Discipleship Series: Called and Equipped by Clayton Imoo

This Youth Ministry Access session is provided by the Center for Ministry Development. To learn about Youth Ministry Access and resources like these, please visit us online at www.YouthMinistryAccess.org or email Angel Barrera at [email protected].

Discipleship Series: Called and Equipped By Clayton Imoo

Purpose In this session, participants will be encouraged to become better witnesses for Jesus by living lives of truth. As well, participants will be invited to share their gifts with the world; no matter how unprepared or unqualified they may feel.

This session is the final installment of a four-part series themed on discipleship based on Building Blocks of Faith by Laura Keeley and Robert J Keeley: ‘I Belong’, ‘I Understand/Know’, ‘I Have Hope’, and ‘I am Called and Equipped’.

Component: Evangelization

Session at a Glance 7:00 p.m. Welcome and Opening Prayer 7:08 p.m. Community Builder: 2 Truths and a Lie 7:20 p.m. Video: Telling the Truth 7:25 p.m. Presentation: Being a Witness 7:40 p.m. Small Group Discussion: Truth & Witnessing 7:55 p.m. Presentation: Called and Equipped 8:05 p.m. Closing Prayer 8:20 p.m. Announcements and Refreshments

Materials Needed ● Bible ● Audio & Visual equipment: ○ Computer ○ LCD projector ○ Projection screen ○ MP3/CD player and speakers ● Resource 1, Small Group Discussion Guide, one per small group ● Internet access to YouTube videos: ○ “Telling the Truth” by Outside Da Box ■ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3ctq4Zu8qc ○ “Lose My Soul” by TobyMac: ■ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coHKdhAZ9hU ○ “Fish with Me” by Ken Canedo ■ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RCfTPgkDEo

Discipleship Series: Called and Equipped Copyright © Center for Ministry Development, 2016. www.YouthMinistryAccess.org. All Rights Reserved. Page 1 Prepare in Advance 1. Watch the Telling the Truth video to familiarize yourself with it. 2. Watch/listen to Lose My Soul to familiarize yourself with it. 3. Queue the Telling the Truth video. 4. Familiarize yourself with some of the examples in the Called and Equipped section. 5. For the closing prayer, consider having a musician play and lead the group in the song “Fish With Me.” Have lyrics ready if possible. 6. Assign a young person to read the Scripture for the closing prayer.

Session Outline Welcome and Opening Prayer (8 minutes) Welcome and greet the young people as they enter the room. Have the youth ministry leaders attentive to anyone who is new or seems shy. Introduce new teens to the entire group.

Ask one of the youth ministry leaders to proclaim John 14:1-7 and then lead a spontaneous prayer offering up the session, the leaders, and the participants. Conclude by praying the Our Father together.

Community Builder: 2 Truths and a Lie (12 minutes) This community builder will have participants learn a bit more about each other while introducing the concept of truth.

Have the participants partner up (this will only be for a few minutes). Explain to everyone that they are each to come up with two true statements about their life and one lie. Ultimately, they will be sharing these three statements with the larger group, and the larger group will try to guess which one is the lie.

Remind participants that all three statements should be quite distinct from one another to make the game more fun and fair. For example, bad clues would be “I’ve attended 7 concerts, I’ve attended 8 concerts, I’ve attended 9 concerts.” A better offering would be: “I’ve attended 9 concerts, I’ve grown my hair down to my waist, and I can speak 4 different languages.”

Have the participants work in partners for three or four minutes so they can practice their delivery. Then, bring everyone together in the large group and ask for volunteers to share their two truths and a lie.

Make sure the keep the activity moving quickly and don’t let the group get caught up or bogged down on technicalities. The goal is to have as many participants share as possible.

Discipleship Series: Called and Equipped Copyright © Center for Ministry Development, 2016. www.YouthMinistryAccess.org. All Rights Reserved. Page 2 Video: Telling the Truth (5 minutes) Introduce the video by saying it’s an interview with writer/director Andrew Hyatt, whose new film “Full of Grace” about our Blessed Mother came out in late 2015.

Show the video “Telling the Truth” by Outside da Box at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3ctq4Zu8qc

Presentation: Being a Witness (15 minutes) Lead a quick large group discussion with the participants about the Telling the Truth video. Ask the participants what stood out to them.

Say to the participants:

In the video, Andrew speaks a lot about truth. He says things like:

 Your whole life is either a truth or a lie. You’re either living truth and a life in Christ or you’re living a lie that the world puts towards us; that life is about your own pursuits, your own dreams, and your own selfish ambitions.  How am I going to live a life of truth; one that reflects this truth that we’ve been given?  I want to put my talents and energy into something that is truthful, real, and something that hassomething to say.

One prominent way that we can live a life of truth is by being a witness for Jesus Christ. We heard in our opening prayer from John that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

Witnessing involves two parts. The first part is seeing something with your own eyes, like a car accident or someone stealing something. The second part of being a witness is going out and telling someone what you saw. Otherwise, no one else will know!

Ask the participants:

How is Jesus working in your life?

Are you reflecting Christ in the way you live your life?

Say to the participants:

I challenge myself to be a better witness all the time. I see God’s marvelous work in so many ways, whether it be in my family and friends, my relationships, my faith, or in youth ministry.

But how often do I tell others about these marvelous works? What about the people who don’t know God or who have a wavering belief ?

