A session for the start of a new year, challenging young people to make a committment for the year and exploring why we should follow God

Suitable For Ages 11 upwards

Required: pens, paper, prepping young people to bring Christmas gifts, the attached studies and covenant prayer

Extra Files Needed (i.e. worksheets etc): Bible Studies and Covenant Prayer – click to download

Session Plan
New Year’s Revolution!

Preparation: In preparation for this session ask your young people to bring something with them they got for Christmas.

Ice Breaker: Assuming the Young People have bought their Christmas gifts along ask them to share with each other
1-What it is?
2-Who got it for them?
3-Why they like it? (if they do!)

Ask: Have any of you made any new years resolutions? Have you broken them yet?

Ask: Why do people make new years resolutions?
(Hopefully they should come up with things such as: new start, aims for themselves etc.)

Explain; Often we break our New Years Resolutions, our good intentions become forgotten and we can often forget about the goal we had originally hoped to achieve. However, we might break promises and let ourselves down but God doesn’t.

Read: 2 Corinthians 1:20 – NKJV – ‘For all the promises of God in Him are Yes and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us’

Activity: Split the group into two and give one group the first study and the other group the second, ask them to work through and be prepared to feedback to the rest of the group

Activity: Get the groups to come back and feedback to each other what they discovered they should catch on that God’s promises were fulfilled, if they don’t let them know!!!

Explain: When God makes a promise you can trust him to fulfil it, you might not expect it to happen the way it does but if you stick with it, it will surpass your wildest dreams!

Illustration: Ask for two volunteers, one will be blind folded the other will be given a piece of paper containing the location of a mars bar or something, the blind folded person must listen to the instructions of the other person in order to reach the mars bar. The blind folded person doesn’t know what the final ‘prize’ is however or what it will be like.

Explain: It’s a bit like that with God, we can sometimes feel like we’re blind folded, not knowing where we’re headed or what God has in mind, but if we listen out for God’s instructions eventually we will get good things, and in the very long term we’ll get to heaven!

Read: Philippians 3: 12-15

Explain: When Paul wrote this he was in prison almost certainly going to be sentenced to death but he clings onto God’s promises and seeks what God wants for him, knowing that even though it may be difficult at times he will, end up somewhere beyond his wildest dreams aka heaven!

Ask: Has God ever surprised you with something you never imagined?

Commitment Challenge

Hand out copies of the Covenant Prayer (see separated sheet)

Explain: The start of a new year is a great time to start things with God or even just decide to try to get to know him better and serve him with everything.

‘Love the Lord your God with all you’re heart, soul, mind and strength’

Get the group to read through the Covenant Prayer

Ask: Ask the group what they think it means to serve God with everything?

Response: Here you could make some committment cards for the young people or ask them to sign the bottom of the covenant prayer as a way of committing to God themselves

Prayer pray for God to help with the committment, to help the young people to focus on him and to continue to bring the young people closer to him