belongs on the desks and in the classrooms of all who are concerned with this developing profession, including denominational and parachurch leadership, professors, youth ministry students, and thoughtful youth workers themselves. It is also an insightful resource for any who want to understand youth ministers and their profession: senior pastors, executive pastors, and other individuals and committees charged with hiring and supervising youth workers.