Faith Stuff–Object Lessons, Prayer, Scripture, Saints, and Other Useful Stuff
OBJECT LESSONS, SCRIPTURE AND PRAYER 12 Months of Faith: A Devotional Journal for Teens Bettie Youngs, Jennifer Youngs, and Debbie Thurman 101 Affirmations for Teenagers: Esteem Building Activities for Youth Ministry Compiled by the Editors of Group Publishing Crowd Breakers and Mixers for Youth Groups Youth Specialties Downtime: Helping Teenagers Pray Mark Yaconelli Everyday Object…
Secular Stuff–Tweak At Will!
Surely you know that there are endless resources out there for designing super-charged lessons in self-awareness, character development, teamwork, communication and group building. For years I’ve been adapting ideas from these resources to work for my content, because they are often light-years ahead of traditional religion text resources in terms of high energy impact, multiple…
Know Them
FAITH AND CULTURE: Below are several good reads offering succinct overviews of the latest research on the generation of teens in our sessions and classrooms. Particularly good resources exist for understanding how they define and relate to ‘faith.’ Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the Church Kenda Creasy Dean Branded: Adolescents…
Reaching Every Learner
There are a lot of books out there on learning theory and classroom management. Here’s what I consider some of the best of the best. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ Daniel Goleman Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus Sherry A. Weddell Frames of Mind Howard Gardner…
Mind Their Gender!
The guys and gals in your room will learn differently not only because of their brain wiring, but due to gender differences. Part nature, part nurture, the resulting learning diversity in our groups needs to be respected if our sessions are going to have effective access points for all. These resources offer a general overview…
Access Points for Prayer–“Sacred Pathways”
As Catholics, we hold firm to the fact that God is constantly seeking us out with an over-the-top love that is awash throughout all of creation. Trinitarian theology tells us that all things, everywhere, are rich with the outpouring of this love. The grace of our Seeking God is available through endless modes, moments, portals,…
Journaling–The preference of the Linguistically-Leaning
Temp4Tim!Journaling is the tour de force for the linguistically-leaning brain. You’ll have a lot of them in your class or small group (particularly among the ladies), so offering faith journaling will prove fruitful. Fred Duckworth offers these simple tips, along with a small set of excellent prompts in his online journaling pamphlet for teens. You…
Prayer Coach Power Move–The Journal
“The purpose of practice is to make your actions automatic; no thought is required. Build in the muscle memory and the psychomotor pathways, and tell your mind to get out of the way. Dan Kelbick was speaking about the basketball free throw when he said the above. The perfect throw results from the perfect habit…
Job #1–Know Him
I’ve been a Catholic all my life, including 18 years of education at all Catholic schools, and even have B.A and M.A in Theology. How is it possible that–in all those years–there was no effort or syllabus designed to help me with the important stuff: building a faith life? As a general unfortunate rule, the…