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The reality is that many times in the urban context we are looking for materials that are “easily translatable.” So many times it feels like curriculum for youth may be written from either a “churched” perspective (assuming that there is a Biblical Foundation for our students) or from what feel like a world view that does not relate to our students.
What I love about anything from Group is the great ability to easily “chew on the meat and spit out the bones,” as a friend of mine always likes to say. This means, we can use the core concepts of anything that they offer.

The “Rooted” Bible Study is a favorite of mine. It starts with the basics of the Bible and walks students through the fundamentals. It is best used for small group discussion, but can be used in a larger group as well. You can download it (for CHEAP) per quarter. It can be cut and pasted into a format that you can easily play around with to give to volunteers and other staff. However, as a Bible basic, it is a great starter.

I have also used, “Guy Talk/ Girl Talk, (both volumes) as a small group study focusing on specific Girl and Guy issues. There is also, Hope Lives, which teaches students how to think about those other than themselves. Now when using this type of curriculum really what we do is tweak it so that it hits on the cylinders of our students. Really what I mean is a lot of curriculum might be written, for example, from the perspective that students come from a 2 parent household, or at least it was at one time. They might say things to a student living in poverty here in America like, “You come from the richest nation in the world.” As you know your students, these things are easy to readjust. We learn to speak the language of our own youth. So when a lesson tells you to ask a question like, “Remember when you were little and your Dad tucked you into bed at night?’ We ask, “Can you remember a time when someone close to you made you feel safe?” This is about getting to the heart of the lessons.

written by Leneita Fix

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