Big Idea: Offering a biblical foundation to answer what God had in mind when he created us male and female.  It was a great conversation.  In big group and in our small groups.  We launched out with the trailer from “the God’s must be Crazy“.  To suggest that  many approach the idea of sex the same way natives do in the bush because they don’t know what a bottle dropped from the sky.

The reality of not understanding why God created sex causes much confusion as we live our lives.  On track taken, and seemed to resonant with the students…they are simply animals who are just doing what comes naturally. The culture has sold a very confusing and incomplete message of what sex and intimacy mean.  You can download the notes from this week’s lesson here. There was lots of interesting buzz and conversation all through the teaching time.

Small Groups: the students were really engaged (imagine) in the discussion.  in all the groups, lots of basic questions were asked.  we found that interesting as some questions one would have thought would have been answered in school heath classes. Even in a society that prides itself on “sexaul awareness” many still are not taught basic concepts. Lots of ground was covered and all small group leaders shared that the conversation moved to a more revealing and encouraging way.

One student shared in an email after youth group…

Church made me realize ALOT tonight.

think some good stuff is happening.next week the topic will be “What went wrong?”

we a larger number in attendance, we’re tight for space with big group games, but we still leveraged a creative idea from youth leader stash.

Lesson Topic: it was good to be back in small groups and walking through our theme Finders Keepers: a focus on three stories Jesus told (Luke 15) to help us understand his passion for restoring our broken relationship with God – the lost sheep-the lost coin and the lost son.

We talked about how Jesus used parables as a powerful teaching strategy to communicate spiritual truths. In these three stories, Jesus revealed his compassion for those who are separated from God because of their sin (the lost), and showing the lengths he goes to in order to find them, and the joy he experiences when they’re found. We also talked about what it means to repent, and how God is always available to forgive and restore.

Here are some questions that reflect the discussion in our small group session:
Jesus was telling these parables to help us understand God’s heart those people who are still “lost” to him—how is your heart toward “lost” people similar to or different from God’s heart toward them? If someone has sought forgiveness for the same thing 500 times, did that person really repent?

What do you think?

How can you help a new Christian grow spiritually and develop a stronger friendship with Jesus?

We wrapped up the night with this video to help drive home the point  of living out this mission of compassion with Jesus.

Attendance: We had a few new faces.

Volunteer Involvement: we were missing a few….Small group leaders shared that they all had a great time. Really good conversation.

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