TeenTalk

Our teenagers are a part of our church and should not be excluded from Giving in Grace providing the approach is sensitive to their needs. Young people experience a significant amount of advertising pressure and a great deal of peer pressure. The range of disposable income that they have varies tremendously and the youth groups they attend range from bible based study groups attended by the children of committed church going parents to open youth clubs for teens who rarely attend church.

Initial discussion of teen involvement takes place at the third Planning Group meeting. But this discussion, supported by the document Money Matters to Teens, cannot be held in isolation from the leaders of youth ministry in the church.

TeenTalk aims is to enable teenagers to begin to address the question of giving in a way that is meaningful to the world as they experience it now. The resources below will help teenagers to develop formative and sustainable habits that will promote generosity as they get older.

• Introduction for youth leaders
  An introduction on how to use the TeenTalk resources.
• Session 1: Lifestyle matters
  This first section explores issues of personal choice that young people have to make and the pressures upon them from advertising and a consumer culture that makes these decisions so complex and difficult.
• Session 2: Ethical matters
  This section raises some of the serious issues around fair trade, poverty and international debt that lie behind the individual choices that our young people must make.
• Session 3: Giving matters
  This section focuses on the decision to give as a lifestyle choice and the value of forming early habits of generosity. Within this, giving to the local church is considered alongside giving to other Christian charities.
• Session 4: So What? :
  A final session encouraging young people to make their own response and do something about what they have been discussing. For this last session leaders will also need the file the Tzedekah: the Ladder of Justice and Righteousness.
  
  There is also a version of the Giving in Grace response form especially adapted for teens which will be needed for this session. The files are provided in the sidebar on this page