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Small Group Lesson: Sin & Implications

December 12, 2012 by 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: , , ,

It’s Awesome When Students Minister to Each Other

January 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Last night after my high school small group met, I had a moment that made me sad at first and then the sadness turned into happiness and a prayer of thanks to God.

We’ve written in the past that often the best ministry happens AFTER your small group meeting is over and that’s exactly what happened to me last night. After our group was done and all the guys were standing in front of our student ministry building, one by one they begin to say goodbye and leave. However, three of them stayed behind and while I was saying goodbye to one of the other guys I noticed that the three of them had gone to a far corner of the building, off by themselves to talk. I started to head over there and then I thought to myself that since they took the time go way over there they probably wanted to talk without me being there.

At first that made me kind of wonder what was up that they didn’t want me in the conversation and a little bit sad…but then it was as if God hit me upside the head with a frying pan! They were ministering to each other! And isn’t that what we are suppose to be teaching them?? After they all left I got text messages from two of them and the message was basically the same, “the three of us just had one of the best talks I’ve ever had” “thanks for showing us how to be there for each other”.

The main concept of this website is, one generation teaching and mentoring the next generation. That’s what has happened in my small group. We as leaders can’t always be there for them, so it’s an amazing feeling knowing that they have learned to lean on each other as Christian brothers in a time of need. If being successful in this area makes me feel sad and left out from time to time, fine with me, bring it on! It means that my loving on them and showing, teaching and mentoring them has worked! Praise God!

Coming up soon, we’re going to post  about an example of a Generation to Generation to Generation to Generation teaching and mentoring that has occurred, watch for more details about that it’s something Steven and I are super proud of, and another example of what can happen when you let God use you.

 

Filed Under: Mentoring, Small Groups, Youth Ministry Tagged With: , , ,

Small Group Lesson – Five Minutes To Live

November 17, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Here’s a powerful exercise you can do with your student small group.  I did this with my high school small group last night and judging from the text messages I got from almost all of them today, last night’s exercise really sent a message to them. Here’s how it goes:

Give your students a pen and a piece of blank paper. You need to be in a room that has a light switch that is close to you, and if the lights were turned off the room would be completely dark. (This will make sense to you later)

Tell them they have five minutes to live, so here is there chance to tell the important people in their life how they feel about them. Tell them to use to pen and paper to write a letter to parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, friends, whoever is really important in their life, and tell them how important they are to them and that they love them.  Use either a stop watch or a stop watch app on your smart phone. Let them know when the five minutes begins.

After one minute, in a loud voice let them know one minute has gone by and they now have four minutes to live. You will notice they start writing a little faster. Wait about another 30 seconds and then turn off the lights in the room, making the room completely dark. When you do that you’re going to hear your students say things like, “Hey, I wasn’t finished!”. That’s when you say, in a loud voice, “That’s because you don’t get a five minute notice, you usually don’t get any warning!  At anytime you can be gone, or someone you love can be gone! If you haven’t taken the time before to let the important people in your life know you care about them, they might never know so what are you waiting for??”

In my group, and I’m sure in yours at this point you can hear a pin drop, and I had a few guys in tears. It’s a powerful lesson in life but it works. It opens the door to a lot of discussion afterwards.

I’d love to hear comments back how this works in your group.

 

Filed Under: Small Groups, Youth Ministry Tagged With: , , , , ,

How’s The Weather? In This Case It’s A Small Group Lesson

October 25, 2011 by 1 Comment

I never thought I would use the weather as a small group lesson, but I did. The past couple of days it’s been really foggy in the morning here in Southern California. The day starts out cloudy and cool and foggy, but the fog later burns off and we have sunny warm weather. Yesterday morning when I was out walking my dog (the most handsome Yorkie in the whole world) I thought to myself how life can be like that. You have problems and it seems cloudy and foggy and you don’t know what direction to go in, and suddenly the problems go away and your life is sunny again.

I started off our discussion time last night talking about that and as usual, once one guy opened up they all did. They foggy times, or problems in their life were all over the board and were about all kind of different issues, but each guy was able to talk about how he got through the problem and sunny times returned.

I remembered a hymn from my childhood days that my mother would sing, I don’t recall the name of the song, but the lyrics go something like this:

God hath not promised skies always blue
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through
God hath not promised sun without rain
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain

But God hath promised strength for the day
Rest for the labor, light for the way
Grace for the trials, help from above
Unfailing sympathy, undying love

 

A simple topic but all my guys got it! They got the message; God is always there, even in the dark foggy times! Here’s the bottom line, you never know where you can get a lesson to teach to your students, use every situation that God gives you.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Small Groups, Youth Ministry Tagged With: , , , ,

Back to Basics: Prayer

July 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This is the third and final week in our “Back to Basics” series about the fundamentals of Christianity and how to teach them to your students. The first week we talked about reading the Bible, last week we talked about worship, and this week is about prayer.

Matt: One of the greatest gifts that God has given to us is the gift of prayer – the ability to come to God with any problem, issue, hurt or fear that we need help with. We need to teach the gift of prayer to our students. We need to get them to know that when life is not going their way, when the road ahead looks rough, they need to go to God in prayer. Many times a student will come to me with a problem and the first thing I’ll ask them is if they have talked to God about it yet. When they answer no, the first thing I do with them is stop, take them to a quiet place and pray with them.

We need to teach them that prayer is a conversation with God. They don’t need to use big words or throw in a “thou” or pontificate at all, they just need to talk to God as they would their friends. God wants an open dialog with us. In other words, when we talk to God, God want us to be, well, us. He wants us real and humble.

