Youth Curriculum, 12-24-23
Announcements:
The 2024 Winter Teen Camp is January 12th -15th. Our teen advisor, Ocean Laura, will be going to Camp Cedar Ridge to support teens ages 13-18 in one of many “camp families” and doing grounds patrol. He has had over 14 Teen Camp experiences, including advisor training, and will be a blessing of wisdom to our more extensive community of CSL teens. If you want to financially support Ocean’s teen camp cost of $345 plus travel expenses, click the donate button on our CSLOlympia.org website and look for Youth & Family Fundraising.
Curriculum Overview
Youth lead a morning Christmas Eve service with an instrumental to Jingle Bells, inviting everyone to sing. Back in the classroom, we explore the idea that Christmas is a celebration of the Christ presence within ourselves, and they create qualities of that Spirit through art. Youth join the service once more to lead everyone in song to Santa Claus is Coming to Town and gather in the fellowship hall to receive presents from the Spirit of Mr. and Mrs. Claus (Greg and Adrienne).
2024 Theme: Living Out Loud!
December Monthly Theme: Living as Wholeness
Week 4 Value: Embodying Christ Consciousness; birthing Wholeness in our hearts
Message: Youth celebrate recognizing the importance of nurturing the Christ presence within themselves, celebrating the qualities of Spirit, and uplifting their prayer practice for a deeper connection to Wholeness during the Christmas season.
Spiritual Practice: Youth participate in a meditation called “Manger of Our Hearts,” where they are encouraged to visualize igniting and renewing a light of love within their own hearts.
Active Listening: We share the quote from Jesus about the call to love as he has loved us and discuss how recognizing the inner Christ can amplify our capacity for love. Understand that we live in a spiritual universe and share personal experiences where they felt a deep connection to the divine and how it influenced their sense of Wholeness.
Activity: Youth participate in a “Heart Illumination” activity and write or draw what symbolizes love and light to them on heart-shaped paper. Later, we brainstorm and share qualities of Spirit they would like to embody in their lives and create artwork representing their unity with Spirit as Wholeness to put on our Wholeness Poster to share the following week.
Connecting: To practice Acts of Love for the holiday, youth share their musical talents during service, playing instruments and joining in song with their community.