Welcome to your free Lumen sessionLumen is the ultimate discipleship resource for 11-14s. Its heart is to help young people not just survive as Christians but to thrive, go deep in their growing relationship with God and inspire them to be active in changing the world around them. Lumen is lively and engaging, exploring Christian teaching through a combination of games, interactive activities, discussions, punchy Bible studies and prayer activities. Hundreds of churches use Lumen in a Sunday morning setting, youth house groups or Christian Unions. It is innovatively designed to take the discipleship of young people to the next level. Lumen is the measurement of light and we believe this generation can shine! A Lumen session provides a structure of approximately 60 minutes’ worth of activities, but is flexible enough to be shortened, lengthened or adapted to fit the needs of your young people. Using Lumen will make a huge difference to your planning time. It will enable you to spend the hours previously taken up by planning youth group sessions in building relationships with your young people or praying for them.

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THE WORLD OF 11-14 YEAR OLDS

Our young people are being forced to grow up very quickly which means we need to help them prepare for a healthy adulthood. At this stage of life a person is in the middle of what could possibly be the most traumatic period of change and development that they will go through physically, socially, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Understanding some of the changes our young people are going through will help us to support them. As YFC we are committed to communicating good news in a relevant way. We recognise that in young people’s development, the mechanics stay the same but the backdrop is constantly changing. Our resources are developed in a way that take into account all that is going on in the world of a young person.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENTAt this age, young people are going through rapid physical changes. They may find this embarrassing and hard to handle.SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTYoung people are becoming more independent at this age and are testing their boundaries. Peer groups are replacing parents as the primary social unit in their lives.MENTAL DEVELOPMENTYour young people will be changing from a concrete way of thinking to a more abstract one. They will be forming their own opinions on a whole range of important issues.EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENTIdentity is a massive issue for this age group. Young teenagers are asking profound questions about who they are and where they belong. They may look to their peers or adult role models for affirmation.SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENTAlongside their mental and emotional development, your young people will be forming their views on all things spiritual. They are likely to be very open to new ideas, so now is an excellent time to share the good news with them.

HOW IT WORKS

DEEP DISCIPLESHIPLumen aims to contribute to making life long disciples of Jesus. Each session is far from merely entertainment and is packed with biblical insight on topics profoundly relevant to this age group.MISSIONALLY FOCUSSEDShane Claiborne has said that if we lose this generation it won’t be because we failed to entertain them, but because we failed to dare them. Lumen challenges young people to live radical lives that attract their friends to Jesus and stirs them to live out and share their faith with their friends.ENERGYGod delights in his children having fun and each session is packed with activities and games that are fast paced and give young people a great time, whilst communicating the message of the session in a creative way.’PARTICIPATION AND REFLECTIONLumen is not a spectator sport but encourages young people to engage with the issues and discuss what is being explored. Challenges and reflections also encourage active experience of God to help them apply the teaching to their lives.TOTAL FLEXIBILITYChoose the activities which fit best with your young people and your venue.

6 KEY PRINCIPLES

FUN AND EXCITEMENTLumen is designed to be fast moving, fresh and challenging. It is a fantastic time-saving, idea-generating resource that leaves plenty of scope for leaders to be creative in meeting the individual needs of their group.RELATIONSHIP BUILDINGDr Tony Campolo has said, “There are many reasons why people go to church, but there’ll be one main reason why they’ll stay: if they build relationships there.” Lumen enables young people to connect with each other through small groups, discussions, and socialising all within the programme.LIFE SKILLSIt is vital that we deal with the issues that 11-14s are facing. Each week is based around one issue which is drawn out, discussed and focused on creatively as the session progresses.PRESENTING THE GOOD NEWSThe Good News is Jesus and Lumen aims that every young person who engages with it leaves fascinated and captivated by the person of Christ. The aim is not just that they understand the Good News but learn to live out and communicate the Christian message in their lives.MOBILISING LEADERSWe dream of seeing thousands more Christians serving the 11-14 age group. And building a strong team is essential for the health of your group.PARTNERSHIPTo be effective, Lumen needs to become part of your local church’s vision to 11-14 year olds. In partnership with YFC nationally, Lumen links you into a network of groups across the country, and provides access to residentials, events, support and training.

