The Journey for Youth: Walking the Road to Bethlehem
By Adam Hamilton and Jason Gant
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About this ebook
It’s a captivating story—one that has been told many times before, but never quite this way.
Popular pastor, author, and speaker Adam Hamilton guides teens on a journey to experience the anxiety and anticipation that Joseph and Mary felt as they prepared for the birth of Jesus. Youth will meet familiar characters, including Elizabeth, Mary’s older relative; the lowly night-shift shepherds who were the first to hear the good news of the Savior’s birth; and many others.
They will spend time in the towns surrounding the Holy Land and will travel with Mary and Joseph on that unforgettable journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born.
This is a journey that is meant to be shared. Take your first step now.
This five-week resource for youth includes leader helps. You will need one copy for every participant as well as your leader. It also provides resources for incorporating The Journey: DVD with Leader Guide and doing a book study of Adam Hamilton’s The Journey: Walking the Road to Bethlehem.
Adam Hamilton
Adam Hamilton is the founding pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City. Started in 1990 with four people, the church has grown to become the largest United Methodist Church in the United States with over 18,000 members. The church is well known for connecting with agnostics, skeptics, and spiritual seekers. In 2012, it was recognized as the most influential mainline church in America, and Hamilton was asked by the White House to deliver the sermon at the Obama inaugural prayer service. Hamilton, whose theological training includes an undergraduate degree from Oral Roberts University and a graduate degree from Southern Methodist University where he was honored for his work in social ethics, is the author of nineteen books. He has been married to his wife, LaVon, for thirty-one years and has two adult daughters.
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Book preview
The Journey for Youth - Adam Hamilton
Introduction
The story of Jesus’ birth is one of western civilization’s best-known stories. It has been immortalized in popular songs, children’s Christmas pageants, figurines and lawn ornaments, and great works of art. Even people outside of the church know about the story’s setting (a manger in Bethlehem), major players (Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and angels), and overall plot.
But when we take a closer look at this beloved story, we see details that we may have missed. The purpose of this study is to take a fresh look at the story of Jesus’ birth by retracing the steps of those who were involved. As you work through the five sessions in this book, you’ll take a trip to the Holy Land as it was two millennia ago and examine the key events leading up to and including the first Christmas. Along the way you’ll consider what the story of Jesus’ birth teaches us about God and our relationship with God. You’ll also reflect on how the truths and lessons of Christ’s Nativity apply to your life today.
The Purpose of This Study
This 5-session study for teens is inspired by and based on Adam Hamilton’s book The Journey: Walking the Road to Bethlehem. This study, like the book that inspired it, looks at the events leading up to Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem and draws lessons from these events that you can apply to your day-to-day life.
Also Available
• The Journey: Walking the Road to Bethlehem, by Adam Hamilton (ISBN 9781426714252)
• The Journey: Walking the Road to Bethlehem DVD, including a leader guide (ISBN 9781426719998)
• The Journey: A Season of Reflections, a devotional companion (ISBN 9781426714269)
Although this resource is intended for teens, the book itself is set up like an adult Bible study. Whether a leader or a participant, everyone has the same book and literally is on the same page. Leaders should review the material in advance to determine which activities and discussion questions the group will use.
The Journey: Walking the Road to Bethlehem Youth Edition includes five sessions, making it ideal for the season of Advent (one session for each Sunday during Advent, plus one session for Christmas Sunday). But the impact of the Nativity story is not limited to a certain time of year. Regardless of the season, this study is a great way for youth Sunday school classes or Bible study groups to gain a better understanding of what Mary, Joseph, and the other persons in the story experienced in the days leading up to Jesus’ birth.
Each of the five sessions includes the following parts:
Getting Started—Each session identifies a few goals for that session. These goals give leaders some clear teaching objectives and participants something to focus on as they journey with Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Each session also provides definitions of key words and place-names that may be unfamiliar to many participants.
Introduction—While none of us have been told by an angel that we will give birth to or parent the Messiah, we can still draw from our experiences to gain a better sense of what Mary, Joseph, and the other players in the story of Jesus’ birth were experiencing. Every session’s introduction makes a connection between an event leading up to Christ’s birth and a situation that most young people today find familiar. Participants can read the introduction prior to each session, or groups can spend time reading the information during each session.
Testimonial—Every session includes an interview with a young person whose personal experience mirrors what is going on in that session’s Scripture passage.
Video Presentation and Discussion—An optional, but recommended resource, Adam Hamilton’s The Journey DVD takes viewers to the Holy Land, where he visits sites that are traditionally associated with the events leading up to Jesus’ birth. Each of the segments runs about 10 minutes. Each session provides a list of sights (what viewers will see on the DVD) and key insights (what viewers should take away) for that session’s video segment. The session also provides a list of discussion questions that groups can use to debrief the video.
Book Study and Discussion—This part of the session is also optional. Because this study is based on Adam Hamilton’s The Journey, participants would benefit from reading and reflecting on that book. Every chapter in the book corresponds to a session in this study, and each session provides questions for groups wanting to discuss and debrief what they have read.
Bringing the Scripture to My Life—One of the main objectives of this study is to help participants make connections between the events leading up to Jesus’