Equipment: pens, paper, laptop, projector, Fast Show Series 2, Episode 7 clip – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0_sj2hAb84, Acts studies (click to download), large paper

Overview: A one hour session aimed at 11-16’s exploring the idea of mission and how we can be representatives of Jesus everywhere we go. This session was part of a series led by various leaders. The previous session looked at Jesus’ mission…we don’t have this session available however you may wish to cover this with your group before using this session although it’s not essential.

Opening: In small groups write down all the places you go in the week. I.e. school, home, Scouts, the gym, orchestra.

Explain: Often we think of mission as something we go and do. We might go on a mission week to another country or we might have a special week of outreach and events in our village however as we’ve looked at already mission isn’t just this. Mission is something we should be doing all the time.

Jesus (as we thought about earlier today) spent all of his time on ‘mission’ and this session we’re going to think about how we can be on mission in our everyday lives wherever we go.

Ask: Has anyone ever asked you about your faith? What did they ask and what did you reply?

Explain: We might find we have chances everyday to tell people about our faith, not because we bring it up but because people ask about it and we need to think about how we communicate it in a way that is relevant.

Video: The Fast Show – Season 2 Episode 7 – Christian Policemen Sketch

Ask: The two policemen were trying really hard to tell the lady about Jesus. Did it work? Why?

Small Groups: – Split the young people into small groups and get them to do the study on the passage from Acts.

Feedback: Bring the group back together and feedback on the passage and questions.

Explain: The key thing for us is to make sure that we share our faith in a way that is irrelevant. It involves looking for what people need and often simply serving them not launching into the gospel message.

St Francis of Assisi once said ‘Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary use words’

Ask: What do you think of that quote?

Explain: Each of us, everyday has a great opportunity to share our faith, it may not use words, it may be about our actions and the way we treat people…and this may lead to using words.

Ideas Activity: For the last part of this session have 3/4 large sheets of paper around the room each with a big heading on…we used ‘School’, ‘Home’, ‘My clubs’, ‘Hanging with friends’.

Split the group into 4 and give each group 1 pen/pencil of the same colour each. Invite them as a group to spend a few minutes at each piece of paper writing down ideas of how to share faith with others.

After a few minutes move the groups onto the next paper (keeping the same coloured pen/pencil).

After all the groups have visited each of these papers bring everyone back together and look through the ideas. Are there things we can actually go and do? Do some require more planning?

Prayer: Finish the session with prayer