Archive for the ‘youth group’ Category

I did this lesson recently with my youth group.  It was pretty successful.. Here's what I did:

The Ingredients for Spiritual Growth

What are the ingredients for growing in our spiritual walk with Christ?  The goal is that students would be challenged to implement one or more of these ingredients. Spiritual growth is the process of growing closer to God. God’s Word gives us the ingredients to help in that process.

Bible Verses

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

Acts 2:42-47; Philippians 1:6; Colossians 3:17; Hebrews 10:24-25

What’s in your food.. Game

On each table I have a list of ingredients of several popular food items. The youth will  guess what each item is.

  ·     Milk Chocolate (Milk Chocolate contains Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Chocolate, Nonfat Milk, Milk Fat, Lactose, and Soya Lecithin and PGPR (as Emulsifiers), Peanuts, Sugar, Dextrose, Salt, and TBHQ and Citric Acid (to Preserve Freshness)  (REECES)

·       Carbonated Water; Imperial Pure Cane Sugar; Caramel Color; Phosphoric Acid; 23 Artificial and Natural Flavors; Sodium Benzoate (Preservative); Caffeine.  (Dr. Pepper)

·         Chopped pork shoulder meat with ham meat added, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder, and sodium nitrite as a preservative. Spam's gelatinous glaze, or aspic, forms from the cooling of meat stock. (Spam)

• UNBLEACHED ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE {VITAMIN B1}, RIBOFLAVIN {VITAMIN B2}, FOLIC ACID), SOYBEAN OIL, SUGAR, SALT, EMULSIFIERS (MONOGLYCERIDES, SOY LECITHIN), DEXTROSE, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE (FLAVOR ENHANCER), ONION POWDER, BAKING SODA, DEHYDRATED COOKED CHICKEN, HYDROLYZED CORN AND YEAST PROTEIN, SPICE EXTRACTIVES, DISODIUM INOSINATE AND DISODIUM GUANYLATE (FLAVOR ENHANCERS). CONTAINS: WHEAT, SOY.

·         Talk about how each ingredient is essential for the item to be fabulous.

·         If you were to leave out one of the ingredients, the item would not be the same. 

·         It is just the same with our walk with Christ—there are ingredients for growing in our relationship with Christ that are essential. Without any one of these ingredients, we would be missing out on the full experience of growth.

Discuss the following questions:

1. What are some ingredients that will help you grow in your relationship with God?

2. Which ingredients are the most important?

3. Which could you really do without?

4. What would your relationship be like without ___________________________[list any ingredient] being a part of it?

Conclude by stating that today you will be looking at some essential ingredients in the process of growing in your relationship with God. In the following section, you’ll be looking at the ingredients for spiritual growth found in Acts 2:42-47. This is not an exhaustive list of growth ingredients, but it is a great passage on this issue. Feel free to add any ingredients not talked about in this lesson. Because of the amount of time you’ll have, you will not be able to spend a great deal of time on any one ingredient. So be sure to define each ingredient, explain its importance, state how the ingredient applies to the students’ lives, and then talk about its impact on your own relationship with God.

Read Acts 2:42-47.

I. God’s Word (v. 42)

A. Spend personal time in God’s Word.

B. Listen to God’s Word being taught.

II. Fellowship (v. 42)

A. Develop relationships in small groups for accountability.

B. Build relationships for the purpose of growth.

III. Prayer (v. 42)

A. Practice adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication (or asking)—ACTS.

B. Listen for God’s answers.

IV. Community (v. 44)

A. Care for each other.

B. Share your life and your material possessions.

C. Encourage others.

V. Serving (v. 45)

A. Serve people within the group and your church.

B. Serve those outside the church.

VI. Worship (vv. 46-47)

A.      Give God His rightful place in your life.

VII. Evangelize (v. 47)

A. Share your faith with others.

B. Love the lost.

Actions.

The following discussion starters will help students personalize the ingredients for spiritual growth. The key will be in giving real-life examples of each ingredient and challenging students to apply one or two of the ingredients to their lives. Give students examples from your life. By opening up your life to them, they will feel more comfortable in talking about their own lives. Offer insight into where they are now in their spiritual growth processes and how they can get to where they want to be. In addition, offer accountability to the group members in helping them live out one or more of the ingredients.

·         What is the difference between salvation and spiritual growth?

·         How does Philippians 1:6 relate to spiritual growth?

·         If someone is feeling spiritually dry and far away from God, what advice would you give him or her?

·         What has helped you grow the most in your relationship with God?

·         Who has been the greatest influence in your own spiritual growth?

·         What has that person done to encourage you to grow?

·         Read Hebrews 10:24-25. How can we help each other in growing closer to Christ?

·         Which one or two of the ingredients is the toughest for you? Why?

·         If you could work on one spiritual ingredient in your life, which one would it be?

·         What they will do during this coming week to work on this area.

Wednesday September 22, was See You at the Pole day.  If you haven’t heard about SYATP.. it’s a unique opportunity for kids to meet around the flag pole at their school and pray for their country, schools and each other.

Unless you are homeschooled, then you meet at your towns

courthouse. Our Youth Group participated this year for the first time.

