Talksheets: The Life of Christ [Review]

I walked into the office and found an envelope in my box with the new Talksheets, 50 Ready-to-use Discussions on the Life of Christ by Terry Linhart. I'm excited about these for the following reasons:

1. The information is concise and to the point. These talksheets have one page for students, and on the reverse is a leader's page. Linhart doesn't add a lot of extra fluff like most curriculum does, but that's okay because...
2. The lessons are written well. A lot of times, curriculum books have lessons that look more like recipes. Add a little intro, some questions from section three, a quote from section two, a game from the next book in the series, and you've got something that works 80% of the time with your students. From the looks of it, these lessons are general enough to work for any group, but indepth enough that the gospel isn't watered down.
3. THE CURRICULUM IS AGE APPROPRIATE! hallelujah. I can't tell you how many times I've used High School curriculum for 5th and 6th graders, or Adult curriculum for High School. I feel like a lot of curriculum writers are stuck in the 1950s and don't give students enough credit. Most of our kids are naturally "older" these days because of the culture they live in and, while that's sad, it's the truth and youth workers have to meet them where they're at.
4. The material isn't stale. So much of the curriculum out there has been done before, but even the lessons where kids might say "ugh i already KNOW this!" have a new light on them. I love the part in each lesson where it says "this is what's going on in the scripture; what do you think was going through _____'s head? a.... b.... c.... d...." It pulls the kids in, it makes them think, and it makes the story tangible- three things that all youth workers hope for. plus, there's 51 lessons [50 plus a bonus], so this can take you through a whole year of discipleship, and what better example could you have than the Life of Christ?

My only beef with this book is that the leader's page is crammed. I get that they're trying to make the book tight-knit and one page per lesson, but it can be a little overwhelming when you first see it. Simple solution: get the glasses out.

We're going to start this in our Sunday School program at the first of the year. I'm excited to see how the kids respond. To get your copy of Linhart's Talksheets, click here for middle school and here for high school.