UNIT 1 MY SPIRITUAL LIFE UNIT 2 MEDIA UNIT 3 SERVICE VOLUME 8. LEADER GUIDE

UNIT 1 MY SPIRITUAL LIFE UNIT 2 MEDIA UNIT 3 SERVICE VOLUME 8. LEADER GUIDE

faith. life. together. VOLUME 8 2013 LifeWay Press No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing by the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to LifeWay Press, One LifeWay Plaza, Nashville, TN 37234-0172. ISBN 978-1-4158-7067-9 Item 5399877 Dewey Decimal Classification Number: 220.07 Subject Heading: BIBLE STUDY AND TEACHING/PRETEENS Printed in the United States of America Kids Ministry Publishing LifeWay Church Resources One LifeWay Plaza Nashville, Tennessee 37234-0172 We believe the Bible has God for its author; salvation for its end; and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter and that all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. The 2000 statement of The Baptist Faith and Message is our doctrinal guideline. All Scripture quotations are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. FLYTE

CONTENTS UNIT 1: MY SPIRITUAL LIFE 7 What Do I Do in My Time Alone with God? 9 Why Should I Read My Bible? 15 How Do I Pray? 21 What Is Worship? 27 Unit 2: MEDIA 33 When Is Enough, Enough? 35 Am I Web Smart? 41 What If I m Almost 13? 47 Are the Rules the Same at My Friend s House? 53 Unit 3: SERVICE 59 Am I a Leader? 61 Am I a Servant? 67 Could I Be a Missionary? 73 What Can I Do Now? 79 Bonus: How Can I Be Safe? 85 4 FLYTE

Image Credits: Design Pics/Thinkstock WHAT DO I DO IN MY TIME ALONE WITH GOD? Session Overview Opening with a laughter-filled Snort-Snort game, examining today s Bible story, identifying spiritual disciplines and discussing their importance, examining ways other religions grow their faith, and identifying specific spiritual disciplines will help preteens grow in their relationship with God. Teacher Bible Study >>> Jesus was always surrounded by people even when He wanted to be alone with God. Matthew recorded one instance when Jesus went to be alone, but the crowds caught up with Him. The Scripture says He miraculously provided a meal for a crowd of more than five thousand people. Afterward, Jesus felt compelled to go to a mountain to spend time alone with His Father. In the early hours of the morning, He performed one of His most dramatic miracles. He literally walked on water to the boat where His disciples were sailing. There was a strong wind and dangerously high waves. Though terrified at first, Peter tried to replicate Jesus act but sank when he took his eyes off the Lord. Jesus gently lifted him back into the boat and calmed the waves. This caused the disciples to marvel at His power and worship Him. Jesus obviously understood the importance of time alone with God. It was in those times of deep spiritual communication that He was able to draw on the power of the Holy Spirit to do significant tasks for God s glory. The Gospels tell of numerous instances when the Lord spent extensive time in prayer before making important decisions or facing major challenges. Luke, in his Gospel, described how Jesus often withdrew to deserted places and prayed (Luke 5:16). Surely, if the Lord Himself felt the need to withdraw for quiet moments with God, how much more so do we. Pray. Ask God to create the desire to spend more time with Him in yourself and in the kids you lead. Session 1 What Do I Do in My Time Alone with God? FLYTE Plan Preteens will learn that God is interested in their lives, that God wants to communicate with them every day, and that studying God s Word daily is one way to know God better. Bible Study Matthew 14:13-33 Memory Passage Psalm 66:1-2 9UNIT 1 MY SPIRITUAL LIFE

UNIT 1 MY SPIRITUAL LIFE Get Ready My Spiritual Life Session 1: Takeoff (DVD) FLYTE magazine (page 7) Get Started >>> Takeoff Play Session 1: Takeoff (DVD) three minutes before the designated start time for the session. Allow preteens a minute or two to talk about the Weird of the Day. Snort-Snort Invite preteens to stand in circles of eight or less. Use these rules to conduct a game of Snort-Snort : A volunteer from each circle should look across the circle at another player and make a snort-snort noise. The player at whom he snorted must look at a new player and repeat the process. Players who laugh or giggle before or after snorting must be seated and are out. As circles get smaller, combine groups until one preteen remains. The last player standing wins. Was it hard to not laugh or giggle? Were you surprised at the results or how you responded when someone snorted at you? Remark: Sometimes people react to a circumstance differently than they would have expected. Oftentimes life circumstances just do not turn out as planned. In today s session you should expect the unexpected. What Do You Expect Distribute the FLYTE magazines and direct preteens attention to When I Pray on page 7. Invite preteens to complete the answers. Guide a group discussion of their responses. Encourage a volunteer to read Habakkuk 2:1. Help preteens understand that they can pray expectantly. God may not always answer the way one wants, but He will always answer. Preteens can actively wait and watch for God s response because God cares, and He is faithful to answer. 10 FLYTE Unit 1 My Spiritual Life

