Monthly column for youth leaders

Welcome, again, to our virtual web site, existing on paper but not on the internet. Here are some of 'My favourites'. These are resources that I have found helpful. Access the resources by underlining the title in blue, point your finger to that item and say 'click, click'. Alternatively fall back on the old-fashioned method of visiting a good Christian bookshop and talking to someone.

Games and activities

I'm sure you have experienced this problem. You buy an exciting, glossy book with some fantastic looking games in it. When you get it home and study more closely, you discover that only a very few games are practical. The rest require a disused aerodrome, several thousand pounds of resources and a contact with the ex-military. Where do you go for value-for-money ideas books?

Youth Specialties produce books that have the highest percentage of useable games, in my experience. Youth Specialties is an American organisation producing youth and children's work resources geared mainly towards programming, although they have recently produced more Bible study material (see below). Zondervan are the publishers, most Christian bookshops now stock a good range, and there's a website (of course).

Another good value booklet is A Pocket full of programmes published by Printforce. It really does fit in your pocket, but has some great ideas in it.

Bible study material

It's hard to find really good Bible study material, especially for lower teenagers. Although there is no such thing as a 'ready-made meeting', some of 'My favourites' do speed up the preparation work.

Go Teach is a quarterly publication covering all the age groups up to 14 years. The material is very helpful, with background work on the passage each week, ideas for the lesson, photocopiable resources and an activity booklet for the young people. The booklet for the 11-14s is not too corny, it has some fairly stretching puzzles, questions pointing to the meaning of the text and additional material giving testimonies or real-life stories.

The Growing Young Disciples series, by Tim Hawkins, is another favourite, especially for midweek Bible studies. The five books are published by CEP and are available through The Good Book Company. The first two deal with the basics of Christianity. The remaining three cover areas of doubt and assurance, perseverance, and lifestyle and can be done in any order.

For older teenagers The Ichthus Files still present the best material for study. They are great for one-to-one work, small groups and for young people to read themselves. The Ichthus Files are not always to everyone's taste, but they provide a great jumping off point, even if you use them for your own preparation - available from The Good Book Company. Youth Specialties and CPAS both produce some good material for use on Sundays with older teenagers. Although this material may need you to do more donkey work on the Bible background it often has some good ideas for activities. It is worth scanning these books, some will be more useful than others. Recently I have used Creative Studies in Romans by Youth Specialties.

General books

If I were to put together a pack for someone new to youth work, there are several books I would recommend that they had a look at. Not all these books may be currently in print, one comes from America. Beg, borrow, buy, although I hesitate to say steal, them if you can, they are each worth their weight in South American rainforest.

High on the list are two books by Phil Moon, one co-written with Mark Ashton: Christian Youth Work and Young People and the Bible. The former is a great book to get you going, to stimulate thought about strategy, and to help develop a good model of biblical youth work. The latter is full of excellent ideas for helping young people study the Bible. However the ideas are put within a bigger framework. The reader is drawn beyond looking for an idea for next Sunday and towards planning a wider syllabus and strategy.

Youth Ministry, Nuts and Bolts by Duffy Robbins is the next on the list. Needless to say, this is the one from across the pond. Sub-titled 'Mastering the ministry behind the scenes', it is the book to refer to before bouncing up to the youth committee with your next five-year plan and budget.

The final additions to the basket are Changing the World by Ken Moser and Their God is so Big by Stephanie Carmichael (both distributed by The Good Book Company). Ken Moser writes for leaders of teenage groups, Stephanie Carmichael for children's leaders. Both books are superb on strategy for biblical youth ministry as well as being full of good ideas.

Now that your mouse finger is aching, you can stop clicking and shut down. Why not make a cup of coffee and curl up with a good book, perhaps one of the above?

Next time:
Web Page #3: Content Advisor - teaching relationships to youth groups.

Web page #2: My favourites

Games and activities

Bible study material

General books

Roger Fawcett

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