Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Reasons to write your own stuff

There's A LOT of quality small group material out there in Internet land (Google just churned out 9.25 million results). I have brought some in the past and used it quite effectively.

At times, during a stressful season or time when you're on an extended leave, it makes more sense to use pre-produced material.

But, as timetabled here, I just finished writing the small group question for youth group this coming Friday.

And this raises a question eternally bantered about the youth ministry blogosphere by minds much wiser than mine.

Should you write your own small group/discussion questions/bible study material or curriculum?

On this point I'm not a zealot.
I usually produce my own, but haven't always.

The reason I tend to write our small group discussion questions has to do with the one who is speaking to the teens in my youth group.

Me.

I know, at least somewhat, what will be most effective thing for my teens to hear.
I know, by midweek, what I'm going to be saying on a Friday night.

Thus, I know exactly what direction the questions can flow OUT of the talk, not be hemmed in and need to cater a talk to fit INTO the discussion questions.

This just seems to make more sense.

And really, when you do it this way...

a) You can churn out a few weeks or a whole series of questions in a day (this is one of the reasons school holidays exist!),
so b) It doesn't take much monger than becoming familiar with the new material anyway.

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