Josh GriffinMore PostsFree Thanksgiving Lesson from YM360
My friends at ym360 have a great Thanksgiving resource for you. It’s a Thanksgiving page featuring three Thanksgiving lessons and a handful of Thanksgiving games. The best part? They’re all FREE! If you’re interested in downloading one or all of the Thanksgiving resources from ym360, simply head on over to YM360 and as always if you have any questions or problems with the download, the ym360 team is standing by to help out.
JG
Josh GriffinMore PostsFree Easter Lesson from Youth Ministry 360
Youth Ministry 360 has a new free Easter lesson available for free this week – if you’ve used any of their stuff before (and be sure to check out their store of great resources as well) you’ll know this is probably a solid lesson for you to use in the season around Easter. Check it out if you’re looking for something for this season!
JG
Josh GriffinMore PostsFree Christmas Youth Group Lesson from YouthMinistry360
The team over at Youth Ministry 360 has posted a great free resource you may want to use this Christmas season in your youth ministry. You can grab it right here and here’s a description of the freebie:
The Christmas story is one that is probably very familiar to your students. We have to make sure that this type of familiarity doesn’t lead them to miss the wonderful truths contained in the account of Jesus’ birth. Through this lesson, your students will look closer at the details of the Christmas account, but will also see the various approaches to Jesus represented by the specific people mentioned in the story: the shepherds, the magi, and King Herod. Your students will be challenged to examine how they see each of these different “reactions” represented in the world in which they live.
And be sure to check out their resource store as well if you like the stuff they provide for free.
JG
Josh GriffinMore PostsGUEST POST: 43 Top Church Resource WebsitesThere are plenty of websites that promise to help you do one thing or another in your ministry. Below are seven categories of resources that I hope you will find helpful:
Curriculum Resources
Printing Media
Videos
Organization
Purchasing Resources
Parent Resources
Other Resources
Did I miss any services that you use? If so, let me know in the comments.
Zach Younkin helps out wherever needed in the Delaware Grace Brethren Youth Ministry. You can follow him on Twitter at @zachyounkin and check him out on his blog.
Josh GriffinMore PostsHow to Choose the Perfect Small Group CurriculumAs we head into the Life Group season full-swing, one of the big questions we have to answer is about curriculum for our small groups. Our answer is the LIVE curriculum from Simply Youth Ministry, with it’s 4-year teaching plan and great technology behind it. Whatever you choose for your ministry, you would be served well by following the criteria Youth Ministry 360 lays out – here’s 3 of the 9 principles they shared on their site today:
Teachability
How “teachable” is the resource? There some great looking resources out there that are written or laid-out in such a way that makes them difficult for a teacher to actually teach. So, lesson teachability is a huge factor. The Internet has made purchasing curriculum a breeze. These days, I can’t imagine buying a resource without viewing a sample lesson. Any reputable (and some who aren’t) resource provider will offer a downloadable sample of the resource. Take the time to download and really check it out. Read for theological accuracy, teaching style, and overall comfort. It’s like trying on clothes: you know when it fits.Free Is Great, But . . .Lots and lots of folks offer free lessons.
We do it (and you can check our free stuff out here). And most of the major curriculum providers do, too. Free lessons are great for individual use, or to get a feel for a specific provider’s overall curriculum strategy. But, you’ll never be effective if your youth ministry relies on free lessons for the majority of your teaching time. It’s a shotgun approach that is tough to be very strategic with. Here’s one thing I have learned: there are a million people offering free lessons online. All you need is a blog, and Microsoft Word, and you can create and distribute resources. Not all of it is good, accurate, reliable, or usable. By all means, take advantage of free resources. Take advantage of ours and the many other great ones available. But, don’t become too dependent on them. Honestly, you are better off writing your own curriculum than having a steady diet of free lessons where you can’t control the direction.There Is No Perfect Curriculum
The best curriculum in the world is still just a starting point. You know your students better than the men and women who create the curriculum. It’s a good idea to know that you will always have to make tweaks to lessons to make sure they fit your students’ personalities and level of spiritual development. You know you’ve chosen the right curriculum when you find that the tweaks are relatively minor, and that for the most part, you are not having to make them week-in, and week-out.
JG
Josh Griffin has been in youth ministry for 16+ years in a small church and a big church. He currently serves as the High School Pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA. [read more]
Geoff Stewart serves the Jr / Sr High School Pastor at Peace Portal Alliance Church in Surrey B.C.
Chris Wesley serves as the Director of Student Ministry at Church of the Nativity in Timonium, Maryland.
Colton Harker serves with Josh at Saddleback Church. He is currently in his second year in youth ministry.
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