As summer winds down and the start of the school year looms, it’s time to be thinking about the fall calendar. One youth ministry activity that gets the least amount of attention, yet promises the most payoff, is Bible engagement. So, to help reverse that trend, take five minutes to consider five Bible engagement “things” to infuse into your youth ministry this fall.
THING 1: Engagement, not Study
It’s time to lose the word “study” for our discipleship. The word is wholly appropriate for personal study, but it sends an inaccurate message to our teens. Granted, we tend to say it in one word (BIBLEstudy) with emphasis on Bible, but it’s time to freshen up our verbiage. What we’re wanting is Bible engagement: ruminating on, wrestling with and questioning the Scriptures.
THING 2: Self-Fed Holy Wow
There are few better things to witness than a spiritual light bulb clicking on above a teen’s head. And it is best served when self-discovered. Structure your time for personal exploration. Strike a healthy balance between solitude and open-ended group processing.
THING 3: Put It into Practice
Create outlets for obedience. Build into the schedule opportunities for outward obedience that is directly related to the text you’re exploring: taking care of widows, feeding the hungry, visiting the sick. Build accountability in between sessions to encourage inward obedience: attitudes to adjust, behavior to change, reactions to pacify.
THING 4: Invite the Hungry
This may sound counterintuitive, but Bible engagement is probably not be for everybody in your ministry. You’ll want to let students know that it’s voluntary: for the curious and the hungry. It’s the only way to feed the hungry with the depth they deserve.
THING 5: Trust the Word
Let your prep and your leadership exhibit trust that God’s Word will do what it says it can do. Here’s a gauge: Of the following activities, where do you spend most of your time when prepping?
- Tracking/reviewing video or other media
- Reading others’ opinions/commentary
- Collecting supplies for object lessons/analogies
- Personally studying the Scripture
- Promoting and inviting
Every one of those activities is important and needed, but you can probably guess which one God is going to use the most.
These are five simple things that can ramp up your level of Bible engagement with teens. Make this fall the year that God’s Word gets more attention than usual in your ministry.