lesson

Finding a Lesson in a Boot Cast

March 15, 2013 by Matt Reynolds Leave a Comment

I fractured my ankle and have been in a boot cast now for three weeks. One of the things I hate about this stupid boot cast is that it limits me on what I can do. Well, at first it did, now after three weeks I have discovered that I find new ways to get things done. It might take a little longer or take more effort but I can still do most things.

The first week I was really limited because it was awkward moving around with this thing. All I could think about was, wow this is going to be a long six weeks with my foot in this thing. After that first week I began finding ways to get stuff done without the boot cast getting in the way, I found ways to still get accomplished what I needed to without putting extra effort or strain on my ankle.

So what’s the point of this post today? Well this morning while I was out walking my dog I remembered the first day of the boot cast walking him and thinking what a hassle every simple task was. This morning it was no big deal, putting on the boot cast was just part of my routine. My God is bigger than this minor setback. He’s bigger than any major setback. This morning in my prayer time I thought of those who have way bigger physical limitations than just a temporary boot cast and once again in my prayer time I came back around to the fact that my life is blessed, even with minor setbacks I am truly blessed and thankful.

I’m not sure how yet but I’ll turn this into a lesson for students. I’ll use this to show them that there will always be roadblocks and bumps in the road, but God will get you around those and make you stronger in the process. What we see as problems, God sees as an opportunity.

Filed Under: Encouragement, Spriritual Life, Youth Ministry Tagged With: Boot Cast, bumps in the road, God is Bigger, lesson, thankful

Small Group Lesson: Sin & Implications

December 12, 2012 by Steven Orel Leave a Comment

This is a small group lesson I wrote for our junior high guys this week. A thought that’s been coming to my mind lately is that our guys may hear “sin” a lot, but they may not have a firm grasp on what sin is or what it means for their lives. Next week I plan on getting to the redemption part of the sin problem, but this was the setup.

The small group lesson is in its raw form as I wrote it, so feel free to use it and adapt it to your own setting.

Opening Discussion:

How do you know when you’ve done something wrong?
What’s the worst punishment you’ve gotten and what did you do to receive it?
How would you describe “sin” in one sentence?

Lesson focus:

Today we want to talk about sin. A lot of our students have heard the word “sin” tossed around a lot, especially if they have been around church a while, but not all of them know what it really is. Sin is more than just breaking God’s commandments. Sin is also a hard concept to grasp because it often doesn’t have tangible consequences, like breaking a parent’s rule does. However, sin has eternal consequences and separates us from God without acceptance of the grace offered to us by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

Bible passages:

Genesis 3:1-13

Why was the one tree in the garden bad for Adam and Eve to eat?
What was the temptation Adam and Eve faced?
What happened after they ate fruit from the tree?
- (Leader note: Emphasize the shame they faced and how their shame led them to hide from God)
What is Adam’s response when God confronts him (vv. 11-12)?

Romans 5:12-14

What is the result of sin?
How did Adam’s sin spread to the world? What does this mean for us?
How do you see yourself similar to Adam? How do you see yourself different?

Types of Sin:

1. Breaking God’s commands

What’s an example of a sin that breaks God’s commands?
What’s a command that you have broken recently?

2. Failing to meet God’s standards

How would you describe God’s standards?
What’s an area of God’s standards you’re not meeting?

Results of Sin

Death
Separation from God
- Why does sin separate us from God?

Hope in Jesus:

Even though we are all subject to sin, we have hope that Jesus has wiped that away
We’ll talk more about the salvation from sin that Jesus brings next week

Filed Under: Small Groups, Youth Ministry Tagged With: hamartiology, lesson, sin, small group lesson

Rainy Days Help us Appreciate Sunny Days or Why do we want to state the obvious?

October 11, 2012 by Matt Reynolds Leave a Comment

It’s raining this morning in Southern California, something it doesn’t do very often but when it does, it’s usually the lead story on all the local news channels. I have no doubt that right at this moment we are probably on “Storm Watch 2012”. I looked at my Facebook feed a few minutes ago and counted 31 status updates letting me know it’s raining outside this morning.

