Several years ago, BCOQ Youth took a risk to meet a need in our youth ministry family and you are reading the outcome of that risk. The decision to create an educational resource for high school ministries started with stories from our local church youth leaders who felt taxed by the heavy burden of putting together teaching times for their ministries. Many youth pastors and volunteers feel stretched to put the necessary work into planning lessons that are creative, interactive, and thoughtful. Full time youth pastors may be swamped by their other duties in the church community while volunteers arrive home with one hour to make dinner, drive the kids to piano, and plan a good lesson for a midweek programme. Our vision for creating the curriculum was that youth leaders of all kinds would be freed up from the intensive preparation of weekly lessons, freed up to work in their areas of passion, by relying on a resource that was written by their peers with their particular contexts in mind.
The curriculum is designed to be used as a part of a larger youth ministry strategy; it is not designed to be youth-group-in-a-box. What it can do is assist youth leaders in preparing an environment where students can learn about their faith and grow in their maturity as followers of Jesus Christ. It is driven by the educational metaphor of guided discovery, in which you are the guide who enables students to discover important lessons as they explore together.
We expect and encourage youth leaders to use the curriculum in the way that makes sense according to their context and their gifts. If you are creative or want to invest more time in lesson preparation, you can use your several hours a week to adapt the curriculum to your needs. If you have very little time at all, you can teach the lessons as they are with minimal preparation. BORN TO BE is here for you to use as you see fit! It is here to serve you as you minister to students!
BORN TO BE is about our identity in Christ, not because of our effort but because of his love and mercy (Titus 3:5). In his monumental writing On Loving God, the Great Christian writer, Bernard of Clairvaux, reminded the saints that they owe God not only their first birth but their second as well. Not only did God love us enough to give us life, but also to give us rebirth, new life in him through salvation! This year we praise God and celebrate the birth and rebirth that he has given to us as unmerited gifts. We seek to discover and rediscover our identity and purpose as daughters and sons of God. We want to explore issues of identity, both individual and corporate. We want to discover intimacy with the God who loves us and seeks us. And we invite you to join us on this journey, together with youth ministries across this denomination, as we seek to know who we are and whose we are!
“He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” Titus 3:5 (New International Version)
Included in BORN TO BE are ten series, which vary in length from one lesson to six. In total, there are thirty eight lessons in BORN TO BE. Each lesson will take approximately 45-60 minutes to lead and approximately half an hour of minimum preparation, which must include reading through the material and may include making photocopies, doing extra reading, renting movies, and a variety of other activities.
Although the curriculum is designed with a ten month youth ministry calendar in mind, these lessons will not fill every week of the ministry year. This is to allow room for local ministries to insert their own concerns into their yearly planning. Plan to use these lessons according to the needs of your own context.
Also, we have ordered the series in a way that we think will work for many youth groups, but you are free to teach them in any order that is appropriate for your group. Each series is written in a way that it does not depend on other series to make sense, although you will likely find it best to teach each series in consecutive weeks. Overall, you can set the pace and flow of the material.
Finally, included in the binder is a CD-Rom that includes all of the lessons in Adobe .pdf format (if you don't have Adobe Reader, click here to install) and handouts in Rich text format (can be opened by most word processors) for those who prefer an electronic format. The CD is easy to navigate and allows the user to adapt the materials to best suit his or her own context. The CD also includes the short film, Incarnation Claymation, for the series A Child is Born.
Lesson Objectives are the engine that drives a lesson. We have spent our time researching topics and Scripture so that you can reduce your preparation time. We have condensed our research into clear, concise, and measurable objectives that express what students should be able to do as a result of each lesson. The point of each lesson is to achieve the Lesson Objectives and we have designed each lesson to do just that. You will also notice that Lesson Objectives are framed in terms of the students rather than the teacher. That is because the point of education is not teaching; it is learning.
At the beginning of every session, you will find a list of materials that we suggest using as part of that lesson. Minimum preparation for teaching should include reading the lesson over carefully and gathering all of the necessary materials. Consider keeping a box or drawer with some frequently used items such as pens, scrap paper, board markers, and so on. It will save you time in the long run.
We have not included a DVD player and screen in the Materials Needed lists but obviously, if there is a DVD clip suggested, you will need the player and the screen. These are also good things to have in your regular room. VHS is also an excellent tool for the classroom; in many ways it is better suited for the classroom than DVD. We have simply used the DVD references here because the chapter and minute references make it easy to find the clip.
You will also find “board and markers” listed frequently in the Materials Needed. This is an inclusive term that could mean a) a chalk board and chalk, b) a white board and markers, c) an overhead projector, blank overheads and overhead pens, d) chart paper and markers, or e) anything else that works for you in the space that you use.
Unless otherwise noted, we have used the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible throughout the curriculum.
Like every industry, education has its buzz words and lingo. We have tried to avoid anything really complicated but we thought you might enjoy a run down of frequently used terms. Here they are:
We create the curriculum for you! We want to bless you and help you be effective in your role as a youth leader. In light of that, we love to hear your comments and suggestions as we move forward to provide the best resources possible. This year we would like to invite you to participate in a round table discussion on our educational resources.
We want to treat you to lunch in a special place away from the hubbub of youth ministry. We want to record all of your suggestions for the future of the resource.
We want to allow you to trade trips and insights with us and with each other.
To that end, let us invite you to a special lunch in the splendid setting of the Old Mill Inn and Spa in Etobicoke, Ontario. Our lunch and roundtable discussion will take place on Wednesday, November 22. Mark it in your calendar and contact Luz Iglesias by email yme@baptist.ca) or by phone (416-620-2945) for more details. Reservation required.
The lessons in this resource were written by Paul Carter, Darren DeGraaf, Dallas Friesen, Leanne Friesen, Luz Iglesias, Alvin Lau, and Tim McCoy, and edited by Luz Iglesias, Manager of Youth Mission and Education for the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec. This is a group of men and women from various churches across our denomination, who are serving God as youth pastors, senior pastors, associate pastors, denominational servants, educators and youth ministry volunteers. They are diverse in their perspectives, ethnicities, contexts, and experiences and we hope that you can relate to some or all of their styles and insights. Check Meet the Writers on page 11 in the binder to get to know them better.
Special thanks go out to Carol Gouveia, Rick Hiebert, a group of students who produced the binders, and the Alban Institute for their support. Thank you for your work!
Finally, it is our hope that this resource will remind you and your students that you were BORN TO BE God’s children. We invite and encourage your feedback on any aspect of BORN TO BE and can be reached at yme@baptist.ca.