On Tuesday my junior high small group co-leader and I decided we wanted to do a good, old-fashioned Bible study with our guys. We were planning things out before we met, and we landed on talking through Exodus 4, when God tasks Moses with bringing the Israelites out of Egypt. The big idea we wanted the guys to take away was that even though you may seem inadequate at times or not equipped for what God has planned for you, his plan will always prevail.
After we talked a bit about how Moses didn’t think he was a good speaker and begged God to give this task to someone else, we asked the guys if anyone had a similar situation where things seemed so tough they didn’t think they could do it. No one responded at first, so I gave an example from my life. We opened it back up to the guys again, and this time there was silence…until one of my boys answered up.
The guy that spoke started telling a powerful story that he had told Kyle (my co-leader) and me about, but this was the first time he was sharing it with the whole group. It was a perfect example of what we were talking about, and it was an amazing story about how God worked to overcome a difficult situation.
The moral of the story is this: You might think you have a great story or illustration that gets your point across. You might put a ton of time into something that you think is really going to bring your message home. But if you can get one of your own students to speak to his or her peers, it is worth way more and will work 100% better.