Why is this something everyone feels they need to let everyone else know about? The first reason is what I said above, it doesn’t rain here all that often, so it’s a change from the norm. We always want to tell people about change. The second reason we want to tell everyone is because we think it’s something no one else knows. Apparently a lot of my friends didn’t realize I could just look out my window and discover it was raining, or that I would be driving 28 miles this morning on rain-soaked freeways that creep along at 20 miles per hour.

I look at rain this way. God gave us rainy days to help us appreciate the sunny days. If all we had were sunny days then after a while we just take that for granted. It’s the same thing with life. If all we had were good times and no problems then we would not appreciate all the gifts that God has given us. A little bump in the road makes us pause and think about all the other things we have to be thankful for. And just like that, I realized I had created a lesson on appreciating the little things in life for my small group guys.

Question: Do you use everyday life situations and events to create lessons for your students?

Filed Under: Cool stuff, Youth Ministry Tagged With: Facebook, lesson, Life Lessons, problems, rain, sunny days

Small Group Lesson: When life get’s hard, pray harder

August 24, 2012 by Matt Reynolds Leave a Comment

During my quiet time last night I was talking to God about some stuff going on with me and asking for His help, support and guidance and then I thought to myself, my prayers lately seem to focus on what’s wrong and my asking God to fix the bad stuff, I’m not spending nearly enough time thanking God for the good stuff in my life. This morning I thought about what a great student small group lesson this will make. I love when God uses these times to put a lesson plan in my mind!

This morning I was thinking about this and I thought about this line from the movie, “Apollo 13”. The scene is in a conference room and all of the technicians and engineers are telling Gene Krantz, the flight director for Apollo 13 about all that is wrong with the space craft. His question back to them is awesome, here’s the line:

“Let’s look at this thing from a… um, from a standpoint of status. What do we have on the spacecraft that’s good?”

He didn’t focus on what was wrong; he focused on what was good! Once he did that the answer to getting the Apollo 13 astronauts back to Earth became obvious, use the Lunar Module as a lifeboat for them.

Lately I’ve spent too much time focused on what’s not going good in my life and not enough time on what’s going good. God wants our problems; he wants us to ask for His help.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?” Matthew 7:7-9–ESV

But we also need to thank God for all that we do have. There are people who would feel blessed to have our problems! The issue is for us to remember this when times are going bad. When life gets hard, pray harder! We need to reach out to those close to us and ask for help and prayer. We also need to teach students that God uses our problems and troubles to grow and stretch us as Christians. If we focus on the good stuff, the bad stuff seems smaller and it’s easier to see God’s answers.

Filed Under: For Students, Small Groups, Youth Ministry Tagged With: Apollo 13, bad, good, lesson, Matthew 7:7-9, prayer

Sometimes The Real Ministry Happens Before and After Your Small Group Time

March 28, 2012 by Matt Reynolds Leave a Comment

My high school small group has been studying and unpacking Philippians these past two weeks. Last night my plan was to unpack chapters 3 and 4. I spent a lot of time on this lesson, I read and re-read those two chapters, read two different commentaries on Philippians, and I was more than ready and was feeling good about this lesson.

Our group always starts off with a “go around the room and tell us how your week went” session. Usually this takes just a few minutes. I say usually but as you can probably tell by now that didn’t happen last night. Everyone had a lot of stuff to talk about, good and bad and we spent the first hour just doing that. At first my initial inclination was to try to hurry this along, I had a great lesson that would need at least an hour and a half.

That’s when I remembered something that Steven and I have written on before. Sometimes the real ministry happens before and after the planned lesson. I just let the guys talk. I chimed in every now and then with some advice but for the most part I sat back and watched as they ministered and counseled each other, it was so great.

We eventually got to an abbreviated version of the lesson I had planned and it went off great, the guys loved it. Last night was a very successful small group night because I remembered to let God run the group and not me. I let God’s plan for the night happen, not mine. This morning I thought to myself that a couple of the guys had some pretty heavy stuff they needed to talk about, if I had cut that part of our small group short that would not have happened and some prayer requests would have been missed.

Thank you God for running small group last night and for helping me to remember that my high school small group is not about how great of a lesson I can prepare, it’s about how I am preparing these guys for life after high school and making God be the focus.

