Do You Need A Curriculum?

One of the very important tasks of the youth leader is the planning
and implementation of curriculum.

I realize that this process may be very different from church to
church. Some churches have Christian Education professionals or
committees whom decide on curriculums for all ages.

Other churches, particularly in their Sunday school, will adhere to
a quarterly, often denominationally published. Still, there are other
churches which have no idea what they are teaching month to month
(or even week to week in some situations) and depend on a variety of
resources for the instruction of their kids.

Yes, there certainly are a lot of approaches to curriculum decisions
for youth groups. I do not know what your churches approach is, but
let me say this:

Curriculum decisions, design, and instruction is a CRITICAL element
of
successful youth ministry. In short, what a youth leader chooses to
teach and the way he/she teaches is of paramount importance!

Currently I am teaching a Youth Ministry Skills course at a local
Bible College. I will submit to you, the reader, the same thesis I
gave
that class of young youth ministry students the first day of class:

You can be the finest trained Bible scholar around but unless you
can make it relevant and teach so that a 14 year-old can get it,
you are sunk!

With this in mind, I would like to spend the next several articles
sharing some thoughts on the subject of curriculum decisions,
design, and instruction.

I think it goes without saying that the following articles will not
be exhaustive on the subject. However, I hope to throw out some
principles that will get you thinking about your approach to
curriculum
decisions, styles of presentation, and some tried and true teaching
techniques that will reel in even the most disengaged of teenagers.

I pray the following entries will be helpful and encouraging to
you. This subject of curriculum design and teaching is close to my
heart and I really love writing and speaking on the subject.

I was at a church in New York doing a youth leader seminar. A new
committee had been formed to oversee the ministry and I was asked
if I would sit in and observe the meeting and offer any insights
that may be helpful. It was fun and they were a great group of
laborers for the Lord.

When it came to a discussion about what the group would discuss and
learn about in the bible teaching time, several of the leaders chimed
in with statements like:

“I really want to teach End Times in the book of Revelation.”

“I read a great poem on attitude. We should teach about that.”

“I have a great lesson on prayer that I did with the adults.”

And on the discussion went….

Now, do not misunderstand me, maybe there were some great lessons to
be taught on end times, attitude, and prayer. But these people were
forgetting to ask one very important question:

What do the kids need?

Maybe you do have a lesson you are really excited about…great! But is
it the right time to teach that lesson or are you just excited about
it?

Friends, this issue is so fundamental! When you are putting
together your next quarter of teaching, please think and pray about
what your kids really need. Remember this basic tenant of teaching
teenagers: If it is not relevant, it is not real. And because of
this, youth leaders need to be plugged into what their kids really
need to be hearing.

This topic then begs the question, “How does a
youth leader know what their kids need?”

I’ll touch on this topic in my next post.

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