Youth Resources

by Gareth Higgs

As a youth team we want to be about engaging young people and students, supporting them prayerfully and actively through the lens of MET, but also equipping workers with students and young people. This year, Biblefresh has taken the church by storm with loads of resources directed at adult engagement with the Bible. Here are some resources for youth workers with some brief and punchy reviews in no particular order...

 

The Dangerous Book

 

Why would someone pray for years for a Bible? Why would someone walk for miles to hear the Bible? Why would someone spend hours hand copying parts of the Bible in secret? Why would someone risk their life for a Bible? Why would we leave our Bible on the shelf?

 

Discover more by downloading this excellent youth group session - for free! biblefresh.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Open-Doors-Youth-Session.pdf

 

Fresh ways to share the Bible with young people Watch or listen to Jenny Baker, writer, trainer and member of the Sophia Network steering group, as she makes innovative and creative suggestions for ways to connect Scripture to young people’s lives.
vimeo.com/ 11322963

 

Reading youth culture through biblical lenses Jason Gardner, LICC’s Lecturer in Youth Discipleship and author of Mend the Gap, takes us on a journey through the landscape of contemporary youth culture, to help gain understanding of its connections to the biblical story.
vimeo.com/11238316

 

The three resources above and their recommendations are taken from biblefresh.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/August-email.pdf

 

Biblefresh website

 

The Biblefresh website is really engaging and helpful and has a whole section relating to resources for young people. Check it out at biblefresh.com/resources/reading/youth/

 

Youth Alpha

 

Youth Alpha still remains an excellent resource for youth groups helping them to engage with the Biblical story of salvation and encouraging a response themselves. Now with multiple streams for different groups or sub-groups it is far more flexible and user friendly than it was. A great resource.

 

Mettle

 

Mettle is a resource provided by YFC. It requires a subscription but is well worth the fee as the material produced is excellent and plenty for the average youth group. Mettle provides loads of options for youth leaders depending on their time, space and resources and is readily adaptable. It can be a little repetitive over a themed series, but is well worth a go.

 

Mettle Bible notes

 

Again produced by Yfc, these Mettle daily bible notes accompany the Mettle series used for groups. These are engaging and helpful notes, not too long but still with a good point each day. Many young people have found these notes helpful in bringing the Bible to life and applying it to their circumstances.

 

Word 4u 2day

 

These are a youth-friendly version of UCB’s popular daily Bible notes. Taking a similar format but relating better to young people, this is a really easy way of encouraging young people to engage with a little bit of the Bible each day. What’s more, they’re free!

 

Nooma

 

Rob Bell’s Nooma series has taken the church by storm over the last few years. His videos are short, contemporary thought provoking pieces with much to mull over afterwards. They will work best with a mature Christian youthgroup, but aren’t beyond using with younger teens.

 

Manga Bible

 

The Manga Bible comes highly recommended and has a great reputation for engaging with young teenage boys in particular. It’s an action packed narrative of the New Testament in a Japanese Comic style, but its appeal is widespread and growing. For a more comprehensive review, check out christianbookshops.org.uk/reviews/mangabible.htm

 

Youth Bible

 

This trusty companion to many youth worker still finds a helpful place within any youth leader’s resource box. It is simple in format, the full biblical text and is full of helps for young people on a number of spiritual and moral issues. It has been around in various guises for years, but is still in demand, allowing its quality and usefulness to speak for itself.

 

If you’re a student....

 

Be Thinking

 

Why not check out bethinking.org? This is a branch of UCCF’s work and is their apologetics website. It is packed full of resources either to answer your own tough questions or to help tackle the questions of your housemates or friends.

 

The resources on bethinking.org are in a variety of media and come from some of the leading young apologists around at the moment. This website is a must for Christian students wanting to be equipped to ‘give a reason for the hope we have.’

Gareth Higgs is a Methodist minister in Burnley, and MET Co-ordinator for Youth and Students

METconnexion summer 2011 p.28