Scaffolding

Our true life is not this external, material life that passes before our eyes here on earth, but the inner life of our spirit, for which the visible life serves only as a scaffolding—a necessary aid to our spiritual growth.

Seeing before him an enormously high and elaborately constructed scaffolding, while the building itself only just shows above its foundations, man is apt to make the mistake of attaching more importance to the scaffolding than to the building for whose sake the former has been temporarily put up.

We must remind ourselves and one another that the scaffolding has no meaning and importance except to render possible the erection of the building itself.

Author: Leo Tolstoy

True or False

Materials
Index cards or pieces of paper and pens or pencils

Icebreaker Description
In this icebreaker / crowdbreaker, youth will try to separate the fact from the fiction as they share 3 true statements and one false statement about themselves.

Preparation
None

Icebreaker Activity

  1. Let each person write four statements about them selves on the index card. (They can be in any order, but three must be true, and one must be false.) People should be encouraged to make the false statement sound plausible to make it more fun. The false statement can also be something true about someone else in the group in order to mislead the group about the author’s identity.
  2. The cards are then distributed randomly to the participants.
  3. As each person receives a card they read the statements out to the group. The group tries to decide which statement is false and the identity of the person who wrote it.
  4. Once they guess the correct person, the next person reads his or her card until all cards are completed.

Optional Debrief

  • What is truth?
  • Is there such a thing as absolute truths or are all truth relative?
  • How do you determine the truth of something?
  • How can you validate whether someone’s claims are true or false?

Conclusion
Jesus made many claims about who he was. The Holy Spirit testified to his identity at his baptism. He also asked his disciples who they thought he was. Many people claim different things but not all are telling the truth. While Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, his identity was also verified by those who knew him. His character reflected who he was. Ultimately, he proved he was the Son of God when he rose from the dead on the third day as promised.

Application
If people were to examine your life, would they find enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian? What evidence would they find? How can you a more Christlike life this week?

Scripture
Matthew 16:13-18; Mark 8:27-29; Luke 9:18-20

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Discipline

spiritual_leadership.jpg“A Spirit-filled leader will not shrink from facing up to difficult situations or persons, or from grasping the nettle when that is necessary. He will kindly and courageously administer rebuke when that is called for; or he will exercize necessary discipline when the interests of the Lord’s work demand it.” (73)

The spitual leader must deal promptly with potential causes of weakness (245)

Guidelines for Discipline (186-187)

  1. Action taken only after the most thorough and impartial inquiry
  2. Action taken only when it would be for overall good of the work or individual.
  3. Should always be in spirit of genuine love and conducted in the most considerate manner.
  4. Should always be with the spiritual help and restoration of the offender in view.
  5. It should be done only with much prayer.

Source: J.Oswald Sanders “Spiritual Leadership


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Biggest Smile

Materials
Cloth measuring tape

Icebreaker Description
In this icebreaker / crowdbreaker, youth will make the biggest smile they can.

Preparation
None

Icebreaker Activity

  1. As everyone arrives, inform them you are having a “smiling contest”.
  2. Each person puts on the broadest grin he possibly can.
  3. Using a cloth measuring tape, since it will have to be measured around the curve of the mouth, measure each person’s smile, deciding where the smile begins and where it ends.
  4. Give an award for the biggest smile on a guy and a girl

Optional Debrief

  • Do you smile a lot or rarely?
  • What are some of the things that make you smile?
  • Is it possible to smile when things are going badly? Why or why not?
  • Have you ever forced a smile? Why?
  • Do we only smile when things are going well or when something is funny?

Conclusion
A smile can mean a lot of things. It can be an encouragement, or a greeting. You can smile when something is funny, or when you are amused. A smile can be a gift. Smiles are contagious.

Application
Give a gift of a smile this week.Try smiling at everyone you meet this week. Some might think you a re a little crazy, but you will find others smiling back. You might even make a new friend. Someone who is depressed may find a little encouragement.

Scripture
1 Thes 5:11

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Moose Hunters

Two moose hunters are flown into a remote lake in Alaska. They have a good hunt, and both manage to get a large moose. When the plane returns to pick them up, the pilot looks at the animals and says, “This little plane won’t lift all of us, the equipment, and both of those animals. You’ll have to leave one. We’d never make it over the trees on the
take off.”

“That’s baloney”, says one of the hunters.

“Yeah,” the other agrees, “you’re just chicken: we came out here last year and got two moose and that pilot had some guts: He wasn’t afraid to take off!”

“Yeah”, said the first hunter, “and his plane wasn’t any bigger than yours!”

The pilot got angry, and said, “If he did it, then I can do it. I can fly as well as anybody!” They loaded up, taxied at full throttle, and the plane almost made it, but didn’t have the lift to clear the trees at the end of the lake. It clipped the tops, then flipped, then broke up, scattering the baggage, animal carcasses, and passengers all through the brush.