I was planning on hanging out at the High School with our Youth

Group… but instead I hung out with the Homeschoolers.

#2 volunteered to be the leader for the homeschool pole.  Which

means he lead the prayer.  He was pretty nervous, but did a great

job.  The man and I are super proud of him for leading.

I stole/adapted my ideas from this HERE It’s a great site!

Focus: Lent is a time to look inward to seek how we might more fully accept God’s love and peace and grace in our lives.

Objectives:

• Youth will take part in a game to review basic facts about the season of Lent.
• Youth will create masks as a way to reflect on our inward sin.
• Youth will discuss the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.
• Youth will participate in a worship experience to consider their own journey of Lent.

Materials needed: Bibles, copy of questions for opening activity, undecorated masks, markers and scissors

1) Opening Activity: (10 minutes) Play “One Step Forward, One Step Back.” Line group across the middle of the room and ask the questions below. Those who get the answer right, take one step forward. Those who get the question wrong take one step back. The “winner” (and aren’t we ALL winners?) is the first one to cross the finish line where you are standing. What do they win? Hmmm? How about something purple? (I’m going to give them some purple candy)

• The official (liturgical) color of Lent is red. True of False? (False. It’s purple – representing royalty and repentance.)

• Lent lasts for 40 days, not counting Sundays. True or False? (True.)

• The word Lent comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word meaning “midwinter.” (False. It translates “springtime” since that is the time of year the season generally falls.)

• The 40 days of Lent are a reminder of the Bible story in which Jesus spends 40 days alone in the wilderness and is tempted by the Devil. True or False? (True. It also recalls the 40 years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness.)

• Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, when people often have the sign of the cross made of ashes placed on their foreheads. Most often, these ashes are made by burning palm leaves from the previous year’s Palm Sunday service. True or False? (True.)

• The ash is supposed to represent the story in which Jesus places dirt or ash on a blind man’s eyes to make him see again. True or False? (False. The ashes represent humility and our own mortality – from dust we came and to dust we shall return.)

• Many people give up something during Lent. The point of this practice is to show your willpower. True or False? (False. It is a practice of self-denial that allows room in your life for God to do something new.)

• Fasting is a common practice in Lent but the one day people don’t fast during Lent is Sundays. True or False? (True. People traditionally do not fast on Sundays as Sundays are to be reminders or a foretaste of the coming resurrection.)

• The phrase “Glory to God” is traditionally never spoken during Lent and does not make its return until Easter morning. True or False. (False. “Alleluia” is the what many churches abstain from saying in worship during Lent.)

• The last week of Lent is known as “Holy Week.” True or False? (True.)

• On Maundy Thursday, the last Thursday in Lent, we recall the last night and meal that Jesus shares with his disciples. True or False? (True.)

2) Digging In: People often wear masks during the Mardi Gras activities that come just before Lent. Masks symbolize the way we often try to hide our sinfulness or our true nature. Lent is a time of taking off our masks, of examining our true selves, of being real before God so that we can come to understand that God knows us fully, forgives us, loves us, and encourages us to grow and become all we were created to be. Within this context, give youth an unfinished paper mask.  (Click here to get a printable mask)  or You’ll need this Template for a Mask

Ask them to decorate the outside of the mask with words, images, and colors that represent how others see them – their “outside” self. On the inside of the mask, encourage them to display their “inside” self – their fears, their doubts, their shortcomings. When finish, invite responses from youth about the experience of creating these masks.

3) Going Deeper: (20 minutes) Invite youth to read the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4: 1-11). Ask one or more persons to read the narration, another to read the words of Jesus, and one or more to read the words of the Tempter. Help the group to explore this story where Jesus goes off on his own to do some soul-searching and , in a sense, confront his own demons. The journey Jesus takes into the desert — the journey to be alone with God and to seek God’s guidance about our true identity — is the journey we are all invited to focus on during Lent.

ASK:

• What do you think Jesus might have had to give up to go out in the wilderness by himself?

• The things the Tempter offers him are not intrinsically bad: food in a time of hunger, political power in a time of Roman oppression, a leap of faith. So why do you think Jesus resists these temptations?

• What memories do you have of times you faced choices that at the time seemed like good ideas but were ultimately led you in an unhealthy or unfaithful direction?

• Share what you do when you want time alone to think/pray/reflect. Where do you go? What do you do?

Ask youth to reflect on how Jesus gives up much to go out in the wilderness to move closer to the heart of God. What do they make of the artist’s interpretation of the Tempter? Distribute note cards and ask participants to draw a line down the center. Invite them to echo Jesus’ journey by writing on one side of the card something they will consider “giving up” during Lent (food, TV, internet, etc.) and on the other side something new they would like to take on during Lent that might help them connect more deeply with the experience of God in their daily lives (prayer, random acts of kindness, helping their parents, going to worship, reading the Bible, exercise, etc). Encourage youth to keep these note cards and place them somewhere that they will see them daily in the coming weeks of Lent.

Finally, invite the group to gather in a circle and place their completed masks in the center as an offering to God of both their inner and outer selves. Conclude together with a prayer of confession and assurance of pardon.