Resource Links for Teaching Liturgy with Youth
This space is devoted to exploring what I call “ridiculously authentic living” in all unusual hats I wear in life: Episcopal priest, breathwork practicioner, triathlete, and regular old human being. Among other things, I write about emotional honesty and fully embodied participation in whatever it is we are experiencing.
In my professional life as a priest, that kind of authenticity shines through most clearly in the way I teach liturgy with youth. We lead best when we lead from our truest selves, when we stop trying to fit into prescribed molds and take the risk of sharing what gives us joy. For me, that’s liturgy. Liturgy is the place where everything comes together for me, where we get to show up exactly as we are and experience grace beyond our wildest imagining.
Over the past three years, I have tried to channel my excitement about liturgy into a set of creative and adaptable teaching resources designed for use with middle and high schoolers (but flexible enough to use with adults or mixed age groups). I share them in the hope that they might be useful for you in the communities that you serve.
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Teaching Liturgy: Resource Links
- Liturgy Evaluation: a way to see what people already know about liturgy and how they experience worship. An excellent way to open up a conversation – and a great tool for church leaders to get constructive feedback from the people in the pews!
- Teaching Scripture through the Liturgy of the Word: allows youth to learn more about the Bible in the way they most frequently experience it: in church! Puts learners in the driver’s seat by letting them pick their own readings and design their own service.
- Sanctuary Photo Scavenger Hunt: a fun way to familiarize youth with liturgical space (they will love it, if for no other reason than that they get to use their phones!)
- Nicene Creed Mad-Libs: teaching the Creed in a way that’s relevant and interesting is a real challenge, and this silly activity is a great note to end on. If you have an overly serious or sulky group, this is for you – it’s impossible not to laugh while talking about our belief in the “resurrection of the garbage” or our savior who was “crucified under Lil Pump.”
- Prompts for Holy Week Emoji Stories: the only thing I love more than the Sunday liturgy is the liturgical extravaganza that is Holy Week. Unfortunately, no confirmation curriculum I’ve found offers a good way to teach about these holy days that are at the heart of our faith, so I had to improvise. Give each youth (or team of youth) a prompt for one day of Holy Week and have them sum it up using exclusively emojis. Bonus: it’s yet another phone-positive activity!