Introduction

ACTING OUT 1: ONE HEART

AIM

To explore unity and community in the early Church

To explore what community looks like for young people

To explore what it means to be the body of Christ

DESCRIPTION

This is the first session, in a 3 part series that looks at the book of Acts, and the stories of the community of believers in

the early Church. Using their stories as a basis for inspiration, what does it look like to really live in community with other

believers? The series will explore how, as a group of young people they can reveal the heart of God, in community,

through their actions, and simply through how they live. This session will be exploring unity, using the examples of unity

found in the book of Acts, where naturally different people were united by one Holy Spirit, to one mission.

PRAYER

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Come together

Time:12 min

Materials:

obstacles for obstacle course eg hula hoop tunnel hurdle

Leader’s note: Set up an obstacle course across the room, using cones.

Game

Have a simple obstacle course set up in one part of your room.

Ask the group a ‘would you rather’ question. See examples below.

They must choose one, even if they do not like either.

Designate one side of the room for each answer.

Once the young people have chosen tell them to pair up with someone from the opposite side of the room (if

there is an uneven split, some will have to go with those from the same side of the room).

Pick one pair to complete the obstacle course.

The chosen pair will then have to complete the obstacle course whilst connected to the other person in their

pair. They should complete the obstacle course, whilst aiming to only have 2 legs on the ground at one time.

They should use the other person in their pair as support.

Time them as they go round. The pair who do it the fastest win.

Repeat the activity, choosing different pairs each time.

Would you rather questions:

Would you rather have tea or coffee?

Would you rather have a pet bear or a pet tiger?

Would you rather swim with sharks or swim with dolphins?

Would you rather eat cake or eat biscuits?

Would you rather have a bath or a shower?

Would you rather have pizza or fish and chips?

Would you rather work in a group, or work on your own?

Would you rather share with others or keep things for yourself?

Would you rather speak in front of a group or speak one on one?

Would you rather have snow or sunshine?

Discuss

Do we like to be connected with people who aren’t the same as us, or who have different opinions to us?

Is it easy to be in community with those who are the same or those who are different?

Jesus, thank you that you are a community God and you call us to be in relationship with each other and with you. Thank

you that you have created us uniquely but that we are all united in your name. Amen

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One Heart

Time:10 min

Materials:

red tissue paper

straws

scissors

Preparation: Cut out a heart shape out of the tissue paper.

Game

Get your young people to stand in a line, all facing the same direction.

Hand each one of your young people a straw.

Give the person at the front of the line, the cut out tissue paper heart.

Explain to the group, that the aim of the game is to get the tissue paper heart to the last person in the line and

back again, as many times as they can in 2 minutes.

They cannot touch the tissue paper heart with their hands, but must use the straw to suck and move the heart

to the next person.

If the heart drops to the floor, they can carry on. But they must not pick it up with their hands, but with the straw

instead.

Discuss

What are you passionate about? What to do you love doing?

Does anyone share this passion?

In what ways are we different to each other?

In what ways do we have things in common with each other?

Say

Today we are going to be exploring the idea of how, in God, we have one heart. We have loads of things in common

with each other and we have loads of things that are different to each other, but the main thing that we have in

common is that we all love and want to follow Jesus. This was the same with the early Christians. What kept them

together, even when sometimes they were so different from each other, was that they all loved, and wanted to follow

God.

Connected?

Time:10 min

Materials:

paper

pens

flipchart paper

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Activity

In the early Church much of their lives were spent in community, this is to start exploring which community

might look like for these young people.

Discuss as a group what comes to mind when the young people think of the word community. Write some of

their ideas down on the flipchart paper.

Encourage them to discuss the different ways that they share their life with others.

In small groups invite your young people to list all of the ways that we might feel connected with others and

share our lives with them. E.g. facebook, text, meeting up for coffee.

They only have 1 minute to write down as many ideas as they can. When the minute is up, ask the groups to go

round and share their answers and see who has the most.

Discuss

Which of these ways of connecting to others do you like best? Does it depend on who you are speaking to? If so,

why?

Which of these helps you to feel part of a community?

Do you think online/ social communication creates true community? Why/ Why not?

Sharing life

Time:8 min

Materials:

paper

pens

highlighters

Activity

Get the young people to think about their group of friends at school/work/Church/sports clubs etc.

