It's easy to see the passion your teens have
for missions just before and after your summer mission trip.
They're excited, fired up, and ready to serve! But what
happens after the trip...when the missions motivation wears off?
God doesn't call us to have a servant's heart a week
or two out of the year: he calls us to a life of service. Your
youth can be inspired to live such a life when you use this
Christmas Missions Challenge in your next youth
meeting. Get your group thinking now about how they can
stay missions-minded even after the next trip is over.
Christmas Mission Challenge
At your next youth meeting give you students a challenge. Ask
your youth to be more "mission minded" this Christmas season.
Supplies
You'll need a Christmas tree, some paper cut into the "shape" of
Christmas ornaments, string (or something like it) to hang the
ornaments from the tree, and pens, markers, pencils, crayons,
etc…
Set up
Put a Christmas tree up in your meeting area and have ornaments
(made with paper and string so you can write on them) sitting on a
table beside the tree.
The Challenge
At some point during the meeting, plant the idea in your
students mind to go out and do something "missions" or "service
minded" for someone else between now and Christmas. Then whenever
they come back to your meeting room (weekly meeting, small group,
Sunday school, etc.) they can come back to the tree, write down
what they did on the ornament and hang it on the tree. The
Challenge is to have your group decorate the entire tree with the
"ornaments" by the end of this month.
1 Peter 4:10 "Each one should use whatever gift he has
received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in
its various forms."
Ideas
Here are two simple, direct examples we thought of to help your
students see how easy it might be…
1) Most of us will either unknowingly walk by or
purposefully avoid a dirty homeless man begging for change. I may
think to myself, "I don't have any change, I only use debit cards."
or "He's just going to spend it on (fill in the blank
here) anyways." But… I might also have
completely failed to notice the man has no coat and is freezing
cold. Before I left the house I had to go through the "tough
decision" of which of my five coats I was going to wear that day.
Take a second look and realize the benefit this man would
receive from a coat or pocket change is so much more than the
"sacrifice" giving him the money. Try to bypass the
conclusions and excuses that human nature leads us to…instead think
about serving someone in need.
2) I worked at a restaurant for a number of years and you
know what the biggest complaint from the wait staff was, besides
the cooks (I was one of "those"), it was the "Sunday tippers" (or
non-tippers more accurately) and demanding church folk. The
worst part is that these comments were generalized to all
Christians and church goers. It was especially hard for the staff
that were Christians, it's hard enough to be a witness in the
service industry environment and downright impossible when
customers don't match their attitudes to their faith. 'Practice
what you preach' seems like a good rule of thumb here. When you're
out eating with family this season set a good example. After
you've prayed for the meal -make it a 20% tip and say Please and
Thank You. What if a flustered waitress messes up your order and
instead of thinking, "That waitress needs to learn how to do her
job!" Say a prayer for her, give a smile and encouragement.
Leave a positive impression, an impression of the love of
Jesus.
Luke 6:38 "Give, and it will be given to you. A good
measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be
poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be
measured to you."