Oops!  I’m a day late!  I blame the late night drama between Leno and Conan …

Anyway, Wednesday night was a great night!  Here’s what we studied in our different small groups, as well as some suggestions for follow up discussion at home:

The middle school students took a break from Simply Youth Ministry’s Active Bible Studies this week to do a lesson from the Skit Guys’ You Teach Vol. 4 entitled ‘Never Runners.’  It was a goofy video to introduce the topic of our spiritual life as a race, a metaphor frequently used in the Bible where one of the guys had been hurt running, so he tried to prevent other people from running to ‘protect’ them.  It was goofy, but a crowd pleaser!  The key passages we looked at were Galatians 5:7, Philippians 2:16 and Philippians 3:12-14.  Here are some follow up discussion questions you can use with your middle school student after reading the passages:

• In the video, there’s a group called “never runners.” They never run because of a painful experience in their past. Silly? Yes. But how do we as humans stop “running the race” for God when something painful happens?  What kinds of things can stop us from running?
• What do you think the “prize” is that Paul is talking about?
• How has God gifted you? In what ways can you use those gifts or talents in your race for God?
• Read Jeremiah 29:11. What does this verse mean to you?

The high school small groups were in the third week of a four week study entitled ‘The Law and the Prophets,’ from the Live Curriculum (a great four year high school small group resource), a small group series focused on the Old Testament Law and the Prophets.  As we continue looking through the Law and the Prophets in the Old Testament, we’re making some exciting and challenging discoveries. Ezekiel 36:26-28 is a great passage we covered this week. In these verses, Ezekiel communicates God’s promise to renew the hearts of the Israelites living in Babylonian captivity. God had allowed the Israelites to be captured by Nebuchadnezzar to punish them for not remaining spiritually faithful. They had settled in to live in Babylon blending into the culture.

We know that your teenager faces challenges to conform to the surrounding culture. We believe a strong relationship between parents and their kids is a key to helping raise young adults who get to the place where they own their faith. Here are some questions that could generate some conversation in your family this week:

• What are some modern-day things that cause us to get too complacent in our spiritual lives?
• How have you experienced “coaching” as you’ve learned to follow God?
• How can we as a family be a spiritual coach for each other?

Please let me know if there are specific ways I can pray for your family this week. I’m committed to doing whatever I can to support you, too. Have a blessed day!