YL College: Small Group Curriculum

On Thursdays this fall we're sharing “best practices” for YL College. These ideas are compiled from YL College leaders across the country. Today our focus is on small group curriculum ideas. Find more resources for Young Life College here.

So what will you study in your small groups? These collected comments from other leaders may help:

• The Bible
• One of the four Gospels, typically 1 chapter/week.
• Different books based on year in school:
• Freshmen: book of John
• Seniors: Romans and/or systematic theology
• Sophomores/Juniors: Acts (because it gives a great picture of community)
• Our first semester is focused on growing a cohesive group (sharing their personal stories) and responding to the club message. We spend the second semester going through a book of the Bible and response to club.

• Book Studies (suggested by other College YL leaders):
• Greg Boyd’s “Present Perfect: Finding God in the Now.” It seems that our students are stressed, overwhelmed and see their 'quiet time' as an extra thing to fail at instead of a place to retreat.
• Loving the Way Jesus Loves
• Explicit Gospel
• Crazy Love
• Love Does -- It seems to give a good jumping off point for deeper conversation
• She Reads Truth or He Reads Truth
• Discovery from Discipleship Focus

• Other Elements of Small Group:
• Encouragement for one another
• Share time 
• Lots of structured questions (Here are over 100 questions you can use)
• Prayer for each other
• Talk and planning trips
• Share life stories during the first semester
• We all do a journaling format called Lectio Devina.