New Initiatives to Help Youth Workers Teach the Bible
Youth Ministers have received a calling to make disciples, and that simply cannot be divorced from a calling to teach the Bible. It must not be! But it also prompts a host of important questions:
How do you plan what you teach throughout the school year? Now, what about year-after-year? Is there a strategic plan that guides you?
How do you write your messages? Hopefully there’s some Bible study involved. But it’s not a great idea to simply teach your Bible study notes, so how do you take all that exegesis and develop a lesson for teenagers that’s faithful to the biblical text, understandable to real teenagers? And what’s the role of the gospel in all of this?
Finally, how do you actually communicate that lesson in a way that’s interesting and engaging? Do you find yourself losing kids’ attention after just a few minutes? Do you keep on teaching and assume that students’ lack of attention is due to their hard hearts?
In short, these come down to Planning, Bible Study, and Delivery. If we want to be nerdy about it then this is a matter of Pedagogy, Hermeneutics, and Homiletics. These are at the heart of two new initiatives by YPT: our new Teaching Workshops and Online Cohorts.
YPT Teaching Workshops
YPT’s Teaching Workshop is a daylong training event that your church can apply to host for your team and for the youth ministries in your area. Workshops are taught by our experienced YPT Trainers. You and your team will receive:
STRATEGY to plan your TEACHING CALENDAR
Many youth ministries focus on teaching doctrine, or Christian living, or spiritual formation. We will help you develop a long-range teaching strategy that incorporates all of those components as you make disciples.METHODS for how to STUDY and TEACH THE BIBLE
We will teach you time-tested methods for developing effective lesson outlines that clearly flow from the biblical text to the head, heart, and hands of your teens.Effective COMMUNICATION SKILLS
This workshop will sharpen your communication skills so you can deliver theologically sound and biblically focused lessons to teenagers with clarity and depth.
The YPT Teaching Workshop will strengthen your whole team to have a unified vision for teaching the Bible to youth. So whether or not you’re the lead teacher of a large youth ministry or a volunteer small group leader or Sunday school teacher for a handful of teenagers, this day will train you to study and communicate God’s Word to teenagers with clarity and confidence.
YPT Online Cohorts
The YPT Online Cohort is a six-session, three-month cohort. These 90-minute sessions will feature meaningful training with ample discussion time in order to help you teach with confidence and skill.
Session 1: Catechetical Discipleship: How to plan your teaching calendar
Session 2: Gospel-Centered Teaching: approaches to teaching the gospel from Genesis through Revelation
Session 3: Expository teaching: an overview of how to construct a biblical message
Session 4: Expository: developing a book of the Bible Series, overview of biblical genres
Session 5: Expository: developing a topical/theological Series that's anchored in Scripture
Session 6: Engagement: Delivery Tips, Classroom Management, Asking Good Questions
There’s a natural overlap between the workshops and the cohort because they share the same heart and vision. But due to YPT’s limitations we can only host a handful of in-person workshops so we want to provide additional opportunities to train youth pastors who live too far away to attend. Additionally, we recognize that attending a one-day workshop can sometimes feel like information overload, and those who attend may benefit from an extended cohort where they can engage the content in more depth alongside other youth leaders.
So, although there’s admittedly a fair amount of overlap, this is intentional because it will really serve those who participate in ways that sets them up to follow through with the trainings’ emphases.
Other Future Initiatives
Another major project that’s currently under development is a YPT Curriculum. I’m hoping we can launch this curriculum in April/May 2025 so you can purchase and review it during the summer and begin teaching it in Fall 2025. The curriculum will build upon the framework of catechesis: the Creed (Christian Doctrine), the Lord’s Prayer (Spiritual Formation), and the Ten Commandments (Christian Living). Each year, YPT Curriculum will provide one series in each category in order to encourage you to make whole disciples. Churches tend to be strong in one of those three areas - some are even good at two - but very few churches emphasize all three areas of catechesis in discipleship. We want to help you correct that in order that students would pursue Christ with their whole selves. Stay tuned for more about this approach to discipleship.
YPT is also piloting a Book Club, to provide fellowship and support for youth workers who want to read and discuss good books in community. Be on the lookout for more book club groups to open up in 2025.
A Final Invitation
Many of churches have a missions program, and I’d like to ask you readers to tell them about Youth Pastor Theologian. Simply put, if YPT is going to continue to provide resources, training, and support for youth leaders then we need people and churches to support this ministry financially. Will you partner with us to spark a theological renewal in youth ministry?
Please download the Missions Letter from YPT’s Give page to share with your church’s missions committee. Over the first six months of 2024 only 60% of YPT’s web traffic was from the USA. This is an increasingly global ministry. I hear from youth workers around the world far more than I ever expected, many of whom rely on the internet for good discipleship resources for their ministries. YPT’s Advisory Council reflects our commitment to serve global youth workers (half of whom were born outside of the USA). Supporting YPT is one way that churches can help provide good content and materials for youth discipleship in the global church.