Ask them to write down the names of those friends in different groups.

Ask them to think about a secret they might have or something that they do not share with everyone, an

example could be watching enjoying watching Disney films or sleeping with the light on; let them know they do

not have to share this with everyone in the group.

Using the highlighters, ask the young people to highlight who from their friends they would be most happy

sharing this secret with and who they would be least happy sharing it with. Colours could be assigned ie red=

very happy to share, green= not happy to share with.

Say

The early disciples shared their whole lives with each other. They often lived together or very near each other

therefore would have known everything about each other. In Acts 2:42-47, it talks about how ‘they devoted themselves

to the apostle’s teaching and to fellowship’. ‘All the believers were together, and had everything in common.’ They ate

together, they praised God together, they shared all they had with others. They put others before themselves.

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Sometimes when we make friends, we have to share things with them that are slightly uncomfortable for us but it can

lead to unity. They may then feel they can be more open with you and you can help support one another through life.

Although it can be scary to be vulnerable with our friends, it is important that we have friends that we trust. For in

Proverbs 17:17 it says ‘Friends love through all kinds of weather, and families stick together in all kinds of trouble’.

(MSG) What would it look like for us, to become like that community of the early Church? What would it look like to

‘have everything in common’?

Body of Christ

Time:15 min

Materials:

Bibles

Activity

Encourage all of your young people to get a Bible and read 1 Corinthians 12: 12-21, together.

Share that in the early Church of Acts, the new believers were just discovering what Church was, what it meant

to worship, live, pray and do life together as believers and the Church being a body is such a great way to

picture it!

Ask the young people to discuss in small groups why they think the Church was compared to a body? Then

encourage feedback.

Discuss

What stands out in the passage?

What does it make them think about Church?

What does it make them think about God?

What does it make them think about living in community with each other?

Discuss all the different areas of service and gifting in the Church, including the ones in 1 Cor 12: 28-30.

How does the Church benefit from having all sorts of people with different gifts and skills?

Do they find that there are a lot of comparisons in the Church between people with different gifts and skills?

Why do they think those comparisons are there?

Where do they fit into the Church?

What passions, or skills can you share with the Church?

What are you for?

Time:12 min

Materials:

Preparation: On one sheet of paper write ‘Goals in common-Early Church’. On another sheet of paper write ‘our goals

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in common’.

Say

The early Church was known for sticking together, and for sticking up for what they believed. Even though they came

from all walks of life, and from all backgrounds, they all had one thing in common. They all believed in Jesus and lived

for him. We are going to take a little look now at what exactly they all had in common and what they believed.

Read

Acts 2:14-41

Activity

On the sheet of paper marked ‘Goals in common-Early Church’, using the Acts passage, start to write down as a group,

what the early Church had in common, and what they believed in.

Once you have done that, go to the next sheet of paper marked ‘Our goals in common’, and from the first sheet begin

to think about and write down what you as a group believe. If you have some of the same things in common as the

early Church, then write these down too.

Discuss

What do we have in common as a group?

What do we have in common with the early Church?

In what ways can we keep God central, just like the early Church?

What does it look like?

Time:12 min

Materials:

Bibles

Activity

Encourage all of your young people to get a Bible and read Acts 2: 42- 47 together as a group.

In small groups, highlight the areas of life that the early believer shared, and what they did together.

(Apostles teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer, gave to those in need, ate together, worshipped

together)

Chat about each component individually, ask the group they think it means to do these things.

Discuss

Can they see areas in their lives where they do these things?

Where so they struggle to do these things?

Do they think this is what real community looks like? Why, why not?

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What hinders community in their lives, what barriers are in the way?

Do you think this is the kind of communities that God wants us to live in?

How could we bring this model into our modern lives, when we have school, families, etc? What would that look

like?

Do as they did

Time:10 min

Materials:

a worship leader

instruments

song words

Bread

grape juice/wine

Cup

plate

Activity

As we read in Acts 2: 42 – 47, the early believers shared life together and they did it often. They devoted

themselves to worshipping, eating, praying and learning together. Why not spend some time doing what they did

with your young people?

Spend some time in sung worship together as a group.

If you wish, you may want to spend this time sharing communion with your group. If you are more comfortable

following a conventional communion liturgy, invite your Church leader to lead this element of the session.

