Do any of you know of ANY good small group material for teens (High school or Junior High)? I've been looking around and I'm not coming up with much. AE
Some resources I have recently picked up and found useful are:
1) Small group stratagies for developing spiritual growth in your students - Laurie Polich. Some good basics on small groups and good ideas. Good resource for your small group leaders!
2) Talksheets on CD-ROM - David Lynn et al. I have found these to be very useful in both small and large group prep. You can search by topic and/or scripture reference. They come with prepared handouts you can use as is or edit to fit your group/style. I have found the discussion ideas and questions very good.
3) The Ideas Library on CD-ROM - Similar to the talk sheets above but more expansive to include worship ideas, games, skits, etc. Another tool I have found useful.
4)The Youth Workers Big Book of Case Studies by Steve Case - I haven't used this in small groups yet but I plan to. They present a real life situation that many times does not have an "easy answer" and then some discussion questions and bible verse references to get the kids thinking and talking. On first read it looks very good as well.
All of the above can be gotten thru Youth Specialties and no, I don't work for them! :)
All that being said - I think many times the most important part of a small group is the actual gathering and being good listeners to the kids, making it a priority, and of course having some food! I have found that good materials are generally more important so that the leaders feel comfortable more so than the kids. This doesn't make the materials less important as I think it is very important to be able to support the small group leaders and make their prep as easy as possible.
I bought the Amazing Events in the Life of Jesus from Next Gen and gave it to our high school class teacher. It looked very good.
Does anyone use Serendipity's material any more? I haven't used it in a long time...but I saw in the bookstore the other day that they seem to have revamped the look. They are pioneers in small groups.
www.youthresource.net has some neat things as well.
Some resources I have recently picked up and found useful are:
1) Small group stratagies for developing spiritual growth in your students - Laurie Polich. Some good basics on small groups and good ideas. Good resource for your small group leaders!
2) Talksheets on CD-ROM - David Lynn et al. I have found these to be very useful in both small and large group prep. You can search by topic and/or scripture reference. They come with prepared handouts you can use as is or edit to fit your group/style.
I have found the discussion ideas and questions very good.
3) The Ideas Library on CD-ROM - Similar to the talk sheets above but more expansive to include worship ideas, games, skits, etc. Another tool I have found useful.
4)The Youth Workers Big Book of Case Studies by Steve Case - I haven't used this in small groups yet but I plan to. They present a real life situation that many times does not have an "easy answer" and then some discussion questions and bible verse references to get the kids thinking and talking. On first read it looks very good as well.
All of the above can be gotten thru Youth Specialties and no, I don't work for them! :)
All that being said - I think many times the most important part of a small group is the actual gathering and being good listeners to the kids, making it a priority, and of course having some food! I have found that good materials are generally more important so that the leaders feel comfortable more so than the kids. This doesn't make the materials less important as I think it is very important to be able to support the small group leaders and make their prep as easy as possible.
Good luck!
I bought the Amazing Events in the Life of Jesus from Next Gen and gave it to our high school class teacher. It looked very good.
Does anyone use Serendipity's material any more? I haven't used it in a long time...but I saw in the bookstore the other day that they seem to have revamped the look. They are pioneers in small groups.
www.youthresource.net has some neat things as well.
Thanks for the tips. I'm going to use some of Jeremy's stuff this time.
AE