PREPARE WEEK
PREPARING STUDENTS TO LEAD
WELCOME
Foundation Scripture
“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.” -1 Chronicles 29:11
SAY: “Welcome to First Priority! This week is Prepare Week of Month 2 where we’ve been learning about who God is and how we can know Him.
Before we get started, let’s pray…”
OPENING PRAYER
DIG IN
SAY:
“This month, we have focused on God and His attributes. Does anyone remember a few attributes from our discussion last week?
So…here are a few questions for us to work through (small groups or large discussions):
1.How should God’s attributes change our relationship with Him?
2.Why are God’s attributes important, especially when we are going through a hard time” (We can trust God because He is good and He is righteous…).
3.What is the result when humans ignore God’s power or turn from God? (Hint: Romans 1:21-22).
4. What is the difference in knowing God and knowing about God?
5.What do God’s attributes reveal about US?”
SAY: “That was a great discussion! A few things to think on throughout this next week: (you don’t need to have them answer, just read the questions for them to consider)
1.Do I know God or just know about God?
2.Do I trust God – even in hard situations?
3.How does God, being perfect and all-powerful, loving me affect my life?
4.Have you trusted God as your Savior? If not, our leaders would love to talk to you about this.
I don’t know about you but when I really think about how much God loves me, how powerful He is, and all that He’s done for me – I WANT to tell others about Him!”
TOOL TIME
SAY: “Now let’s transition into talking about our stories and how we can prepare to share who God is through our own personal stories. If you were with us for last month’s Prepare Week, we used what we learned about the Bible, and two tools to help us pull together and write our stories. The two tools we used were The FOUR, and My Faith Story sheet. If you were able to write out your story using one or both of these tools last month, we encourage you to take a look at your stories again and see how they may have changed or adapted with what we have learned so far about who God is. You may want to rewrite your story or even add or change parts of your story.
If these tools are new to you, or you aren’t really sure how to write your story, don’t worry, I will walk you through them.
And its always important to remember, your story is not going to look like your friends, or those around you. each of us has a different story, and that’s a good thing!”
SAY: “Let’s quickly review the Four. The Four is a Gospel tool that has 4 icons that represent different parts of the Gospel: Icon 1 – heart = God loves us; Icon 2 – the division sign = sin separates us; Icon 3 – the Cross = Jesus rescues us; Icon 4 -the questions mark = Will you trust in Jesus?
The My Faith Story sheet is a tool that we can use to write our stories through a four-step process by beginning with choosing a word or two that describe what our life was like before Christ. (You may need to do a complete review)
(Click here for the My Faith Story Sheet)
Before we dive into writing our stories, let’s talk about how we can apply God’s attributes to the gospel. If you want to use The Four as a tool for writing your story, or the “My Faith Story sheet” from last week, I want to encourage you to think about this next question that may help guide you to how you can include God’s attributes.
Think about the attributes of God and how we can add these into our story? (Look at icon #1- Gods heart)
Put up The FOUR prompts on a screen or write them on a board for students to refer back to. You may also want to pass out a card or wristband with the FOUR icons to any student who does not have one yet.
Here is a link to a guide on understanding The FOUR. It’s best to familiarize yourself with this tool before teaching it to others.
SAY: “What a great Prepare Week! Getting a chance to write out our stories so we can be ready to share and spread the Gospel is so important for us in our faith journey!
We are so thankful for each of you that came this week, and especially want to welcome anyone that is new here today.
A student leader will be coming around and passing out Invite cards. We encourage each of you to invite at least one friend to club next week!
Here are our announcements…”
CLOSING PRAYER
Have a Student Leader ready to pass out invite cards at the end of meeting or at the door as they leave.
If your club is participating with Operation Christmas Child, Don’t forget to announce Packing Party!
