Creative Bible Lessons in 1 and 2 Corinthians: 12 Lessons About Making Tough Choices in Tough Times

by Marv Penner

Overview

Christian adolescents in the 21st century face pretty much the same situations as the first-century Christians in Corinth did — an indulgent, profligate, choose-your-own-god society. The latest in the Creative Bible Lessons series, Creative Bible Lessons in 1 & 2 Corinthians is a 12-lesson curriculum with an issues-oriented spin on living one’s faith in the real world. It lets teenagers wrestle with the tension between biblical instruction and cultural realities. These 12 studies about the not-so-easily-tamed people of Corinth and their founding pastor Paul of Tarsus pave the way for youth workers and Sunday school teachers to teach high schoolers about conversion, transformation, failure, leadership, authority, and God's constant saving love even in the midst of people making a mess of things. Here are some of the not-so-ancient issues you'll explore in this study: Give Me Liberty or Give Me Love, Friends Don't Let Friends Go Unforgiven, Those Pesky STDs (Sexually Tough Decisions), Love Is . . ., No Easy Answers, Show Me the Money, and Ouch! Of course, there's lots of what the Creative bible Lessons series is known for: provocative and relevant discussion starters, to-the-point scripts, high-energy games, reproducible pages of interactive activities — all in the context of hard-core Bible study. 12 lessons.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780310230946
Publisher:	Zondervan
Publication date:	08/29/1999
Series:	Creative Bible Lessons
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	7.45(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.55(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Marv Penner is a youth ministry expert with more than 30 years in the field, chairs the youth and family ministry department at Briercrest Graduate School in Saskatchewan, Canada. He's also director of the Canadian Centre of Adolescent Research and author of "The Youth Worker's Guide to Parent Ministry" and "Help! My Kids Are Hurting."

Read an Excerpt

Creative Bible Lessons in 1 & 2 Corinthians

12 lessons about making tough choices in tough times

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By Mary Penner

Zondervan

Copyright © 2007 Youth Specialties, Inc.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-310-23094-6

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Chapter One

MY KINDA TOWN LESSON 1: 1 & 2 CORINTHIANS, ACTS 18

HERE'S THE DEAL

Paul's letters to the Corinthians 2,000 years ago still speak directly to our spiritual and cultural issues.

THE BIG PICTURE

You'd think the problems and issues facing a Greek city 2,000 years ago would be nothing more than historical curiosities today. Wrong! Sneak a peek at the letters to the Corinthians and you'll find Paul carrying on about divorce, dating non-Christians, and partying. Sounds familiar, huh? Ancient Corinth was surprisingly similar to our own cities and neighborhoods. What was true for the Corinthians is true for us: the advice and life-guiding principles that Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth are still relevant 20 centuries later. And the closer attention your kids pay to these letters of Paul, the better prepared they will be to respond to the pressures, demands, and needs of their own community.

JUST FOR STARTERS

LANDMARK ARTISTS (OPTION 1)

Before your students arrive, draw some simple pictures of famous city landmarks on full sheets of paper. We've given some suggestions to get you started. Keep them simple so you don't dampen their desire to participate.

As kids arrive give them several sheets of paper and some markers. Invite them to draw some of their own landmark pictures of places they know. Help them with suggestions if they seem to be drawing a blank (Cinderella's Castle, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, or some local landmark most students would recognize). Number the creations and post them around the room. Let students guess both what the drawings are and what city they're from.

LANDMARK ARTISTS PICTIONARY (OPTION 2)

Play this game like the old favorite Pictionary using the cards you've cut up from Landmark Artists (page 22). Divide the kids into teams, and have a timed competition with kids taking turns drawing pictures for their teams to guess.

WEIRD CITY NAMES (OPTION 3)

Distribute copies of Weird City Names (page 23) and ask your students to identify which eight of the 12 are names of actual North American towns or cities. (Bozo, Funky, Bingo, and Busy are the impostors.)

Regardless of the opener you chose, transition into the Tough Times section by saying-

More than likely, all the cities we've just looked at are very similar. There are believers in every one of them. Some of the communities have lots of churches with great leadership and awesome buildings. Others have small struggling groups meeting in humble circumstances.

We're starting a series of lessons today based on a couple of letters written to a group of believers in a particular city nearly 2,000 years ago. Now some of you are already thinking, "Great, what does 2,000-year-old mail have to do with me?" But, I think you'll be amazed at the relevance this mail has to your life today.

The two letters we'll be studying over the next few weeks were written by a guy named Paul, to a church in the city of Corinth-an important city on the Mediterranean in ancient times. Paul cared deeply about his friends in Corinth because he had helped them set up their church while on a trip through the area several years earlier. After a few years, Paul felt they needed a wake-up call, and the letters we find in the Bible are Paul's attempt to get this church back on track.

TOUGH TIMES

SOUNDS TOO FAMILIAR

Move your students into groups of three or four and give each group a Bible, a pair of scissors, and a copy of Sounds Too Familiar (page 24). Ask them to cut out the headings, the Scripture passages, and the issues from the sheet, then look up each Scripture passage and match it with the appropriate issue. Then ask them to consider our world today and place each paired passage and issue under one of the three headings.

