Groups - What To Do With Teens
As a component of the youth ministry, Groups will provide families opportunities to purposefully explore and express faith. Below are five options that we suggest for families with teenagers.
Option 1 - Serve Together
A six-week rotation could look something like this:
- Group Week 1 – Meet and eat at a home. A member leads a discussion from the Bible on Loving and Serving those around us. The group looks for opportunities that week to serve together as a Group, and brings those ideas to the next meeting.
- Group Week 2 – Meet and eat at a home. Group members discuss what opportunities they’ve found in the community to serve together and decide by vote which one or ones the Group can do the following week.
- Group Week 3 – Meet and serve together. This opportunity to serve may not be on a Sunday night, it may be on Saturday Morning, Monday night, or whenever the Group and the service opportunity will be present.
- Group Week 4 – Meet and eat at a home. Discuss the blessing of serving others, and serving together. Discuss a Bible passage that points us to Love and Serve those around us. The bulk of the discussion should be about the experience of serving together in Week 3.
- Group Week 5 – Repeat Group Week 2 with the same or different service opportunities.
- Group Week 6 – Repeat Group Week 3.
Option 2 - Bible Studies
All weeks could follow the similar schedule. The Group could pick random passages (each leaders choice) to study. The Group could pick to follow and or discuss the www.shygbible.blogspot.com passages that pertain to the daily Bible reading.
Option 3 - Video Studies
- The church is recommending “Handle with Prayer”, a DVD driven study done by Rick Atchley that will be very good for adults and possibly older teens.
- SHYG has purchased 8 engaging and captivating Nooma Videos that will be excellent for discussion and Bible study for Groups with mostly kids in High School. The videos will be at the church office, an for $5 per video, we will have them on a check out and check in system. The videos we will have will be: Sunday, Rhythm, Bullhorn, Dust, Kickball, Noise, Today. The description for the topics of these videos can be found at www.nooma.com. Each of these thought provoking videos last between 11-15 minutes. You can preview these videos on their website, too.
Option 4 - Activity-based Studies
For families of predominately Jr. High teens and younger, www.d6family.com/splink is an excellent website with practical and easy to use teaching activities.
Option 5 - Parents and Teens Separate (Not the best option)
Parents can hold their study on Wednesday night during Bible class hour. Or parents can be in one room with a Bible study, and another adult leading the teen Bible study.
- The most important factor for a Group to be successful is to find one other couple to help share in the leadership and hosting role.
- Investment and Participation by Members: Parents and teens can share responsibilities of the Group gatherings (leading a Bible study, reading scriptures during a Bible study, a teen’s lead night – cooking and teaching, choosing activities, etc.)
- Don’t just say “We’ll do whatever the teens want us to do”. Parental consideration of what’s appropriate and effective for teens is important. Parental leadership is
- essential for a Group to function in a healthy way.
- Rotate between at least 2 locations for the meeting.
