Four Great Bible Resources for Junior High Ministry

Written by Mike Sheley

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Summer is the time to challenge your junior highers. It’s the perfect time to help students develop new habits and/or improve existing ones, especially when those habits help them get to know Jesus better.

I want to share four resources I use with my junior high students to get them into the Bible so they can get to know Jesus better.

Manga Messiah

Manga, or Japanese style comics, are very popular in general. The NEXTmanga company has used that art form to retell the ancient stories of the Bible. Here’s a little about them from their website:

The NEXTmanga series includes five books and over a thousand pages of genuine manga literature telling the complete story of the Bible. The project was started nearly fifteen years ago when a team of manga artists, writers and producers came together to create MANGA MESSIAH. The NEXTmanga series has distributed more than 3 million books and 5 million booklets in 33 languages. The books have enjoyed an excellent reception by countless manga fans – young and old – around the world.

We have purchased copies of these print books and made them both available for purchase through our church’s resource center and given some copies away. In addition to the print form which you can purchase here for about $10 each. There is also an app available for iOS that you can find here. The app is free. With it, you can preview any of their books in either English or Japanese. And for half the price of the print, you can make an in-app purchase to download the full copy for just $5.

You may be skeptical to get a comic book or graphic novel as a tool to get students into the Bible. But these are well done and engage students with images from the text. These work similarly, and I would argue even better, than the stained glass windows many of us or are parents and grandparents grew up seeing in church. And on each page, there are verse references where students can go to a text Bible or Bible app to read the full story.

Action Bible

As summer approaches, so do summer blockbuster movies. And this year – and it looks like the next decade or so – will be filled with comic book action heroes coming to life on the big screen. That is introducing characters to students and causing some to go back and read the full story in their original comic form.

Cook Publishing hired Sergio Cariello, an artist who has illustrated for both DC and Marvel, to illustrate The Action Bible. From their website, Cook describes it as follows:

Here’s the most complete picture Bible ever! And it features a captivating, up-to-date artwork style – making it the perfect Bible for today’s visually focused culture. The Action Bible presents 215 fast-paced narratives in chronological order, making it easier to follow the Bible’s historical flow – and reinforcing the build-up to its thrilling climax. The stories in The Action Bible communicate clearly and forcefully to contemporary readers. This compelling blend of clear writing plus dramatic images offers an appeal that crosses all age boundaries. Brazilian artist Sergio Cariello has created attention-holding illustrations marked by rich coloring, dramatic shading and lighting, bold and energetic designs, and emotionally charged figures. Let this epic rendition draw you into all the excitement of the world’s most awesome story.

Similar to the Manga Bibles, each section includes a “based on” note explaining where the reader can find the full story in the Bible text. This has been a great resource to share powerful visuals and make familiar Bible stories new again, bring back the power and detail some students have lost in their familiarity of the text. When we have interactive stations during our program, this is always one of the most popular resources we put out for students to use. In fact, I recently bought more copies so more students would be able to use them at once!

Jesus-Centered Bible

Many of you have probably read Rick Lawrence’s Jesus-Centered Youth Ministry. (If you haven’t…order or download a copy right now and get started!) This book challenges us in youth ministry to make Christ the center of our ministry with students. It has revolutionized the way I plan my ministry, especially my teaching and content plan. That material and focus has now spread to other books and resources, including a Bible. This is a full text Bible in the New Living Translation. Here’s a description from the publisher’s website:

Encounter Jesus in a Fresh Way Throughout the Entire Bible

Blue lettering highlights more than 600 passages in the Old Testament pointing to Jesus—references and promises that show God’s love story for your life. You’ll see where Jesus appears, cover-to-cover, in every book of the Bible. Distinctive blue lettering helps you quickly and easily discover what’s most important in the Bible: Jesus. Build your understanding—and your faith in Jesus—with these unique features:

  • Jesus Answers Life’s Biggest Questions segments focus on Jesus’ answers to our most common uncertainties and concerns.
  • Jesus in Every Book introductions to Old and New Testament books, written by prominent Christian leaders, show how each book in the Bible points straight to Jesus.
  • “Get to Know Jesus” one-chapter-a-day Bible-reading plan helps you spend time with Jesus every day.
  • Reframing Jesus Break-Outs give you “aha” insights into the people, places, and social forces that framed Jesus’ ministry.
  • Jesus Questions draw you closer to Jesus as you ponder the purpose of his words and actions. And these provocative questions are great discussion starters for small groups, family devotions, outreach—anywhere you want to launch a compelling conversation about Jesus.
  • Jesus’ spoken words and references to Jesus are highlighted with red letters in the New Testament.
  • Names of Jesus are highlighted throughout the New Testament, giving insights into Jesus by examining how writers of the Bible referred to Jesus.

This is not a student Bible. However, helping students see Jesus throughout the entire Bible is a HUGE win for them and for us. This can truly be a Bible they dig into now and use throughout junior high and high school as they get to know Jesus more and more. I’m surprised no one thought of something like this sooner. But I am thankful it is available for us now. We put this out and sold out of all the copies we purchased, as parents picked them up to give their junior highers as Christmas and birthday presents, or just as their own Bible to use. There is not a digital version available as of the typing of this article. But the way things are moving, I’m confidently expecting it to be in development and available in the near future. For now, you can check out the print version here.

YouVersion (Reading Plans)

When it comes to technology and the Bible, YouVersion continues to lead the way. Their simple description says it all:

A free Bible on your phone, tablet, and computer. YouVersion is a simple, ad-free Bible that brings God’s Word into your daily life.

If you have students who love their phones, tablets and all things digital, this is a great resource to put in their hands. Some translations of the Bible are only available on wifi, but that is easily accessible in most places these days.

However, I want to draw your attention to a tool they have that may be extremely helpful for your junior highers: Bible reading plans. Most of us are familiar with the “read through the Bible in a year” plan or something similar in the back of our printed Bible. However, YouVersion has taken this concept of reading specific passages over a period of time and categorized them, added graphics, and made a wide range of lengths of time available. I will highlight two for you, but you can search all of them here.

First of all, from the people who bring us all the Jesus-Centered resources, there are Jesus-Centered Bible reading plans that range from 3 days to 25 days. (And if you get the print Bible, there is a one-year plan to read a chapter a day getting to know Jesus better.) The four available at the time of this post are: Paying Ridiculous Attention to Jesus (7 days), Nothing But Jesus (3 days), Jesus Answers 9 Essential Questions (9 days) and What Do We Know For Sure About Jesus? (25 days). Although these are not junior-high specific, any tool that helps students get to know Jesus better is a great resource!

Second is a set of reading plans designated specifically to “youth.” Just like with any “youth” resource, these cover a wide range of ages. So look through them before recommending. A number of these have been provided by the Switch youth ministry at LifeChurch as well as Cook Publishing’s Action Bible.

Share the Love

One of the great things I love about youth ministry, especially with junior highers, is all the access we have to great resources. However, these can help students most when we share them with the students and their parents. So, let this spring and summer be a time some students start a new habit of reading the Bible and getting to know Jesus thanks to these resources. And give yourself a head start on helping students know and follow Jesus this next school year!

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If you liked this idea, check out: Looking Ahead to a Healthier Junior High Ministry

BubbleMikeMike is the Middle School Pastor at Mount Pleasant Christian Church in Greenwood, Indiana, where he oversees their ministries for 5th-8th graders.  He’s been in full-time youth ministry over 16 years with most of that time focused on preteens and junior highers.