YPT Curriculum

The Apostles’ Creed has always been viewed as baseline Christianity, not advanced theology. If we want to call youth into lifelong faith, then we should make sure they know what it means to believe what Christianity has always taught.

The Ten Commandments have always been taught as a model of what it means to live a life that honors the Lord. The gospel gives us a new heart that desires to obey God’s commandments, and it clothes us in grace when we sin. This series will call youth to pursue holiness in the power of the gospel for the glory of God.

The Lord’s Prayer isn’t a magical incantation, but a pattern of prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. This series will guide your students to cultivate a personal and regular prayer-life, and to pray according to Jesus’ instruction.

The YPT Curriculum is built around the framework of catechesis. This is the pattern of discipleship the Church has practiced for the last 2000 years, but churches moved away from it in the past century.

Catechesis is about so much more than encouraging kids to memorize a catechism! It’s relational discipleship that prioritizes Christian Doctrine (Apostles’ Creed), Christian Spirituality (Lord’s Prayer), and Christian Living (Ten Commandments).

The YPT Curriculum is built around those three branches in order to lead youth to honor the Lord with their head, heart, and hands. Each year, there will be a series under each branch, in order to help you disciple students well.

We have intentionally written the curriculum for an international audience. This is why our stories and illustrations are drawn from Church History and Scripture, rather than from pop culture. We want all youth workers to be able to use the YPT Curriculum to disciple the next generation.

Each lesson was written with a 45 minute Bible Study in mind, but can be easily adapted to other settings.

Please note, our goal is to provide you with all the exegetical, theological, and pastoral background you’ll need to lead an effective study for your youth.

We DO NOT intend (or recommend!) reading every bullet point in the lesson to your students. Those are for you to read as you prepare, so you know how to modify the lesson for the teenagers in your ministry.

This curriculum was written with a 45 minute small group or Bible study in mind, for youth ages 12-18.

If you choose to use this series for a larger-group setting, you can turn the Introduction and Biblical Foundations sections into a message to teach, and then split into smaller groups to discuss the Living Theologically and Application sections.

Some of these lessons address difficult topics and confusing Bible passages. We have worked hard to give you tools in the Leader Notes and Explain portions of the Teacher’s Guide so you’ll be able to make the lessons understandable and applicable. Be patient and give your teenagers the chance honor God with their mind. They can do it. You can too!

NO! We wrote this curriculum with volunteer leaders in mind.

We want to make biblically rich and theologically deep ministry accessible for every youth ministry.

You will need to prepare and review the material before teaching it, because you’re called to shepherd your students and you know how best to adapt the content to meet them where they’re at. Our goal is to give you everything you need to do that well.

When you purchase a series, you’ll receive a file with two documents, a Leader’s Guide and a Student Guide. Each PDF has all 12 series so you can print it out fully, or lesson-by-lesson.

The Leader’s Guide includes leader notes to help you prepare to lead discussion. These leader notes are long because we want to give you all the biblical/theological background you need to lead discussion for your group. Please don’t use every note, use them to discern what would serve your particular group best.

The Student Guide includes the opening story, biblical text (that way everyone can read the same translation together), and the discussion questions with room for them to write a response.

Since each series is being released independently this year, they will cost $100 each. So, purchasing the full curriculum will cost $300.

Next year, we will add the option to purchase each series individually or to buy the bundle for a slight discount.

If the cost is too high for your church, please contact Mike to request a scholarship (email is on the About page).

Yes, discounts are available for churches who cannot afford to pay for the curriculum. YPT will work with you to make it fit within your budget.

International churches are especially welcome to contact Mike regarding discounts.

Please contact Mike at mike@youthpastortheologian.com to inquire about discounts.