BACKGROUND PREPARATION: For the Bible study, you may need to prepare a set of appropriate Bible references for further study or print out extracts from the Bible, depending on your young people. For the introduction to work well, you will also need to pay close attention to the media in the weeks before the session.

NOTES FOR ADAPTING:

For younger groups… Invite your young people to freeze-frame each moment of the Bible reading, asking them to identify the character trait revealed in their particular scene.

For older groups… Rather than just using ‘celebrities’ for the introduction, you could consider other well-known personalities such as world / local leaders and ask how their character is seen in their actions, perhaps leading to an extended discussion.

For unchurched young people… You may need to provide some background information for the Bible study to help them put it into context.

For churched young people… Encourage your young people to develop their personal Bible study skills, showing them how to use a concordance to find more information. 

Before the session, collect 16 pictures of well known celebrities (all the same size) ensuring that there are shared characteristics between some of the celebrities. For example, a mixture of male and female personalities, some wearing sunglasses, some not, some with beards etc.

Display the pictures in a 4 x 4 grid on a wall where all your young people can see them and begin the session by playing a “Guess who” game. Invite your young people to ask yes/no questions about the characteristics of the celebrities, such as “are they wearing sunglasses?” to identify the one you have already chosen. As they become eliminated, remove the pictures from the wall until you have narrowed down the choices. Your young people can then guess at your chosen personality. Repeat the game if appropriate.

Tell your young people that the theme for this session is the character of God. Ask your group to suggest what the term ‘Character’ means and find a definition that you can all understand and use. One definition is: The combination of qualities that distinguishes a person, group or thing.

Display one of the pictures used in ‘guess who,’ and ask your young people what aspects of their character have been seen most recently, both positive and negative. For example; generosity, selfishness, concern for justice etc.

Invite someone to read Exodus 3:1-15 and ask your group to consider what aspects of God’s character can be seen in this incident. List them on a large sheet of paper; they should be able to identify some of the following: 

Divide your young people into small groups. Provide each group with a large piece of paper and invite each group to pick one of the headings listed above. Allow time for each group to further explore their chosen topic, providing a number of materials for them to use. Some groups may wish to use a Bible to dig deeper, others may wish to create a list of questions or represent their information visually, perhaps creating a collage. Leaders should support each group, allowing them to take the lead but helping to prompt them further.

When your young people have had enough time to complete their poster, invite each group to feedback what they have learnt and continue your discussion about God’s character. By allowing your young people time to explore one aspect of God’s character in depth and then feeding back, they will come to a greater understanding of His character as a whole. 

KEY POINT: This Bible passage does not explicitly list God’s character traits, but rather reveals His character in the way He responds to humanity at a particular moment in time. Depending on your group’s experience of studying the Bible, they may find it hard to spot them at first. Allow more time, if needed, to explain and explore these character traits. 

Before the session, get hold of some fruit-flavoured sweets. One at a time, invite your group to taste a sweet. The twist is that they must be blindfolded and must correctly identify the flavour of their sweet. Explain that just as an apple tree is recognised by its apples, so are we identified as followers of Christ by the fruit we bear. 

Ask someone to read Galatians 5: 22-23 and explain that these fruit of the spirit are the characteristics that mark us out as followers of Christ. Ask your young people to consider how these character traits can be seen in God, in the Bible passage read earlier, and look at the two passages together. For instance, God’s love can be seen in His concern for His people and His patience can be seen in the way he encourages Moses. 

Explain that we were created in the image of God and that it was His intention that our character reflects His own. By growing in our relationship with Christ, and through the work of the Holy Spirit, we become more like Him, reflecting His character more completely. 

Ask someone to reread the passage from Galatians, and as each of the fruits is read, write it on a small child’s building brick. Use these bricks to build a small wall and explain to your young people that over time we grow in each aspect of our character. Invite your young people to consider which aspect of their character they need to further develop at this point. Provide extra toy bricks and pens and allow time for your young people to write this character trait on a brick to take away with them. 

KEY POINT: In our instant society, we expect to be able to buy whatever we want straight off the shelf, and we can treat our relationship with God in the same way. Help your young people to understand that developing and building Christ-like character can take a lifetime. God builds our character through the situations we find ourselves in, enabling us to deal with them in a different way. 

As you close the session, Ask your group to think about how they have changed since they first began their relationship with Christ. Remind them of the different fruit of the Spirit and ask them to consider their growth in each of these. Encourage them to see how far they’ve come so far, not to get hung up on how far they feel they’ve still got to go. Pray for one another as you close, thanking God for the changes He makes in us, and committing to further developing our character.