my changes 1. LEADER PREPARATION

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1 my changes Week 3: Spiritual Change This includes: 1. Leader Preparation 2. Lesson Guide 1. LEADER PREPARATION LESSON OVERVIEW As little kids, we usually believed things about God because we were told to believe them. As we grew up, we grew out of this stage of faith and we began to question and wonder why we believed what we believed. This lesson is designed to help students recognize that it is OK to examine the faith they have had up to this point. We encourage you to give them the opportunity to ask questions, doubt, wonder, and, we believe hopefully, come to a point where they embrace their faith as their own. LESSON OBJECTIVES 1. WHAT: As our bodies, minds, and emotions move from childhood to adulthood, we also need to realize that our faith will go through a similar change process. 2. WHY: We need to reach a place where we feel OK examining our beliefs because a faith that we wrestle with is a faith that we own. 3. HOW: Encourage students to ask the real questions they are thinking about their faith in God and what it means to be a follower of Jesus. PRIMARY SCRIPTURE Ephesians 4:14-15 SECONDARY SCRIPTURE 2 Corinthians 13:5-9 TEACHING PREP The short overview below is designed to help you prepare for your lesson. While you may not want to convey this information word-for-word with your teenagers, you ll definitely want to refer to it as you lead your lesson. Our faith needs to go through transition and change so we can experience everything God has for us. When you were a baby, you only drank milk. Can you imagine only drinking milk as an adult? You would miss out on so many delicious and nutritious things

2 the food world has to offer. It s similar with our faith the faith we have as babies is nothing compared to what we can experience if we choose to know God on a deeper level. But how does a teenager get there? What is the process for transitioning from kid faith to grown-up faith? Read Ephesians 4: These verses come in the context of the Apostle Paul s discussion of unity among Christians and the work of people who have the spiritual gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. The ultimate result of a spiritually healthy group of Christ-followers is maturity and unity. A spiritually mature follower of Jesus isn t fooled by inaccurate teaching and lies. Instead, this person chooses to genuinely love others and pursue a path of continued spiritual growth. As spiritual change begins to take place, it is important for students to remember that it can be a little scary and maybe even confusing at times. There are some things they have been taught to believe and now they feel the desire to question why they believe it. That can be a confusing thing. But learning to ask questions and continuing to move forward in faith is a healthy part of spiritual growth, and it will ultimately help your teenagers know God on a deeper, more personal level. As a small group leader, your role is to provide an environment where teenagers can honestly, safely, and accurately examine their faith and tackle their big questions. Consider talking with your ministry leader to discuss how to respond to particularly difficult or challenging questions or to a teenager who appears overtly hostile to their faith. THE BEFORE & AFTER [optional] Text Message Questions We ve provided a couple of different text message questions to send out to your students prior to your meeting. Feel free to use one or both of the questions below. As with the rest of the curriculum, edit these questions to fit the needs of your ministry. Got any big questions for God? Let s talk about it tonight at small group. Is it OK for Christians to have questions or doubts about their faith? Dig deeper at small group tonight.

3 Parent We ve provided you with an below that you can send to your parents following the lesson. Our hope is to encourage parents to continue the conversation at home. Feel free to edit and customize the to fit your ministry needs. Dear parents, Our small groups have wrapped up their series examining the big changes teenagers experience during the junior high years. In this final lesson, we talked about spiritual changes, using Ephesians 4: As followers of Jesus, our faith needs to go through transition and change so we can experience everything God has for us. When you were a baby, you only drank milk. Can you imagine only drinking milk as an adult? You would miss out on so many delicious and nutritious things the food world has to offer. It s similar with our faith the faith we have as babies is nothing compared to what we can experience if we choose to know God on a deeper level. As spiritual change begins to take place, it is important for teenagers to remember that it can be a little scary and maybe even confusing at times. There are some things they have been taught to believe and now they feel the desire to question why they believe it. That can be a confusing thing. But learning to ask questions and continuing to move forward in faith is a healthy part of spiritual growth, and it will ultimately help young people know God on a deeper, more personal level. I d encourage you to find a few minutes to talk with your teenager this week about our lesson. You might consider asking some of these questions to fuel the dialogue: Why do you think many people feel scared to ask questions or express doubts about their faith in Jesus? The Bible clearly tells us that God s love for us never changes, so how do you think God feels when you have questions or doubts? What do you think it means to have genuine faith? What does that look like? Thanks for your support for our small group ministry. Have an awesome week!

4 my changes Week 3: Spiritual Change GETTING THINGS STARTED [optional] 2. LEsson guide Welcome your students and invite them into your meeting area. Open in prayer, and then jump into the activity below: Play a game of 20 Questions with your students. Have students form a circle and take turns going into the center of the group. Go around the circle and have each student ask get to know you type questions of the person sitting in the middle. Each student could be asked five or six different questions even more if you have a smaller group. Sample questions might include What is your favorite restaurant, and why? What do you like to do in your free time? Do you have any brothers or sisters? What is your least favorite part of school, and why? and What is your favorite kind of music, and why? After everyone in the group has been introduced through these questions, What is the purpose of asking each other these kinds of questions? What new information did you learn about someone in the group? Why are questions an important part of building and keeping a friendship? How might these answers help you get to a deeper level of friendship with the other people in our group? SAY SOMETHING LIKE: Trust sits at the center of healthy friendships, and knowledge is important, too. The more you know about someone, the more you can decide to trust that person. As your knowledge gets deeper, your trust grows and your friendship becomes more fulfilling. The same idea is true about your friendship with God. If you re a follower of Jesus, you need to learn to take steps toward him, know him on a deeper level, and ask him questions about who he is. We can t wait for someone else to make our faith real. In order to truly know God, we need to become an active participant in our friendship with him. If you came up with an opening activity, movie clip, or game that worked well with your group, and you d like to share it with other youth workers, please us at ideas@simplyyouthministry.com.

