Youth Alpha Lesson 8 – How & Why Should I Tell Others?
Begin with PRAYER for God’s blessing over Youth Alpha and the participants
Topic this week is: How & Why Should I Tell Others?
Handoutsfor teen leaders/helpers
- Small group discussion questions – review with teen leaders
Any questions from the teens for the person leading the talk this week?
Spread the name tags of people in your group on your table.
Put your Weekly “To Do” sheets on the top in your binder page as a reminder of what you need to do in Small Group Discussion.
Don’t forget to talk between you to decide who is asking which question.
Remember to do attendance.
Food on tables before they arrive (Christian music playing if you want).
Examples of food – Meal or Snacks – veggies & Dip, chips, and sweet dessert.
Opening Announcements
Welcome everyone, nice to see you back. Thanks for being on time. The Topic tonight is How & Why Should I Tell Others?
Remember the ground Rules.
Enjoy your snacks
5 Minute warning – put all your garbage away please
Topic tonight is How & Why Should I Tell Others?
Today we are going to look at the spread not of a disease, but something more positive, we’re going to spread the news about our Christian Faith.
Ice Breaker
What was the best news you have ever received?
Who was the first person you told about it?
How did you tell them?
Video
Here’s a clip from the video:Outbreak
Start Cue: the cars are driving over the bridge
End Cue: Dr. Daniels looks at the air vent and says “it’s airborne”
What do you think this is clip is trying to say to you considering our topic today?
Video Message: Does anyone know what is similar between a virus and Christianity?
It is quite clear that there is something very contagious about Christianity.
After all, it started in the Middle East with just 12 ordinary guys huddled together in a small town far from here. Yet, today there are billions of followers all over the world that believe.
The only way these people could have found out about the faith is to be told about it. Today we are going to look at how and why we should tell others about our faith.
Activity
Give each of the young people a copy of photocopy 13 on pg 143 of the Youth Alpha Leader’s Guide book.
Each group leaders will go through each of the best and worst ways of sharing the faith.
Remember to ask them why?
Video
Here’s a clip from the video:Dances with Wolves
Start cue: He’s sleeping and wakes up to the cabin shaking and runs out to find the buffalo
End cue: He rides into the Indian camp and tries to tell them the buffalo are near.
Video Message: How does this message relate to our topic?
What did Kevin Costner do after he saw the buffalo?
If news that we get is really good then it just can’t be kept to yourself. We want to tell someone.
Jesus told his disciples to go and tell others.
We all have a part to play in spreading the good news because Christianity is normally communicated from person to person through people like us.
Some people try to force their ideas and other stay so quiet that no one ever hears them. We have to find a balance in the middle.
Discussion
Jesus asked us to spread his message and we can do this in 5 ways:
Live the message
Talk the message
Present the message
Empower the message
Pray the Message
- Live the Message
When people know that we are Christians they will watch how we live. What we do should match what we say.
- Talk the Message
If people see us living like Christians they will wonder why…. and that’s our opportunity to tell them.
When we talk about what we believe, people will ask very difficult questions and we should be ready to answer them. We don’t need to know as much as the pastor but we should be prepared to answer questions.
Reading the Bible is a great way to learn and there are many other books that you could read to help understand. You won’t always know the answer to the questions but you should always know where to look.
Not everyone who asks us about Christianity is looking for an answer, they might just be looking for an argument or trying to defeat us and make us look like fools in front of others.
- Present the Message
We are all called to be a witness. A witness is someone who tells of what they have seen or experienced. Your experiences with God will speak volumes.
Video
Here’s a clip from the video:A Knight’s Tale
Start cue: My ladies I introduce Sir Thomas
End cue: the one and only Sir ….Lichtenstein
Video Message: What is the message?
Just like in A Knight’s Tale, sometimes we will have the opportunity to explain all about Christianity to an interested friend or relative.
Sometimes it’s easier or better to invite them to a special event or speaker where someone who is good at explaining the faith in an exciting way.
- Empower the Message
In the Bible, God used miracles to back up the message.
Video
Here’s a clip from the video:Acts 3:2 – 3:8
Start cue: Acts 3:2
End cue: Acts 3:8
Video Message: How did they spread the word in the video?
God still does miracles today.
Ask – How many people believe that God still does miracles today?
We should not be afraid to ask him to show his power to people.
- Pray the Message
Prayer is like the power source to tell people the good news about Jesus.
If we haven’t been praying we can only hope things work out.
Pray the essentials: That peoples eyes would be open to see the truth about God and that God would give us boldness to talk about our faith.
Discussion
Which would you rather have:
$10,000 dollars every day for the next twenty days
1 $ that doubles its cumulative value each day for twenty days?
Let me explain...... (1$ each day is worth more).
It is easy to think “I could never be a great preacher so there is no point my making any effort to talk about God. What difference could I make?”
That’s wrong.....just as the $1 that kept doubling grew bigger than the $10,000 every day, so too if we all just brought one friend to Jesus each year, and helped them to bring one of their friends the next year, we would see huge numbers of young people coming to Jesus.
Activity: Have someonepop 2 bags of popcorn for you and bring them in. Open the 1 bag and start eating it in front of everyone – talk about how delicious it is and how much you love popcorn and go on and on about how wonderful it is. Finally decide to share it with one of the Teen groups and ask them to tell you what they think of the flavour and have them go on and on about how good it is.
Then ask the question to the group that didn’t get any – How do you feel when someone holds back something that is really really good? When we don’t share the good news of Jesus, it’s like holding back something really really good. Go ahead and share the 2nd bag with the group that didn’t get any.
Video - optional
Here’s a clip from the video:Nicky’s Gumble’s Story
Start cue: Nicky told the story of when he went to the dance.
End cue: Nicky staggered off with all he books in his pockets.
Think about it......
Could you commit to doing one of the following:
- Ask a friend to a youth event
- Pray for a friend
- Make an effort to befriend a lonely person at school
- Tell somebody the story of how you became a Christian
It’s important that you….
- Never give up
- We might never know the effect of something that we have said or done, but God will use our lives and our words if we trust him!!
Video
Here’s a clip from the video:John Q
Start cue: Where the fax comes in and the doctor realized he has a match
End cue: Where John turns off the walkie talkie and puts the gun to his head for the 2nd time and pulls the trigger. Turn it off before they can see what happens – leave them hanging.
Video Message: What’s the message in this video?
We can’t turn God off otherwise we won’t get the good news.
Communication can mean life and death.
Bow your heads and May we pray...... Heavenly Father I ask that you would provide opportunities for me to speak about you. Oh that you would give me boldness to speak with confidence to others about you. Help me to trust you and be open to all that you would have me do in your precious name, Amen.
Youth Alpha Lesson 8 – How & Why Should I Tell Others?
Small Group Discussion Questions
- If you did not know anything at all about Christianity, how would you like to find out about it?
- If somebody was going to tell you about it, what would be the best thing that they could say?
- Do your family or your school friends know that you come to Youth Alpha or to church? What do they think about it?
- How do you feel about the idea of telling others or encouraging them to have a relationship with God?
- What would you say to someone who says that Christianity is a private matter?
- How can we be better prepared to handle difficult questions about Christianity?
- What are some of the ways that you can bring people to Jesus?
- How should we respond when we get negative reactions when we tell others about Christianity?
Debriefing: After Youth Alpha is over.
How did this week go?
Who can wepray for?