On our recent fall weekends for students we gave away copies of Engage volume 18 from The Good Book Company. We selected this one because it covers the book of Daniel which was the subject of one of our weekends and alluded to in the other.
Our hope is that students will engage with the Bible, particularly to study the book of Daniel for themselves over the coming weeks. The question is, how do we encourage our students and keep pressing them to continue to work through the book of Daniel? Here are a few thoughts.
1. Use Social media. Whatever platforms you communicate with your students, find clever ways to nudge them gently to keep looking at the Engage book and Daniel in particular. It may be posting pictures of your study time or raising questions from each study to prompt them to engage. Lots of ways exist to do this, just figure out what will reach your students.
2. Remind them during youth group gatherings. Take a moment to bring up the study of Daniel through Engage and see if anyone has something to share about what God has shown them through their study this week. Encourage the rest of the group to get into this study to see the cool truths that have been discovered by others.
3. Devote some teaching to the ideas in the chapters of Daniel. Without covering all that the Engage Bible reading notes covers, you can teach some of the concepts and point students to spend time reading the rest. Perhaps highlight some of what was covered in our fall events and build on those.
4. Avoid consistently using terms like Devotionals and Quiet Times. This may seem odd but so many today don’t comprehend these concepts in a way they might apply to what we have handed out. The “Engage” Bible reading plan we gave away might be best described as Bible reading guides or notes. It is a quarterly book designed to get students into God’s word. I for one have found the concept of a “quiet time” anything but helpful. It tends to imply a specific time of day and a particular way of encountering God. All that to suggest that we let go of the baggage of past generations and encourage students to engage with the Bible however it works for them.
5. Pray that students will engage with God through his word. Pray they will study Daniel and see the relevance to our world today. Pray that they will discover that God’s never ending love is steadfast and sure.
How else might we encourage our students in this regard? Use the comments below to add to the conversation. And please share this with others (via social medial) if you found it helpful.
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