This is day one of working with the Why material our church is going to use for our Fall series. I hope to post questions, ideas, thoughts, etc about using the why material to impact middle school kids. Any ideas, thoughts, and feedback is always welcome.
Our Fall series starts on Sep 23rd and will end Nov 4 2007.
After looking over the material a lot closer here are some key thoughts.
I really really like the idea of answer some of these questions for middle schoolers because they are asking them a lot
But I think I'm going to go a little different direction when it comes to "Why is the world so messed up?" by focusing on the fear this causes Middle school kids (that their world is messed up) and not on all the pain that is out there. I want to expose the kids to tools they can use when they encounter their messed up world more than point out the messyness that is there. I’ll try to explain this more as the days go by.
I've been working on some material to use to make a video for Week 5 - Why the conflict. I talked the description of sceince over with my intern and we came up with this description for middle school kids. What do you think?
Science is the study of how things work by what we see and do!
Here is week 1 notes. I'm useing some of Kurt Johnson's stuff & a short funny video from sermon spice for this one.
Why>
Why am I here?
This famous Fish Story from the Bible…Jonah and the whale (show video)
· GOD has a PLAN.
(Jeremiah 29:11).
In this story…God’s plan was to spare the city of Nineveh.
God still has LOTS of plans! He isn’t done with people or with our world… God’s plan is still to let people know how awesome and wonderful He is, even people who don’t seem to deserve it.
· WE have a ROLE.
(Ephesians 2:10).
How awesome to think that God wants to use us to play a part in His plans…He certainly doesn’t need us, but He WANTS to use us!!
In this story…God wanted Jonah to play the role of messenger to the people of Nineveh. Guess what…He’s still looking for messengers today! People willing to tell others about Him!
· I have a CHOICE.
(Joshua 24:15).
God doesn’t force us to obey Him…He gives us a choice. Jonah chose to disobey and things got crazy!!
God wants to use each of us to point others to Him…are you willing to obey? I think this story is in the Bible so we can learn how important it is to obey God when we feel like He’s asking us to do something.
Thought for the Week:
It’s better to be FOOLISH for our FATHER
than FOOD for a FISH!