Words of Encouragement: A Guide to 1 Thessalonians

by Susie Shellenberger

First Thessalonians was written to a people bombarded with sensual images and pleasures from the world. Paul's advice to these people, so young in their faith, contains profound truth that is just as relevant today as it was back then. In a world that is attacking minds with the same sexually explicit messages, Thessalonians couldn't be more pertinent. Now, Words of Encouragement brings these words of wisdom in a form that teenage girls will find irresistible. The study brings Thessalonians to life with contemporary language, stories, discussion questions, and journaling opportunities to coincide with Scripture itself. This study is attractive not only because of its colorful dialogue and format, but because of its incredibly affordable price as well.

115 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2005

About the author

Susie Shellenberger is the editor of "Brio" magazine for teen girls, published by Focus on the Family. She's a former youth pastor and high school speech and drama teacher. Susie has written 36 books. She has a passion for MKs and has been on every continent of the world (yes, even Antarctica). Susie sometimes eats cereal for dinner and is led on a walk around the park every day by her 150-pound Saint Bernard, Bosco.

Reviews

[Jessica (JT) · Rating 2 out of 5]

My Bible study group used this as a discussion guide for our study of 1 Thessalonians. We are a group of both men and women in our mid 20s so this book was not written for our age group.

While this was definitely not aimed at our demographic, we still liked this study guide overall. It prompted good discussions that I'm not sure we would have gotten to with just the Bible text.

However, I don't think I would have liked it on its own. It was pretty silly at times with quizzes and phrasing that turned me off. A lot of questions had extremely obvious answers too. I had to go through the book ahead of time and make sure I skipped these questions when leading the group discussion.

Not sure I'd recommend this to anyone but middle school aged girls. Even they might find this annoying, though.