Follow The Leader Bible Study

To engage my middle school students to explore what it means to follow Jesus, I designed a simple Bible study where they had to read a pre-selected scripture passage and then use the questions provided to discuss what that passage may or may not be saying about what it means to follow Jesus.  But, of course, there was a catch.All while they were conducting this Bible study, they were playing follow the leader.  Yes. The age-old child’s game.  Each group selected a leader that would lead their group anywhere in the Youth Center or on the church grounds outside.  All, remember, while conducting a Bible study.Afterwards we debriefed about the experience.  One group recounted how difficult it was to hear the scripture being read.  It was easy to follow the steps and movements of the leader, but it was hard to hear what was being said.  While another group’s leader lead her group to a spot outside the Youth Center where she sat her group down and read the Scripture.  Then, they moved on with the rest of the game.At the end of the night, these middle school students observed that following Jesus is hard sometimes.  And sometimes it’s hard to follow the leaders who are leading us in following Jesus.  Yet, they observed, at least they had each other.  They grasped and articulated the theological concept of community.  Faith is a journey and sometimes you don’t know where you’re going, but at least you have company.Photo credit: Bicted via Flickr (Creative Commons)