Bible Study & Prayer – Youth Group Games

My Soul Worth

Purpose: We often do not appreciate the value of things such as possessions. Often teens do not realize the value of character and the role their parents take in protecting their character. In this lesson you will discuss the importance of the parental role in protecting their valuable character. Teens complain about overbearing parents and lack of freedom often saying their parents are just “Old fashioned”.

Tools needed: Bible, pencil, paper, cell phone, and money

In opening the class, ask the students to list in order their 10 most valuable things. Ask the students to share their responses and ask why the items listed are important to them. Ask them if they know the cost of each item they listed. Share some of your important things (cell phone, driver’s license, and car keys) and briefly explain what they mean to you and their value.

More than likely no one will list valuable things/possessions as being their character, virtue, trustworthiness, Christianity, or family. We often only place a value (monetary) on inanimate objects and have a hard time placing a value on our own self worth.

Ask the students who is responsible for the protection of the items they listed. Ask them ways they protect their possessions (keeping it locked up, keeping it in their pocket or within arms reach, and insurance). Ask a student who listed their cell phone as a valuable possession and if you could keep it for a couple of days, if the response is no, ask them why. Ask your students to consider ways their parents protect them (as a valuable possession) and how that can come across as being overbearing or overly possessive. Would they just leave their possessions in the parking lot over night and expect it to be there the next day unharmed. We take care of what we love.

There are many scriptures that can be used such as: “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it”, Titus II talks about the teaching of good character, Noah is a great example of a fathers protection (most children today would think their parents were crazy to do such a thing as Noah did)

Explain to your students that their parents lock their valuables up, some have home alarms, insurance but all of those things are corruptible/temporal. Explain that each one of them is far more valuable, to be exact “priceless”. Express that their parents should and will protect their most valuable possession, them. Christ also paid a price for them, and they are equal to the price that was paid (Mathew Henry).

by Troy D. Comar in Bible Study & Prayer, Mid and Late Adolescents Comments are off

Airing Out Dirty Laundry

Tools needed: Rope, clothes line/rope, clothes pins, dirty laundry (old soiled clothes), paper, and magic marker, Bible.

Purpose: To encourage teens to share their burdens through prayer and Godly counsel, not on social network sites or through texting.

Before your class arrives hang a rope across the classroom and hang your dirty clothes up. Make signs which state gossip, rumors, personal information, personal failures, family problems and personal relationship problems. Leave some blank paper for you to solicit responses from your students.

When your class arrives someone in the group will more than likely ask what is going on with the clothes hanging up. Explain to the class that you brought your dirty laundry in so they could see it. More than likely that will get a negative response from the class and you can tell them you thought that they would want to see you’re your dirty laundry.

There are a lot of young people who do not know the term “Airing out your/my dirty laundry out”. Explain to the students what the term means, or used to mean, it’s unacceptable to talk in the community about ones personal affairs. It used to be unacceptable to share information about someone else’s personal affairs. Ask those ways people are airing out their “dirty laundry”. Ask your students if media is being used to air out dirty laundry. Explain to the class how the internet, Facebook, and other social media sites are being used to air out dirty laundry. Just as we would not hang our dirty clothes out in front of our houses for all to see, especially under garments, we should not hang out our personal information for all to see through texting and other electronic means.

Most states have laws now concerning cyber-bullying which can be interpreted by others as being when we put out negative information about others using electronic means (refer to your local state laws).

On each piece of clothing attach the words and the responses from the class. Explain each word and how it can cause damage to the person their talking about and to their own personal testimony. Explain that the internet is a powerful tool but is and can be used for the wrong purpose.

With my class I used Gal. 6:2 “Bear ye one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ”. You can also use James 5:16 “Confess your faults one to another”. It should be noted that this should be done with fellow Christians or to Godly counsel, not on a social network site. The purpose of this sharing is so Christian’s can pray for you, and when they share with you, tell it to God and not others. There are many scriptures that address rumors, gossip, ect…. encourage your teens to bring topics to you that burden them so you can show them through the Bible how to resolve or get the answer to their problems/burdens.

