TEACHING

It's so important to have a strategy for what you will teach your students. Without a strategy, we run the risk of missing important ideas, teaching only the topics that personally interest us most, and ultimately failing to give our students a full and holistic view of God. The teaching strategy behind Grow Students has been created, influenced, and written by hundreds (literally) of real youth pastors, in real youth ministries, from a diversity of church contexts, cultures, sizes, and denominations. Our goal is to help you help your students grow spiritually, by teaching and discussing Scripture in developmentally appropriate ways.

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True Story

A 4-week series on Identity
(Recommended for October)

Many of our favorite movies, from Toy Story to Moana, tell the stories of characters who are on a journey to discover who they are and what they were created to do. The stories in Scripture are like this too, but with one big difference: in the Bible, humans aren’t the main characters — God is. In this series, we’ll explore the stories of people like Cain and Abel, Elijah, Naomi, Ruth, Esther, and some of the earliest Jesus-followers in order to see that who we are can best be understand in the context of who God is. When we discover who our Creator is, we can better understand who we were created to be. Because of who God is, we can trust how God has made us, we can do difficult things, we can embrace the unknown, and we can take risks for others.

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Canceled

A 4-week series on Loving Others
(Recommended for November)

Cancel culture is real. It happens when people (usually online) attack or dismiss people they disagree with. “Canceling” can be a good thing when it’s done to challenge or boycott things that are unjust or harmful. But sometimes we can be too quick to “cancel” and become cruel. Not just on social media — we do it in our offline relationships too. In Jesus’ time, people were often “canceled” by society because they sinned, got sick, were poor or disabled, or because they were from a different country or culture. Jesus challenges our tendency to ignore, exclude, or despise people who are different from us by often making outcasts the center of His ministry. Through the teachings of Jesus and the story of Saul you get to help students love people who aren’t like them, love people who are in need, love the people we envy, and even love the people they want to hate.

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Merry Christmas to Me

A 4-week series on Christmas
(Recommended for December)

Christmas today vs. Christmas in Bethlehem? Well, let’s just say they are two very different worlds. But they don’t have to be. Christmas tends to turn into a holiday where we think about what we will get instead of what we have the opportunity to give. By looking at the Christmas story and wondering about everything that each person gave, you’ll be able to give some incredible encouragement to students wanting to make Christmas less about “me” and more about Jesus. On the first Christmas, Mary and Joseph gave up their comfort, the shepherds gave their stories, the wise men gave their worship, and God gave everything. Knowing all of that, we can inspire us to give things too.

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Goals

A 4-week series on Wisdom
(Recommended for January)

Do the students in your ministry have goals? Yes? No? Not sure yet? Teenagers want to make a difference in the world, but to do that, they might need help clarifying their ambitions. This series will help them discover that they are designed for God-sized goals. Nehemiah grew to understand the tension of having a dream and pursuing it, because he had a big goal inspired by a big problem. Big goals and big problems, these are things in life that will continue to exist together. And sometimes, like Nehemiah, we can get stuck because God-sized goals require God-sized gratitude. Big difficulties can inspire God-sized goals, and God gives us strength to pursue God-sized goals.

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Free People

A 4-week series on Authority
(Recommended for February)

Rules aren’t famous for freedom. But in a world where Jesus leads us, rules can do more than keep us safe. They can become our allies and an opportunity to love and serve the world around us. Every student needs to know that the right rules can set you free. It doesn’t always feel like freedom when a rule limits something you want, but what you want changes when you know who Jesus is. You become a free person, and free people don’t dance with danger, free people make decisions that benefit others, and free people give up their freedoms for others.

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Lost and Found

A 4-week series on Jesus
(Recommended for March)

People get lost for all sorts of reasons but sometimes we get lost because of decisions we make or because of decisions that people make around us. Teenagers need spaces and people who will help them find their way back when they find out that they are lost and welcome them home when they make mistakes. Jesus wanted everyone to know that these environments exist, especially with Him. With Jesus, lost things get taken care of and found things get celebrated. It’s important to know when you feel lost, Jesus notices you. Jesus values you more than you know. Jesus always welcomes us back. And, the best news, Jesus invites you to the party.

