When teenagers care more about preserving their cell phone battery than opening up the Bible app or spend more time reading Harry Potter than Scripture, it’s challenging to find creative ways to help teenagers get into God’s Word. We get it.
Pierced: The New Testament utilizes the New International Version in a narrative order with comments and illustrations from other teenagers to immerse teenagers in the story of Jesus.
Check out these fun ideas for using Pierced: The New Testament in your youth group:
- Do a Bible-reading challenge. Have students commit to reading a book or several books in Pierced over a period of time together. Encourage your group to “change the stats.” Say something like, “Only 7% of people your age are engaged in the Bible. You can change that.”
- Host a Bible-journaling party. Set out colored pencils, markers, and other materials. Provide copies of Pierced. Play some music and share snacks while they spend time creatively responding to God’s Word together.
- Give Pierced as a gift to new believers or to teenagers who are new to the youth group.
- Have students sign up to give Pierced to their friends who want to learn more about Jesus.
- Use Pierced as the book for a small group study. Pick a book like Romans, for example, to go through together. Encourage small group members to read to a certain page number each week.
- Empower small group leaders to give Pierced as a Christmas, Easter, or graduation gift.
- Encourage students to bring a friend(s) to youth group. When they show up, they both get a copy of Pierced.
What ideas would you add to the list? We would love to know they ways you encourage Scripture-reading in your youth group. Share your ideas in the comments below!
One of the most exciting things about Pierced is the more copies you purchase, the price per copy decreases. Get Pierced: The New Testament for as little as $10.19 each with special bulk pricing.
Give them 5-10 minutes of quiet within class or group time to read an assigned passage of scripture to themselves. Have them pray “Open my eyes to see wonderful things in your Word” from Ps.119 before they begin so they know they are inviting God to speak to them through scripture. Encourage them to make note of any questions they have or anything particular that gets their attention. Open the discussion by asking “what was the first thing that jumped off the page at you?” “What got your attention and why?” This practice of “quiet time” together has opened the door to some awesome discussion of scripture in our youth group.