SESSIONS
These are collections of ITEMS divided into 5 different age groups (3-4, 5-6, 7-10, 11-14, 15+). Each session has a THEME and each theme is part of a SERIES. Meeting plans contain a selection of Items each based around an ACTIVITY TYPE (game, drama, craft etc.) designed to help you deliver a session on a particular theme in a style and depth suitable for your group. Items within sessions are arranged so that they progress from lots of 'just for fun' activities through to ways of introducing the theme, exploring it in depth and offering creative ways in which young people can respond. Most Sessions have more material than most groups would want to use in one gathering, giving you lots of choices as to how you approach the session you are planning.
SERIES
Each Energize session is part of a series (eg. Apologetics, Bible Characters, Encounters With Jesus). Each Series has a session number (see below) associated with it to help users identify where the individual session fit in the Series. The majority of Series have sessions for all age groups but there are a few which don't (either because new material is in the process of being written or the series isn't particularly relevant for that age group)
THEME
This is effectively the 'topic' or 'subject' of the sessions which make up each series. Each Series will have a different number of themed sessions attached to it (for example, the Encounters With Jesus Series has 12 themed sessions attached to it for 3-4 age group and 18 sessions for each of the other age groups)
SESSION NUMBER
All Energize meeting plans have a short code which links them into the series they belong to. For example BC is the code for the Bible Characters (you'll see what we did there!).
In addition, each session is given a number to distinguish it from other sessions in that series. These numbers don't have a particular significance but they do allow plans in a series to be presented in what we hope is a sensible order. For example BC01 is looking at Adam & Eve and then the numbers are applied to other characters in the order in which they appear in the Bible (BC02 looks at Noah, BC03 at Abraham and so on). It's important to note that all sessions for different ages groups within series have the same Session Number, so regardless of the age group, a meeting plan within the Bible Characters series on Adam & Eve will have the BC01 code whether it is aimed at 3-4 year olds or 15+ ie. all the sessions on Adam & Eve in the Bible Characters series carry the code BC01.
In some instances, where we have started to expand the number of meeting plans on a particular subject the session numbers are formatted slightly differently. For example, we have added some addition meeting plans into the Bible Characters series (for some of the ages groups) on the life of David so the numbering is now BC17.1, BC17.2 etc.
Each session is made up of a number of sections which are, in turn, made up of a number of items. The earlier sections focus on welcome/icebreaker-type activities, the middle sections on exploring the theme in greater depth and the later sections on response.
For 3-4s the section running order is:
Welcome Activity - Story Time - Get Creative - Revisiting the Story - Time to Go Home
For 5-6s the section running order is:
Warming Up - Teaching Time - Take Away - Response
For 7-10s, 11-14s and 15+ the section running order is:
Warming Up - Getting Started - Digging In - Response - Take Away
ITEMS
These are the individual activities in each section.
ACTIVITY TYPE
This is the type of activity that each item within the meeting plan is based around (eg. Game, Craft Ideas, Discussion etc.)