Each week for a month talk about persecution. Meet in the basements of different homes and only tell the youth what street you are on each time. Make a fish (><>) lawn ornament to stick in the lawn each week and they have to look for that to know which house you’re in.
The first week gather and talk about persecution in the early church and where the fish symbol came from.
Second week make them take off anything they are wearing that identifies them as Christians (our host gave us t-shirts to use if needed) as they come in the door. All our scripture was on pages torn out of a Bible. Talk about the persecution that is going on right now in foreign countries.
The third week start the meeting with a short intro about something (we used announcements) and have several big guys in riot gear come storming in, break up the meeting, and forcibly remove the leaders. Give the youth some time in the basement to think and talk on their own before bringing them all upstairs to talk about what we would do if this were reality here in America.
The fourth week, meet together at your usual meeting place and write letters to Christians in persecuted countries. You can get addresses from Voice of the Martyrs.
We had great success with this and really had the youth thinking about persecution and whether they were willing to die, or worse yet be tortured, for their faith for months after!
Next time I want to try and get the whole group hauled down to the station and put in a jail cell to finish out the lesson on the 3rd week.
Be creative, it makes a lifetime impact!