After Singing Pizza

The 7th and 8th Graders got together after singing at the Home for the Handicapped and had pizza. Everyone had a good time and these few photos were captures on a cell phone.

Lesson #13 Decisions

Decision Making
Luke 6:6-19
We discussed the true desire of the chief priests at the time
We discussed the decisions the priests made to follow their lust for power versus following Christ.
We discussed the true cost of being an apostle of Christ. I asked the class if they thought following Christ was a good thing for the apostles?

Matthew suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, killed by a sword wound.

Mark died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged by horses through the streets until he was dead.

Luke was hanged in Greece as a result of his tremendous preaching to the lost.

John faced martyrdom when he was boiled in a huge basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution in Rome. However, he was miraculously delivered from death. John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison island of Patmos. He wrote his prophetic Book of Revelation on Patmos. The apostle John was later freed and returned to serve as Bishop of Edessa in modern Turkey. He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully.
Peter was crucified upside down on an x-shaped cross, according to church tradition because he told his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die in the same way that Jesus Christ had died.

James the Just, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, was thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a fuller's club. This was the same pinnacle where Satan had taken Jesus during the Temptation.
James the Greater, a son of Zebedee, was a fisherman by trade when Jesus called him to a lifetime of ministry. As a strong leader of the church, James was ultimately beheaded at Jerusalem. The Roman officer who guarded James watched amazed as James defended his faith at his trial. Later, the officer walked beside James to the place of execution. Overcome by conviction, he declared his new faith to the judge and knelt beside James to accept beheading as a Christian.

Bartholomew, also know as Nathanael, was a missionary to Asia. He witnessed to our Lord in present day Turkey. Bartholomew was martyred for his preaching in Armenia when he was flayed to death by a whip.

Andrew was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Patras, Greece. After being whipped severely by seven soldiers they tied his body to the cross with cords to prolong his agony. His followers reported that, when he was led toward the cross, Andrew saluted it in these words: "I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it." He continued to preach to his tormentors for two days until he expired.

The apostle Thomas was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church in the subcontinent.

Jude, the brother of Jesus, was killed with arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.

Matthias, the apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot, was stoned and then beheaded.

Exercise on Decision Making

Group Discussion about ethical/moral decisions we make - what are they?
flipchart the ones common to the group.
Discuss a decision tree for making these decisions – what are the principles by which I guide my life?
BIBLICAL? [ten commandments, fruits, golden rule]
PERSONAL? [personal standards, things you wont do]
LAW
SCHOOL RULES
4. Apply the tree to a scenario

Updated Pictures of Hot Dog Roast

Lesson 10 Ode to Samaria

The focus of this lesson was Jesus visit to samaria and his meeting and talk with the Samarian woman.

Scripture : John 4 5 - 43

Icebreaker: Tell our guess something about yourself he wouldnt know and give your name.

Read and discussed scripture

Discussion points;

Why did she make the point about him being a jew?
What does he mean, you’ll thirsteth again?
What water is Jesus talking of?
What did he do here? [discussion of her marital status]
Where should we worship? [present, and historically]


Exercise : Poem about the story

Class was asked to come up with;
10 Minutes
10 words for each of the five senses [touch, sight, etc]
20 words that mean motion
30 words from the story [women, well, etc]
5 minutes to compose poem from those words

One Poem

Jesus went to a well
to chat with the woman
about the living water, and
she thought it was very delightfull.

Lesson 6 - The Devil is Everywhere

5 min icebreaker -
Bill Hodel was our special guest and so the ice breaker focussed on him. Well his age actually. I listed a number inventions that occured before and after Bill's date of birth and the kids had to guess. [ADD the LIST]

1 min quiz - fruits = dollars
So knowing our 13 year olds a bit I decided to pass out a $1 to everyone who could list all of the fruits of the spirit with the warning i wouldnt be doing it every sunday.

5 min scripture read
luke 4 & job 1

5 min questions/discussion? This is likely not how the devil will come to you. He will come as wolf in sheeps clothing. What does that mean? Will he hit you with a big sin? Will he lure you in? Will he convince you that what you are considering is really for the best?
15 min - 20 min---- exercise ----
temptations of the 13 yr old [chart it]
I asked the kids to chart what temptations they faced. As a parent i'd like to think the ole devil would leave my kids alone, at least for awhile, but I and they knew better. Here is the list they came up with.

Physical Agression [against classmate, siblings, etc]
Gossip
Music [bad language and innappropriate lyrics]
Friends [wanting them to do bad things]
Texting [gossip]
Internet = entertainment = pornography
drugs
competition
language [bad]

So we also then talked about what things they could do to combat these temptations and they came up with this list...some of them match the others.

Count to Ten [Agression]
Turn the other cheek [agression]
Mind your own business [gossip]
Talk about lyrics [with an adult]
Walk away
Say NO
USe emotions [versus saying something you shouldnt in a text]
Becareful
Watch where you surf
Ask people not to cuss
Dont be competitive
Read the Bible
Pray

Bill pointed out we probably had the list upside down in priority.