Filed Under: Small Groups, Spriritual Life, Youth Ministry Tagged With: Bible study, high school, lesson, Philippians, preparing students for the future, small groups

Teaching Students That God’s Love Is Unconditional

February 14, 2012 by Matt Reynolds Leave a Comment

Last night I got a text from one of my students asking for some advice. I love getting these texts because of the wide range of problems they are dealing with. Usually God gives me the answer and somehow it grows me at the same time. It’s usually either parent problems, girl problems or just advice on how to handle a situation. Whenever I get one of these I try to use scripture somewhere in my text back to them. I want them to get to the point where they not only seek out advice of friends and leaders but also from the Bible…what does God have to say about what they are going through.

Here’s the text I got last night:

“I have a job interview tomorrow and I know I need to pray about it, but I’ve made some bad decisions lately and it’s been a while since I’ve asked for forgiveness. I feel guilty asking for it now; it looks like I’m only asking for forgiveness because I need God to help me with this interview.”

I answered back and told him that here is the cool thing about God…He doesn’t care why you came back to him, he just cares that you came back. God’s love for us is unconditional. He doesn’t get mad at us but he does get sad and disappointed when we turn from Him. When you recognize that’s happened that’s when you turn back towards Him. Man gets spiteful and mad, God does not. Man will hold a grudge against us, God does not.

Here’s the last part of the advice I gave him: if you don’t get the job it’s not because God is getting back at you, it’s because this might not be the job for you at this time, and it does not serve God’s purpose for you. I reminded him of Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. –NLT

This was also a good reminder for me, and this makes a good lesson for students. Sometimes man’s love is conditional, God’s love is NEVER conditional.

Filed Under: Encouragement, Youth Ministry Tagged With: encouragement, Jeremiah 29:11, leadership, lesson, text messages

10 Christmas Story Takeaways Students Need To Know

December 10, 2011 by Matt Reynolds 2 Comments

I saw this awesome article posted on youthministry360.com. The post is on “10 Christmas Story Takeaways That Students Need to Know”. It’s an awesome article, I’m going to use these with my high school small group. I’ve posted the first two, you can find the other eight here.

The Christmas story is literally crammed full of powerful teachings. Here are 10 takeaways that speak directly to students:

1. The Incarnation Is Awesome

Luke 2:6-7 says, “And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”

It seems this generation of teenagers places a high value on authenticity. There is nothing more authentic than the God of the Universe taking on human form in order to perfectly save His creation from themselves. Students can know, and worship, and relate to God because He became one of us.

2. You’re Never To Young To Be Used by God

Luke 1:26-27 says, “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.”

Mary was pretty young. Scholars’ opinions range anywhere from 13 or 14 years old to 18 or 19. The point is this: God used Mary in a miraculous way. That’s God’s M.O. He used Mary when she was a teenager. He can and will (and does) use young people today as vital parts of His plan to redeem humankind.

Filed Under: Repost, Summer Camp, Youth Ministry Tagged With: Bible study, Christmas, lesson, small groups, youth ministry, youthministry360

Five Tips For Starting The School Year Right

August 20, 2011 by Matt Reynolds 1 Comment

I read this article this week on YouthMinistry360.com blog. I thought this was a great article for youth ministry leaders and volunteers. It’s from Jay Higham, who is the Director of Youth and Family Ministries at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Somerset, PA. You can find more great stuff from Jay at his website here.

Starting the new school year off right is a wonderful thought.

What a great time to get rid of a few bad habits, start a few good ones, and pledge to do things a little better than the year before.

See . . . told you it was a wonderful thought! Here are five simple suggestions that I know I will be using this year. Maybe they will be helpful to you, too.

Commit To A Daily Quiet Time With God

Maybe you already set aside time in your daily schedule to spend time in God’s Word. Great! Keep it up! If you struggle to keep a daily quiet time schedule, don’t freak out. Many struggle with setting aside this time. But let me encourage you to really commit to making time each day to spend reading God’s Word, praying, and listening.

As those who lead youth, there really is no excuse for us not to be in God’s Word each day.

Eat Well

The older I get the more I find that I am in need of healthier eating habits. Long gone are the twenty-something years when I could eat whatever I wanted and burn it off while watching TV. Eating well is carefully choosing what we eat, and maybe more importantly, what we don’t eat. No crazy diet or weight loss plan. Just eat what is good for us. Moderation is important. We’re not challenging the 10th grade boys to a pizza eating contest.

