Copyright 2019 by Jen Bradbury Publisher: Mark Oestreicher Managing Editor: Sarah Hauge Cover Design: Adam McLane Layout: Marilee R. Pankratz Creative Director: El Fantasma All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval without permission in writing from the author. Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. ISBN-13: 978-1-942145-44-8 ISBN-10: 1-942145-44-6 The Youth Cartel, LLC www.theyouthcartel.com Email: info@theyouthcartel.com Born in San Diego Printed in the U.S.A.
ONE STORY TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 4 1. Creation and the Fall 10 2. Noah and the Flood 15 3. The Tower of Babel 21 4. God s Covenant with Abram 26 5. The Binding of Isaac 32 6. Joseph 38 7. The Birth of Moses 44 8. Passover 49 9. The Crossing of the Red Sea 54 10. Jericho 59 11. Deborah 65 12. The Anointing of David 72 13. David s Failure 78 14. The Building of the Temple 83 15. Elijah 88 16. Jonah 93 17. The Destruction of the Temple 99 18. The Rebuilding of Jerusalem s Wall 104 19. Jesus s Birth 109 20. Jesus Cleanses the Temple 114 21. Jesus s Transfiguration 120 22. Jesus the King 127 23. The Last Supper 133 24. Peter s Denial and Reinstatement 140 25. Doubting Thomas 146 26. Pentecost 152 27. The Early Church 158 28. Peter and John Heal a Crippled Beggar 164 29. Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch 172 30. Saul s Conversion 179 31. Paul and Silas in Prison 184 32. A New Heaven, Earth, and Temple 190
Introduction What this curriculum is about and how to use it After a decade in youth ministry, I realized how little my teens knew about Scripture, despite my best efforts to the contrary. Most of my teens lacked a basic understanding of Scripture s arc. They knew there was an Old and New Testament, but with few exceptions, most couldn t tell you what stories were found where. What s more, many of my teens believed that far from being immutable, God s character changed somewhere between the pages of the Old and New Testaments. Knowing this, I decided to overhaul how I was teaching Scripture. Rather than incorporate random Bible passages into each of our lessons, I decided to instead take a year and intentionally go through Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. My goal was to teach teens the story of Scripture and show them how all of Scripture is unified and points to Jesus. After our sweep through Scripture, my team and I were amazed at how much more biblically literate our teens became. This sweep gave teens a solid foundation on which to build a foundation that allowed us to do more topical teaching. Because of the success we had with this strategy, we ve repeated it, regularly cycling through the curriculum you re now holding. This curriculum has been field tested with my teens three times. Each time we used it, we modified it to better meet their needs. Since teens learn differently from one another, this curriculum seeks to utilize a variety of activities to engage them. However, it s important to note that this curriculum is designed for discussion. Since teens learn best when they re participating in conversations rather than just consuming information, the ideal room setup is a group sitting in a circle all at the same eye level. There are no long talks for the leaders to give. Each lesson in this curriculum follows the same general format: Key Scripture Passages This is an at-a-glance list of the Scripture passages explored in each lesson. Lesson Objectives When leading, it is immensely helpful to know your goals. Lesson objectives help you know the purpose of each lesson. 4
INTRODUCTION Leader s Notes Leader s notes contain a variety of things, including why a particular story was chosen for inclusion in, background information about the lesson, and, on occasion, tips for leading a particular lesson well. Supplies Because the lessons in are experiential in nature, they often require a varied list of supplies. Many of the supplies will be used in the optional activity, but some will be required regardless of whether or not you do the optional part of the lesson. Since we want to set you up for success, we include a list at the beginning of each lesson of what you ll need. Optional Activity The optional activity is just that: optional. When field testing this material, we found these activities particularly useful with middle schoolers and underclassmen as well as in settings that have more time for these lessons (an hour or longer). While optional activities are interactive, they always connect directly to the lesson, typically through processing questions. If you re going to do the activity, make sure to allow time for processing. Without the processing questions, the activities will be fun but relatively meaningless. Sometimes later questions also refer back to the optional activity. When that s the case, they re prefaced with, For those who did the optional activity Occasionally, this section is named the Not-So-Optional Activity. When that s the case, the activity is a prerequisite for doing the rest of the lesson. Timeline It is immensely helpful for teenagers to have a visual representation of when things happen in the Bible. While we know it s possible to purchase timelines of the Bible, a timeline will be far more memorable and meaningful if you allow teens to create it themselves, using the stories you re covering in. For that reason, each lesson includes a Timeline section. Use this section to review the previously covered material with teens before adding that week s story to the timeline. Allow teens to be as creative as they d like with this, drawing various symbols to represent a particular lesson (or attaching various artifacts from your lesson to your timeline). 5
