This Week #3-3

This week in OFF ROAD we started our new series discussing what the goal of OFF ROAD is all about. Our purpose statement is, “We exist to have a lifelong Devotion to God, Unified with other believers, Strengthening our desire to imitate Christ, while telling others the Truth of who he is and Yearning to be covered in the dust of the master.” We want to help student s get D.U.S.T.Y. This week we focused on what it means to have a lifelong devotion to God. We looked at 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 where Paul is speaking on running the good race so as not to be disqualified.

I taught the whole lesson while running on a treadmill. Throughout the lesson people would come up and try to distract me from running the good race, but I pressed on, making the points that to run the good race we need discipline (even when it is hard we need to give God the time he deserves to build out relationship with him), direction (we need to know where we are going, in each decision we make we need to ask, “Is this taking me away from God or towards him, and we need determination (no matter how hard life gets, how tough people around you make it to be a Christian we must be determined to continue to run for God.) If we do this the prize that Jesus offers is worth more than anything this life could put us through.

Questions for discussion:

How are you disciplining yourself to follow Christ?
Would you say that you are heading toward Christ, away from Christ, or not moving at all? Why?
What is the toughest part about being a Christian? Why is that tough? Is there anything in this world that could rip you away from your faith (or gradually pull)?
What prize does God offer in this life, if we follow him? What prize does God offer in when we die?
On a scale of 1-10 how would you say you are running the race for God (10= full speed, totally living for him/ 1=walking the other way) Do you want to improve that number? How might you improve?

This Week #3-2

This week in OFF ROAD was a little bit different as we had our parent meeting/support group ;) on Saturday night. It was a great time . Please try to make it to the next meetings we have as they are important to both know what is going on, build community and share parenting advice/ experience.

On Sunday we continued our series “Loneliness is not a word in God’s dictionary,” looking more specifically at what we can count on in our small groups. It is our goal in OFF ROAD to provide 4 things in every small group- Meaningful-God centered conversations, Accountability, Prayer and Scripture (MAPS) Each one of these aspects is crucial to the Christian journey. As we so often discuss worldly things we tend to put God in the back of our minds, only to be discussed at church. We want that type of discussion happening more often and that is why it is encouraged in small groups. TO be accountable to someone else that can encourage you to do the right thing and help you through the tough times is so needed and we want to model and encourage students to have an active daily conversation with God through prayer and scripture reading.

Please make sure that your child sings up for a small group. The kickoff is this Wednesday (EVERYONE IS MEETING AT THE CHURCH THIS WEEK) from 6:45- 8:15.

Questions to discuss:
Why is it important to have a group of Christian friends?
Why is it important to have you main group of friends be believers?
How can we pray so that it is more of a conversation than a “talking at” God?
How can we help you be more involved in reading the bible?

This Week #3-1

Welcome back to OFF Road as we kick off our 09-10 school year. I hope the transition to the next grade level has been easy on your family and that you are excited to allow God to work in your and your child’s life this year!!!
This week in OFF ROAD we started a 2 part series title “Loneliness is not a word in God’s dictionary.” This series focuses on the important of small groups and how God has created us for community with other believers. We looked at a few verses that I would encourage you to read with your child this week (1John 3:18-20; Matt 12:46-50; 1Peter 3:8; Galatians3:26-29) Each of these verses give us expectation for each other that give us a good look into what authentic community should look like. We used these verses to contrast what a big group setting can give compared to a small group setting. Here are the contrasts I see:

Big group= know a little, loved surface level, listening, Head knowledge, Independent
Small group= KNOWN, LOVED deeply, discussing, Heart knowledge, Dependence
Please have your child sign up , or sign your child up for small groups so they can be known and loved so that they can know and love God.
Questions for to discuss with your child:

What does it mean to have someone really know you?

Do you have anyone in your life (besides family) who really knows you?

What does it mean to have someone that really loves you?

Do you have someone in your life (besides family) who really knows you?

Where can you find someone who could know and love you truly?

What does it take for someone to really know you and truly love you?