We all know we feel better, and in fact are healthier when we choose to eat well. Our health is a huge part of being an effective youth worker. If you don’t feel good, it’s hard to be effective!

Get Out And Exercise

Working out is not my favorite thing. But if I make it through a couple days, working out begins to feel better. I have a little more energy. I’m a little more productive. And I feel healthier. Not to mention the reduced stress levels. Plus, next time you play killball, you can get back at that 11th grader who knocked you out because you had to stop and catch your breath.

And if that’s not motivation, I don’t know what is.

Create A Routine

Routines can be good when they help us establish good working habits. I find when I stick to a routine, I accomplish some of the little things that I may not always enjoy doing. For example, when I arrive at the office in the morning I set up my laptop, check email, check my calendar for the day, return any messages, check my favorite blogs, and develop my plan of attack. All of this happens within the first 90 minutes of the morning. Then, I move about my day!

Procrastinate Later

I can be a real procrastinator. In high school I was great at waiting till the last minute before tackling assignments. Even in ministry, I find there are a few tasks that I would just rather not do. That makes it that much easier to put them off. But I was given some very wise advice, many, many years ago. If I were to get into the habit of just doing what I disliked doing right away, I wouldn’t have to deal with the agony of knowing I still have to something that I really didn’t want to do. So don’t procrastinate! Attack those undesired tasks right out of the box and get them done.

It’s better to have a few minutes of “pain” instead of a couple hours of “torture” knowing you still have to get it done.

So, there you go, five simple ideas to help you start the new school and ministry year off right.

What tips would you add?

Filed Under: Repost, Volunteer ministry, Youth Ministry Tagged With: Jay Higham, leaders, leadership, lesson, youth leader, youth ministry

Stop Going In Circles

August 17, 2011 by Matt Reynolds Leave a Comment

Something I forget, and I think we all forget from time to time, is that we have a direct line to God. When stress, or a problem, or a situation arise that we don’t have an immediate answer for, we tend to go around and around in circles when what we should be doing is going straight to God with our problem.

I think it’s important that we constantly remind ourselves of that and that we also remind our students of the same thing. It’s been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I know from time to time I find myself in that situation. But once I finally take my problem to God in prayer I feel an immediate relief, like a big weight has been lifted from me. This happened to me last week. Once I did go to God in prayer, within 24 hours my problem had worked itself out, and I kept asking myself why I didn’t just go to God first. The answer is, because I’m human and I still think sometimes that I can fix anything, all by myself and I don’t need help. Boy was I wrong!

Here’s the bottom line, each time I remember to go to God first with a problem, it gets easier and easier to take that step first. It’s also a reminder to me to constantly remind my students that when life is coming at them full-speed, it’s easier to deal with when you bring God into the equation. On my bathroom mirror I have placed a card with a circle and a straight line drawn on it. It’s my reminder to STOP going around in circles and GO straight to God first with a problem!

How do you remind yourself that God is always there to help you?

Filed Under: Spriritual Life, Youth Ministry Tagged With: encouragement, lesson, prayer

Teaching Students How To Deal With Stress

July 30, 2011 by Matt Reynolds Leave a Comment

I found this post a couple of weeks ago by our friend Dennis Beckner over at volunteer youth ministry.com. It’s a great lesson on teaching students on how to deal with stress in their lives, and it’s a fun game to play while you’re teaching. The original post can be found here.

Tonight at The Landing, we played a trivia game to illustrate the stress in our lives brought on by things we won’t admit to. It worked out pretty well.

Supplies needed:
- Random props of various sizes (we had about 50 – ranging from a straw to a huge stuffed animal to cinder blocks)
- Easily crushed small plastic cups
- Trivia questions related to stress (random stuff I found in a Google search for “stress trivia”)

How to play:
- Ask questions based on the trivia you collect
- Whichever teams have the correct answer get to stack things on the cup of an opposing team
- When a cup is crushed, that team is out of the game
- The last team without a crushed cup wins

The application:
All of the props we’re using to crush cups represents stress in our lives. We all have stuff in our lives that brings stress. When we try to hide that stuff, the stress of hiding it adds to the stress of our secrets. However, when we admit our problems and get help, we’re better off.