Lesson Plan for September 16

Lesson Plan for September 16

Prayer

Intro:

So Houston asked me to teach class this morning, but let me start by saying that I am not an expert in this field by any means. In fact, it was only like 2 or 3 years ago that I was sitting in the exact same place that you were.

So Houston asked me to teach about basically anything I wanted to, but he mentioned Adolescent Spiritual Formation- which is the title of this class, right?

Well I have had the opportunity to be involved in a couple of different internships, and this is something that I want to do when I graduate for sure. However, I don’t really know what tell y’all about adolescent spiritual formation. I don’t think that I am equipped or trained enough in that area to take that on- so I’ll save that for Houston.

So instead of trying to teach y’all something about adolescent spiritual formation, or instead of just getting up here and speaking to you all for a long time about my own experience with students and adolescents, I thought we would spend some time talking about and practicing one of my favorite things- prayer.

Prayer is something that has become increasingly interesting to me over the past 3 years or so. I don’t know how it started exactly, but I heard someone saying a prayer in church or somewhere, and I thought, “Interesting- I’ve never used those words in my prayer.” So then I started thinking about the words we use when we prayer. And I asked, why do we say the things we say when we pray? Why do we pray? Who are we praying to? What are praying for? Are we talking, or are we listening? Are we asking for things? If so, what are we asking for?

So I got into pray more and more, and I started to read anything and everything I could about it. And I would choose prayer as my topic for any classes and papers that I could. And I even taught lessons over prayer- some of you have probably heard me talk about it or teach it.

I was, and still am, so interested in prayer and praying. However, even though I was studying it and reading about it all the time, I wasn’t, and still am not, practicing it as often as I should.

I don’t want to assume this, but can y’all relate to this too? Maybe not. Maybe you all have great prayer-lives. Mine, however, wasn’t and isn’t still. I think that because I was reading and studying prayer so much, I justified not having my own time for prayer. But God doesn’t call us to that, does he? God calls us to a prayer-life that is constant- one that is without ceasing, right? And hear me say that it is still a struggle for me.

So today I thought that we could spend some time praying, in a couple of different ways. This will give us all a chance to spend some more time in this important discipline. And we are going to talk about how these different practices fit in, or don’t, with adolescents.

Fixed Hour Prayer: (3-4 minutes)

You practiced this throughout the week, right? How did that go?

How could you use this with teenagers?

What would work? What would not work?

Breath Prayers: (5-7 minutes)

Okay now, we’re going to spend some time talking about breath prayers.

Does anyone know what breath prayers are?

You take a short phrase or verse or sentence such as:

Lord Jesus- have mercy on me, a sinner.

My God, and my all.

Bless the Lord, oh my soul.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

Closely connected to these are rope prayers

Take a couple of minutes and practice that now.

Okay now bring it back. How was that experience?

How could you use this with teenagers?

What would work or not work about this?

Intercessory Prayer: (5-7 minutes)

Split up into your groups.

Now, I want to pray in a specific way.

Story about the sweat lodge. Praying in rounds- 4 rounds- starting broad, and then getting narrower and narrower.

I want y’all to spend some time in your groups praying in these ways.

Okay, now bring it back. Tell me about this experience. What could work with teenagers? What wouldn’t? What would you change about it?

Prayer Walking: (5-10 minutes)

Okay now we’re going to do something a little differently. Now we’re going to practice something called prayer walking. Take some time, and just walk around outside, or in the halls, and prayer while you walk. Pray over your classes, other students and classes, over the school. Pray about the weather and thank God for it. Be back here at ____.

Now let’s process this one. What worked? What wouldn’t for teenagers?

Liturgical Prayer/Praying the Scripture: (5-7 minutes)

So the last form of prayer that I want to practice is saying the Lord’s Prayer. If you go to Highland, you do this every Sunday morning. But this is the example of prayer that we are given in scripture, right?

So I’m going to ask y’all to read it with me- it’s up on the screen.

Let’s process this one. What would work with a group of teenagers? What wouldn’t work with teenagers?

Alright well now you spend time in your groups talking about what you need to in order to get done.