By youthministry360
ym360, 2012, $69.99

One of my primary objectives for my student leaders is to further their relationship with Christ. That’s why I chose to spend time this winter studying the Book of Colossians, a book which explores the supremacy of Christ and what it means to have new life in Him. Because relatively few youth ministry resources exist about Colossians, I was excited to utilize YouthMinistry 360’s Focus: 6-Lesson Study on the Book of Colossians to do this.

Overall, this curriculum provides a great overview to the Book of Colossians, exploring chapters 1 through 3 in depth. Each lesson offers leaders background information on Colossians and discussion questions that provide a good balance between theological meat and practical applications. Additionally, because each lesson contains more than most small groups will be able to use in a standard, hour-long session, leaders can use what will work well for their particular groups and skip those sections that won’t. Perhaps most importantly for busy youth leaders, however, is the fact that lessons are easy to use and require little preparation, making this a great resource for youth workers who already are strapped for time themselves or to hand off to lay leaders to use with their small groups.

This curriculum also comes with bonus materials, including parent letters designed to let parents know what has been covered in each lesson and gives them questions they can use to discuss the material further with their own children. Even for someone not interested in using the letters themselves, the questions found in them are invaluable for trying to engage parents in their children’s spiritual journeys.

The weakness in this curriculum is its videos, which failed to engage my students at every level. Despite this, without a doubt, there is plenty in this curriculum that did.