INTRODUCTION We recognize that people from a variety of Christian traditions will utilize this curriculum. Some who use this curriculum will view the Bible as literal. Others will not. However, we believe that a timeline is useful in either case as it helps make abstract stories more concrete by contextualizing when they happened in relation to one another. While we provide you with dates for various stories, please don t get hung up on these if they re not important to your tradition. Instead, think of the timeline as an ordered list designed to help teens understand what precedes and follows what in the Bible. Walk through Scripture and Discussion This is the meat of your discussion. In it, you ll walk through a given Scripture passage. Throughout this curriculum we try hard not to proof text to pull and study verses without giving a broader understanding of context. Instead, we generally explore fairly large chunks of Scripture in the context in which they were written. However, we do occasionally refer to isolated verses when they enhance the primary story that s being explored. These discussions include a combination of comprehension questions interspersed with critical thinking questions. We sometimes, but not always, provide you with background information or notes regarding a desired point. (Note: We don t tend to do this when an answer to a given question is found in the Scripture being read.) When there is a point to make about a given lesson, raise it only after several participants have already answered your question. If someone is headed toward your point, help them get there on their own with follow-ups like, Tell me more about that. When you help teens do this, you enable them to draw their own conclusions, which helps them take ownership of their faith. Within the Walks through Scripture and Discussion, you ll see a variety of recurring response options, including: Listing Activity As you discuss these questions, simply capture teens responses in a written list. Engage quieter people by asking them to be your group s scribe. Walk Across the Room These are questions designed to use physical movement to prompt debate. To lead them, ask all teens to begin on one side of the room. Then read a statement and ask them to silently move to the other side of the room if they agree with that statement. Require everyone to choose a side. Don t allow any middle ground. (Note: Physical movement is a critical part of these questions as it engages ALL teens by forcing them to participate, even if they choose not to speak during the ensuing discussion.) 6
INTRODUCTION Once people have committed to their side, ask one or more people from each side to explain their position. Encourage vigorous debate. As the issue is debated, allow people to switch sides if their opinion about a topic changes. Ask adult leaders to choose sides in order to help balance the conversation. Visual Voting Similar to Walk Across the Room, during Visual Voting, teens move to an area of the room that best represents their viewpoint. (You can either just say which section of the room represents what or post signs that indicate this.) Visual Voting is used when you want to give teens more than two options. As with Walk Across the Room, require everyone to move to the appropriate part of the room to indicate their vote. (Again, physical movement is a critical part of these questions as it engages ALL teens by forcing them to participate, even if they choose not to speak during the ensuing discussion.) Once people are where they want to be, ask one or more people from each area to explain their position. Encourage vigorous debate. As the issue is debated, allow people to switch positions if their opinion about a topic changes. Ask adult leaders to choose sides in order to help balance the conversation. Pair & Share Pair & Share questions engage more voices in a large group discussion. To facilitate these questions, pair teens up. Ask them to answer a question with their partner. Then, invite a few people to share their responses with the larger group. Within the large group discussion, you might also find it helpful to Establish ground rules for how your teens will interact with one another during each discussion. Reiterate these ground rules every time you meet. Examples of ground rules might include: Everyone participates. Your voice matters. We care about what you think. Don t be afraid of being wrong. Don t be afraid of asking questions. It s okay to disagree with other people, but do so respectfully. 7