Lesson 5 - God Talks to You

icebreaker:

Scripture:

The group was asked to chart what they learned about Anna and Simeon. This is what they came up with;

Anna

Old prophetist
Daughter of Phanuel
Tribe of Aser
Widow [4 score and 4 years]
Trusted God
Fasted
Prayed
Thankful

Simeon

Prophet
Just
Devout
Holy Ghost was upon him
Trusted God
Prayed
Thankful

We then asked the group to list how God can talk to them, here is their list;

Dreams
Bible
Prayer
Friends
Doing Something Bad
Minsters preaching
TV
Radio [music]
Family
Environment [nature]
Life/death

Lesson 4 -The Fruits in Your Life

Icebreaker: We passed out index cards to the kids and asked them to write down a fact or incident in their lives that they were willing to share. We read the cards and the group had to guess who the items was about. We had a good time getting to know each other a bit more and some of the things revealed were a bit funny.

The meat of the lesson was around how the kids can be influencers in their various walks to others about the love of Christ. We talked for a few minutes to see who could recall the fruits of the spirit and then focussed on the kids lives in three areas; Family, School and Friends.

I asked the kids to list how they could illustrate Christ' love in each of these settings. We broke in to the three groups and each group developed a list that we read out to the whole group. I must say i'm proud of the group for the ideas they come up with. Here are the lists;

School

Pray at lunch (amen!)
Be a good influence
Don't cuss
resist peer pressure
don't be a trouble maker
don't mess with norma (?)
don't drink

Family

Be nice to your brothers and sisters
Don't Fight
encourage them to go to church
pray with your family
don't show your brothers and sisters bad stuff on the internet

Friends

Be nice to them
invite them to church
Tell them about Jesus
Share with them

The second part of the exercise was asking them to connect the fruits of the spirit with the actions they had suggested thereby showing them they can live the fruits in their lives. We gave the kids index cards with the fruits listed and they attached them to the charts they made on family, friends, and school where they applied.

This is how they came out in [parenthesis]

School
Pray at lunch (amen!) [faith]
Be a good influence
Don't cuss
resist peer pressure [goodness]
don't be a trouble maker
don't mess with norma (?)
don't drink
Family
Be nice to your brothers and sisters [love]
Don't Fight
encourage them to go to church
pray with your family [peace]
don't show your brothers and sisters bad stuff on the internet [gentleness]
Friends
Be nice to them [meakness]
invite them to church
Tell them about Jesus
Share with them [Joy]

Lesson 3

Lesson #2 Faith

This is a quick data dump of the lesson that will be edited. The lesson centered on what is faith and what do the kids currently see is their faith. The exercise is a bit of a stretch for most people and way outside the box for the average thirteen year old. Accompanying this description is a slide show of photographs. Each of the kids was asked to pick a photograph that they felt identified in someway their faith. The Matt's did the exercise as well.

Class #1 What do You Think?

The first class session was held early in August and was primarily an exercise in getting the kids to give us a little information. This class started with an ice breaker wherein the kids....

1. What do you want to learn about?
2. What do you know about the church?

We passed out cards a week ahead of the class and asked them to bring ideas to share on what they would like to learn. Anytime you ask a group of 13 years to free wheel ideas your bound to come up with some good ones, and we did. Most of what they asked about was right up our alley from the standpoint it will be great fodder for the class. Some of what they asked about, well Matt2 havent quite figured out how to handle...but we will.

We broke the kids in to three group to answer each of the two questions and had them work as a small group to combine their answers. After they had a list, someone from their group read out to the rest of the class what they had.

After we completed both lists in the same manner we gave the kids small stickers and they voted on which items they were most interested in hearing. That too took a bit of faith on our part, but I think we can work in all of the subjects over the course of the year.

Above all we sincerely appreciated the very engaged attitude the kids have had and look forward to each session.

So here is the list of items they all brought to class to learn. The number of votes each item got indicating from the kids are in parenthesis.

1. Why cant we play sports when we repent? [4]
2. End of times (revelations)? [2]
3. Evolution? [3]
4. If God can do anything why does he need angels? [0]
5. Why is there school? [0]
6. Do babies grow old in heaven? [3]
7. Give all the details of your first kiss? [6]
8. Why cant we date after we repent? [6]
9. Why does God let bad things happen to us? [0]
10. Why dont parents understand us? [0]
11. If you kill yourself where do you go? [3]
12. Why cant you be a pro football player when you repent? [1]
13. Beginning of time? [1]
14. Dinosaurs? [0]
15. The seven seals. How many heads does the monster have? [0]
16. Why should we forgive? [0]
17. Why can you join the army at 18 but you cant drink until after your 21? [4]

The second list of items we got from the kids was a list of what they 'knew' about our church. The kids again were broke in to three groups and several items appeared on multiple lists but here is the list combined;

1. repent, baptised, go to heaven
2. Modesty
3. Dont talk dirty
4. 10 commandments
5. The holy kiss
6. Head coverings
7. We believe in God and Jesus
8. We read the bible and obey
9. We eat at every AC event
10. We have 2 services
11. We dont work on Sundays
12. The bible is true
13. Girls have to wear skirts
14. Men wear suits and ties
15. Once you repent you aren't supposed to play sports
16. No hats
17. Girls wear headcoverings
18. Sing hymns
19. don't do anything worldly
20. tithing