Faith: God s Answer >>> Reality Check: Matthew 14:13-33 Direct the preteens attention to Reality Check on page 8. Invite volunteers to read the Reality Check questions aloud. After each question is asked, invite preteens to share and discuss their answers. Challenge preteens to read the corresponding Reality Check Scripture passages. Instruct volunteers to read the Scripture passages aloud after each question is discussed. Guide preteens to compare their answers to the true/correct answer from God s Word. Comment that God s Word is full of surprises and instances where people expected one thing yet God or Jesus did something very different from their expectations. God often works in ways that are much different than people expect. How About You? Direct their attention to How About You? on page 9 in the FLYTE magazine. Encourage preteens to consider the following: friends, family, faith, health, school, church, money, school, and sports. Challenge preteens to share if God has ever allowed an unexpected circumstance in any of those areas of their lives. (Answers might include my parents divorced; my dad lost his job; or I changed schools.) Help preteens determine ways God brought good things from those circumstances, even though they were unexpected. Do you think God cares about everything in your life? Do you think God wants to communicate with you daily? Remind preteens that God cares about each and every one of them. He wants to communicate with them about every aspect of their lives. God cares about the big and the small circumstances. He cares about the math test, the hamster, and their parents arguments. God is interested in it all! Groan! Ask preteens to indicate how they feel about the following things by groaning and rolling their eyes or by flashing a thumbs-up after you say each word. Use words such as the following to get a good sense of how preteens feels about spiritual disciplines: prayer, time alone with God, quiet time, reading your Bible every day, going to church. What were the general feelings about spiritual disciplines? Were they mostly negative? Were there positive feelings? Get Ready Items 1 and 2: Psalm 66:1-2 Poster and Define It (CD- ROM) FLYTE magazine (pages 5, 8, and 9) Bible concordances UNIT 1 MY SPIRITUAL LIFE Session 1 What Do I Do in My Time Alone with God? 11

UNIT 1 MY SPIRITUAL LIFE Help preteens understand that a spiritual discipline is not bad if it is merely a tool to get to know God better and to grow in relationship with Him. Think Tank If you groan when you think of reading your Bible every day, why? What could you do to make it more exciting or relevant? Answers might include pray a Bible verse out loud, read an online version of the Bible, or look up a specific topic (such as forgiveness) in a concordance. Why does it matter if you read your Bible? Guide preteens to share why they think these spiritual disciplines are important. What is spiritual growth? Help preteens understand that just like an athlete must practice in order to master his or her sport, Christians must exercise certain spiritual disciplines to know God better, to grow in their walk with Christ, and to grow into a more mature Christian. Compile a group list of ways preteens can make these spiritual disciplines less of a downer and more relevant, exciting, and useful in their daily life. Memory Passage: Psalm 66:1-2 Challenge preteens to turn to page 5 in their FLYTE manuals to read together Psalm 66:1-2. Discuss the tone of voice preteens used to read the Scripture. Invite preteens to bump it up a notch and read the Scripture again with a little more enthusiasm and interest. Remind them that United States Armed Forces personnel have specific hurrah shouts. Guide preteens to design a class hurrah or shout something unique to their class. Direct preteens to the Psalm 66:1-2 Poster (Item 1). Instruct them to read Psalm 66:1, shout out their hurrah before reading Psalm 66:2, and finish with a final hurrah. Display on a focal wall the title cards from Define It (Item 2). Distribute the remaining word cards from Define It. Challenge preteens to match the word cards to the correct title card. Guide preteens to read aloud Psalm 66:1-2, substituting a corresponding word of their choice for praise and glory. 12 FLYTE Unit 1 My Spiritual Life

Life: World s Answer >>> Snapshots Distribute Snapshots (Item 4). Guide preteens to describe the photos, what the people are doing religiously, and what their thoughts and observations are about the photos. How do you think other world religions grow their faith? What spiritual disciplines do you think are similar to Christian disciplines and how are they similar? What are the differences? Which disciplines do they feel would benefit Christians? Which do they feel are way off base? Compare and contrast the god being worshiped in the photos to the One True God of Christianity. Ask: How do other gods relate personally to their worshipers? How does the One True God relate to His followers? Get Ready Item 4: Snapshots (CD-ROM) large paper, markers UNIT 1 MY SPIRITUAL LIFE Graffiti It Do your friends encourage you in your walk with God? Do they encourage you to engage in spiritual disciplines such as reading your Bible or going to church? Direct their attention to the large paper you have displayed on the focal wall. Guide preteens to graffiti it by writing responses to the following questions: What do your friends say about church? What do your friends say about spending time with God? What do your friends say about prayer? What do your friends say about reading the Bible? Debrief and discuss the responses. Do the preteens have any encouragement in their social circles to grow a relationship with the One True God? Invite preteens to discuss the negative influences they receive from others and how they can combat those negative influences and stand strong in their commitment to grow in Christian maturity. Session 1 What Do I Do in My Time Alone with God? 13

UNIT 1 MY SPIRITUAL LIFE Get Ready Awesome Stories (Feature) (DVD) FLYTE magazine (page 9) Together: My Answer >>> Time with God Play Awesome Stories video (DVD). Invite preteens to discuss the video. What did each person give up in order to spend more time alone with God? How did the kids feel about giving up their special things? How did their previous habits creep back into their daily routines? What did they learn? Remind preteens that God doesn t want them to live boring lives without any fun. The real issue is priority. God wants to be first! Make It Real Would you accept a similar challenge about spending time alone with God would you give up time spent watching TV, playing video games, or playing sports to spend more time with God? What can you do to be deliberate with your time with God and to expect the unexpected from your spiritual disciplines? Discuss ways that God still works in the hearts and lives of today s preteens through the spiritual disciplines. For example, how could God encourage a preteen through daily Bible reading, prayer, worship, or church attendance? Direct their attention to the Responsibility Chart on page 9 in their FLYTE magazines. Instruct preteens to complete the Responsibility Chart and discuss their answers. Be Specific Direct attention to I Will on page 9 of the FLYTE magazine. Challenge preteens to identify three actions they will take to make their relationship stronger during their time alone with God. Over and Out Dismiss preteens with these final thoughts: God is interested in each and every one of them and their own personal lives. God wants to communicate with them every day. Preteens can study God s Word daily to get to know Him better. 14 FLYTE Unit 1 My Spiritual Life