Project 2-4-2

I wanted to give a quick recap of “insideOUT” last night, and what we’ll be doing on Sunday nights leading up to summer camp at Snowbird… which will be the best summer camp ever!

We started off last night’s “talk” with me acting like a pumped up motivational speaker who was telling you how to grow a youth group. I started off with “Space!” If you want to grow a youth group you need to give the youth their own specific space. Then you need to fill it with fun and exciting things like televisions and game systems. Then I went on to “Communicate!” We’re about Jesus, and we need to effectively communicate that message. The problem is that too many youth ministers talk above their audience’s head… so if you want to grow a youth group, you need to “d.i.d”, or Dumb It Down!

The whole time I talked about this growth model I was trying to stay in character as the motivational speaker guy, but in reality I was being sarcastic. We have those things, and I can give those “d.i.d” type messages… but that will only grow the youth group without us having to depend on God.

From there we looked at Acts 2:42. This is what the first church looked like. They were devoted to 4 things: Knowing the Bible, Fellowship, Remembering the Cross, and Prayer.

After looking at those four things we continued reading that section of Acts and saw that through the early church’s dedication God added to their number day by day those who were being saved (v.37).

Then we finished with a challenge… what if we stripped away all the stuff that didn’t line up with Acts 2:42? What if we spent the time between now and camp being devoted to Knowing the Bible, Fellowship, Reflecting on the Cross, and Prayer? Do you think God might do something crazy? Do you think our numbers would increase, or decrease?

I know this is completely against most “growth models” for youth groups, but I think we should do it!

So here’s your homework – Think through those four things this week, and start brainstorming on what they look like for our youth group. Then next time we meet we’ll talk through this stuff.
Grab a blank piece of paper, write “Project 2-4-2 Brainstorm” at the top, divide the paper into 4 squares, and let each square represent one of the four things we’ll be devoted to. The key word here is “devoted.” We’re not trying to do this stuff as an afterthought… we want to be DEVOTED TO IT.

Only read the rest of this if you need help brainstorming.

Maybe “Knowing the Bible” means that we all study a book of the Bible together, but instead of just coming and listening to Jeff we all read it on our own throughout the week and then come together to discuss it. What did it mean to the original readers 2000 years ago? What does it mean to us? What areas of our lives need to change if really take it seriously? How can we be encouraged by what it says? Etc.

What are some other ideas on what “Knowing the Bible” could look like for our youth group?

Maybe “Fellowship” means that you grab a breakfast taco with a few people before school one day a week and have a “coffee-like” conversation where you share how you’re REALLY doing… the good things in your life AND the tough things in your life. Saying “I’m fine” is not an acceptable answer.

What else could we do for “Fellowship” as a youth group?

Maybe “Reflecting (remembering) the Cross” means that we put red rubber band on our wrist, and whenever we look at it, or mess with it, we take a second to thank God for sending his son to pay the penalty we deserved for our sins. Then when we “fellowship” we can talk about how thinking about the cross makes us feel… happy, sad, encouraged, or something else?

How else can we “Remember the Cross” as a youth group?

Maybe “Prayer” means we paint a section of a wall in the youth room with chalkboard paint and draw a big line down the middle of it. On one side we write “Prayers Asked” and on the other side we write “Prayers Answered.” Then we all pray for the things people need prayer about, and when one of those prayers is answered (and sometimes the answer might be “no”) we write it down and put a date next to it on the other side.

What else could we do to be devoted to “Prayer”?

There’s no wrong answer in a brainstorm, so use as much paper as you need.

Can’t wait to talk about this stuff.

You guys are awesome!