What Are XP3 Expansion Packs?

One of the most common questions we get from youth pastors goes something like this:

“My youth ministry meets twice a week, but XP3 Curriculum is only designed for a once-a-week gathering that contains both a large group and a small group time. What should I do during the other gathering I have each week?”

We hear you! Whether it’s Sunday School, a midweek gathering, or an additional small group time, we know so many of you have to come up with programming and content for more than just one night a week in your ministry.

Up until this point, you may have had to: 

purchase another curriculum
spend valuable time writing your own
stretch the XP3 series into two parts

. . . or maybe do something else altogether! 

(Youth pastors are the most creative people on the planet, right?)

Whatever it is you’ve had to do to make it work, we know it has to be costing you valuable time and money.

Well, we’ve got a solution for you—a solution that has already been implemented by hundreds of our XP3 curriculum partners! 

INTRODUCING THE XP3 CURRICULUM EXPANSION PACK

Designed to work alongside XP3 High School and XP3 Middle School curriculum, the Expansion Pack gives you additional content—expanding on each week of curriculum through engaging conversations, developmentally appropriate activities, and prayer beyond small group time.

WHAT’S INCLUDED?

We’re so glad you asked!

You’ll find: 

1. Easy-to-follow Leader Guides, with step-by-step instructions to walk teenagers through engaging activities and discussions.
2. Printable Student Guides or Activity Pages for selected sections. These are not provided for every section, every time. Sometimes the planned activities are all leader-led. 

WHAT’S THE STRATEGY BEHIND THE EXPANSION PACK?

The Expansion Pack (along with the Daily Devotionals provided with the curriculum) is built around what we call The Four Faith Skills. These are skills we want teenagers to develop to build an active and personal faith.

The Four Faith Skills are:

1. HEAR: Prompting students toward Scripture or pointing them toward God’s creation.
2. TALK: Prompting students to talk to someone about their faith, to ask people questions, or to have a conversation with someone about faith.
3. LIVE: Prompting students to respond to their faith through worship and service.
4. PRAY: Prompting students to pray with others or by themselves through writing, drawing, or speaking out loud.

With the Expansion Pack, you’ll get a section for each of the faith skills, and a prompt underneath to help students dive deeper into the topic and Scriptures discussed that week. As the leader, you can pick which sections you want to go through with your students, or you can cover them all! You can adjust how much time you spend on each faith skill for your group around the length of your time together.

HOW DOES IT WORK WITH MY CURRENT XP3 CURRICULUM?

What research tells us is that repetition and application are key in retaining information. Meaning, if we want our teenagers to remember what we taught them, we have to help them actually do something with the information, and we need to repeat it! 

So if we want teenagers to remember (and apply) what we taught them on Sunday, we revisit and expand upon that topic again on Wednesday, and prompt them again in their daily devotional time with God. 

That’s exactly why we’ve designed our curriculum to work together like this:

1. Your main weekly program is where the lesson unfolds and is initially discussed in small groups. 
2. Your second weekly gathering is where students expand on their understanding, and continue applying and processing the content (the Expansion Pack). 
3. Your daily devotionals are where students have a chance to interact with the truths on their own. 

All three of these pieces work together to teach one big idea. 

By trying to help students understand and apply one main thing, we hope they internalize it more deeply and understand how to apply it to their everyday lives, rather than trying to teach them three different things and hoping at least one of them sticks. Remember, depth isn’t the amount of information, it’s the application of information.

We really think this is a recipe for retaining life-altering truths. 

HOW DO I USE THE EXPANSION PACK?

The content is best used following your main gathering. 

Is your main gathering on Sunday nights? 

Use the Expansion Pack content in your Wednesday midweek gathering.

Have your main gathering on Thursday nights? 

Use the Expansion Pack content the following Sunday morning in your gathering.

Need help figuring out your ministry’s schedule? Reach out to your Orange Specialist!

We’ve also discovered this Expansion Pack works well for ministries who only have a program once a week, but they have a few small groups who want to go deeper. When you identify those groups, this is an excellent resource to allow them to continue challenging themselves, while keeping them aligned with what the ministry is doing as a whole.

Multiple gatherings are a lot to program for, and we’re excited the Expansion Pack helps take the weight of planning and alignment off your shoulders.

WANT A CLOSER LOOK OR NEED TO TRY IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT?

Download a preview of the Expansion Packs for our Bible Series:

BREAK IT DOWN from the XP3 Middle School Expansion Pack

EXPLAINED from the XP3 High School Expansion Pack 

Ready to purchase? Get your expansion packs on the Orange Store today.