Today’s post is the last in the “series within a series” I’ve been doing regarding the youth programs in our church. I’ve really enjoyed sharing with you a part of the church that I’ve been involved with since I was 12 years old! I hope you’ve enjoyed it, too. Today I’ll be telling you a little about a fantastic program called Come, Follow Me.
The Come, Follow Me program is a fairly new program in the church. It rolled out in 2012, if I remember correctly, for the youth, and I dare say it’s been of great worth to them. The Come, Follow Me curriculum replaced the Sunday School and Young Women/Men lessons that they are taught on Sundays. Before, the Sunday School lessons mirrored that of the adults – each year we learn about a different body of scripture and it rotates every 4 years (Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants and Church History, Old Testament, and New Testament). I’m unsure what the Young Men were taught, but the Young Women had manuals that were rotated through with lessons about gospel doctrine. The lessons were all laid out for the teachers, and we used to joke that you didn’t really need to prepare because you could just open the manual and read right on down the page. As you can imagine, however, that leaves little room for discussion, and a lot of room for simply talking at the youth.
The Come, Follow Me program is named so because it is set up in the style that Jesus taught. Instead of having lessons planned out for the teacher to simple skim through and then regurgitate to the class, there are instead brief bullet points and highlights for each lesson, as well as links to scriptures, talks and videos that you might want to use in your lesson. But what ones you use and where you take the lesson is up to you. As leader, we can pray and listen to the Spirit as we choose what exactly those in our class need to hear and learn about the most. The program also encourages getting the youth involved in teaching the lessons, as well as engaging with them throughout the week so that they come to class prepared. The goal of this program is not to just teach the youth but to convert them.
Each month has a different topic, and then all the Sunday lessons that month will be related to that topic. I love that this program is used in both the Sunday School and the Young Women/Men classes, because it means not only are the youth getting to dive deep into a topic for 4-5 Sundays, but they are able to build upon their knowledge and share it with their friends. (You can view a month’s topic here, and a outline for one lesson during that month here.)
We have amazing youth. And they were and are so ready for this program. They are ready to learn more and teach other. They are ready to become fully invested in and converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, even at the young age of 12. As I’ve worked with the youth over the past 4.5 years, I have been blown away at what strong testimonies they have. Indeed they are “Zion’s youth in latter days, triumphant, pure and strong.” (Song found here.)
More in the series:
Intro and I am a Christian | Joseph Smith, The Restoration, and The Book of Mormon | The Plan of Salvation
The Godhead | Grace and Good Works | Logistics and Programs | Families and Family Home Evening
General Conference | Jesus Christ | Prophets | #ASaviorIsBorn | Young Women Program Overview
