Parents, below are the themes for our first several weeks in high school youth group. You’ll notice there will be a question associated with each week. The hope is that this is something that they can share with you at home throughout the week and will lead to some great conversations.
GETTING OLDER WON’T GROW YOU UP Series Overview
Do you ever wish you could just grow up? Are you counting down the days until you will get their driver’s licenses? Or graduate from high school? Or go away to college? You don’t really want to be seen as a kid anymore, do you? You want to be seen as an adult. You want to feel like you’ve moved on, grown up. We all know how that happens physically, but what about spiritually? How do we know we’re growing in our faith? How do you know that you’re moving forward in that area of your life? The good news is that God is just as passionate about growing our faith as we are. At youth group we’re going to talk about several of the ways He will use to do that—some involving things that you probably already know, and other ways that you may have never thought about before.
Week One: Big Faith
Your faith in God matters to God. In fact, God is most honored through your living, active faith. That being the case, He’s committed to growing it. BIG. Imagine how differently you would respond to difficulties, temptations, and even good things if you knew with certainty that God was in all of it and was planning to leverage it for good. But in order for all of that to happen, there’s one thing it all hinges on—your trust.
Week One Take-home Question: What area of your life are you most reluctant to trust God? Why?
Week Two: Big Life
You can know a lot. Maybe you know the stats of every football player in the NFL. Maybe you know the cheat codes to hundreds of games. Maybe you know every Scripture in the New Testament. But unless you do something with what you know, then what you know isn’t enough. Especially when it comes to our faith. God’s truth was meant to be put into action. It was meant to affect our lives, our relationships. And when we begin to live out the truths we know, something happens to us our faith. It begins to grow.
Week Two Take-home Question: What is one truth that you know from the Bible that you can commit to live out this week? Follow up with each other to see how that’s going.
Week Three: Big Team
Who has had the most influence in your life? Your mom? Your dad? A coach? A camp counselor? There are all kinds of people that play a part in our lives, in our stories. And some of these people have played a part in how you see God. In fact, God has used some of those relationships to grow your faith. We call these relationships ‘providential’ because they are about having the right people in your life at just the right time.
Week Three Take-home Question: Who are the people in your life who have had a direct impact on your relationship with God? In what way did these people influence, guide or encourage you?
Week Four: Big Moments
Have you ever met someone who went through something really difficult, yet if they had a chance to rewind and change what happened, they would be reluctant to do it? And the reason is because there was something they learned from that experience. It’s what we call a pivotal circumstance, a defining moment in their lives. Each of us has had one. Some may seem bigger than others. But to each one of us, they are huge. And you know what? Even thought it’s not something we would necessarily choose or want to happen, God takes those moments and uses them to grow our faith.
Week Four Take-home Question: Share about a time in your life that was really hard, but something good came out of it. Maybe you learned something new about God or yourself. Maybe you built some great relationships with people who supported you. How did what you learned or experienced somehow make the situation more bearable?
Series Activity: Big Give
God grows your faith through spiritual disciplines. That’s probably not news for you. Praying and being generous are just things that Christian do. But there’s more than just doing an action because it’s the right thing to do. In fact, in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He tells us that not only is our heart tied to how we pray and our generosity, but also the growth of our faith.
Each students will get a journal that is their’s to keep.
Group Activity: Big Serve
Did you know that your spiritual growth is linked to your service? That’s right. You get something out of filling that volunteer position in the nursery or children’s ministry. You’re not just doing a job, filling a slot—you’re growing. God uses that service to teach you something about Him and others. And even if you don’t feel like you’re the best person for the job, or if you wonder, “Why am I doing this?” God says that if you want to grow, you have to serve.
As a youth group we will be participating in a service project revolving around water, tying into Daniel’s sermon series.