Facilitator guides for the Transformed weekly teen devotions that fit with The Foundation - Year C.

Introduction
Our teens face challenges to their faith like never before. In 2016, WELS Discipleship began to publish weekly devotions specifically with them in mind as a series called Transformed (wels.net/transformed). We pray that these devotions will transform teens by connecting them to the Word of God and to him who is their Life.

This is our goal: We want to raise the bar for youth ministry by providing quality and flexible resources for teens and for ministry to them including: 1) weekly devotions for teens; and 2) weekly facilitator guides for youth group leaders.

Beginning 2022, Transformed teen devotions will connect to The Foundation. The Foundation is a collection of resources meant to save busy called workers and leaders time in the areas of worship, preaching, and outreach. The teen devotions and youth leader facilitator guides will follow the texts chosen and presented in the “Preacher Podcast” to maximize the work that a preacher may be doing already for the weekend. The template for the facilitator guides noted below could easily be adapted for any sermon text that a preacher may study. The philosophy here is to do good work once and then use it in as many forums as possible.

What guides us when writing the devotions?

1. Our goal is to write a 300-word devotion with one main idea/truth that will be appropriate to share with a high school-age target audience.
2. We don’t assume they all are at the same level of faith or understanding of theological jargon.
3. The devotions and facilitator guides will be connected in theme and content. We do not recommend reading the devotion in the context of a study. The devotions are intended for individual and personal devotional reading by a teen (encourage your teens to subscribe at wels.net/transformed). The facilitator guides are intended to be used in a group setting for discussion and study.

How do I use the facilitator guides?

1. The facilitator guides are NOT intended for distribution to the youth group. These are prepared to assist youth leaders as they guide and facilitate discussion with teens around the Scriptures.
2. At the top of each guide is a single goal statement. The goal is to keep the focus and the takeaway to one thing. The goal statement directs the rest of the facilitator guide.
3. Each guide will have four key components with one to three questions or discussion points:

• • Starting the Discussion: This first section is intended to be light and easy, to engage and get the conversation going. Have a little fun with these questions.
  • Connecting: This section serves as a bridge between the opening conversation and the body of the study/discussion. It should get the group thinking about the topic/text even before they’ve looked at it.
  • Digging In: Here we want to dig into some texts or the text for the day and see what Scripture says. The questions are meant to be open ended to give a beginning of a scriptural conversation. These are a guide for a spiritual and scriptural conversation.
  • Concluding: Here we want to wrap up the discussion, perhaps circling back to the “connecting question” above.

The facilitator may rewrite questions and add questions of his own both in preparation and on the fly to guide the conversation toward the one stated truth. God bless this work!

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• November 8, 2022 Last Updated