I recently started working as a youth leader at a small church. Over the past couple weeks, I've noticed that most of the students (about 4 or 5 middle schoolers) had alarming low Bible literacy and knowledge. I have done things such as Bible drills and Bible Jeopardy as fun ways to slowly increase what they know, but I am trying to figure out how I can better tailor the lessons and discussions around improving this. While I certainly am not expecting them to already be nor attempting to make them Bible experts over night, they do not appear to be familiar with anything but the most basic stories.
Does anyone have ideas on what the best approach moving forward is? Should I do a series of lessons on fundamentals of Christianity? Should I do a overview of the Bible, starting in Genesis and hitting the major stories along the way? Are there any curriculums that would be helpful
Additionally, should I (or maybe I should say, how should I) talk to the head pastor, who runs Awanas, and the associate pastor, who teaches their Sunday School class, about this? They obviously have seniority in rank and experience, and they have known these students much longer. I want to be able to get their assessment of where the students are and where they need to be, but I certainly want to make sure that how I approach it is done respectfully. Obviously, I in no way want to make it sound like I do not believe that they have not done a good job in teaching the students, but I want to be able to address the problem or at least know if they agree that it is a problem.
Does anyone have ideas on what the best approach moving forward is? Should I do a series of lessons on fundamentals of Christianity? Should I do a overview of the Bible, starting in Genesis and hitting the major stories along the way? Are there any curriculums that would be helpful
Additionally, should I (or maybe I should say, how should I) talk to the head pastor, who runs Awanas, and the associate pastor, who teaches their Sunday School class, about this? They obviously have seniority in rank and experience, and they have known these students much longer. I want to be able to get their assessment of where the students are and where they need to be, but I certainly want to make sure that how I approach it is done respectfully. Obviously, I in no way want to make it sound like I do not believe that they have not done a good job in teaching the students, but I want to be able to address the problem or at least know if they agree that it is a problem.