Youth Group Lesson & Game on Relationship with God

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When was the last time one of your preteen boys was more interested in the dust bunnies in the room than the lesson you were teaching?

When was the last time the topic of discussion in your small group went from Jesus to the newest rainbow loom technique?

And my personal favorite, when was the last time you were explaining a game and your preteens asked the exact same question four different times?

Preteens have a hard time focusing; if this surprises you, then you’ve probably only been in preteen ministry for about five minutes.

If preteens have a hard time focusing on playing games or listening to a message, we can safely assume they have a hard time focusing on their relationship with God.

We need to understand, however, that a preteen has a hard time focusing not because they don’t care but because they physically can’t.

Preteens brains are changing so rapidly they have a difficult time focusing on anything.

How do we help our preteens understand that they need to stay focused on God?

Here is a fun game and lesson to help preteen stay focused on God.

Game – Keep Focused

Supplies:

● A roll of blue masking tape

Directions:

Use the tape to make a long straight line across the floor. Make the line long enough for all your preteens to all stand on one side of it. Have the preteens line up on one side of the line facing the same direction. A leader will stand at the end of the line with the preteens facing them.

Explain that the floor on one side of the line is ice, the other side fire. When standing on the ice side of the line they need to stand completely still like they are frozen. If they are on the fire side of the line, they need to jump up and down like their feet are on fire.

The leader will call out a side and the preteens will need to jump over the tape to that side. The leader will continue to call one side or the other. The leader can call out any side they want at any time, trying to get the preteens to jump to the wrong side.

If someone jumps to the wrong side, they are out. If they move while frozen, they are out. If they stop jumping on the fire side, they are out. Play until only one preteen is left standing. Play a few rounds and have fun.

Teach – Keep Focused on God

After the game, say:

So that was a pretty cool game, or should I say hot and cool game? To the winners from each round, you did amazing staying focused on the leader. You had to discipline yourself to listen, look, make sure you were on the correct side and either frozen or on fire. Let me congratulate you all one more time.

Ask:

● How hard was it to make sure you were on the right side of the line?

● What about being frozen? Was it hard not to flinch?

● When on fire what made it hard to keep jumping around?

● It took a lot of focus to win this game. What other things take focus?

● How hard is it to focus on God?

● Why is hard to focus on God?

Say:

We live in a world that is filled with distractions. Some of these distractions can take up so much of our time we begin to focus all of our attention on them. When we focus everything we have on these things, we stop focusing on God. The more we don’t stay focused on God, the easier it is to walk farther away from Him.

Read Colossians 3:2:

“Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.”

In this verse, we are told we need to focus on God above and not the things around us. When we focus on God everything here on earth becomes easier to understand.

Focus take practice, and we can’t do it alone. We need to make sure we are surrounded with others who have the same focus.

Read Proverbs 27:17:

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

Say:

Other believers can help us focus where we need to. And we can help others focus where they need to. We need to be there for each other to stay focused. To be sharp for the Lord we need to get focused on Him and stay focused on Him. We need others to help us and hold us accountable.

Wrap-Up:

Have preteens get into groups of three or four. Have them talk about the things in their life that take their focus off God. Then have them all share one way they can help each other to refocus. When finished have the groups pray for each other.

Have a leader close out in prayer.

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Liked this lesson & game? You’ll also like this FREEBIE on the topic of prayer.

Rob Quinn serves as the Preteen Ministry Coordinator at Community Bible Church in Brighton, MI. He has been involved with preteen ministry for almost 8 years now. Rob is married to an amazing woman Jodi, who just so happens to be the Children’s Ministry Director at his church. They have one beautiful daughter Sydni, and an 8-pound attack dog named Lilly.