Meal to share

Time:2 min

Materials:

parental permission

Meal to share

Say

The early Church shared everything and did life together, and a big part of this was eating! As we see in Acts 2:46, it

says that they ‘continued to meet together’, and ‘ate together with glad and sincere hearts’. Eating is a great part of

community living! We often get to know each other better, by sharing food together. We talk more, we listen. We get

to know each other!

Leader’s note:

Why not organise a meal for you to share as a youth group. You may want to invite the whole group to a youth leader’s

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house, or to the Church, where you can share a meal together. Organise a date to do this. Ensure you have parental

permission, especially if you are inviting them to a youth leader’s house!

Paper people prayer

Time:8 min

Materials:

paper

pens

scissors

music for background

Leader’s note: See http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Paper-People-Chain for notes on how to make paper chain

people

Activity

Give your young people a piece of paper and invite them to cut out a paper chain people.

Give them a moment to think about the people they feel they are in community with. It could be friends, family,

people at school or work.

Encourage them to write a person’s name on each of the people and to spend some time praying for them and

thanking God for who they are. Encourage them to spend some time listening to what God might be saying to

them, about their friend, or for their friend. Encourage them to write this on the person.

Once they have done this, challenge them to take away the person, and to give it to the friend that they just

prayed for. This is a great opportunity to share your faith with them!

Post it note prayers

Time:10 min

Materials:

post it notes and pens

Activity

Explain that part of the community in the early Church was with a strong emphasis on praying for each other and Acts

2:42 says that the believers devoted themselves to prayer. Explain that prayer can be such an important part of

growing together in faith so you are going to spend some time praying with each other now.

Give each young person a post it note and a pen. Invite them to write down something they would like prayer for on

their post it note. They can write their name on the post it note or keep it anonymous but their prayers will be shared

with someone. Once everyone has written a prayer, ask them to place their post it notes in the middle of the group or

in a space where they can be seen. As the young people put their post it notes down, ask them to swap it for someone

else’s.

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Then as individuals or as small groups ask the young people to pray together for a couple of minutes about what is on

their new post it note.

My part to play

Time:10 min

Materials:

Bible

pens

Jigsaw pieces

Activity

Choose a jigsaw that has a reverse side that is easy to write/ draw on. Construct the jigsaw and then turn it over

so that the picture on the jigsaw is facing downwards.

Explain to the group that we have been thinking about the Church as a body, lots of different parts but coming

together to be united for a purpose. This is how God intended us to be as a community of believers, different

people with different skills but united to serve Him and live lives together to make Him better known.

As they can see like a body a jigsaw is made up of many different parts that make a whole picture. Each piece

looks different, is shaped differently and fits in a specific space in the jigsaw.

Ask the group if the jigsaw would be complete if there was a piece missing?

No, it wouldn’t! As a group we are all different, we bring different gifts and skills, different personalities and have

different talents. But without our input in the body of Christ the picture is not complete. We are significant

because we are a part of God’s bigger picture. If we tried to be a different piece of the jigsaw we would leave a

gap where God has called us to be.

Invite each of the young people to take a piece of the jigsaw and spend a couple of moments in quiet asking God

where their place is in his bigger picture, they could ask God to remind them of their gifts and skills and

encourage them to write down their thoughts on their piece of jigsaw.

The young people can take their jigsaw away with them as a reminder of what you have chatted about today.

Added to their number

Time:5 min

Materials:

phones

Say

In Acts 2:47, we are told that ‘The Lord added to their number daily’. We are called to share our faith with others,

share what we have in common, and share that unity with others. We are called to bring in others, to share what we

have. To share God with them.

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Discuss

In pairs get your young people to discuss how they might help a friend who is not yet a Christian, get to know

God.

How might they invite their friend along to become part of your Church community?

Challenge

Challenge them to text a friend, asking if there is anything that they can be praying for, as a group.

Once you start getting replies, begin to pray for them. In the time of waiting, pray as a group, to build up unity.

As the early Church, they got behind each other. Spend time supporting each other in prayer now.

RHYTHM: One Heart

Time:1 min

Materials:

RHYTHM:

Pray for someone in your youth group every day this week – not one of your friends or someone you know quite well,

but one of the people you know the least. Ask God to bless them this week as they live for Him.

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