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.
- Listen to the FaithElement podcast for this session.
- Use the social media prompts on this session’s webpage to help youth begin engaging the session them ahead of their gathering.
Intro
Have everyone stand and tell them that you are going to give them a series of choices of two activities, one of which they must do immediately, without checking with anyone else. Whoever does the activity done by the majority gets to continue, while the others will be out and have to sit down. Remind the group that everyone must immediately make a decision and begin acting it out. Use these or come up with your own:
- Bark like a dog or hoot like an owl
- Give high fives or low fives
- Hop on the right foot or the left
- Scratch your head or rub your stomach
- Shake hands or wave at someone
After the activity, ask:
- What kinds of thing made it difficult or easy to stay in the game?
- How did making or missing the correct guess make you feel and why?
- How do you feel in real life when you want to do something that isn’t popular and why?
- By what means do we help ourselves, or others, when we’re faced wth similar situations in real life?
Context
Play the MythBusters clip and ask questions like::
- This clip notwithstanding, how easy do you think it really is to take candy away from a baby and why?
- Why do you think that some people prefer principles and theories, while others prefer a concrete example, like what Mythbusters does?
- What types of ideas in your world would you like to put into a concrete situation and why?
- What spiritual principles would you like to see put into a concrete situation and why?
Content
Read Galatians 6:1-16 , then watch the Bible Background Video.
Ask your group:
- How do you gently restore someone who has been caught in a sin?
- What do you think it means to carry one another’s burdens?
- Why is it so important not to compare yourself to other people?
- In what ways does your school and church struggle with this?
- What does it mean to reap what you sow?
- In what ways does this play out in your world?
- How does someone boast in the cross of Jesus rather than their own accomplishments?
Closure
Tell the group that you’re going to read some statements about them, and that you want them to respond to your statements by holding up their fingers to express their answer. If they are in complete agreement, they should hold up 5 fingers, if they disagree they can hold up 1, or they may hold up other number. After each statement is read and people have shown their fingers, allow time to discuss their responses.
Use these statements or come up with your own:
- I have a good personality.
- I have a temper with a short fuse.
- Sometimes I brag and stretch the truth in my favor.
- I like to work hard and get things done.
- I get jealous easily.
- I am a thinker; I have a good mind and think things through.
- I tend to cut down and be critical of others.
- When I start something, I usually finish it.
- I hold grudges.
- I like to be artistic.
- I procrastinate; I ‘m always putting things off.
- I feel like I am a leader.
- I have a hard time keeping my word.
Ask:
- How did you feel responding to these statements and why?
- In what ways did you feel pressured to answer them in an acceptable way?
- How much do other people’s opinions matter to you, and why?
- What types of things do we do so others might have a favorable perception of us?
- What do you think it means to have confidence in God rather than ourselves?
- What are some practical ways to put our confidence in God rather than trying to please other people?
Close this session in prayer.
Writer: Don Breeden