New Pastor Looking for quality options in Teen Materials

and YP/SS Admin wife, I like the materials from Positive Action for Christ, as well as from Summit Ministries. I also think every YG should get a solid foundation in creationism.

I use materials from all of the above for our homeschool.

I also believe that while reward systems are OK for young kids who have not yet developed the ability to reason, they are inappropriate for teens. Kids earning points and having award ceremonies for 'serving God' makes me feel ill. It's time for kids to learn to do right because they are regenerate, and it's a right and natural thing for a Christian to do. I've seen far too many kids- good kids, mind you, with wonderful parents, just stuffed full of 'Christian character'- win awards, and then later get saved, or never get saved and fall away completely. Uhmmmm... something wrong with that picture...?

Bottom line- I don't think 'church kids' should be treated as if they are saved by default, and the kids in the group that aren't saved should never be compelled to 'fake it' for the sake of parents or YG or to keep everyone off their back.

Brian,

I recommend looking at ministries/pastors who you respect, then finding out what they're doing in their youth groups, maybe even contact them directly. Personally I think ill of every teen-curriculum I saw in Fundamentalist churches (and not just Fundamentalist churches. The stuff is usually slop and in no way prepares young adults for the comprehensive maturity in Christ they need as college students or independent members of the economy, trying to navigate through life outside of their parent's household - that's where every kid in a youth group is heading in a few years, and that urgency should make people far more serious about substantive youth ministry than most, very well-intentioned people are.

Here's an example of a great church that takes teaching seriously: http://www.capitolhillbaptist.org/we-equip/adults/core-seminars/

If I were you I would write churches like Capitol Hill and ask them what they are doing with and for their youth.

Focus on the Family produced a series, True View, that is aimed at high school/college age. It addresses the logic and evidence for believing in creation vs evolution. It gets into some interesting science, but its strong point is in teaching logic and recognizing false assumptions. While this is basic common sense, I find that this is precisely what our children (and adults) have never learned and are therefore lost when it comes to apologetics. My husband used this with his adult Sunday school class. They appreciated it and many said that they had never had creationism presented to them in a way they could understand and use.