Youth Ministry gets a facelift
We’ve got a lot of friends all around the country who we get to see at national events, conferences, gatherings, and the like – ministry folks, young and old, from mainline, evangelical, emerging and other parts within the mosaic we call the church. We really like hanging with ministry people and listening to their stories. (We love it when they bring us snacks as well. Just saying.)
Events are a great opportunity for us to play catch-up and talk about all the good stuff sparkhouse is doing. We talk about our new Green VBS curriculum (ReNew). We also talk about re:form, and how it uses students’ own creativity and participation to truly educate (literally “to draw out” or “to bring out” by a process of discovery) from within the community. Juxtapose this with the old model of indoctrination, where pastors have to hurriedly cram as much theology as possible into young brains, and in the process, reduces their students’ roles into passive receivers of data. We explain that re:form just isn’t like that at all: it’s been re-formed, from the ground up.
That’s when they get The Look. That glossy-eyed, hopeful, “oooOOoo-COOL-I-Can’t-Wait-To-See-This” look that tells us we’re on to something big here. We listen to our friends talk about their ministries, and ask them about how their youth ministry programs fit in to the rest of their vision. And that’s when they share that their programs are simply not working. Kids are dropping like flies. They can’t bear to go another year using the old curriculum they’ve been handed.
Leaders and kids alike are primed and ready for something completely different. Which is why we’ve been heads-down working with a brilliant team of gifted theologians, youth ministers, artists, writers and animators to create re:form. Thousands of collective hours later, we’ve emerged with a whole new model for youth ministry.
re:form trusts that your own community of faith — combined with scriptures and the active participation of the Holy Spirit — is equipped to teach, guide and direct youth without a mandated list of “this is what you have to believe”. Think of re:form as the spiritual version of Tinkering School.
And what we came up with is causing those same youth ministry friends to get really jazzed:
We painstakingly drew and animated 40 hilarious animated short films that allow kids to encounter concepts from the historic Christian faith. These videos mash up biblical characters, pop culture, woolly mammoths, zombies, ducks (you gotta have ducks, right?), and guys in hazmat suits to get their sometimes snarky point across. See a sample. The videos are coupled with an Anti-Workbook for every student — that’s where they do a bunch of drawing, cutting and pasting, journaling, planning, reflecting and just thinking.
Leaders get the aptly titled Leader Guide — all the tools youth ministers, teachers, pastors, parents or volunteers need to facilitate genuine conversations and help kids respond.
So our question for you is, does re:form get you jazzed? Tell us about it. We want to know what you think!
IYes, re:form does get me jazzed. And my youth, too! The kids who got to see some previews asked if they could take Confirmation again so they could experience it. I think that says it all.
I’m an Episcopal priest, and one of my role’s is that of youth coordinator. I’ve been shocked to learn what a plethora of lousy material is available, and how little good, useful stuff I’m able to get my hands on. I’ve recently purchased the re:form curriculum, and have found it to be part of the missing link in youth curriculum. I’m using it in conjunction with some material from the Confirm Not Conform curriculum for kids between 6th and 8th grade. Re:form addresses what’s been missing in two ways – good theology mixed with good fun. My experience has been that if the kids don’t think it’s fun, their impression is already set. Then, whatever else you do is colored by boredom.
Any chance that more curriculum material will be forthcoming? I’ve used bits and pieces of the lessons from Living The Good News’ Attitdue series for the older kids, blended with what I come up with on my own. Time crunches have kept me from creating more of my own, but I refuse to resort to the Youth Specialties stuff that would have youth leaders talk down to kids, and where “discussions” look like me having an answer that they have to fish around for.
At any rate, I’d love to see more published by Sparkhouse.
Thanks,
Joe Behen
just ordered this for our Middle School Sunday morning class- and am so excited. I’ve wished for a curriculum that takes a look at hard questions and instead of providing easy dogmatic answers, engages the student as we work through them together to find meaning and truth out of them. I’ve attempted this, but purely having discussions are sometimes blah and boring. this looks to be much more meaningful to the youth because it does all this in such a fun and creative way. especially because you get to move around! having middleschoolers sit in desks for an hour is not an easy task.
i think it will really help ‘reform’ our paradigms not only of the Bible and Christianity, but of life. Any chance a High School curriculum is being worked on? i wish every youth and actually a lot of adults i know could go through this class. I’ll report back at the end of the year!
I sat in a book store today and skimmed through the curriculum. I really enjoyed it. I am wondering if all of the pieces (leaders guide, DVDs, anit-workbooks) can be ordered in a set at a discounted rate or if it is necessary to order each piece separately?
Hi Casey, thanks for writing. Each piece of the re:form curriculum is sold separately, but we offer quantity discounts on the Anti-Workbooks. Visit http://store.augsburgfortress.org/store/product/9418/re-form-Anti-Workbook?c=249855 to see the price breakdown. Hope this helps!