Standard Publishing
Standard Publishing, 2009, 96 pp., $9.99, StandardPub.com
In theory, this resource aims to help a youth ministry gathering have a biblical anchor and a relevant takeaway. Each lesson contains stories from our culture, a bridge into the Bible and takeaway challenges in which students can engage. The 40-week scope and sequence seems like an admirable tool for youth workers who want to take their kids into the Bible but struggle with it feeling relevant to the teenagers.
Unfortunately, I have seen other materials in this genre achieve that goal much more effectively. Even without that comparison, this book just doesn’t have a lot of guts to it and offers lessons that feel more abbreviated than comprehensive. Perhaps this resource would fit well as a supplement to another curriculum (such as Mike Novelli’s Echo the Story) or as a catalyst for a small-group conversation, but on its own it falls short of its intended goal.
