Week 1 - Struggling to Obey

Teachers, thank you for your willingness to help with Truth Group for another school year! You are the backbone of this ministry—without your effort each week, we wouldn’t be able to reach kids in this way.

At the beginning of the year, we have an opportunity to improve our relationships with the kids/their families and to make us more effective in the moment. I have some big ideas for new things we can try this year, but I’m going to wait until we can have a Teachers Meeting to discuss them with you:

I’d like to us workers to have plans for the transition times. At the beginning, end, and in between activities are when the kids usually cause trouble—and I think we miss opportunities to teach them. Be thinking through some ideas of how we can help the kids 1) the moment they arrive at church and sit in the auditorium, 2) return to class after game time, 3) respond to the invitation or head to table time, and 4) head to the bus/van or their parents during dismissal.
I’d like to initiate conversations with the families of our bus kids. Each of them is an access point into our community—and their families are probably the best contacts that we have to share the gospel, disciple in Christ, and grow our church. It would be wonderful if we workers could divide up the families and try to reach out to each group at least once this year. Of course this would require effort outside of Wednesday nights—and I’d like your feedback on that as well.
I’d like to grow our group of workers and substitutes. Both Kim and Lucie will be giving birth this year; Kent and Graham will be harvesting; and sickness/unexpected situations often arise. Depending on the week, we can run Truth Group with 4-5 teachers, but it is much nicer to have 8-10 (including the 4-5 year-olds). As we train more workers, it will be easier to have weeks that you can take off, and eventually, if God leads you to step away from this ministry, we will have people ready to take your place. Please be thinking about people that we could ask to help in this way.
Finally, I’d like to focus on helping the boys in particular. Table time has been a tremendous chance to drive home the things that we’re teaching during the lessons—and the format works especially well for the girls. The boys, on the other hand, are often stir-crazy after a long day of school. Starting this week, I’m going to lead the boys’ “Table Time” as “man-training” to encourage spiritual growth in a masculine way. We’ll focus in on the lesson of the night but supplement the thinking/learning with some physical activity and creative problem-solving. It’ll probably be a little rusty at first, but I think, Lord-willing, this can help these boys many of whose lives have no good male examples.

Week 1 Schedule of Activities

Registration in the lobby (starting 6:45)
Songs in the Auditorium
Introduction for the year - rules, points, and kids’ songs
Special Story (dismiss Tiny Trackers)
Game Time (7:25 PM)
Restroom Break & Trivia (7:40 PM)
Bible Lesson (7:45 PM)
Table Time (8:00 PM)
Dismissal (8:15 PM)

Theme of the Night

When it’s tricky to obey, God will help you find the way!

By the end of the night, the kids should understand the concept of Authorities (like teachers, parents, and God) and that they are responsible to obey them whether they want to or not.

Scripture Spies (1st-3rd Grade) Memory Verse - Ephesians 6:1 - “Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”

Faith Force (4th-6th Grade) Memory Verse - 1 Peter 2:13 - “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake.”

Special Story - led by Lucie Knight

For the special story time, Lucie can choose from two of the options that our curriculum provides:

She can tell a story, in which two children learn the different parts of obedience with their parents.
She can do an object lesson, where she can explain how the parts of a kite are like a relationship of a child to their parents.

Game Time — Squashball

Outside, we are going to play squashball—a version of baseball with only one base and a funny-looking ball.

Squashball has two teams. One team bats and the other team is in the outfield. I will pitch the ball, and if the player hits it at all, they can run to the one base (which is also a kiddy-pool). The other team much catch the ball, tag the player with the ball (while holding it), or touch the base while holding the ball before the player gets there in order to get the player out. After 2 outs, we will change which team is batting. If a player can run to the base and back to the home plate, he scores a point.

In Squashball, there is no limit to the number of players who can stand on the base. I will need several Teachers to help the teams by keeping kids from touching each other in line and helping to encourage those in the outfield to play well.

After each team gets to bat at least twice, the game will be over. Those who scored the most runs win!

Bible Story - God Tests Abraham - Genesis 22:1-19

Do you know what authority is? I’m going to show you different pictures and you need to give me a thumbs up if it’s a real authority or a fake authority.

