Before the Session
Facilitator: In advance of the session
- Review today’s scripture text and the session activities to help better facilitate the discussion.
- Have the Bible Background Video ready to view.
- Have any selected video or music clips ready to show
- Encourage your group to listen to the Faithelement podcast ahead of the next session (Share the link via email or social media)
Context
Show the Time Magazine’s Person of the Year video and ask questions like:
- If you were able to pick the person of the year, by what criteria would you narrow your candidates and why?
- The magazine representative said, speaking of Donald Trump, “If he who breaks all the rules lives to play another day, then he writes the new rules.” How do you feel about that?
- As usual, leaders, activists, terrorists, politicians made the list of possible winners for Person of the Year. What does this list say about the world we live in?
- Angela Merkel’s success was described by saying, “No one was tested the way she was. . . she stepped up in a way that was uncharacteristic, even for her.” In what ways do we expect leaders to be tested?
Content
Read 1 Samuel 2:18-26 , then watch the Bible Background Video.
Ask questions like these:
- What do you think childhood was really like for Samuel and why?
- What lessons do you think Samuel learned about people through this particular situation?
- What do you think it must be like to be in a position where you are trying to serve God by being supervised by people who clearly are not?
- How do you feel about Eli’s role in this story and why?
- The Bible background video stated that “there is a responsibility in all of us to care for the next generation of leaders so they will grow into strong and kind leaders.” In what ways are we meeting that responsibility?
- How could we better move past our immediate desires to better nurture the next generation?
Closure
Show the video of A Boy and A Man and ask
- What most stands out to you as you view the interaction between these two people?
- What do you think it meant to both people to actually be heard by someone?
- In what ways is this kind of interaction important when we are raising young leaders?
- The man expresses great sorrow and the boy reacts to it. Yet, even in sharing sorrow, the man nurtures the boy. Think about the “Eli” people in our churches. Do our “Eli” people get an opportunity to share their experiences, even their sorrows?
- What might the “Samuel” people in our churches learn from this kind of interaction?
- What do you think it would be like if young leaders were invited to congregational meetings and invited to serve alongside people who are decades older than them?
- What might it be like if we asked them questions in those meetings, and responded to their answers?
Close by asking everyone to picture a child, one who is not their immediate family and pray silently for that child.
Writer: Erin Robinson Hall