Tyler Klein: Week 5

A. Time Spent this week: 4 hours total (S.S.=1 Worship= 1.5 Youth small group Bible Study= 1.5)
B. My Class this week:

1. Asked Question to begin.
Why are you here today? This was to get them thinking if they had taken it upon themselves to come or if they were brought by a parent. Only one kid had come by himself. This opened an opportunity for Mike to tell the kids that he was glad they were there. Before this happened he had brought brownies for everyone, which set the mood of the class.
2. What is Faith?
Just like the previous week, Mike reverted to this question. He explained that it would be really hard to answer what faith is, because it is a lot like Love. There are just so many different ways to use the word, and it can be applied to so many situations that it is really hard to put one definition to the word. He used the example of a newly-wed couple, which made me think of Jena and I, compared to when that same couple had been together 50 years. They would both try to define love, but it would be different in both situations. Faith is like that, it changes, it develops and adapts to each situation. The kids still tried to answer the question, and they came up with things like: faith is belief in something bigger than yourself, goes beyond trust, is in something not easily seen, and other things like that.
3. Dissection of James 2:14
With that Mike started reading James 2:14 through 26. It is the passage where James makes it clear that faith doesn’t exist without works of faith, at least in his mind. Faith without works of faith is dead, at least that’s what we talked about. The kids argued about it a bit, and Mike very, very briefly touched the Romans 3:21-28 passage which parallels this one. I don’t know if Mike was trying to keep the passage simple, but it could have been expounded much deeper, and in some of the teens’ comments there were great opportunities to confront them with scriptural truths about what they were saying. He did explain the actions of faith of Abraham and Rahab. I just wish that the opposite side of James would have been brought up so that the teens could have a scriptural basis for what they were already arguing about.
4. Dismissal
Mike explained that James is a tough book, and for them to try and dig into it a little deeper throughout the week. Then we took prayer requests, prayed, and left.

C. My Questions for the week

1. Is it sometimes too hard to try to throw out a scriptural reference when you’re trying to actively listen to what the students are saying? Isn’t it important to provide scripture to illuminate what is being argued, especially when it hits it on the head as squarely as Romans 3:28?
2. These teens are obviously reaching for something deeper, based on their discussion, but why don’t we use that longing to teach proper dissection of scripture? (I probably sound like a broken record.)