NOTE: Today’s teens are faced with many challenges. Explain to your teens that if they receive information about someone hurting themselves or others it is their responsibility to tell a trusted adult who will help resolve the problem. Create an atmosphere in your classroom that your students will share with you but let them know you are obligated to share harmful information also.

by Troy D. Comar in All Youth, Bible Study & Prayer Comments are off

Jumble Group Prayer

This format of group prayer came out of our youth night one week.

After devotion, we commonly share our prayer requests, I write them down, and we dish them out with volunteers offering to pray each request. Spontaneous, out loud group prayer is something that’s not really comfy for a lot of our kids, and so it can be a real challenge for them.

On the night in question, we had spent so long talking about the prayer requests that we were running out of time to actually pray them. Somehow, we decided that one youth would open the prayer simply, “Dear God, hear our prayers…” and then we would all pray out loud at the same time. When it got quiet, we had another youth ready to close with “In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

It worked really well. We talked about it afterward, and heard comments like, “I didn’t feel as awkward praying out loud like this” and “I didn’t have to worry about making it sound right, because only God was listening and He always understands”. Another comment was, “That was cool, because maybe that’s how prayer sounds to God.” It’s definitely something we will be doing again.

by Jennifer Kerr in All Youth, Bible Study & Prayer Comments are off

Don’t Forget Your Spoon

I constantly have to remind and pressure my teens to bring their Bibles to church. One Wednesday afternoon, I sent out text and Facebook messages to all the teens asking for their favorite cereal. Before class, I went to the store and bought the top 4-5 choices of cereal, milk, foam bowls, and plastic spoons. I then setup everything in the teen room, but I hid the box of spoons.

When the kids came in to class, I announced the number of votes for each cereal. I let them all fix a bowl, but did not provide any spoons. Several kids asked if there were spoons, but I ignored them until everyone had cereal. Then I asked them why they did not bring spoons to class, which they all gave me puzzled looks. I said that I had asked them about cereal earlier in the day, so they should have known we would have it and class and brought a spoon.

I then applied the lesson to how we need to bring our Bibles to class. Coming to eat cereal without a spoon is like coming to church Bible study without a Bible. I then pulled out the spoons and let the teens eat. Now, almost every week the kids tells one another “Don’t forget your spoon!” meaning to bring their Bibles to class. It was a simple but effective lesson, and I hope it works for you.

by Matthew Thomas in All Youth, Bible Study & Prayer Comments are off

Generation Text

Tools needed: White board and marker, pens/pencil blank paper.

Start lesson out by writing on the board that no one can talk. Do not tell the students what to do with their paper and pens as some will figure it out.

Write some of the following, “I have seen your Facebook or MySpace account, I know what you said. I saw the text.” or something along those lines (before teaching this lesson you should check the internet for your students if you feel comfortable doing this don’t be surprised by what you find, you do not have to do this).

Write “It hurt my feelings, I can’t believe you said that. Was it true what you said?” (Erase after each time you write as if you are e-mailing or texting). As students start responding by writing on their paper and asking things like “Who me”? or “What are you talking about?” Continue to write vague responses.

Write scripture on the board related to days of our youth such as I Tim 4:12. Have them read it and then write on their paper a response as to what it means. If someone writes the correct response tell them that they are right but don’t indicate why it’s right.

Write the words, angry, mad, upset, followed by gossip, lies, no emotion. The purpose of the lesson is to get the young people to realize what they put on the internet and what they text can affect many people. Some say things by electronic means that they would never say in person. God realizes that as young people we do things without full understanding of its lasting consequences. Adults do read what they put on the internet and some do for the wrong purpose. A good site to review before this lesson is Netsmartz.org.

The teens responded well to this lesson and some even tired of the writing and reading even though a good estimated average for them is 120 text a day. Some of our teens had text some hurtful things to other teens and I was aware of some of the teens putting personal info on their profiles.

