Youth ministry – programme resources

These are some resources which may be useful for small group study, youth worship or other spiritually focused programmes.

 

From PCI

Called – an original resource from PCI's Youth Night 2019 to help young people understand the concept of the call of God.

40 Years from Now – an original resource from PCI's Youth Night 2018 with sessions to help leaders teach key lessons from the book of Daniel.

Mentoring – a video where youth worker Andrew Kelly shares the importance of mentoring in Granshaw Presbyterian Church. 

 

From others

Shaken – a biblical and practical resource from Big House, designed to help young people trust in our unshakable God and make good choices to live well when they feel their life shaken (can be used individually or in small groups).

Faith in an Anxious World – A 4-Week High School Curriculum (Digital download from Fuller Youth Intitute) 

Youthscape are a Christian organisation which provides research and support for youth ministry and also develops a range of resources including “Together Apart” and “Together Apart 2: God at the Centre” – free downloadable resources from Youthscape

Shuffle – 42 cards with daily challenges to help teenagers explore faith. Also available “Mindset” edition (on mental wellbeing) and “Green” edition (on climate change). See this article on how these can be used in a socially distanced way.

Youthscape Bricks - Turn a Jenga™ set into a fun discussion game for ages 11 and up.

BRAVE is a free library of downloadable resources from Headstrong - a Youthscape project supporting young people's emotional wellbeing online, whilst resourcing those who work alongside them. BRAVE is here to help YOU as a leader to feel equipped to have good conversations with young people around some of the key topics (GIANTS) they are facing right now. Here you will find all you need to create bespoke sessions where young people can process and ponder the challenges they face and find confidence to get through them.

Boys Brigade Northern Ireland have produced a number of resources to assist leaders to be inclusive of young people with special needs including:

• The BB Disability App, available on Apple and Android to give leaders quick access to the Additional Needs information on the go.
• An Additional Needs Tool Box to give leaders some useful strategies, ideas and resources to help include children and young people with Autism

A book called “Including Everyone” with really practical information on how to be inclusive of young people with a wide range of additional needs

Thrive – Nine stand-alone sessions to help young people how to live thriving lives from a biblical perspective, written by PCI youth worker Jason Sime. This may be best used with more mature young people, but could be adapted, and some of the exercises may need to be altered to fit current restrictions. Available directly from Jason at jsime92@hotmail.com.

Steady – the brand new resource from The Big House, designed to help you, your friends and your youth group find your balance in life – no matter what is happening right now, or in the future.

How to help – Youth for Christ have developed a set of free, downloadable worksheets to use with young people in addressing issues like anxiety, confidence, grief and loss. These are simple to use and might work best in small groups or one to one situations.

Premier Youth and Children’s Work – a digital resource for anyone working in youth and children’s ministry. Subscription allows you to access the weekly updates of content on any digital device, including articles, blogs, reviews and the weekly editions of the “Journeying Together” meeting resource for young people. You can sign up for a 28 day trial which will allow you to sample all the magazine content and range of ready to use resources, including bible based lessons on music and movies.

Download Youth Ministry – if you have a small budget, the guys at download (including the much respected Doug Fields) have an huge catalogue of tried and tested Bible teaching series as well as leadership resources and much more . There are also various deals and an option for a free trial of their monthly gold membership.

Stuff You Can Use is run by 2 youth workers who love the Church and aim to foster a spirit of partnership and collaboration in youth ministry communities by sharing the very best ideas, Bible teaching resources, games and tools. They also have a thousands of youth workers as part of a Facebook Group where people can share ideas.

Organisations you might consider inviting to help you run a programme:

 

• Love for Life deliver the Open Up programmes, discussing relationships and sexual health with young people and are funded by the Public Health Agency.
  • They run 4 age appropriate programmes covering a range of topics (Housemates=age 11, Game On=age 12-14, Picture This=age 15-16. Private Eyes=16+)
  •  Each has 3 sessions of 90 mins - 2 hours long, run in person or over Zoom
  • Groups of 8-20 young people - they can run more than one programme depending on the age of your group
  • Contact them at 028 3882 0555 or info@loveforlife.org.uk - more information at www.loveforlife.org.uk/sectors/youth-leaders

• Tear Fund provide useful resources to help young people consider issues such as poverty and climate change. Lydia Neish is the NI Youth and Emerging Generation Manager and can be contacted at lydia.neish@tearfund.org.
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• Made for More are a Christian organisation who aim to engage a generation of young people. Their message is “Your life matters, your life has value & we want to help you make better decisions”. They offer a range of programmes on topics such as Mental Health, Self-Esteem, Drugs and Alcohol.
• The Big House offer a range of programmes to youth groups, examining issues around mental wellbeing from a biblical perspective
• 24/7 Prayer Ireland can help your group develop their personal and group prayer life, giving them a vision for praying for their communities and tools to do this.
• Ambassadors Football Ireland – footballs workshops with Bible talks and testimonies
  dlivingstone@ambassadorsfootball.org; +447761 839976
• Play it By Ear Drama – Christian drama company for workshops or performance
  playitbyeardrama@gmail.com; +4428 9076 7969
• Salt Factory Sports – sports based youth ministry
  info@saltfactorysports.com; +447962 322392
• The Gathering Drum – drumming workshops (secular but often works with churches)
  joe@thegatheringdrum.com; +44782 3881315