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Forever

A 2-week series on Easter
(Recommended for Easter)

When Jesus died, even His closest friends and followers had questions, fears, and doubts. But Jesus wasn’t offended by, or angry about, those questions. Instead, Jesus patiently and lovingly helped His friends believe the good news that He really was alive, and that, because of His death and resurrection, nothing (not even death) could separate them from God’s love — not ever. And the same is true for us. Because the love of Jesus is bigger than our doubts. And like Mary, our pain or hopelessness sometimes keeps us from seeing what’s true — that Jesus really is alive, and that His love gives us hope.

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Waitlisted

A 4-week series on Doubts & Questions
(Recommended for April)

Waiting is inevitable. It could mean that the stadium is at capacity, there aren’t enough tables at your favorite restaurant on your birthday, the pair of shoes you really wanted is out of stock. Or, it could be more serious things like waiting for test results or waiting on help while making a big decision. Abraham and Sarah. Paul and Silas. Saul and David. David and Goliath. Their stories all have something to teach students about what is happening during the season of being “waitlisted”. God has a plan, but we might have to wait for it. And, while we’re waiting, God is faithful, listening, and hopes you don’t give up— because God doesn’t give up on you.

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Anthem

A 4-week series on Worship
(Recommended for May)

There are opportunities to worship God everywhere but they might be easily missed in a world full of images that show worship being done behind microphones and on stages. While that kind of worship is good, it isn’t the only kind of worship we need. The book of Psalms leads the theme of this series, and will help students find their unique “anthems” worshipping God with all of creation, while remembering what God has done, even when it’s difficult, and because we’re God’s family.

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Back to the Future

A 4-week series on Justice
(Recommended for June)

The Bible has a time machine feel, an ability to teach students about the past, present, and future simultaneously. It’s the story of God who exists outside of time and who has had a plan to save us since before we (or even the universe) even existed. 2,000 years ago, God came to earth in the form of a man named Jesus, but prophets like Isaiah had been leaving us hints about God’s plan hundreds of years before that. And what was that plan? To set us free from brokenness and death. To make wrong things right. Before time even began, Jesus’ mission was to set people free. Jesus came to rebuild what has been destroyed. Jesus calls us to do justice, and Jesus calls us to remember.

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Look & See

A 4-week series on Evangelism
(Recommended for July)

Maybe you’ve heard the saying “seeing is believing”? It’s a popular phrase because seeing something for yourself can change your perspective and your beliefs. We don’t always have to see things for ourselves but it sure does help! For teenagers who are developing their identities while they develop their faith it’s important for them to have conversations about encountering Jesus on their own. Look and See is an invitation for students to realize their faith and experience Jesus for themselves. God will give them strength to follow Jesus as someone they can believe, and someone who can teach them new things. And, what’s better, God can use their story to help another person see Jesus too.

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Squad Up

A 4-week series on Friendship
(Recommended for August)

Everyone wants a squad — a community of people that cares for us, helps and supports us, and gives us a place to belong. In short, we all want to be part of a community that feels like family. That kind of community isn’t easy to come by, but it’s exactly what Jesus had in mind for His followers when the Church first began. In this series, we’ll discover why the word “Church” means something much bigger than a building, we’ll learn what life was like for some of the earliest Christians, and we’ll explore four big ideas that mean as much for us today as they did to the Jesus-followers who lived nearly 2,000 years ago. The truth is, we can all be part of God’s family, and because we’re God’s family, we can do for others what God has done for us, we can grow together, and we can stand strong together.

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Stretch

A 4-week series on Spiritual Habits
(Recommended for September)

If your faith were a muscle, how flexible would it be? Could it stretch to your knees? Your shins? Your toes? Or are you not sure you even have any faith to stretch in the first place? Just like your body, if you want a faith that is strong, growing, and capable of carrying you through difficult challenges, you’re going to need to stretch it. It might be fun. It might be challenging. But it will definitely be worthwhile. In this series, we’ll discover four ways we can stretch our faith from Paul, the author of the book of Romans and a man whose life was completely transformed by Jesus. Thanks to Paul’s words, we know we can stretch our faith my making a commitment, by starting something new, and by letting something go. We can even stretch our faith when we feel like we’ve failed.

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