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Small groups last night were fun!  Attendance was down a bit for the week, but there were enough of us to still have a great night.  I snuck away from the middle schoolers long enough to peek in on the other groups and enjoyed hearing all the different conversations seeing what they were up to!

The middle school students were doing a small group study from Simply Youth Ministry’s Active Bible Studies called ‘Once upon a parable’ this week.  We started off all together with a list of different parables; each of the groups picked a parable to study together, try to figure out the teaching behind it and how it applies to life today.  Then they were supposed to come up with a skit to reenact or illustrate the parable to perform to the rest of the group at the end of the night.  It was a fun way to get kids really focused on the passage!  You can see the video I grabbed with my Flip camera above.  If you’re a parent, a possible follow up activity would be to ask your child which parable they enacted, read it together and then ask the following questions:

• What was your part in the drama?  What was important about that character?
• What is the message of the parable?  Why is it important?
• What can we learn from this parable to help us follow God today?

The high school small groups were in the fourth 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.  The Messianic prophecy of Jesus in Isaiah 52 and 53 served as our text for this lesson.  We learned that the Messiah would come in obscurity (Isaiah 53:2), no one would come to his defense (Isaiah 53:8a), and he would take the punishment for our sin (Isaiah 53:4-6).

I’d encourage you to take time this week to talk with your child about the four-week series we just finished. Here are some specific questions tied to this week’s lesson:

• Why do you think God wanted the Messiah to be born in obscurity to an “average” family?
• How does the hope of Jesus’ return give you hope today?
• How can we as a family celebrate the hope we have in Jesus and our thankfulness that he paid the price for our sins?

I trust this has been a challenging and growing series for your teenager. Feel free to call or email me if you have any questions or any prayer requests. Have a great day!