Before the Session
Facilitator: In advance of the session
- Have the Bible Background Video ready to view.
- Review today’s scripture text and the session activities to help better facilitate the discussion.
- Encourage your group to listen to the Faithelement podcast ahead of the next session (Share the link via email or social media)
Context (From the Mind Session Page)
Share this article and ask questions like:
- What kinds of things have surprised you by exceeding or failing to meet your expectations?
- For what kinds of things do you currently harbor positive expectations and why?
- In what ways do our past experiences and expectations change the way we see and experience the present?
- In what ways might positive experiences in the past, might keep us from seeing good things that are happening right now?
Content (From the Youth Session Page)
Read Isaiah 43:16-21, then watch the Bible Background Video.
Ask questions like:
- What had God already done for the Israelites in this passage?
- Why do you think it is important for them to remember what God has already done for them?
- What could God’s past faithfulness mean to their current struggles?
- Why would Isaiah tell them to forget all that?
- In what ways might their past remembrance hinder them from experiencing God’s new thing?
Closure (from the Current Session page)
Share together this article about the Pope and ask questions like:
- What most and least surprised you about this list and why?
- With which of the things on this list do you think the Pope most struggled to move past and why?
- If we were making a similar list about things in your past what kinds of things might you place on that list and why?
- How does someone move past things of which they are not proud in order to move forward?
- In what ways might the things of which we are proud hold us back?
- As a group, what are some things of which we are proud that could be holding us back now, and how might we move beyond them?
Invite the group to reflect for a few moments on something from the past that that still affects their future or the future of the people around them in a way that they may not like, then pray silently for God’s guidance in gaining closure and creating a new thing. Close with this prayer by Reinhold Neibur:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.