Grades 9-12 | Abide - Stay Connected to Your Life Source

This week, we studied John 15:1-12, where Jesus uses a beautiful, clear metaphor to describe himself as our life source. He explains that he is the vine, and we are the branches.

In our culture, we often look for meaning and identity in many other sources. But only when we recognize Jesus as our life source can we experience complete, fulfilled joy. In verse 11, Jesus says he has spoken these things so our joy will overflow.

This week, spend a few minutes with your teenager reviewing our lesson. Here are some questions you can use to fuel your conversation:

• How does being connected to Jesus, our vine, make you feel more alive?
• In what ways is this connection evident in people’s daily lives?
• What are some things that might try to disconnect you from the vine? How can you be aware of those things and prevent them from interfering with your relationship with Jesus?

We appreciate your prayer and support for our ministry. May God bless your week!
 
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Grades 6-8 | A Bunch of Ordinary, Imperfect People

We’ve concluded our three-lesson series on Genesis. Each week we’ve discovered how this first book of the Bible is so important. It introduces us to the story of God. It shows how God is faithful and keeps his promises. And this week we saw how Genesis introduces us to some flawed, imperfect people.

Young teenagers sometimes think Scripture only focuses on “perfect” people who never struggled, never panicked, or never messed up—but that just isn’t true. The Bible is filled with stories of ordinary, imperfect people, including the four people we discussed in this lesson: Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Joseph.

Keep the conversation going at home this week by asking your teenager these kinds of questions:

• Tell me about a time you saw an ordinary person do something extraordinary for Jesus.
• Your group talked about the ways fear, manipulation, and jealousy can hurt us—which do you think is the biggest struggle for junior highers, and why?
• How does understanding that we’re all flawed, ordinary people help you rely more on Jesus?

As you go through your week, remind your child they we all make mistakes, but Jesus still loves us and wants us to partner with him to do amazing things in this world!

Grades 9-12 | N/A

A big thank you to Keith Moore for steppng in and teaching class. Parents, be sure to ask your teen about what was studied! 

Grades 6-8 | God's Covenants

Dear parents,

We’re continuing our series on Genesis, the first book of the Bible, as we uncover important moments from the opening of God’s story. This week we looked at three key people in Genesis: Noah, Abraham, and Sarah.

During our conversation, we talked about covenants God made with these individuals. A covenant is a promise or a contract between two parties. We saw how God is always faithful to fulfill his promises, even when we are not faithful. We really do serve an amazing and loving God.

I encourage you to keep the dialogue going at home this week. Here are some questions you might want to ask:

• How do you decide if you can trust someone who makes a promise to you?
• Why do many of us find it easy to break our promises?
• Do you find it easy or difficult to believe God keeps all of his promises? Why?
• What is a creative way you can remind yourself this week of how Jesus has been faithful to you?

Have an awesome week! 

Grades 9-12 | For God So Loved the World

We’ve launched a new series on the topic of culture—lessons that focus on engaging society without being swept away by it. Each week students are diving into conversation and Scripture to unravel wisdom, truth, and encouragement for living a Jesus-centered life in a self-centered world.

In our first lesson, we read Jesus’ prayer from John 17:13-19, which focuses on protection, wisdom, and purpose. He prayed not that God would take us out of the world but that God would protect us from the evil one. With God’s protection and love, we can be a shining light in our society.

​This week, I encourage you to spend a few minutes talking with your teenager about our lesson. Consider building your conversation around these questions:

• Jesus prayed that God would protect us from the evil one. What’s it like to know that God is actively protecting you from evil?
• Why do you suppose Jesus would pray that we “not be taken out of the world”?
• How do people become so comfortable within our culture that Jesus is no longer their top priority? What can we do if we realize that’s happening to us?

Grades 6-8 | For God So Loved the World

​We’ve launched a new series on the book of Genesis—the book that kicks off the biblical account of God’s movement in the world. Genesis is a book of beginnings—the word Genesis literally means “beginnings.” It tells about the beginnings of the world and of man. It’s also the beginning of the story of God. It lays the groundwork to help us see and understand the rest of the Bible. Like reading any other book or watching a movie, the beginning of the Bible helps the rest of the story make sense.

Our conversation focused on Genesis 5:1-2, where we read about Adam’s descendants—and one day, one of those descendants would be Jesus. Elsewhere in Genesis, we discover some big moments in humanity’s history—and through it all, we read about how God’s love remained faithful, even when humanity wasn’t faithful to God.

I encourage you to keep the conversation going with your teenager this week. Here are some questions you might want to ask:

• Tell me about a great movie you’ve seen or great book you’ve read recently—how was the beginning of the story a crucial foundation for the whole story?
• Genesis is a “written account” of God’s story—in what ways has it been valuable to look back on our family’s story through words or pictures or video?
• Based on what you know about the beginnings of God’s movement in the world, what do you know for sure about him?

​Thanks for letting us partner with you in your teenager’s spiritual journey. Have a blessed week!