Relationships Retreat Resources

On THE SOURCE Podcast Episode #14 Furby and I talked about a retreat that Furby’s church does for junior high students every year called the Relationships Retreat. It’s a retreat where they talk about everything to do with sex and dating- a whole weekend on the subject.

In the podcast we discuss it and then we mention that we’ll provide you with the rough outline of what subjects they talked on and any books and or websites they used for reference material. So here’s the list, as promised:

FROM FURBY

Topics we hit at the Relationships Retreat:
 
• Self-Image and Puberty
• Friendship (God’s plan for real friendship)
• Dating (boundaries, how far is too far, etc.)
• Porn and Masturbation (we split up the guys and girls for this)
• Sex and consequences
• What to do if you’ve messed up in the past
• Purity Challenge (VERY DISTINCT from a Virginity Challenge)

Here’s a list of GREAT resources we used to write our booklet and to teach out of.  I’ve put the books in order of most used and relevant:

Purity Under Pressure.  Neil T. Anderson & Dave Park
The Invisible Bond.  Barbara Wilson  (Barb’s book and all her work are incredible.  We ALWAYS have Barb or one of her interns come and speak at our retreat.  Her work and ability to communicate are incredible.  I would highly recommend to anyone trying to do a Relationships Retreat that they make Barb Wilson an essential part of the their Retreat.)
Sex God. Rob Bell
Sexy Girls.  Hayley Dimarco
Too Close Too Soon.  Jim Talley & Bobbie Reed
The What’s Happening to My Body? Book for Boys.  Lynda Madaras
And the Two Became One.  Dianne S. Dewane
God on Sex.  Daniel L. Akin

And of course Jonathan’s resources and his seminar: www.RecommendingSex.com

And here’s some more web sites:
www.sitemaker.umich.edu  (University of Michigan educational website)
www.icrsurvey.com  (stats)
www.cdc.gov  (Center for Disease Control)
www.teenpregnancy.org

Now it’s your turn. We want you to use the comment feature of this blog to let us know what resources you have used to teach on the subject.

This blog is just the first on this subject this week. Tomorrow we talk about the “1 in 4 teenage girls have an STD” statistic.