The Curious Ministry of an Unlikely Leader

Our discussion last week wrapped up with talking about responsibilities and priorities. This seems like a fitting place to start this week's discussion. My plan is to have an opening game, a lesson game, and then a discussion based on what causes stress, what each of us can do to relieve or prevent some stress, and what the Bible says about priorities. For the opening game, I got a beach ball from the Dollar Tree and wrote the numbers 1-100 on it. I have a list of 100 questions to go with each number. I'll toss the ball to one youth. They must then tell me the number under their right or left thumb. I will ask them the corresponding question, and then they answer. Some questions are of the "getting to know you" type, others are questions about being Lutheran, being Christian, or based on what is found in the Bible. I figure each student will go once, maybe twice depending on time. Once that's wrapped up, I'm using an idea I got from the website Ministr...

We had a good time chatting. We didn't always stay on-topic, but that's okay! We started with a game of "switch sides if..." It's a pretty simple game. The youth pick a wall from two opposite walls. The leader reads out a statement, such as "Switch sides if you prefer cake over pie." If you like cake better, you walk to the other side of the room. If you like pie better, you stay where you are. After each statement, those who moved talked about why they moved. We learned quite a bit about each other, and had fun, to boot.  One of our congregation's members is very sick and has been in the hospital for several weeks, and will continue to be there for at least another few weeks. The youth spent time creating cards for her. They are also sponsoring a card shower for the congregation to participate in, as well. The youth will be collecting cards next week to be delivered along with the ones they made. I didn't take pictures of the card-ma...

I found a nice, neat, survey for the teens to fill out my first week as the leader. It asked them, among other things, about their preferred topics to talk about in an upcoming Wednesday night Bible study. The most popular one got a vote from every student, except one. That was "making and keeping friends."  Now I'm sitting here thinking "what have I gotten myself into?" I feel wholly unqualified to teach this! I just moved here about 8 months ago, and I have yet to do that whole "making friends" thing. Not the way I think of friends. But maybe I just need to re-think what a friend is.  That's where I'm going to start with the teens.  *Ask them what makes a friend.  *Do they have to be close enough to run out for a lunch when the need or mood strikes?  *Are the people we keep in contact with through social media, text and phone calls "real" friends?  *Do we need friends who aren't separated from us by miles and miles...