Visual 1 - Show pictures of parents, football player, friends, teachers, a guy on TV, a Bible, and a slide that says “God.”

Read full Lesson

Our Bible lesson today is in Genesis 22. This story is from God’s Word, the Bible, which tells us the true story of everyone in the world! The book of Genesis gives us the beginning stories, and in it, God spoke to a man named Abraham and told him that one day, someone from his family would bless the whole world! The problem was, he didn’t have a family because he didn’t have any kids. Finally, when he was 100 years old, God answered their prayer. He said they’d have a son, and one day, someone from Isaac’s family would bless the whole world.

Visual 2 - Show illustration of Abraham and Isaac.

God gave them a precious boy they named Isaac. Isaac grew to be a strong, healthy boy. When Abraham saw Isaac, he was reminded that God gave their family a great gift. Abraham trusted and obeyed God. One time, God tested Abraham’s obedience. God spoke to Abraham and told him to do something that could possibly cause him to lose his precious son, Isaac. God said, “Take your son and sacrifice him on Mount Moriah.” Sacrificing was a way that God had told the first people in the world to worship Him. But usually they sacrificed animals like sheep. God had never told anyone to sacrifice a person before.

Abraham didn’t understand what God had planned. How would you have responded to God telling you to do this very weird thing?

Abraham didn’t understand, but he believed God’s promise that Isaac’s family would bless the whole world. So that meant that Isaac had to live and get married and have kids!

Visual 3 - Show theme slide “When it’s tricky to obey, God will help you find the way!”

So instead of disobeying God, Abraham obeyed God right away. The next day, he saddled his donkey with wood and all the supplies he would need to obey God. He asked two servants to help him. Then, finally, he told his son Isaac to come as well. After three days they reached the mountain.

Visual 4 - Show picture of Mount Moriah

Isaac and Abraham went alone up the mountain. They took the wood, the knife, the rope, and the fire. But there was no animal to sacrifice. Isaac noticed this and said, “Father, behold the fire and wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering.”

Abraham replied, “God will supply a lamb for the offering.” Abraham trusted God would do the right thing, so Abraham kept obeying God. They walked up to the mountain, built the altar, and Isaac was bound and lay on the altar. Would Abraham sacrifice his son?

Visual 5 - Show illustration of Abraham sacrificing the ram

Abraham trusted God’s way was best, so he kept obeying God. Before he could sacrifice his son, God called out, “Abraham! Abraham! Do not sacrifice your son.”

Abraham stopped and obeyed God again. Then, Abraham saw a ram stuck in a bush. He had his son get down, and they sacrificed that ram to the Lord in praise to Him. Abraham obeyed God in all he was told, right away, for the Lord!

Visual 6 - Show theme slide “When it’s tricky to obey, God will help you find the way!”

God had a special plan for Abraham, and He has a special plan for you. He wants you to obey Him, and He wants you to obey your authorities. When we disobey, we’re actually telling God that we think His way isn’t the right one—we’re sinning against Him and it won’t turn out good in the end. Instead, we need to grow up and learn to “Submit yourselves . . . for the Lord’s sake” (1 Peter 2:13).

Table Time (Girls)

Teachers, feel free to adapt the table time to fit what you think your group needs. For the boys, I’m going to do a special “strength” exercise, teaching them that Strong Men will be strong enough to obey their leaders.

Group Activity: With your group, you could do a version of Simon Says, where you’ll say either “Authority says” or “Sin says.” When you say “Authority says,” the kids have to do the action, but when you say “Sin says,” the kids must not do the action. When kids mess up, they’re out.

Scripture Study: In 1 Samuel 15, God tells King Saul to do something that he doesn’t want to do. In the end, he is punished very severely. Summarize the story for your kids, then have them read or you paraphrase the following verses:

1 Samuel 15:19 - Samuel asks, “Why did you disobey?”
1 Samuel 15:20 - Saul says, “I didn’t disobey.”
1 Samuel 15:23 - Samuel says, “Disobeying is the same as all the other sin against God, like worshipping idols”
1 Samuel 15:26 - “Samuel says, “Because you rejected God as the leader, God has rejected you as the king”

Prayer: Have the kids list some authorities in their lives, and then have a one of them pray for the authorities, with you praying afterward.