You can also tell people by not only what you say, but by what you do and who you are. Steven Covey, author of many famous books including “7 Habits of Highly

Discipleship Series: Called and Equipped Copyright © Center for Ministry Development, 2016. www.YouthMinistryAccess.org. All Rights Reserved. Page 3 Effective People” say that who we are communicates far more eloquently than what we say or what we do.

So, going back to the second part of witnessing, that is telling someone what you saw. Of course it’s nice to share our testimony directly with people.

But another way of “telling people” is by the way we live our lives. God gave us the freedom to make choices. Part of growing in discipleship and being a witness is making choices that glorify God.

With every decision we make, we have an opportunity to glorify God or to not glorify God. We become better disciples when we try and remember God in all of our choices, in everything we say, do and in who we are.

When we make choices that glorify God, when we share our God-given talents and gifts with others; that’s how we build up the Kingdom. That’s how we become witnesses.

Small Group Discussion: Truth and Witnessing (15 minutes) Have participants form small groups with at least one youth ministry leader in each group. Distribute a copy of Resource 1, Small Group Discussion Guide to each small group. The youth ministry leader will lead the small group discussion asking these questions:

 What does it mean to you to live a life of truth?  How important is it for you to live a life of truth?  How is Jesus working in your life?  Are you reflecting Christ in the way you live your life?

Presentation: Called and Equipped (10 minutes)

There will come times in our lives when we may feel unqualified or inadequate. Or maybe our self-confidence or self-esteem will be weak, or we might not think that we’re good enough.

But did you know that a lot of people in the Bible felt like that too? Many of them felt inadequate, unqualified, or unworthy.

Ask the participants if they can name any examples. Here are some they might suggest (feel free to expand on any of them and/or add your own):

 Peter had a temper, was  Thomas was a doubter uneducated, and denied Christ  Sara was impatient  David was a social outcast  Elijah was moody  Jonah ran from God  Moses stuttered  Paul was a murderer  Abraham was old  Gideon was insecure  Zacchaeus was too short  Miriam liked to gossip  Jeremiah thought he was too  Martha was a worrier young. Discipleship Series: Called and Equipped Copyright © Center for Ministry Development, 2016. www.YouthMinistryAccess.org. All Rights Reserved. Page 4 Say to the participants:

And don’t forget the teenage girl Mary. She was called to do what seemed impossible: to give birth to the Son of God.

So you can see that even some of God’s greatest servants had their doubts and their deficiencies.

God doesn’t call the qualified; He qualifies the called! What does this mean? It means that we should never say “God can never use me.”

God isn’t looking for the most talented or qualified people. When Jesus assembled his apostles, he didn’t look for the 12 most talented or well-educated people. Rather, he picked 12 people who had faith in him. They trusted Jesus to equip them and give them everything they needed to set the world on fire.

If we truly believe that God will qualify, equip, and love us, then we can believe that God will take care of us too. No matter how unqualified, unprepared, or inadequate we may feel.

The first verses from the book of the Prophet Jeremiah are very relevant to that. Jeremiah thought he was too young to go out and do God’s work but God assured him saying:

The word of the LORD came to me: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.

“Ah, Lord GOD!” I said, “I do not know how to speak. I am too young!” But the LORD answered me, Do not say, “I am too young.” To whomever I send you, you shall go; whatever I command you, you shall speak.

Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you—oracle of the LORD. Then the LORD extended his hand and touched my mouth, saying to me, See, I place my words in your mouth!

Today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, To uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant.

Closing Prayer (15 minutes) Gather Invite the youth to gather in a circle (remaining standing). Make the Sign of the Cross and have a youth ministry leader open up the prayer time by saying:

Heavenly Father, thank you for loving us and for blessing us with time together for this gathering. Help us to follow your Son Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. Make us better witnesses of your love and mercy so may lead others closer to You. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Listen Play the music video “Lose My Soul” by TobyMac at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coHKdhAZ9hU

Respond In the song, we just heard the singer TobyMac proclaim: “I don’t want to gain the whole world and lose my soul.”

This is similar to what director Andrew Hyatt shared in the video earlier about his struggles breaking into Hollywood. He came to the realization that he needed to be obedient to what God was calling him to do, as opposed to pursuing his own selfish ambitions.

Take a moment now to think of things that you can let go of; worldly things that might not necessarily lead you closer to Christ.

I invite you now to share aloud one way you will commit to being a better witness for Jesus. It could be a way in which you will share your faith with others, or perhaps it something that you want to let go of.

Allow for a few minutes of sharing.

Go Forth Sing the song “Fish with Me” by Ken Canedo at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RCfTPgkDEo

Announcements and Refreshments (10 minutes) Thank the young people for their participation in tonight’s session. Make any needed announcements about upcoming programs and activities. Invite everyone to enjoy some refreshments.

Websites and links in this session were successfully accessed on January 18, 2016.

This session was written by Clayton Imoo, Director of the Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Archdiocese of Vancouver, BC, Canada. Clay has 23 years of youth ministry experience and he has worked with youth and youth ministry leaders throughout North America as a speaker, presenter, facilitation, and trainer for CMD’s YouthLeader.

Truth and Witnessing Questions:  What does it mean to you to live a life of truth?  How important is it for you to live a life of truth?  How is Jesus working in your life?  Are you reflecting Christ in the way you live your life?