Take a look around you. What do you see? What sounds do you hear? How does the space feel to you? Your environment helps inform and store all of the information you take in about a place. It’s why a doctor’s office feels different than a concert venue—one feels clean and bright while the other feels dark and full of energy.
This isn’t just true for our favorite (or least favorite) places to be but also for our ministry spaces. On Sundays, we might think learning starts with the sermon, but in reality, the process of learning begins the moment teenagers walk through our doors. So it’s probably time to be strategic about building the right environment.
In every series of Grow, we’ve crafted an engaging theme for each teaching series that complements what we’re teaching. Then, we created an environment around it. This helps tie together all of the teaching, activities, visuals, and experiences your teenagers will experience, and it complements all of the Bible stories you’re sharing.
Here’s every theme you’ll find in Grow Students Volume 8 and how it connects with the series!
RESTART
In August, when we’re talking about identity and God’s promises in our series Restart, we’ll use a video game theme to look at a few people from the Bible who needed God’s help to give them a restart.
GOOD CALL
When we talk about wisdom in the September series Good Call, we will use sports visuals throughout to emphasize the value of strategy, practice, and listening to God’s coaching.
UNAFRAID
In October, when we talk about hurt & pain in our series Unafraid, we’re going to use a fun theme that helps teenagers think about times when they feel afraid, in pain, or facing life’s twists and turns–amusement parks.
ON REPEAT
For our series On Repeat, we’ll be talking about loving others and using the theme of music playlists to help us think about how we can make loving like Jesus a part of our daily lives.
REMEMBER WHEN
In December, our Christmas series Remember When will focus on Christmas nostalgia, helping us discover how the Christmas story we may have heard long ago can still help us grow today.
FROM NOW ON
For our January series on Jesus called From Now On we will keep the theme simple by simply focusing on the life and words of Jesus. We’ll explore what it means to follow Jesus and what the life he invites us into looks like.
ON YOUR OWN
Next up is our series on friendship called On Your Own. We’ll use the theme of game shows to discover what it takes to develop game-winning friendships that can help us overcome obstacles and thrive when we’re on the hot seat.
THE MAKING OF…
In The Making Of…, we’ll use a movies theme to help us discuss how we may want to look at our faith like the finished product on the big screen, but like a great movie, our faith requires countless hours of work and edits. Our faith stories are still in the making.
INVITED
Our Easter series Invited uses the theme of a party to help us discover more reasons to celebrate every day and especially when we’re talking about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
WHAT IF…
Since our series called What If… focuses on justice, we’re using an art theme to help us see how our curiosity can be key to asking good questions and finding a way to make a difference in the world.
MORE TO THE STORY
The series More to the Story is all about Evangelism. With that in mind, we’ll use a theme of planet Earth to bring to life the idea that God is still writing a story that includes us and the role we get to play.
IN THE SHADOWS
In the Shadows uses a shadows theme to discuss the topic of doubts and questions. We’ll talk about how, like doubts, shadows can seem scary, but in reality they point to the presence of light.
That’s the plan for Volume 8 of Grow Students! No matter your curriculum, you need a strategy for your weekly environments. A great way to make your weekly environment strategic is to give it a theme that complements what you’re teaching.
If you’re using Grow Students Curriculum, we’ve already done this work for you. With every month of curriculum, we provide a monthly theme that complements the teaching content and includes everything you need to theme your program in our Environment Guides—decor ideas, editable graphics, music suggestions, games, and more!
In this post, here’s what we’ll cover: