Theme: Getting Started Title: The 4 Ws Target Group: Mainly Church background Age: 14+ Aim: Equipment: Preparation: Bible base: To consider why we meet together To think about ideas to help the group grow and develop This outline is a bit different from the format that you usually find here. The start of a new school year is a good time for a group to think about why they meet together at all, what they do and how they want to do it. A group meeting could be described as having four parts the 4 Ws. Welcome Worship Word Witness Together they should create: A place to encounter Jesus A place to belong A place to grow A place to give A place to reach out Welcome If students feel settled and relaxed, it will have an impact on how your Christian group flows, and on the development of your group both in friendships between members and in the development of their faith. To create a welcoming atmosphere it s good to think about the type of room and environment you want to create. For example, it s often helpful to have music playing and refreshments available. Donuts are my favourite but maybe not every week! There are other areas to consider in the welcome: Trying to get everyone involved from the start. Creating an atmosphere of trust. People! There is no substitute for people interaction, both from the leader s and the students perspective.
Ice breakers' can be helpful in creating some or all of the above and can encourage students to develop relationships. Ice breakers can be simply pure fun, or may help the group to get to know one another or they can introduce the theme for the meeting. Remember: how welcome students feel will have a big impact on the rest of a session and on whether they come back. The Welcome is particularly important in the early stages of a group. Worship When people begin to feel welcome, it's important to encourage students to focus on God. Be imaginative in this area: 20-minute sessions of guitar led worship is just one way of worship, and often not best suited to the environment of school Christian groups! Worship is about recognising the presence of Jesus and encouraging students to meet with and encounter him. Word The Word is the meat of any gathering and an opportunity to discuss a wide range of topics and themes. The Word may spring from the Welcome or Worship section, but doesn t necessarily have to be connected or themed. This section can take on a variety of shapes, but with time at a premium, it s good to stay focused rather than drift. You may also want to consider breaking into smaller groups of three to five if you have a large group. Hopefully, as your group develops students will become increasingly open to one another and to God. Witness In the 4 Ws model, it s important to spend some time focusing outside your Christian group. Many groups too easily become holy huddles or naval gazers. (Even if some of the group aren t that holy!) So, it s important to remind ourselves that the Holy Spirit empowers us to reach out to others. Again, this section may take a variety of forms so imagination and variety are important; otherwise, by default it becomes repetitive and as a result overlooked. This outline contains suggestions for different activities that you could do under each of these four headings. Please note: It would be unrealistic to expect that you will have time each week to do all four things. The idea is that over the course of a half term, or a term, you will have had a balance of these four things. On some weeks, (especially nearer the start of a term), you might spend more time on the Welcome. At other times you may be looking at an issue and spend a lot of time finding out what the Bible has to say (Word). This may lead you to thank and praise God (Worship). At other times you will want to share what you know about Jesus with other people and so may have a special meeting to invite friends to (Witness).
Activities Suggestions Each activity is followed by a short description and approximately how long it could take. Have fun! Welcome 1. Pleased to meet you (10 mins). Think of several different groupings, and ask students to get together in these groups. Get together with everyone who, for example Has the same number of brothers or sisters as you Lives in the same street / part of town / area as you Is born in the same month as you Went to the same primary school as you Has the same favourite subject as you When in these groupings get everyone to introduce themselves and to spend some time chatting. 2. Food always a popular option (10 mins). What about buying some special food (or making some) and having it available as people arrive. Perhaps different members of the group could be responsible for this each week. 3. Who am I? (10 mins). When people arrive put a sticker on their back with the name of a famous person on it, without letting them seeing who it is. They then have to go around asking people questions about who it might be, e.g. am I a sportsperson? am I a film star? This activity is even better if you can think of pairs of famous people (e.g. Posh and Becks, Ant and Dec). When people have discovered who they are, they have to find their other half and get to know that person. 4. SmartieTM Survey. (10 mins). If you are looking at a particular issue, you could find out what people think about it as they arrive. Set up five or six plastic cups. Next to each one, place a piece of paper with a statement on it related to the topic. For example, if you are looking at poverty, your statements could be things like: If people are poor it is their own fault Rich countries should give loads of money to poor ones Poverty could be eliminated very quickly Etc Give each person ten SmartiesTM when they arrive. Ask them to distribute them in the cups depending on how strongly they feel about the statement next to each cup. They could for example put all ten SmartiesTM into one cup. When everyone has done this, count up how many in each cup. This is a good way of having an anonymous survey and a good discussion starter.