5 Teaching Points The goal of the Teaching Points is to help students capture the essence of each lesson with more discussion and less lecture-style teaching. The main points we have chosen here are (1) Spiritual change can be healthy, (2) God isn t afraid of your questions and doubt, and (3) Keep moving forward. Remember: All throughout these lessons, it s up to you to choose (1) how many questions you use, and (2) the wording of the main points keep ours, or change the wording to make it clearer for your audience. Read Ephesians 4:14-15 together as a group. Consider allowing one or more of the teenagers to read the text. SAY SOMETHING LIKE: Let s spend a few minutes learning more about the spiritual changes you re experiencing here in the junior high season of life. 1. Spiritual change can be healthy NOTE: This is a great opportunity to see where your students are spiritually. Before launching into these questions, you may want to go around the group and just ask some general questions to gain a clearer sense questions like How s your friendship with God? or How are you doing in your walk with Jesus? Do you feel like you are going through any kind of spiritual changes? If so, what kinds of changes are you experiencing? Is there anything different about your faith today compared to when you first decided to follow Jesus? According to these verses, what are some of the consequences of NOT maturing in our Christian faith? Based on these verses, how will people know that we re maturing in our faith? What evidence will they see? What do you think it means to speak the truth in love? SAY SOMETHING LIKE: When we were little, we easily accepted because the Bible says so as an answer. As we get older, we grow out of that stage we want more specific answers. As our brains and bodies are changing, we no longer believe things just because our parents or pastors believe it. And that s OK. Here in junior

6 high, you begin to experience a change in the way you view faith. You might start to feel yourself asking, Why do I believe that? or Is that really true? It is normal and acceptable for you to ask questions. It might feel a little scary but trust me, it s not. It s all part of a healthy spiritual journey. 2. God isn t afraid of your questions and doubt You will need some 3X5 cards and pens or pencils for your group. Consider sharing some of the ways you have wrestled your faith particularly the kinds of questions you were asking in junior high, if you were a follower of Jesus then. Why do you think many people feel scared to ask questions or express doubts about their faith in Jesus? The Bible clearly tells us that God s love for us never changes, so how do you think God feels when you have questions or doubts? Have you ever felt scared to ask questions about your faith either to a friend or trusted adult or God? Is there anything in your faith that you thought was true but now you are wondering if it really is? Is there anything in your personal faith that you are having difficulty believing? Is it possible to become a mature follower of Jesus without asking questions and examining your faith? Explain. Distribute the 3X5 cards and pens or pencils. Ask your teenagers to write down one big question or doubt they have about church, their walk with Jesus, the Bible, their faith, or any topic in that direction. Make sure students know that you aren t collecting these cards and they don t have to tell anyone what s written on the card this is just a way of helping them clarify their questions. SAY SOMETHING LIKE: It might seem wrong or bad to question your Christian faith. But asking questions can help you know Jesus on a deeper level. Think back to the opening exercise. The questions we asked one another helped us gain a better understanding of who we all are. It s similar with our faith. The more we ask, the more we wonder why, and the more we examine, the more answers we find and that can actually lead you to a much more solid, committed friendship with God.

7 3. Keep moving forward in your faith Why is it important that we mature and grow in our faith? Look again at the verses from Ephesians 4 that we read earlier. What does this passage say we won t do and we will do when we mature? How does this passage encourage you to move forward in your faith? SAY SOMETHING LIKE: Embrace the change in your walk with God. It is a good thing to move forward and learn to love and know God on a deeper level. Keep moving forward by asking questions, reading the Bible, participating in our small group, putting your faith into action in your daily life, and continually seeking to deepen your relationship with God. Keep changing and keep growing not just here in junior high but for the rest of your life. ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION [optional] Read 2 Corinthians 13:5-9. These words are part of a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to Christians in the Greek city of Corinth. I d like you to summarize his big idea in just seven words. It isn t impossible go for it! Look at verse 5. What do you think it means to have genuine faith? If genuine faith exists, then fake faith also exists, right? What do you think fake faith look like? In verse 9, Paul says that he wanted his readers to become mature. What are some ways you ve matured in your Christian faith recently? How did those changes occur? Has anyone ever asked you a question about your faith that you couldn t answer? Where did you go to find an answer?

8 APPLICATION Ask students to find a partner. If your teenagers are comfortable enough, invite them to talk in their pairs about the questions or doubts they wrote on their 3X5 cards earlier and then discuss these questions. If they aren t comfortable discussing the questions or doubts on their cards, simply invite them to answer and discuss the questions below. What kinds of growth and changes do you want to see in your spiritual life in the next six months? in the next year? Ultimately, God is the only one who changes us spiritually, so how might you pray for God to do a changing work in your life, and what habits and choices might help you be prepared for his work in your life? Is there anything that is holding you back from moving forward in your walk with God? If so, what steps could you take to move past this obstacle? Is there a particular struggle you are having in your spiritual life? How can I pray for you in that area? What s one thing you could do this week to grow in this area? SUMMARY End your small group lesson here. Provide your teenagers with a quick summary or take-home challenge based on (1) the content of this lesson, (2) the dialogue that took place during the lesson, (3) your understanding of the issues and struggles your teenagers are facing, and (4) the big picture of your youth ministry and what your leadership team wants accomplished with the teaching and discussion time. FOR KEEPS [MEMORY VERSE] Encourage and/or challenge your teenagers to memorize the verse below. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church (Ephesians 4:15).