2024/2025 Holy Disruptions Youth Ministry Curriculum Bundle

Description

This bundle of curriculum includes 9 different series covering 34 weeks. The series include:

 

GRACE 

This 3-week series explores the concept of grace through a variety of different lenses. These lenses, themed around fairness, judgment, and self-forgiveness will challenge teenagers to explore grace in a way that is a lot more nuanced (and maybe more uncomfortable) than your typical Sunday school lesson. The lessons are not meant to capture the theological concept of grace in full, but the avenues through which young people might encounter grace in their real lives, in both comforting and affronting ways. The series includes activities such as games with unfair rules, a mock sentencing for a crime, and a case study, as well as readings from theological giants like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Henri Nouwen, and John Wesley.

 

CONFLICT

This 4-week series explores various dimensions of conflict: internal, relational, systemic, and ideological. Students will unpack emotions, thoughts, and actions as they relate to conflict. Your group will consider the positive and negative influences of family, school, and culture on their understanding of conflict. Then, they’ll discern what God and their faith say about conflict in those areas. By exploring conflict in this way, participants will gain a deeper understanding of it and greater confidence in their ability to navigate it. This will ultimately help them see the person God created them to be.

 

PASSION

This series is designed to help students intentionally examine their lives through the lens of their faith. They will begin to understand that God is calling them to something bigger, something deeper, and something beyond their comprehension. They’ll be encouraged to reclaim and rejoice in the things that make them unique. Ultimately, they will focus on the discovery of their purpose, passion, and what they are truly living for.

 

ADVENT

Advent is a season of anticipating the birth of Jesus and the beginning of the church calendar. In this 4-week series, we reflect on moments where realities do not live up to expectations. Your group will explore how God disrupts expectations through Jesus’ birth in the manger, provides a new possibility when Joseph’s expectations of life get disrupted, is with Mary as she is confronted with large expectations, and provides hope when the community does not live up to expectations.

 

WOMEN IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

This 4-week series explores the (often countercultural) roles that women are called to fulfill in the story of Jesus and the beginning of the church – as prophet, proclaimer, pastor, and recipient of grace. Throughout, students are encouraged to place themselves in these women’s shoes and step more fully into the roles they are being called to.

 

COMPASSION

What is compassion? In this 3-week series, we’ll explore compassion as love in action. A dictionary definition describes “compassion” as seeing suffering and desiring to relieve it. Students will explore both worldly and personal stereotypes that often keep us from being compassionate toward others. They’ll also learn what can happen when there is an absence of compassion. These lessons should open their hearts and hands to help change the world in small (and big) ways.

 

LETTING GO: A Lenten Series

Lent is a season of reflection through the act of giving up or taking on. It’s a time we seek to incur some type of sacrifice to help us recognize our need for God and God’s presence in our lives. This series will help students see that from a 30,000-foot perspective. What if Lent was less about giving up a single item or action as a sacrifice and more about learning to “let go” of the things that pull us away from God? In this 6-week series, leaders will reflect with students on what it means to let go of self, comfort, stuff, status, control, and expectations. The goal of these lessons is to frame Lent as a journey of liberation from the things that hinder us from living a prosperous life of joy.

 

TRUST

This series centers on the lost virtue of trust: the challenges of maintaining it, the consequences of its breach, and the potential for healing and reconciliation. We delve into the complexities of trust by examining real-life scenarios, engaging with scripture, and drawing from various perspectives. The goal of these lessons is to equip both leaders and students with the tools to navigate the complexities surrounding trust in a world where it’s often tested and betrayed. Students will emerge with a deeper understanding of trust and faith. They will also be empowered to cultivate greater trust in their relationships and communities.

 

UNCHARTED

In this 4-week series, your group will explore their own faith, stepping into the divine mystery. This is a journey of self-discovery, where they will enter into and embrace the unknown. Together, your group will explore who they are, their doubts, the baggage they carry in life, and who God calls them to be in the world. As they engage in this process of personal exploration, questions will arise and may lead to deeper places on their journey. In their time with each other, they may find themselves having the faith to say, “I don’t know the answer,” and the faith to believe God will still lead.