On Sunday we were in week two of our three week series with the students.  Kelsie, one of our Joshua Team student leaders taught week two with the middle school students in a series on the New Testament letter, Titus, while I took on the second week in a sex series with the high school kids.  For those of you curious, you can always listen to the high school teaching on our student ministry podcast (I’ll post the audio today or tomorrow).

Using The Complete New Testament Resource, Volume 1 from Youth Specialties as a launching pad for the series, Kelsie led the middle school in a study of chapter two of Titus.  A follow up idea for at home would be to reread chapter two together as a family and use the following questions as a discussion starter:

• We hear the word grace a lot in Christian circles—what does it mean? (Answer: Undeserved favor.)
• When have you given grace to someone?
• When you received grace from someone, and how did that affect your relationship with that person?
• In what ways have you experienced grace from God?
• What difference has that made in your relationship with him?
• According to this passage, what does God’s grace bring to us?

This week I continued our three-week series on the topic of dating, sex, and relationships with the high school students. We’re using the series ‘God’s plan for great sex’ from the Live Curriculum, a great four year resource we’ve been using this year in our small groups and some Sunday mornings.  We looked at Paul’s conversation with the Christians in Corinth about the way they were living (1 Corinthians 6:12-17). We saw how he wanted them to realize that just because they had freedom didn’t give them an excuse to abuse their freedom. My goal this week was to help teenagers realize that God created sex as a gift and that it is designed to be experienced by a husband and wife – and I spoke about the risks that are connected to living outside that plan. We concluded our discussion by talking about how our bodies are God’s temple (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).

This week, take a few minutes to talk with your teenager about dating, sex, and relationships. Here are some possible questions:

• What have been some positive and negative results from choices you’ve made recently?
• How are you developing the wisdom to make wiser choices?
• What sources of temptation do you confront that you think other generations have never seen?

Thanks for your commitment to your child and your support for our student ministry!