INTRODUCTION Going Deeper: Small Group Discussion In addition to being from different Christian traditions, we also know that those who utilize this curriculum will be from different sized churches. If your group is larger than eight people, we encourage you to utilize small groups for part of your discussion in order to give more people the opportunity to share (and to build community among your teens). In general, the small group discussions included in tend to be more personal and application-oriented than the Walks through Scripture and Discussions. Intentionally assign people into small groups to avoid giving teens choices that lead to social pressure and exclusion. Do your best to put dissimilar (family, grade, friend groups, gender, ethnicity) people together. Diversity creates good discussions. If your group is not larger than eight, then just do the small group discussion as a large group conversation. Within small group discussions, you ll commonly find questions labeled as Everyone Answers. Everyone Answers questions are designed to get everyone talking. They re commonly used at the start of small group discussions to set the tone and establish the expectation that everyone s voice matters. To ask an Everyone Answers questions, assign one person to be the first in the circle to respond. Then pick a direction and ask everyone to answer the same question. Say something like, This is an Everyone Answers question. We will start with Julie and then go toward Justin until we come all the way around the circle and end with Sam. Setting up the question in this way gives introverts time to prepare their answer and not be caught off guard by the expectation to share. Prayer Experience Each lesson ends with a prayer experience related to the lesson in some way. These experiences are sometimes experiential and often challenge teens to pray aloud in relatively easy, short ways. A note about timing We have intentionally not indicated how much time you should spend on each part of the lesson. In our context, these lessons were designed for one packed hour. However, we recognize that your context might be different. What s more, you are the experts on your teens. Spend your time on the parts that will best engage your particular teens. 8
INTRODUCTION Preparing to lead Our hope is that in addition to increasing the biblical literacy of your teens, will also challenge you to grow in your faith. To do this, treat your preparation for each lesson as your own Bible study. Work through the lesson in advance. Jot down your answers to these questions so that you have them when you re leading your teens. Additionally, think through what will and won t work in your context and adapt accordingly. Our prayer is that through, you and your teens will encounter Jesus and come to know the story of Scripture. After all, Scripture is the story of God. But it s also our story. Understanding it not only reveals who God is, but who we are. 9
Key Scripture Passages Genesis 1:27, 31 Genesis 3:1-5, 16-19, 21-24 Lesson Objectives LESSON 1 CREATION AND THE FALL As a result of this lesson, teens will understand that they are created in God s image. as people created in God s image, they too are created to create. the world and its people are good by design. despite people s sin, God is merciful. even now, God is working to redeem and restore the world s brokenness. Leader s Notes In the song Do Re Mi in The Sound of Music, Maria the nun-turned-nanny-turned-wife sings, Let s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start So it is with this curriculum. A yearlong sweep through Scripture must start at the very beginning, with the creation story in Genesis. The problem is, this story has for years been the subject of much debate. Often, the focus of this story becomes whether or not it really happened, whether it s factually and scientifically correct. That is NOT our focus here. Instead, we want to highlight some principles from this story that are foundational, not just for the arc of but for teens to understand who they are and who God is. That s why our focus in this lesson is the imago Dei, the idea that we are made in the image of God. Once we ve explored how we re created in God s image, only then will we turn to the first sin, which sets into motion God s plan to redeem the world, a plan that unfolds throughout the rest of Scripture. Supplies One bag of random art supplies and building materials for each small group for the optional activity Prayer journal 10
LESSON 1 CREATION AND THE FALL Optional Activity: Creation Station Divide teens into small groups of approximately five people each. Ideally, have one adult leader facilitate each small group. Ask everyone in your small group to introduce themselves by sharing their name and grade and answering this question: What s one thing you re good at? Note: This question will make teens uncomfortable. Some teens may not even be able to identify what they re good at. Help teens do this. There is no shame in acknowledging their gifts. Then explain: Using these supplies (you ll have a bag of weird things) as well as what we ve just learned about one another, as a team, we re going to work together to create something that represents our group. Your role in this activity as is the case throughout this curriculum is to be a facilitator. Use the yes, and approach. When someone suggests an idea, run with it. Then ask, What else can we add to that? and do it. Don t eliminate ideas or spend a lot of time debating an idea. You simply won t have time for that. Ensure that people are on task. Find ways to involve everyone. As