Think Series Topics

Okay, real talk for a second.  I spent the last 20+ years building youth ministry curriculum around series titles. You know what I mean: 

• Doing a series on Jesus? Let’s call it “The Rock Won’t Move.” 

• Talking about family? How about “Family Matters.” 

• Wise choices? “Guardrails.” Or “Road Signs.” Or “Life Hacks.”

I did this for years. Maybe you have too. We’d designate the scripture and truth we wanted to teach, and then build whole series around a catchy title or metaphor, then work backward to find stories, and takeaways that somehow tied into that theme. 

And it worked... kind of. 

But lately, I’ve been wondering: did it actually help? Or were we just doing cartwheels to make something stick that was never really necessary in the first place?

Let me ask you this: 

Where do you actually use those titles? 

No really. Think about it.

Maybe the title shows up: 

• On the screen at the beginning of service 

• In a bumper video (if you have one) 

• At the top of an email to parents 

…And then what? 

Are students referencing it in small group? 

Do they ever say, “Wow, Road Signs really changed my life!”? 

Do they even know what the series is called?

We started asking churches this same question, and over and over again, we heard the same thing:

• Middle schoolers don’t care about the series title. 

• They care about whether they can understand what you're saying. 

• They care about whether it connects to their life.

So we made a shift. 

We stopped leading with titles. We started leading with topics. Because middle schoolers are in a phase where clarity beats creativity every time. They’re trying to make sense of a thousand things, so what if we removed the unnecessary dots and just got to the point?

Here’s what that looked like: 

• Instead of “The Rock Won’t Move”, we just say: “Jesus’ Words”

• Instead of “Family Matters”, we call it: “Family”

• Instead of “Guardrails”, we go with: “Wisdom”

• Instead of “Into the Unknown,” we go with: “Change”

• Instead of “Circles,” we go with: “Community”

This Doesn’t mean we don’t like titles. We’re not saying creativity is dead. We’re just saying, especially for 10–14 year olds the goal isn’t to impress them with our metaphors. It’s to help them get it. To make it make sense. To give them language they can actually use in their world. 

Because when you stop spending six sentences trying to connect a metaphor to a message, you gain six more sentences to explain what Jesus actually meant. You give a small group leader more time to unpack real-life examples. You give a middle schooler more space to ask, “Wait, does that mean I can talk to God about this thing with my friend?”

So that’s the shift. 

• From titles to topics. 

• From clever to clear. 

• From “let’s brand this” to “let’s break this down.”

What do you think? 

Could this be one of those shifts that makes your whole ministry feel a little lighter… and your students walk away understanding a whole lot more?