I Lead Youth

Introduction

These worship suggestions are tied to the theme of calling. God is calling you. God is calling me. What does that look like, feel like? What difference will God’s calling make in our lives? Provide a time in your service to listen for God’s call.

You certainly don’t have to follow this theme. Or even if you do follow the theme, you don’t have to provide such a time. However, you should think about what these lessons have in common as you prepare.

In selected lessons, you might choose to invite guests, use special places, or create lists and make notes. Some of these things might not be arranged at a moment’s notice; so if these suggestions appeal to you, take early steps to prepare.

Extraordinary NT People

Mary

How old was Mary when the angel visited?

It is easy to think of God calling on adults. God called Paul, Moses, Abraham, and Ruth. They were all adults.

But what of David who, when he was but a boy, smote Goliath? What of the young boy Samuel, who God visited? Or what of Mary, who as a teenager was called on to be the mother of Jesus? Or you?

Have a silent time in your worship when you can listen. Listen for God’s call to you. Are you ready? Talk as a group about what you can do together to provide opportunity to listen for God’s call. What can you do for one another to support one another in response to what you have learned God is calling you to do?

Hymn Suggestions:

Canticle of Mary
Children of the Heavenly Father
Holy Spirit, Come to Us
God Claims You
Walk With Me

Mary and Martha

Provide a time in your service to listen for God’s call.

Everyone will need an index card or paper to write on and something to write with.

Like Martha, if we had a friend in Jesus, we could declare, “Had you been here you could have saved him.” And as the song “What a Friend We Have in Jesus says, we can count on him to bear our sin and our pain.

At the beginning of the service, write at the top of your paper answers to the following questions:

What it is like to be removed from God?

What happens to your pain? How do you bear it?

What happens to your sin?

Where does your life go when you sin?

Reread John 11: 21 aloud and/or sing the first stanza of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus"
Now at the bottom of the paper write your answers to the following questions:

What it is like to know that you have a friend in Jesus?

What would you ask of your friend Jesus?

Fold your papers and make them an offering to God. Close with prayer
Hymn Suggestions:

What a Friend We Have in Jesus
He Looked Beyond My Fault
Close to Thee
People Need the Lord
Holy
His Eye Is on the Sparrow

Mary Magdalene

Provide a time in your service to listen for God’s call.

He lives.

We can only imagine the grief and anguish the early followers had when Jesus was killed. It was an end of the love they had shared day after day. Many had left jobs and family to follow a future that was now dead. It was the end of miracles, of sermons, of witnessing what must have been truly amazing.

Then here came the woman saying, “He lives.”

In worship today, focus on transformation: Light to dark. grief to joy, dismay to hope. Start your time in the dark and in silence. End your time in the light, singing the chorus of “He Lives.”
Hymn Suggestions:

He Lives
Come, Christians, Join to Sing
Easter People, Raise Your Voices
Blest Are They

Barnabas

Provide a time in your service to listen for God’s call.

How do you talk of ministry in your church? When you think of who does ministry, do you focus on the preachers and people who lead?

Let us make this service one of discovery. Let’s find Barnabas.

“Barnabas” will not always be up front. He or she may be working quietly. He or she may be in the background. What we want to know is what these Barnabases are doing!

Find a way to tell stories of outreach and concern, sharing and caring in your congregation, among your family and friends. Perhaps make a chart.

Offer up a prayer in support of each person served and of each person in service. You could do it as a litany:

A Group Member: I know this couple in our church who volunteer for the homeless shelter.

All: Lord, we ask your love for the homeless and your grace for those who serve them.

A Group Member: There are some people in our church who take communion to homebound persons each month.

All: Lord, we ask your love for homebound persons and your grace for those who serve them.

Hymn Suggestions:

Gather Us In
Sacred the Body
We Are Called
In Christ There Is no East or West
I Surrender All
I Am the Church

Priscilla and Aquila

Provide a time in your service to listen for God’s call.

“They took him aside and explained the Way of God to him more accurately.”

This week we focus on tentmakers in ministry. You might conduct this service in a tent.

It is story time again. Who are the tentmakers in your congregation? Invite one or two of them to your service. Tell them what you are doing, and ask him or her to tell personal faith journeys. In particular, ask him or her to comment on why he or she chose to be a tentmaker and had not
Hymn Suggestions:

Come, Rejoice in God
I’m Gonna Live So God Can Use Me
Sanctuary
Where He Leads Me
I Can Hear My Savior Calling

Timothy

Provide a time in your service to listen for God’s call.

Who me?

Ask a pastor to join your worship. Tell him or her what your group is doing. Ask him or her to tell his or her faith journey. In particular, ask why he or she chose the ministry and not some other occupation.

Option: Most churches have an altar in the sanctuary. If the group is small enough, get permission to meet in this area so that you can have a pastor’s point of view. At some point in the service, invite each person to go to the pulpit some time in the coming week and “try it on for size.” (This can be done in private; it does not have to be done while the group is meeting.) How does it feel to be in the pulpit? Is this the place for you? Does God meet you there?

Hymn Suggestions:

Love the Lord Your God
Make Me a Channel of Your Peace
Together We Serve
Higher Ground

Onesimus

Provide a time in your service to listen for God’s call.

Conduct this service in a house. If possible, include a meal. Share Communion using common, ordinary household utensils, (don’t bring the official items from church, please), a loaf of bread, and grape juice. Be sure to have a time for joys and concerns. Lift up those in need or prayer, support, thanksgiving, and celebration.

We are called to be the church. What if this were our church, and the people here were the only church members? Where would we go from here? Would we worship every day? each week? Who would lead? What would he or she do? What ministries would we perform?

Hymn Suggestions:

The Family Prayer Song
Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying
Take Our Bread
Now Let Us From This Table Raise
The Church Is One Foundation
I Come With Joy

| |