you re creating, talk about how your creation represents your group. Then select someone (not you!) to share how your group s creation represents your group with the larger group. Once groups have finished their creations, invite them to return to the large group. Invite one person from each small group to share their creation. Then process. How easy or difficult was it for your group to make its creation? Why? How accurately do you think your group s creation reflects the individuals in your group? (Pair & Share) In general, do you think you re creative? Why or why not? Large Group: Walk through Scripture and Discussion Read Genesis 1:27. What s an image? It s like a.jpg file. It s a reflection of a real thing, but not the thing itself. What do you think it means to be created in the image of God? 11
LESSON 1 CREATION AND THE FALL (For groups that did the optional activity) Think about the creation your group just made. How, if at all, does your creation reflect the fact that you re created in God s image? God is a creator. If we are created in his image, then it stands to reason that we re made to make; that each of us is, in some way, designed to create something, like we did here. (Walk Across the Room) Silently walk across the room if you think that because God created us in God s image, all people are creative. After teens have chosen which side of the room they want to be on and moved accordingly, invite people from the side with fewer people on it to explain their position first. Then ask people on the other side to do the same. Allow vigorous debate and movement (switching sides) if someone becomes convinced of the other side s argument. If, as image bearers, we are all called to create in some way, then why do you think some people think they re not creative? What gets in the way of people seeing themselves as creative? Why do you think this is? What prevents people from actually creating things? Why? In addition to creating humans, God created everything else in the world. Read Genesis 1:31. After God finishes creating everything, what does God say about creation? Why do you think God calls God s creation good? Does good mean average? Good is the opposite of evil, not average or bad (as in good, better, best). If God s creation is good, then is each of us good? Why or why not? If God s creation and therefore, each of us is good, what do you think God sees when God looks at us? Despite the fact that everything about God s creation is initially good, eventually problems arise. Read Genesis 3:1-3. What tree does God tell Adam and Eve not to eat from? (Hint: Genesis 2:15-17.) 12
LESSON 1 CREATION AND THE FALL What does God say will happen to Adam and Eve if they eat from this tree? They ll die (Genesis 2:17) Read Genesis 3:4-5. According to the serpent, what will happen if Adam and Eve eat from the tree of knowledge? Reread Genesis 1:27. Who are Adam and Eve currently like? Why s this significant? God. They are made in God s image. The temptation here isn t to become like God; it s to forget that they are already like God. The temptation is too much for Adam and Eve to resist. So, they disobey God and eat from the tree of knowledge. Read Genesis 3:7. What happens as a result of Adam and Eve s sin? Their relationship with each other is disrupted. They become ashamed of who God created them to be. Read Genesis 3:16a. What happens as a result of Eve s sin? The process of childbearing is disrupted. It becomes painful. Read Genesis 3:17-19. What happens as a result of Adam s sin? Their food supply is disrupted. Rather than be able to eat anything easily, humans now have to toil in the fields in order to produce food. Read Genesis 3:22. What s the tree of life? Read Genesis 3:23-24. What happens as a result of Adam and Eve s sin? Their home is disrupted. They re banned from the Garden of Eden. (Listing Activity) Adam and Eve s sin disrupts childbirth, the food supply, and their homes. How, if at all, do you continue to see brokenness in each of these three areas of life today? Despite all the consequences Adam and Eve face as a result of their sin, what doesn t happen? (Hint: Genesis 2:17.) They don t die. 13
LESSON 1 CREATION AND THE FALL Initially, God tells Adam and Eve that if they eat from the tree of knowledge, they ll die. Yet, when they sin, they don t. Why do you think this is? God is merciful. Read Genesis 3:21. How else does God care for Adam and Eve, even after they sin? (Everyone Answers) How does God care for us, even when we sin? (Listing Activity. Add a second column to your original list.) From the moment Adam and Eve sin, God begins implementing a plan to redeem them and restore all of creation to the way God intended it to be in the Garden. Look at our list of brokenness in the world. For each item on our list, how, if at all, do you see evidence of God s redemption and restoration? For each item on our list, how can we be part of God s redemption and restoration? Prayer Experience Use your brokenness list as the basis of your group s prayer. To do this, begin your prayer by saying, God, we pray for all the brokenness that surrounds us, including Then ask a teen to read each item on your brokenness list. Conclude your prayer by asking God to enable you to be part of redeeming all that is broken. 14