A session exploring the theme of social action and encouraging young people to take part in acts of kindness and social action alongside discussing what the bible has to say

Suitable For Ages 11 upwards (although projects are better for older teenagers to do)

Required: flip chart, DVD – Soul in the City, means of playing the DVD, Group Studies (linked on this page)

Extra Files Needed (i.e. worksheets etc): Group Studies – click to download

Session Plan

We Must Go – Social Action

Introduction: Tonight we’re going to think about the topic of social action

Brain Storm: What do you think social action is?

Explain: Social Action is a way for us to show the love of Jesus practically.

Ask:When did someone last do something nice for you? How did it make you feel? What was it?

Why Social Action?

Bible Study

Split the group into 2 give one group study 1 and the other study 2 (these are available to download at the top of this page)

Feedback: Get the 2 groups to feedback to each other what they found.

Explain: If God is love and God is in us then God’s love should flow from us. Jesus told us to love each other and through the example of Jesus we see Jesus serving people practically, he didn’t just talk about God’s love, he lived it!

DVD/Video Show the Soul in the City video, it’s around 25minutes and shows how Soul in the City worked and how the love of Jesus was openly shown. The Soul in the City DVD is available from Christian bookshops or the Soul Survivor website

Discussion: What did you think of that? How do you think it felt to go to a stranger’s door and mention Jesus? Do you find people are reluctant to listen to someone talking about Jesus?

Brainstorm: What sort of thing could you do as social action?

Explain: Social action doesn’t have to be a big project; it could be just about something small.

Brainstorm again: What could you do in your average day to show the love of Jesus?

Thought! Let’s think about Fairtrade and ethical trading, do you think these count as doing something in love for Jesus?

Group Project You may like to invite the group to think of projects they could undertake, from this you could then spend some time planning the project perhaps in following weeks, alternatively you could have tee’d up a project which you could introduce to them at this point. It might be good to have some project ideas before starting the session whichever approach you take

Prayer to close Ask God to help the group with projects and to help them serve Jesus through acts of kindness