Still alive, but hurt and dazed, the pilot sat up, shook his head to clear it, and said, “Where are we?”

One of the hunters rolled out from being thrown into a bush, looked around, and said, “I’d say about a hundred yards further than last year.”

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Age

A man has reached middle age when he is cautioned to slow down by his doctor instead of by the police.

Middle age is having a choice of two temptations and choosing the one that will get you home earlier.

You know you’re into middle age when you realize that caution is the only thing you care to exercise.

I don’t date women my age. There aren’t any. (Milton Berle)

Don’t worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.

Don’t take life so seriously … it’s not permanent.

The trouble with life is, by the time you can read a girl like a book, your library card has expired. (M. Berle)

As for me, except for an occasional heart attack, I feel as young as I ever did. (Robert Benchley)

The aging process could be slowed down if it had to work its way through Congress.

As we grow older year by year, my husband always mourns: the less and less we feel our oats, the more we feel our corns.

I have everything I had 20 years ago, only it’s all a little bit lower. (Gypsy Rose Lee)

You’re getting old when getting lucky means you find your car in the parking lot.

You’re getting old when you’re sitting in a rocker and you can’t get it started.

You’re getting old when tying one on means fastening your MedicAlert bracelet.

You’re getting old when you don’t care where your wife goes, just so you don’t have to go along.

You’re getting old when you wake up with that morning-after feeling, and you didn’t do anything the night before.

Doctor to patient: I have good news and bad news– the good news is that you are not a hypochondriac.

It’s hard to be nostalgic when you can’t remember anything.

You know you’re getting old when you stop buying green bananas.

Last Will and Testament: Being of sound mind, I spent all my money.

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Two Penguins

A priest was driving down the freeway with two penguins sitting in the back seat of his car. A police officer pulled the priest over for speeding & upon seeing the penguins said to the priest “what do you think you’re doing with those penguins, take them to the zoo right away.” The officer then let the priest go with a warning. The next day the officer saw the priest drive by in his sedan with the penguins. The officer pulled the priest over & he saw that this time the penguins had sun glasses on. He said to the priest “I told you yesterday to take those penguins to the zoo.” The priest said “I took them to the zoo yesterday today we’re going to the beach.”

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The Road You Must Take

Discipleship is not limited to what you can understand – it must transcend all comprehension. Plunge into the deep waters beyond your own understanding, and I will help you to comprehend.

Bewilderment is the true comprehension. Not to know where you are going is the true knowledge. In this way Abraham went forth from his father, not knowing where he was going. That is the way of the cross. You cannot find it in yourself, so you must let me lead you as though you were a blind man.

Not the work which you choose, not the suffering you devise, but the road which is contrary to all that you choose or contrive or desire – that is the road you must take. It is to this path that I call you, and in this sense that you must be my disciple.

Source: Martin Luther (1483-1546), quoted in Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “The Cost of Discipleship.”

Family Tree

Materials
None

Icebreaker Description
In this icebreaker / crowdbreaker, youth will refer to each other by famous personalities in their fictional family trees

Preparation
None

Icebreaker Activity

  1. Form pairs of group members not related to each other.
  2. Then have each pair create a fictional family tree that shows how the partners really are long-lost relatives descended from a famous ancestor (real or fictional).
  3. Youth must explain to the entire group about their famous ancestors.
  4. During the rest of the meeting, have kids refer to each other by their famous ancestors’ names. For example, if a pair claims to have descended from Solomon, call them “the children of Solomon” or if from David, the “Mighty Men of David”.

Optional Debrief

  • Who are some of the people in your family tree?
  • Who are some of the people you wish you had in your family tree?
  • Have you ever done a genealogical study on your family tree? What interesting things did you discover?
  • Why is our family ancestry important?

Conclusion
Sometimes we think our lives are governed by our parents, by our ancestry, or by those in our family tree. But we each make our own choices. Our past does not have to determine our future. In Christ we are a new creation. We have a heavenly Father and we are his children. We can choose to live as children of God or we can choose to allow other things to take his place in our lives. We can choose to live as a child of God or live according to the flesh. Our ancestry is determines not by our blood, but by our relationship with the heavenly Father as children of God.

Application
What are some ways you can live as a child of God this week?
What are some areas of your past you need to overcome and choose to live as a child of God?

Scripture
Galatians 3:29, Ephesians 3:6, Romans 8:12-17
Genealogy of Jesus: Matthew 1:1-17, Luke 3:23-38

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This 170 page resource not only provides 52 of the world’s most popular group icebreaker activities and games, but also includes lesson ideas and discussion questions to smoothly transition into conversations about the issues common to most groups.

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