Worship 1. Music CDs (10 mins). If no one in your group is musical or if people are not happy singing together, why not listen to a worship CD together? This can be very inspiring and a way that the group can worship together. 2. Pictures (10 mins). Depending on your topic, you could find some pictures from magazines and newspapers that show something about God s character and his world. These pictures could then be displayed around the room and people walk quietly around and pray as they do so. 3. Graffiti Wall (10 mins). Get some really big bits of paper (or a roll of cheap wallpaper use the back) and give people marker pens. Ask them to write on the paper anything that they would like to praise or thank God for. Again, depending on the topic, they could write down things about God, his character, what he has done for us etc. The Graffiti Wall could then be rolled up, stored and brought out again and added to during the course of a series of meetings/term. 4. Word Worship (10 mins). The Psalms are full of songs of worship so why not use some of them. Have a look through and find some that suit your theme, topic or situation. Some great Psalms of praise can be found towards the end of the book. Why not just read the Psalms out slowly and passionately, giving people time to think about what you are saying. Word 1. Bible Study (15 mins). If your group is able to handle it, you can t beat a good Bible study if you want to hear God s voice. It takes effort but it is worth it. When preparing make sure you have a good grasp of the passage yourself. Try to ask: what does it say? what did it mean then? and what does it mean now? (application). Have a look at the Leading a Bible study sheet for some more tips. 2. Bible Meditation (10 mins). Sounds freaky but it s not. It is simply reading and thinking about a Bible passage and taking time to let it sink in and listen to God. There are many ways to do this, but here are a couple of suggestions: a. Read a Bible story and try to put yourself in the place of the characters involved. What did they think, feel, see, do? and why did they do what they did? etc. A member of the group could prepare some questions to read out whilst someone else reads the actual passage. b. Slow reading: Read a passage very slowly and stop when you think that God may have something to say to you. This is best done individually, but can be done in a group if each person has a copy of the passage and can read it slowly and quietly to themselves. 3. Dramatised reading (10 mins). This can be great fun and a good way to get to grips with a Bible story. You could print out / photocopy the story several times and mark with a highlighter pen the parts spoken by each of the characters. They could then read it out like a script. This works much better if they have been given time to go over it beforehand so that it sounds more natural. In most stories, you will also need a narrator. 4. Visiting Speaker (10/15 mins). If there is a topic that you want to look at and don t feel confident to do it yourself, why not ask a visiting speaker to come in and help. What about
the minister of the church that group members go to, a local youth worker or schools worker. Don t forget to get permission from your Headteacher though, and then sort out who will meet them and sign them in. 5. Video (10 mins). There are now a number of good videos and DVDs available of different parts of the Bible. These can be used really effectively, but do make sure you ve got the right equipment and check that it works before people arrive! Your school RE department, local church, and local library may be a good source of videos. Some dioceses also have a Religious Learning Resources Centre that will have loads of suitable videos. 6. Expert for a day (15 mins). If your group is keen to get to grips with the Bible, why not spend some time doing some research into the part of the Bible that you re looking at. You could use Bible dictionaries, commentaries, concordances etc. To get you started you could find out what was the situation in Corinth that made Paul write 1 and 2 Corinthians. Or what about some of the evidence for the resurrection, or some of the evidence for the reliability of the New Testament. 7. Big Map (15 mins). All of the events in the Bible took place in real places and at real times, and we often find it hard to visualise them. What about clearing some space on the floor and creating a huge map of the area that you are looking at. You ll need some rolls of paper stuck together side by side and some pens or paints. Most good Bibles have maps in them, so as a group you could produce a huge version. You could then roll it up and use it again next time you look at that topic. Witness 1. Food and God (30 mins). Why not invite your friends along and simply have some food together (see Welcome activity suggestion, number 2 ). Towards the end someone could talk for a few minutes about how they became a Christian, what it means to them today, what difference Jesus can make in different situations. This person should have prepared carefully what they are going to say. Do make sure though when you invite people that they know there will be a short talk. 2. Visiting speaker (10 mins). If no one from the group feels able to do so, you could invite a visiting speaker to give a short talk explaining what Christianity is all about. See Word activity suggestion, number 4 about inviting speakers in. 3. Big Issue (30 mins). Why not have a whole meeting about some topical issue and bring a Christian perspective to it. This will take a lot of preparation and planning, but it would be well worth it. Some possible topics could be: what does God think about poverty? the Bible and war; why doesn t God do something about suffering? Easter it s all about eggs, or Christmas it s all about pressies. 4. Meeting needs (30 mins). One way that a group can witness to the rest of the school is by serving the school in some way. How you do this and what you do depends very much on your group and your school. But here are some possible ideas: helping younger students with their reading at lunchtimes, running clubs for younger students, clearing up part of the school grounds. You get the idea anything that you could do that would help the school, after all, Jesus said that we are to follow his example of being a servant.