Search the siteAn Heroic MinistryIntroducing Pastor Steven from Rwanda:
Pastor Steven Turikunkiko has set up a community in Rwanda for victims of the genocide. 160 widows & teenagers & 80 younger children live with him; farming, sharing their lives and caring for those dying from AIDS. The community subsists on less than $1 per person per day. At enormous personal sacrifice, Pastor Steven and his wife have also adopted 20 orphans - who live with them and their 2 other children. For more information on Steven and this incredible community of hope, click here
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The Sovereignty of Jesus
MEETING AIM: The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology defines God’s sovereignty as being ‘the biblical teaching that God is king, supreme ruler and lawgiver of the universe’. With this in mind, the aim of this meeting is to understand that God has given Jesus all sovereignty and authority; if Jesus is sovereign in everything then he’s worthy to be worshipped and can also be trusted. BACKGROUND PREPARATION: For the purpose of this study I have mainly used verses 13-23. In these verses Paul talks about the sovereignty of Jesus through Jesus’ relationship with his heavenly Father. Your young people are likely to ask several questions about the nature of the Trinity so you might want to brush up on your own understanding in order to be able to answer. Pictures of creation (5 mins) Have the group seated in a circle and in the middle of them, lay out several pictures of creation e.g. sunsets, flowers, beaches, mountains, animals, people of different races, a foetus, babies, food etc… Good resources are: free food magazines from supermarkets and chemists, pregnancy magazines, holiday brochures, newspapers and of course the Internet. The more interesting the pictures the better. Play a worship song in the background and give the group a few minutes to look at the pictures and pick out something of meaning to them in relation to God as the creator of the world. Get each member of the group to share the reasons for their choice. KEY POINT: This kind of starter activity is excellent for getting everybody to participate even if it’s just with a simple sentence so make sure you are encouraging of even the smallest of comments. The same is true of the next activity so you may want to include both if you have time otherwise choose the one that best suits your group. King for a day (5-10 mins) Depending on the size of your group either ask everyone to give their thoughts on each of the following questions or split into smaller groups of five. Write each question on separate slips of paper and ask each person to choose a slip and offer their thoughts:
Bible study (15 mins) Read Colossians 13-23 and think about the following questions:
KEY POINT: At some point either during this section or during the worship you might want to ask if anyone wants to have verses 13 and 14 as a reality in their lives and move from darkness into the light. It’s a trust thing (15 mins) Divide the group into pairs and send them to opposite ends of the room. Blindfold half of the room and tell the other half of the room that they are to stand motionless and all at the same time guide their partners over to them using only their voices. Have a prize for the fastest and a booby prize for the slowest. Ask the blindfolded group how it felt, how easy was it to hear their partners etc…? You could spice this up by having blindfolded navigation of an obstacle course by a remote control vehicle. KEY POINT: The point of this game is trust: knowing and recognising your partners’ voice and trusting them to guide you. Use this game to further illustrate the discussion which came from the passage and to hit home the aim of the session: if we can trust our partner to guide us across a room then how much more can we trust the author and creator of to guide us through life. His worship (10-20 mins) Jesus is worthy to be worshipped so allow plenty of time to actually do this in whatever way is suitable for your group. Here are some ideas to help them focus: Ask someone to lead you in some sung worship; put on a worship CD and use the pictures from the Pictures of Creation exercise as a visual stimulus for response; show a film clip of Jesus dying on the cross with a worship song playing in the background and when it has finished leave some contemplative silence; roll out a piece of wall paper along the floor and on the blank side of it let your group write and draw their worship. Pray over them (5 mins) In verses 9-12, Paul prays for the Colossian church. Use these words as a prayer to speak powerfully over your young people as you send them out. Have the verses printed on a small card or bookmark and encourage them to use it as an aid to prayer for their families, friends, pastors, teachers etc…
Lesley Thompson is a writer and youth worker based in Surrey, UK. Notes for adapting For younger groups… If there are not enough games in this session for a younger group then you could add a ‘king’ themed music quiz e.g. Elvis (The King) or Michael Jackson (King of Pop) songs. For older groups… They will probably enjoy discussion some of the more philosophical aspects of the Bible study so allow some meandering discussion but don’t allow the aim of the session to be completely hijacked. For unchurched young people… This session lends itself to an opportunity for people to give their lives to Jesus so you will probably want to factor this in. For churched young people… I suggest spending half the session in worship (different types if you feel they need it). If they understand what worship is and have the opportunity to engage with God for a sustained period of time, their hearts will be transformed by being in His presence.
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