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Sharing your faith (and baptism)

A session exploring why we should share our faith and ways which we can do this in our modern world. This session also explores baptism

Suitable For Ages 11 upwards

Required: pens, paper, flip-chart, Saul study, Friends Season 10 DVD

Extra Files Needed (i.e. worksheets etc): Saul Study – click to download

Session Plan
Introduction: Tonight we will be looking at why we should be sharing our faith and how we can do this.

Part 1: Why should we share our faith?

Brainstorm:
Reasons why we should share our faith!
After this activity explain…

There are 3 main reasons

1 – Jesus tells us to!

Bible: Read Matthew 28: 16-20
Explain: Jesus doesn’t say, if you feel like it etc etc you can he says do it and he never said anything he didn’t mean!

2. Everyone has a build in need for Jesus

Bible: Read Mark: 2:15-17

Explain:
it’s all very well sitting in church talking about God but the people there don’t really need to hear it! However the people who don’t have Jesus do!

Bible:
Read John 4 – The Women at The Well

Explain: Explain to the group our individual built in need for Jesus and explain how we can try and fill it with other things, ask them what we can try and fill it with.

3 – It’s Good News!!!


Video Clip
: Friends Series 10 – The one with Princess Consuela – Start: Beginning up to: 1:28 then Start: 8:40 Finish: 9:41

Explain:
The third of these reasons is because it’s good news! Talk about the video clip, england winning football and how we’re always quick to share good news.

Which leads onto…

Part 2: How do I share my faith?

Brainstorm: Can you think of different ways of telling people about God and Jesus?

Group Task:
Look at Acts 9: 1 – 31 – Use the downloadable Saul Study

You may like to split your group into smaller groups to look at this

Say:
We’re going to look in detail at 3 ways which we can share our faith.

Way Number 1:
Being Different

Explain:
When we were looking at heaven we were talking about how Christians are called by God to be different to society.

Someone once said this ‘Peach the gospel at all times and if necessary use words’

Ask:
What do you think about this phrase? What do you think it means?

Can you think of things in our lifestyles that should be different to non-Christians?

Way Number 2:
Talking to people

Explain:
One way which Saul shared his faith was by talking to people about it to people, sometimes God will provide us opportunities

Sometimes we can be scared of not knowing what to say, we need to trust that God will provide us with the right words to say to people.

We can also provide opportunities ourselves, perhaps by wearing a WWJD bracelet because people will ask what it means, it’s a chance to share our faith, we might also have something like a fish badge on our ties at school or on our car or something!

Another way is to invite people to events!

Way Number 3:
Baptism

One way of sharing our faith in a very physical way is by being baptised, it’s a really powerful mark of someones faith, but the question is really ‘Why would I want to get soaked? Does it really mean anything?’

Why
– If we look at the bible Jesus commands us to be baptised by both water and in the spirit,

Bible: Matthew 28:18-20

If we read through acts we read that Saul got baptised to show that he was a Christian and it was the norm in the early church.

What does it mean?

Baptism identifies us with Jesus who died and was buried, so when we’re underwater it signifies that we die with Christ then us being bought back up from the water symbolises us having a new life like Christ had when he was raised. Romans 8 says: Read Romans 8

By being baptised it symbolises us dying to our old selves and committing to a new life through Jesus where we will try to follow him. It symbolises us being made clean from all our sins ready to start a-new!

Being baptised is a really good way of inviting friends to Church, for example if your in a band your friends will want to come and see it, Baptism is a bit like that, it’s a good chance to invite friends and show them what your faith it about, it might even start them questioning what they believe (if anything!).

Remember:
Sometimes sharing our faith doesn’t go the way we’d like it, sometimes people will reject it, maybe even stop being friends with us because of it but this is expected, Jesus tells us that being a Christian isn’t easy, that we may be persecuted or even killed for following him but he gives us that promise of eternal life.

Conclusion


Explain:
Sometimes it can be easy to be in the routine of Church, for it to just be something that happens, like school or sleep or work but we need to remember that it’s something so much more important!

Challenge: Close your eyes and think about Jesus on the cross, that he gave his life for you, so that you can have eternal life in heaven. Etc

You might like to pray to close