You thought you had the whole summer mapped out. You throw in your last load of laundry before the Sr. high mission trip Costa Rica and it hits you: “Holy smokes, who’s teaching Sunday school this Sunday?” Then, the second wave of panic hits: “Yikes, who’s teaching youth group while I’m gone?”
We’ve all experienced the craziness of youth ministry in the summer. You are in and out of town. You planned in advance but there are still teaching gaps to fill in. You get home from events and trips exhausted. All your creativity is sucked dry and you have no energy left to come up with a lesson.
You are not alone. Don’t spend another minute stressed about what your volunteer team will teach while you’re on that mission trip. We are here to support you. Take a look at these three meaningful, fun, and easy to pull off, ways to fill in the gaps in your irregular summer teaching schedule.
Old School Sword Drills
Remember these? You pick out passages of scripture, call out the verse, and students race to be the first to find the passage in the bible and read them out loud. Yes, I give prizes to the student who finds the verse first. Sword drills are fun, exciting, and get students pumped about finding passages of the bible. Use hard cover bibles, it’s way more fun than letting kids use their smart phones. Use verses that support a theme. If you want to talk about forgiveness, use the following passages: Matthew 6:14-15, 1 John 1:19, Ephesians 1:7, Psalm 103: 12. Once you’ve had some fun with your sword drill, take some time to talk about forgiveness or what ever theme you’ve chosen. How would life be different if we could not experience forgiveness? Why is it important that we forgive others?
Scary Gross Weird Stories from the Bible
This summer is the perfect time and opportunity to use this curriculum. The stories are strange, disgusting, and made really interesting through this study. All 13 lessons are interactive and share a solid biblical truth through bizarre stories of the bible. It’s super fun and your students will stay engaged during each lesson. Plug in and go. Everything in this curriculum is mapped out for you or your volunteers.
The Red Stuff
This 5-week video curriculum is a great tool to get students talking about the words Jesus spoke. Deliver a meaningful lesson without hours of prep time. This video curriculum has taken care of everything, from incredible biblical content, to discussion guides for the leaders.
Now, fill in those teaching gaps and enjoy building relationships with the students that have been placed in your life.
We lava you!
– T
Is the planner in the picture yours? If so, where’d you get it!? That’s my ideal type of planner and I’m shopping around… usually get one similar to that at Barnes & Noble.
share your words…I give thanks to God for useing dis medium to learn a lot on how to carry my ministry along.this teaching is a great encouragement to me as a youth leader.may the lord straighten you as you continue to help us morally.thanks a lot from julia.