XP3 Middle School Students Collide Session 3: Totaled Bottom Line: Nothing in your life will ever change unless you collide with God. Are you a safety boy/girl? Do you like the predictable? Do you like to know the outcome before you dive into something? Do you like to keep things the way they are—predictable? Isn’t that, well, a little boring? Maybe you need to collide with God. Maybe you need to place yourself in His path so that something in your life will change. It’s a collision that will leave you different than the status quo—and that’s a very good thing. CREATING THE ENVIRONMENT We believe that the set, stage, music and everything in your room communicates a message—without you saying a word. That’s why we put together a list of production ideas to help you set the stage for the session and the series. From the music you play when students come in to the room to the worship set your band plays, we want to make sure that your room conveys “Collide” in a multi-sensory way. There is a downloadable checklist available in your series downloads that will give you all the elements for this session (and the entire series). BACKGROUND PLAYLIST FOR THE “COLLIDE” SERIES: “A Beautiful Collision” by David Crowder Band (from A Collision (or 3+4=7)) “Lucky One” by Vertical Horizon (from Burning The Days) “Hello Seattle” by Owl City (from Ocean Eyes) “Closer to Love” by Mat Kearney (from City of Black & White) “Before We Come Undone” by Kris Allen (from Kris Allen) “Waiting for the End” by Linkin Park (from A Thousand Suns) “My Own Little World” by Matthew West (from The Story of Your Life) “The Sound of Sunshine” by Michael Frenti & Spearhead (from The Sound of Sunshine) “Halfway Gone” by Lifehouse (from Smoke & Mirrors) “Crashing Down” by Mat Kearney (from Nothing Left to Lose) “How In The World” by Family Force 5 (from Dance or Die) WORSHIP PLAYLIST FOR “COLLIDE” SESSION 3: “Awesome Is The Lord Most High” by Chris Tomlin (from See the Morning) “God Of This City” by Chris Tomlin (from Hello Love) “From The Inside Out” by Hillsong Live (from Mighty To Save, Live) “We Will Worship You” by Carlos Whittaker (from Ragamuffin Soul) THE SET: If possible, go to a local junkyard or auto body shop and ask to borrow some bumpers, dented doors, smashed headlights, etc. Place the items on both sides of the stage and if you are able, position the car as if it’s coming out from a wall behind you. And if you don’t have access to the smashed car pieces but you have some amazing artists around, then you may want to consider creating those pieces out of foam. For a backdrop, use a white piece of foam board or a white sheet and draw an outline of a person in the middle of the sheet, to appear as if someone ran into the wall. SERIES ART: Art for PowerPoint backgrounds and for series promotional ads is available as a free download with every series. Visit the XP3 website, log on to your account and download the images to use in your presentation, newsletters and website. VIDEO: There are four videos available for the Collide series—three video communicator videos and one bumper video. The three video communicator videos can be used in each session of this three-week series in place of a live communicator. The bumper video was created to be used as an intro for all three sessions of the Collide series. Collide Session 3: Totaled MIDDLE SCHOOL ADAPTATION The following activities and illustrations will help middle school students connect with the subject matter in ways that engage them physically, mentally, socially and sometimes emotionally. You can also adapt the Collide series for middle school students by using the teaching outline found in this document to edit the teaching script to a 20-minute presentation. In addition, by using the separate middle school small group dialog questions (found in the series downloads) that are geared specifically for 6th-8th graders, you can make each section more middle school friendly. SESSION 3 GAME: Y's and I's (Play this game as an icebreaker to Session 3.) To play this game, you will need a room or space that has boundaries and is open and uncluttered. You can use all your students to play this game. Select one person to be “it.” The person who is “it” is the “I” and everyone else are the “Y's.” The tagger raises his or her arms straight above their head to make his or her self into an “I” and everyone else puts their arms above their heads in the shape of a “Y.” The goal is to be one of the “Y's” at the end of the game. The goal of the “I” is to tag someone else so that they are no longer the “I” but one of the “Y's.” The “I” has to collide with the “Y's” and bump them with something other than his or her hands so that someone else is “it” and becomes the “I.” In this easy-to-learn game of tag, the “I” has to bump a “Y” (“bump” not tackle, kick, whack or smash) to no longer be “it.” The game can be played for as long as you can allow. Fix a set time and put on a timer so that everyone knows how long they have to try to be a “Y” and not the “I”. When the timer goes off and the game is over, you can announce to your group that the person left as the “I” is the winner! But why? As all of the “Y's” collided with the “I,” they were changed into the “I.” You can transition into the lesson by explaining that when we collide with God, we are changed. When God collides with us, we can't help but become more like Him. SESSION 3 ILLUSTRATION: COMFORT ZONE (Use this illustration during teaching point “C” in the APPLICATION section of the teaching script.) Some of your middle school students may have trouble identifying the “status quo” when it comes to Christianity—and for good reason. For each of us it’s different. Each one of us knows internally if we’re going through the motions of what it looks like to be a Christian, and what we’re actually doing that scares us, challenges us and transforms us to be more like Christ. If you, or one of your volunteers has ever had an experience like this, it would be a great chance to share it with students. Give them a glimpse of what a comfort zone looks like in a person’s life, and what happened when he or she stepped outside of it. To help illustrate the point, have the speaker share his or her story from an actual comfort zone you create on your stage with signs, a comfy chair and lots of cushy pillows. Collide Session 3: Totaled TEACHING SCRIPT The teaching script is divided into five sections. INTRODUCTION: The introduction is intended to connect you, the communicator, to the audience, usually through a personal story or observation. We’ve included our stories, but you may want to substitute your own story in this section. TENSION: The tension moves the message from the “me” mentality of the introduction to a “we” mentality. For example, a transition statement might be, “At some point in our lives, we have all been jealous of someone over something.” TRUTH: Once the tension builds, the next logical step is to uncover the truth of what the Bible says about the topic. APPLICATION: At this point, the message moves to a “you” mentality in order to teach the application. The “you” is the student. Take God’s truth and unpack how it relates to each student so that he or she can apply it to everyday life. LANDING: Here it is important to land the message on what each student needs to know and do with what they’ve heard. Just as the message began with a personal story or observation, the message also ends with a “me” mentality. For example, one possible landing statement might be, “I have a greater sense of purpose knowing that God created me in His image.” Leave the students with a clear sense of what all of you should do with what you’ve heard. Unless otherwise noted, the landing will always set up the small group dialog and give students an opportunity to process and internalize what they’ve heard. Collide Session 3: Totaled Bottom Line: Nothing in your life will ever change unless you collide with God. TEACHING OUTLINE INTRODUCTION When it comes to colliding with God, He will win every time. Status quo = the way things are TENSION There are things you do when you call yourself a Christian that are just “normal.” The status quo of Christianity isn’t necessarily the most satisfying, faith-building place to be. What if colliding in our faith means more than doing the right things and believing the right things? What if it has a lot more to do with the God who is calling us to collide in the first place? TRUTH The Pharisees set the precedent for the status quo. Jesus didn’t speak kindly about this super-religious group. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.