Jonah for your youth group.
Prepped in 20 minutes.

Proof: what the Wayfold app does with a chapter

We make Wayfold, and the printable follows the same approach as the app. These App Store screenshots show Ruth; the free Jonah study has the same steps.

Who this Jonah study is not for

• Kids under about ten. The talk questions assume teens. For younger children, a story-and-craft lesson will land better.
• Groups that want a video curriculum. There are no videos here, just the text, a sheet and a conversation.
• Leaders who want a topical series. This goes straight through one book. If you want a series on anxiety or friendship, pick a topical study.

Wayfold itself is an iPhone app. Teens without iPhones can still use the printable; it works with any Bible.

The 4-week Jonah youth group printable

Five pages: a cover with the session plan, then one page per chapter with an opener, five find-it questions, a labeled background note, a talk question and an answer key with verses.

Jonah is about 1,250 words in the World English Bible. Your teens can read the whole book in the time it takes to queue for lunch.

How to lead Jonah with teens, in 3 steps

1. Print one page per week. Read the chapter yourself first (one to two minutes), then the questions and answer key. We budget about 20 minutes of prep per session; your pace may differ.
2. Make them find it. For each question, nobody answers until someone reads the words out of the chapter. Wayfold’s Find it step works the same way: a prompt, then tap the line that answers it.
3. Let the ending hang. Jonah ends on God’s question with no reply. Week 4 works best if you let the group sit with it rather than wrapping it up for them.

A decision we made: each background note is labeled History, In the text or Interpretation, the same labels Wayfold uses, so teens learn early to tell the passage from what people say about it.

A Wednesday night, week 4

An illustration, not a real group.

Eleven teens, a bag of pretzels, and the 1-to-10 anger vote. Most hands go up at eight or nine. Then the reading: Jonah angry, Jonah under the vine, a worm, a hot wind. Someone laughs at the worm.

“Find where Jonah says why he ran.” It takes a minute. A quiet girl reads 4:2 out loud: “for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful.” Then, without being asked: “Wait, he ran because God is nice?”

The leader does not answer. She reads 4:11, God’s question, and lets it sit. Nobody fills the silence for a good ten seconds, which in a youth room is a very long time.