Adam McLane and Jon Huckins
The Youth Cartel, 2012, 52 pp., $35

Often, conversations about introducing our communities to Christ are centered on program development or planning the perfect event. Yet what Adam McLane and Jon Huckins point out in this new curriculum from The Youth Cartel is the best way to reach our communities is to mobilize and equip our students to forget the church event and get in the middle of their neighborhoods.

Out of all the curricula I have used in the past 11 years of ministry, Good News in the Neighborhood quickly rises to the top. This 6-week program is designed to engage students with Scripture, evaluate how Jesus did ministry in His community and provides very practical steps to help students do the same thing.

Each week is packed with materials and options that can be used throughout the lesson. McLane and Huckins start off by providing some great ways to get the discussion started: two options of video clips, an activity option or some icebreaker questions. From there, they dive into Scripture, providing multiple texts to use, a script for a brief talk, as well as a video story that can be played. Each session then has some discussion questions to take the teaching deeper.

The best part of each session is a proposed experiment, which helps put the lesson into practice and gets students out of the church or their homes and into their neighborhoods. Each week increases in challenge and comfort, eventually culminating in putting together a plan to do something to bring Christ to your neighbors. These also provide great content and discussion for the following week.

If you buy one curriculum this year, make it Good News in the Neighborhood. It will go a long way in your ministry to help your students reach the people around them.