Finding Youth Ministry Resources With a Reformed Perspective
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I have to admit that whenever I’ve looked for resources to share with youth groups, the first thing I look for is a great program that will be of interest to students. I haven’t always looked for or selected resources that teach from a Reformed perspective. With my own children now involved in youth groups, I have a far more focused interest in Reformed resources.
Of course, any book or resource can be viewed from a Reformed perspective. I’ve recently used “Forgotten God” by Francis Chan, and “Radical” by David Platt and found them to be outstanding starting points for discussion with students.
We are, however, blessed to have some outstanding resources many of which are available through Faith Alive Christian Resources and written from a Reformed perspective. I would certainly suggest you consider these and the many other resources available through Faith Alive.
Here are a few resources to consider:
I hope these suggestions are helpful. If any of you have other resources that you have found to work well with youth groups, please respond to this blog. Let’s share the good ideas and excellent resources that have proven to reach youth.
Youth Ministry, Classis
Global Mission, Youth Ministry
Youth Ministry, Children's Ministry
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Would love to see something new and fresh being offered for the HC. QWA is a good resource but I have taught this for eight years and would like to see something new. I'm getting tired of the same old thing! Questions from the Pickle Jar is exceptional material! Highly recommend this to any high school youth group! As for the others I look forward to checking them out, thank you for listing them!
Dana - Have you tried Faith Alive's other course, "HC and Me"? If not, here's the link. Tim
We did get a copy at the church to look over. Unfortunately was not overly excited about it.
This post is a few years old now, but still relevant. Thanks for highlighting the various resources from Faith Alive, Paul. As walls are crumbling between denominations it's important to expose our young people to good resources and help them discern what is true, biblical, and even Reformed.
Our youth group went through Karl Graustein's "Growing Up Christian: Have You Taken Ownership of Your Relationship with God." by P&R. Good resource.
Great Commissions (the publishing arm of the OPC and PCA) has a a great set of studies in their "So What?" series.
In catechism, we have provided our teachers with solid curriculum and then given them the freedom to teach the lessons as they see fit for the given class. We use a variety of foundational resources - some from Faith Alive (yes, "Landmarks" and "What We Believe" are still the framework!), Reformed Fellowship ("Life in Christ" series), and some cobbled together pieces for a study of the Church History and Canons of Dort ("The Doctrines of Grace: Student Edition" by Shane Lems).
Some of that comes from the broader Reformed circles - but we hope to expose our youth to authors and teachers who may be beyond the CRC.
A few more good resources from a Reformed perspective:
"This Changes Everything: How the Gospel Transforms the Teen Years" by Jaquelle Crowe
"Do Hard Things" by Alex Harris
The "New City Catechism" provides a fresh look at the Heidelberg meshed with the Westminster Catechism.
Reformed Youth Services is another resources which has several series of youth group lessons/studies.
This is great, Chad. Would love to start a new thread on this. Saved your book recommendations on my wishlist.
Most of these links are broken and need to be updated!
Thank you so much for catching this! I have updated the links and they should all be working now.
Thanks again,
Staci
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