I used the time to talk about internet safety, how to report and the importance of talking to their parents even when they receive unsolicited text, e-mails or images. Many law enforcement agencies will present internet safety classes to your teens or their parents. This issue is tearing apart youth groups and churches with Facebook being the main contributors. Talk to your teens about the internet not being reality and how texting doesn’t share true emotions or express an individual’s true intent. (My background, School Resource Officer for 15 years, Juvenile Investigator for 10 years, Teen Youth Leader for about 15 years, I have enjoyed your site and used it many times)

by Troy D. Comar in Bible Study & Prayer, Mid and Late Adolescents Comments are off

Bible Search

This is a good idea to get kids in the Bible. Look up random verses in the Bible that has \”things/nouns\”, like rock… door… table… etc. Then write the verse down on a piece of paper. Then go to church early & find all of these things & put a piece of neon tape on it. Next give the kids a list of bible verses to look up to find the word. Tell them that there is a word in each verse they must find. When they find the object they must bring the neon tag back to the youth pastor.

by Matthew Bishop in All Youth, Bible Study & Prayer Comments are off

Ball Talk

Start out with a small (ugly) blue ball. Have a bag full of balls (all sorts) but do not let students see them. Make the biggest jock hold the little blue ball in the center of the staging area. Talk about the blue ball as though it is not very important, point out its faults, blemishes, and potential uses. Tell the students that this blue ball will be our starting point of importance. Then call on another student (preferably girl) and hand them a football. Tell them to stand either side (left or right) of the blue ball in order of importance. Call on other students, handing each a ball (soccer, baseball, softball, basketball, etc) Go into detail as to the importance or lack of importance for each ball. Let each student position themselves in the line of importance while holding their ball. Let the students describe the reasons why they chose to standing where they are always referring back to the “little blue ball” One side verses the other will become the “important” side. When all the balls have been handed out and the students are lined up in order of importance share with them that the line of importance is not from this side to the other but everyone is important in God’s eyes. God sees importance in everyone, as Christians we are to be humble before God and man never giving rise to putting ourselves better than others. 1 Peter 4:6-7

by John Borland in All Youth, Bible Study & Prayer Comments are off

Sin-ful Reality

While I teach 6th grade, this can be used for any age. During Lent, each Sunday School lesson is devoted to the last week of Jesus’ life. On Palm Sunday we look at Mark 15, examining the trumped up charges against Jesus, the torture and crucifixion. To illustrate the price He paid I have them “nail their sins to the cross.” Each student receives a lunch size brown paper bag, marker or pen, and 5 small sheets of paper. They write their name on the bag and list a separate “sin” on each sheet of paper. After folding the sheet, into the bag it goes. They fold the bag in half and each student takes a turn nailing their bag of sins onto a five foot cross, while I read (slowly) what happened during Jesus’ torture and crucifixion, reminding them of the price He paid for their personal sins. Each student receives a nail to carry around for the week reminding them about the class. During the course of the week, I take the cross home, remove the nails, remove “sin” papers throwing them out (without looking at them as I promised the kids) and replacing them with clean sheets of paper. I re-nail the bags to the cross, with PAID IN FULL written in red marker. On Easter Sunday, we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection by each student ripping off the bag with their name on it and seeing what happened to their “sin.” We then read and discuss Mark 16. It makes for quite a real reminder for the kids.

by Trudy in All Youth, Bible Study & Prayer Comments are off

Pray For Me Box

Have a decorated shoe box or any object that can be used as a prayer request box. At the beginning of the session have the youth write down something that they want to pray for. Then at the end of the night have each person pick a slip from the box, take the request home and pray for them that week.

by Andrea Berrios in All Youth, Bible Study & Prayer Comments are off

Prayer Partners

On our retreats, we have prayer partners. They are similar to Secret Santas. Have one of the youth leaders write all the names of the people attending the retreat, and place them in a hat. The attendants then draw a name out of the hat. They are not allowed to show anyone the name, or trade names. (they may ask a leader who the person is if they don’t know.)

They are supposed to write letters to the person whom they chose throughout the weekend. The letters are to be nice things only!! They are also to stay anonymous (they reveal who they had picked at the end of the weekend in a prayer service). We have always made envelopes before we explain prayer partners. Simply take a manilla envelope and supply campers with markers to write their names. They can draw anything else as well. Then, throughout the weekend, they can receive letters anonymously from their prayer partners and letters from friends as well.

I have found that this is one of the best experiences on retreats, as it is something you can take home with you. Whenever I get down, I look at the nice letters people wrote me. =)

by Elisabeth Devin in All Youth, Bible Study & Prayer Comments are off