Dear Youth Group leaders,
By now, teens have learned that there is no textbook answer to the questions they have as young Christians. Sometimes they will have to filter out distractions, sometimes they will have to seek out information, sometimes they will study and explore and still not find answers right away in their faith journey. Rather than providing authoritative answers or illustrating rehashed Biblical morals, you can support your youth by giving them the tools and encouragement to struggle through their journey.
This January, we are proud to announce a new addition to the Formations line of curriculum resources. Available as a digital download, Formations for Youth is an engaging, low-prep curriculum resource for Middle and High School youth groups. The lessons in this resource begin with activities that ask youth to consider a common theme in their relationship with God and their everyday lives. Then questions help youth explore those themes more deeply in discussion. Each weekly lesson in the four-month curriculum resource has four main components:
• The Scripture, Central Question, and Teacher Prep all correspond to the adult Formations lesson and include page numbers for your reference. This means you will have the ability to connect youth with the same material the adults in their lives might be exploring that week, and you can easily find lessons from the adult material to access background information and find study inspiration.
• An Interactive Option accompanies the Let’s Get Started section to help youth think about the Scripture text and connect it to their lives. Each optional activity requires little to no preparation, and varies between short creative projects and links to songs or videos. Because you know your group best, all of these activities are easy to scale up or down to whatever fits the interests and personalities of your group.
• The Middle School Group Questions and High School Group Questions explore similar ideas from the weekly Scripture text, but they are differentiated to connect more meaningfully with the experiences of each age level. Middle School questions may be broader to encourage brainstorming and self-reflection, while High School questions may focus on a specific complex idea found in the same Scripture text. Both sets of questions are designed so that youth can take the lead and own their experience.
• A Parting Prayer is available for you to use in concluding the lesson, and is followed by a Prayer Notes section so you can write down any special concerns or praises.
This resource operates under the belief that youth can and should be responsible for developing their individual relationships with Christ. We hope that the discussion questions in this resource will send your youth on a journey through the concerns and issues that are most relevant to their lives, and that they will feel safe and supported as they share their thoughts with their peers. We hope that each of these lessons will help you, their leader, create a structured, respectful environment where youth are encouraged to investigate their struggles, aspirations, and identities as they explore their faith. From this experience, we hope that youth will develop confidence in themselves as leaders and disciples of Christ. And above all, we hope that this resource brings you closer to your youth as you all grow closer in relationship with God.
The first four months of Formations for Youth lessons are available as a free download.
Michelle Meredith is a graduate of Mercer University, where she was the editor for literary and arts magazine The Dulcimer. She taught third and fourth grade in Mississippi for two years with Teach for America and became even more obsessed with live music and southern food (don’t even get her started on Delta tamales). She loves comedy, board games, roller derby, and hanging out with her dog. She is happy to be back in Macon, Georgia as the associate editor of Formations.
