Fusion 4:12 Summary- October 23, 2013

Parents! We have wrapped up our talk on 1 Timothy 4:12 and are in-between series currently. Between most series I try to do something I call Q&A. This is a time for the students to ask whatever questions they might have about faith, God, the church, etc. I tell them that I, of course, don't know everything, but that I will try my best to give them biblically correct answers. For questions that I don't know the answers to, I encourage the students to write the questions down on cards we provide so that I can remember the question and do some study on it later. This has always been a popular night for the students and we always get some GREAT questions. I always look forward to these nights.

Next week, we will be starting our talk on Dating. This will be a 3 week talk on the book, Dateable. I highly recommend this book for any and all of your students. It encourages wise decision making and boundaries when in a dating relationship. The format for this series goes as follows: Week 1- I teach a lesson with a brief overview of the book, Wk 2- Kelly and I (along with the sponsors), split the students up into guy/girl groups and have the guys with me and the girls with Kelly, Wk 3- Same as wk 2 except we have switch the guys and gals to give them a dating perspective "from the other side". This was a super successful series when we did it almost 3 years ago and hope it will be even better this time around!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Fusion 4:12 Summary, October 9th, 2013

Parents!

Tonight we talk about that thing that every youth minister dreads, sexual purity. It is what's next in Paul's commands to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:12. Paul commands Timothy to be an example in purity (more specifically the Greek word used here is chastity), so tonight we will be discussing what that actually looks like. I will give a brief intro to our discussion topic and then we will break the students up into guys and girls and will have more of a discussion with the students. Brandy Wert will be leading the discussion for the girls along with the other female sponsors and I will be leading the discussion with the guys along with the other male sponsors.

We will center in 3 texts:
1 Corinthians 6:18
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
Matthew 5:28

Our discussion will be guided by questions that I have written about these verses as well as about today's society. Please fell free look over them and discuss them with your teens when they get home.

My goal in this discussion is two fold: 1) to get the students to understand why Paul would command Timothy to do this and 2) why God is worried about our sexual purity. I want them to see that God is not simply denying us "fun", but instead is trying to prevent us from hurting ourselves and others.

Here are the questions we will be discussing tonight in our groups:

Purity Discussion Guide

Why do you think sexual purity is such a big deal to Paul that he would include it as one of the 5 areas of life he teaches Timothy to be an example in?

How do you think today’s society would react to Paul’s command? Why?

-         What are some of the things that our society (entertainment, media, friends) says about sexual sin/purity?

What does 1 Thessalonians 5:3-5 say about how we are to act? According to this verse, why are we to do so?

-         Why would God want us to stand out from society in this kind of way?

According to 1 Corinthians 6:18, why is sexual sin such a big deal?

-         What are some of the consequences of sexual sin that make it stand out from other sins?

According to Matthew 5:28, what else is included in ways that we should be sexually pure?

-         What all does this include?

Is God simply stopping us from “enjoying ourselves” as the world would say, or is there a bigger reason that 

He commands us to be sexually pure?

Now why do you think commanding Timothy about be an example in sexual purity was such a big deal to Paul?

Fusion 4:12 Summary, October 1st

Hola Parents!

We are still in our discussion over 1 Timothy 4:12. This weeks lesson is about how to be an example in your faith. We will be centering in James 2:20-24 and talking about the connection between faith and deeds. We will stress to the students that you don't get faith by your deeds, but that your deeds should be a product of your faith. We will end by challenging your students to look at what parts of their life they are lacking faith in and asking God to help them be stronger in their faith.

These are the discussion questions that your students will go over tonight:

How would you define faith?

What do you think someone who is not a believer thinks faith means?

What do you think Paul means when he tells Timothy to be an example in his faith? 

Does this mean that we can save ourselves?

How does living faithfully relate to fitting in with our culture?

Is there such a thing as having fake “faithful actions”? How?

Read Matthew 9:20-24- If we struggle with genuine, heartfelt faith, is there a way that we can overcome this? How?