Once you have chosen to explore small group ministry with youth, you will have decisions to make about several aspects of the program. In this chapter, we will discuss some of these decisions.
How and where will sessions be used?
Some options are:
- As weekly curriculum for a religious education or lifespan faith development gathering on Sunday morning
- With a youth group
- As additional programming, such as Wednesday night programming
- At conferences with touch groups
- With groups at retreats or other multigenerational gatherings
- As a structure for youth conferences.
The program of sample sessions provided in this resource can work as a weekly curriculum. The sessions can also work as occasional offerings for youth groups or for Wednesday or other weeknight meetings. Individual sessions can be used by touch groups at youth conferences. Chapters 5 and 6 detail other, more ambitious uses—for example, small group ministry sessions in a multigenerational setting, such as a service project (Chapter 5). Chapter 6 provides an outline for using a small group ministry model for an entire youth conference.
In the sample sessions, you will see both “Questions” and “Deeper Questions.” Only by meeting on a regular basis will members of the small group feel comfortable sharing deeply. If the group will only meet for a day or a weekend, keep the questions fairly safe. To reap the true rewards of small group ministry work, the same members of a group need to meet at least twice a month for a period of several months.