After they're done say something like-

You'll notice that the church still struggles with most of the issues Paul addresses in this letter. That's why it's so important for us to know and understand Paul's instructions to his friends in Corinth. When God put the Bible together he knew that even 2,000 years later we'd be able to use this advice to live our lives more effectively.

TOUGH TRUTH

DIGGING IN (ACTIVE LEARNING)

Acts 18

This section will help students learn about the city of Corinth and the culture of the people there. Use the FYI facts below to put together a short geography-history lesson on the city and what it was like to live there. You might want to do some additional research on your own. A good study Bible or Bible dictionary will have some valuable information. If you have several copies of these kinds of resources available, bring them to class and allow your students the joy of discovering some of the information on their own.

Give each student a pencil and a C'mon Over to Corinth! (page 25) sheet and have them pair up to read Acts 18-a passage describing Paul's original visit to Corinth. Ask them to list any clues the passage gives them about the city, the church, or the people of Corinth, and add the information to the bottom of the handout. After they have written the clues, combine two pairs to make a group of four, and have them take turns reading one entry at a time to each other. For extra fun let them score points for any clue they found that the other pair didn't have on their list.

Finish by letting groups report while you compile a master list of things about Corinth on a flip chart. Finally ask your students what Corinth and your own town have in common.

DIGGING DEEPER (SELECTED SCRIPTURES)

Begin by saying something like-

God calls his people to live in places that are a lot like Corinth. We've seen already that many of the issues are similar. Your school is a place filled with temptations, struggles, hardships, sin, pain, and incredible opportunities to make a difference for Jesus.

Now we're going to look at some Bible passages that talk about what it means to live out our faith in the real world. And we'll see that it's not always easy-as these verses tell us.

Divide your students into four groups (or multiples of four if your group is very large-there should be two to six students in each group), and distribute a card from In the Real World (page 26) to each group. Have each group look up the passage on its card and then answer the three questions listed. (Remind your students that this simple three-question approach to Scripture-What does it say? What does it mean? What does it mean to us (me) today?-is a practical tool to use whenever they open the Bible.)

Pull the group back together and review each passage, asking students from different groups to give their thoughts on the three questions. The thoughts in these passages build on one another so have students report in the designated order. You might want to make up a chart with the three questions across the top and the four passages down the side to give your students a visual reminder of what they're learning.

TOUGH CHOICES

HOMETOWN PROFILE

Obtain or create a large map of your own city. You could have students sketch one up on poster board-include major streets and landmarks. For larger groups, divide your students into groups of eight to 10 and give each group a map of its own. Or copy a map onto a transparency and project it on the wall so everyone can see.

Using different colored markers, have the students identify the following regions of your community:

Blue: where people in your community are hurting in some way-hospitals, jails, shelters, or individual homes of people the students know

Black: where sinful or evil things happen in your city-prostitution, crime, violence, gossip, slander, greed, or selfishness

Red: places of temptation for students-school, the corner store, liquor stores, arcades, etc.

Finish by giving students an opportunity to come to the map and draw a star where they feel they could make a difference for Jesus. It could be one of the places that's been marked, or it could be the home of a friend. You might even suggest they put a star at their own home address if they need to make a difference in their family. Have them sign their name to the star. Post the maps around the meeting room for the duration of this series of lessons from Corinthians.

Close in prayer thanking God for students who are willing to make a difference in their own community.

MEMORIZE THIS PROMISE JESUS GAVE HIS FRIENDS JUST BEFORE LEAVING THEM:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

WEIRD CITY NAMES

Some of these cities are bogus, and others are real. Can you tell which are which?

PIG, KENTUCKY

INSPIRATION, ARIZONA

BOZO, MONTANA

MOOSE JAW, SASKATCHEWAN

FUNKY, IDAHO

SECURITY, COLORADO

BINGO, MISSOURI

MADONNA, MARYLAND

BUSY, NEW YORK

ORDINARY, KENTUCKY

VIRGIN, UTAH

COOL, CALIFORNIA

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Creative Bible Lessons in 1 & 2 Corinthians by Mary Penner Copyright © 2007 by Youth Specialties, Inc.. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

	Introduction: How to make the most of this book	9
Session 1	My Kinda Town: 1 and 2 Corinthians, Acts 18	13
Session 2	Friends Don't Let Friends Go Unforgiven: 1 Corinthians 5, 2 Corinthians 2:5-11	23
Session 3	You'll Hear from My Lawyer!: 1 Corinthians 6:1-11	29
Session 4	Those Pesky STDs (Sexually Tough Decisions): 1 Corinthians 6:13-20	37
Session 5	Mysteries of Marriage: 1 Corinthians 7	47
Session 6	Give Me Liberty or Give Me Love: 1 Corinthians 8	55
Session 7	Give Me a Hand, Lend Me Your Ear: 1 Corinthians 12:12-27	63
Session 8	Love Is...: 1 Corinthians 13:4-8	69
Session 9	No Easy Answers: 2 Corinthians 1:3-7	77
Session 10	Friends: 2 Corinthians 6:14-18	85
Session 11	Show Me the Money: 2 Corinthians 8 and 9	95
Session 12	Ouch!: 2 Corinthians 11:21-12:10	103