Let me add here this one thing: If you say you’re going to pray for someone…DO IT! Do it that moment, don’t wait until your nighttime prayers or a meal prayer, do it then so you don’t forget. I almost think thats a new form of blasphemy, someone tells us their problem and we look at them and say, “I’ll pray for ya, brother.” And then we don’t.

Small group leaders should always follow up on prayer requests during the week. Keep praying for your students, but also check in with them, let them know you’re still praying for them and see how things are going. Use prayer requests as a way for your students to know just how much you care.

Steven: Prayer to me is one of the most important things we can do as Christians. There is a ton of power in prayer, and it’s the best way we have to communicate with with God.

When I teach my students about prayer, there’s a great acrostic that I use, but I can’t remember where I got it. It’s an easy way to remember the four things we should try to hit on during prayer. Here it is:

  • Praise – Give thanks and praise to God for the things He has done in your life.
  • Repent – Acknowledge your sins and ask for help in repenting of them.
  • Ask – This is where the prayer requests come in. Ask for things that you would have God do in your life or others’ lives.
  • Yield – Give control of your life over to God. When we try to live life our way, it doesn’t work.

I love what Matt touched on above. I think one of the greatest sins we can commit as Christians is to tell someone we’ll pray for them and then never do it. I keep a small journal in my back pocket, and whenever someone needs prayer, I make sure to jot it down quick. I’m the type of person that if I don’t write it down, it leaves my head faster than it got there. If I write it, I can remember to go back later and pray for that person.

While I’m on my soapbox, I need to remind every youth leader that reads this to pray for your students constantly. Whether you lead junior high or high school, your students are constantly under attack from the Enemy, the world, and society as a whole. There is power in prayer, and if you neglect to pray for your kids, you’re doing them a huge disservice.

Question: What key points do you talk about when you’re teaching your students about prayer?

Filed Under: Spriritual Life, Youth Ministry Tagged With: , , , , ,

Back to Basics: Reading the Bible

July 4, 2011 by 1 Comment

The next three weeks we’ve decided to get back to basics. We’re not talking flannel graphs or Nilla Wafers, but the foundations of growing and connecting to God. This week we’ll consider how we teach our students how to read the Bible. In the next two weeks, we’ll talk about worship and prayer. Check back every Monday for more.

Matt: For me Bible reading is a fundamental task to growing your faith. It’s a way of growing closer to God, by reading his love letter to us. We need to teach students how to use the Bible to learn the history of our faith, but also as a resource when they have a problem or issue and they need answers. If you’re a small group leader and you know what lesson you are going to teach on next week, give your students some Bible verses the week before to read and research to really gain the understanding of not only the meaning but how that verse applies in their life. Have students do the Bible reading in your group. I don’t let my guys gloss over a word that is hard to read, or a phrase that might be hard to understand. I want them to know how to say Nebuchadnezzar and know what role he played in the Bible.

When I get a question from a student about what the Bible says is the right thing to do, I’ll ask them if they have researched anything yet, or are they wanting me to give them the easy answer. It reminds me of when I was a kid and I’d ask my mom what a certain word meant. Instead of just telling me, she would make me look it up in the dictionary. And by dictionary, I mean a book, not Dictionary.com. I’d have to figure out how to spell the word so I could find it and then read the meaning. At the time I thought it was stupid – if she knew the answer she should just tell me. As I got older I knew why she did it, she wanted me to be able to figure things out for myself. I do the same with students. If they don’t get what a verse means I’ll help them and show them how to use the footnotes and the reference section to find other verses that apply.

Bible reading is an important part of my quiet time each day, I read for a while, then pray, then think about how that applies to my life. There are many ways to go about reading the Bible. Some people like the “read the entire bible in a year” approach, some will read through a certain book of the Bible, and some just open the Bible and start from there. I do the latter most of the time. I pray first that God will lead me to something in the Bible that I need to read and most of the time after I read a certain passage, within a few days something will happen or a student will have a problem, and I’ll realize the passage that I just read applies. God led me to that passage to read it and understand it and have it in my tool kit for a problem that is about to come my way.

Steven: Reading the Bible hasn’t always been something that I’ve been good at. In fact, it wasn’t until last year that I really got into reading it and getting stuff out of it. Before that I always just thought it was a good thing to do, but I didn’t see the need for me to engage in it. Then it became sort of like going to the gym: I knew I needed to make time for it, I put it off, and then as soon as I got done reading I was so glad I did it.

I know that if I had been inspired and taught how to read the Bible at a younger age, I would be much further along in the game than I am now. I would love to have my junior high students come up to me and ask about a passage they read. The fact is, it can be hard to teach junior highers, or any students for that matter, the importance of reading the Bible. I still have a hard time with it, and honestly, I don’t think I emphasize it enough.

If I were to break down how to teach students how to read the Bible in 3 sentences, here’s what they would be:

1. The Bible doesn’t have to be boring. It’s easy to think of the Bible as a boring book when there are things like Numbers and Leviticus included. Emphasize the exciting parts of the Bible, like the Gospels and books like Joshua (for boys) and Psalms (for girls) (maybe.) (honestly, I don’t know about teaching girls).

2. The Bible is an instruction manual for life. If you are going through a problem or want advice on a particular area of your life, the Bible has something to say. Who better to turn to for advice than the Creator of life Himself?

3. The Bible grows you closer to God. The more you read about someone, the more you know them. If I read a book about the things George Washington did during his time as President, I would feel like I knew him better. The same thing applies with God – if you read about His history and the way He works, you’ll grow closer to Him.

Teaching about the Bible can be a daunting task to some, but it is absolutely essential to the growth of your students. The earlier on you can teach it, the better, so get to work!

Question: What are some techniques you use to teach your students how to read the Bible?

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