This post is part of a series of posts called XP3 101. Be sure to check out the entire series! You can check out the previous post in this series by clicking here.
Today we’re going to dive deeper into specific resources we provide with XP3. It’s a resource that has been a foundational component of XP3 since the very beginning – and that is the XP. In our world, XP is just a fun way of saying Experience. And that is the goal of each XP – to help middle schoolers and high schoolers tangibly experience the truths that they are learning and discussing each week. Because here’s something that I think is true for all of us, but maybe especially for students: we learn best through experience.
In each of your Series Guides, you’ll see us reference your XPs as part of your Story segment because, even if the XPs don’t show up specifically in your talk, the XPs still help you communicate God’s truth to your students in engaging ways.
But while an XP is one way that you help students grasp the concepts you are trying to teach them, an XP is actually less about remembering what you’re teaching and more about applying what you’re teaching.
Maybe your XP for a particular series is to participate in a canned food drive for a series about compassion. Or maybe it’s a simple devotional for a series about spiritual habits. Or maybe it’s not even something your students do – maybe it’s something their small group leaders do for them, like writing them a postcard and popping it in the mail. Sometimes the XPs are designed to be done during your large group teaching time. Sometimes they’re designed to be done during small group time. And other times, they’re designed to be done by an individual time during their own time.
But no matter what the XP for each series is, here’s one thing about them that I love: we always give you a complete shopping list of all the materials you’ll need to pull it off! (Because making shopping lists is the absolute worst.)
The XPs we provide will vary quite a bit from series to series, but one thing is always true: they exist to give students an opportunity to see the concepts they are learning put into practice in tangible ways. They’re about application. So with every series, we provide you with one idea for an XP, or Experience, that you can do with your students at some point during the series.
Oh, and here’s a note for those of you using both XP3 Middle School and XP3 High School. Sometimes our XPs are similar for both XP3 Middle School and XP3 High School. But more often than not, our XPs are different (sometimes very different). That’s because a middle schooler’s world is so very different from the world of a high schooler.
So for each series, the XP3 Middle School team works to create an XP that is designed with a middle schooler in mind, and that addresses exactly the kinds of questions, frustrations, temptations, and needs that they have, right now, as a middle schooler.
And at the same time, the XP3 High School team does the same for the unique questions, frustrations, temptations, and needs of high school students.
So that’s how the XPs work! It’s our hope that, through these XPs, your students will not just learn or remember Biblical truths, but they’ll learn to apply them, too, through an experience that helps it stick.
We’re now halfway through this XP3 101 blog series! Here’s what’s coming up next…
- What is XP3?
- What does “XP3” mean?
- The 7 Segments
- Teaching with XP3
- The XP
- The Parent Cue
- Small Groups
- Scope & Cycle
- XP3 MS and HS differences
- What is an Orange Specialist?
- More Resources for Student Pastors
Check back next week for more!
