Sr Youth Bible Studies

Sr Youth Bible Studies are every Tuesday from 7-9pm at the MB Church for all students in grades 9-12. Join Us! Below, check out previous Bible Studies from any weeks you have missed.

*Bible Studies are finished for the summer, and will resume in September! Don't forget to join us for summer events!*

2018-2019 Bible Studies:

June 11: Review!

June 4: Relationships

-What elements exist in a healthy relationship?

Being a Christian is not following a set of rules. It is not talking and being a certain way, doing certain activities while avoiding others. Being a Christian is not something that is based on your family.

Being a Christian is a personal relationship with Jesus! It means following in the footsteps of Christ, experiencing the joy that comes from talking with and hearing from God.

However too often we miss out on the joy because we try to boil down our relationship with God to a formula of do’s and don’ts. What if in my relationship with Bethany I forced her to spend one hour a week with me, and told her she had to talk with me 5 minutes a day?

Love cannot be forced.

-Why is it harder to have a relationship with God?

1 John 4:19: We love because He first loved us.

-God loved us before we ever loved him. You must view your connection with God as a loving relationship before you can love him. If you don’t know the love of God, you will view this as a cold, transactional religion of rules. But that is not what God has for us!

Ephesians 2:1-10

When you fully believe in God you are transformed! The trouble is, before this happens, you do not know what you are missing

(like when you are in the dark, it takes a while for your eyes to adjust, but the longer you live in the darkness, the more you get used to it, and the more you can see. Eventually you don’t even think you are missing anything. Imagine, if you were born in darkness, and that is all you ever knew…and then someone turns on the lights, or you go outside on a sunny day…all of a sudden you experience bright, vibrant colors for the first time!)

This is like our spiritual lives when you fully trust in Jesus and experience relationship with him, you may not think you are missing anything, but when you come to see Him fully it is like a bright light that is so glorious you can not even look at it fully…

And in Ephesians it talks about the greatness that is promised to us in the age to come! We are able to experience a full life here on earth and in the age to come!

-So why do we not want to follow Jesus more? Why would we rather stay in darkness than step out and live in the light?

1 Peter 5:8-9

How can we avoid the devil?

We NEED the armor of God (Ephesians 6) We need to be rooted in God

Psalm 1:1-3

We need the support of others. That is why churches exist! Church is not a building, it is the global body of all Christians!

-What would make church more beneficial? How can we be the church, so that people would enjoy coming and would benefit more from being connected to church? Even people who do not yet believe in God, would see the difference the church makes?

-How can we make this happen? GET INVOLVED! Talk to your pastor! Pray about it, ask God what your role can be.

-You cannot have a relationship with someone you never spend time with.

-The Christian life is not a list of have to’s it is a bunch of things I get to do!

I get to talk to God, and I get to hear from him. I get to read his instructions and his love letters to me. I get to spend time with other people who also believe in Him. I get to serve alongside Jesus, and show other people God’s love. I get to be less self centered by serving others and giving my time and my money to others to help them. I get to experience the joy that comes from worshipping my Father and Creator!

May 28: Guests from TMBC Get more info on camp!
May 21: James chapter 4 We finished our study of James by looking at prayer and what hinders our prayers, and what it looks like to submit to God. We ended our time together with a review quiz! Test your knowledge here.
May 14: James chapter 3 We split into small groups to read and discuss James 3.
May 7: James chapter 2 Read through James 2 and see the handout.
Apr 30: James

Apr 23: Easter!
Apr 16: Jesus and Prayer Apr 9: Prayer part 2 Tonight we split into groups and went out into the community praying for various people and needs.

Apr 2: Prayer part 1 We learned about and practiced different aspects of prayer, spending time on each 'letter' of the word PRAY.

Mar 26: NO BIBLE STUDY

Mar 19: The Holy Spirit part 2

Mar 12: The Holy Spirit, part 1

Mar 5: Guest Speaker Brodie Wilson
Feb 12-26: Guys and Girls Bible Studies

Feb 5: Mental Health, part 2
Jan 29: Cancelled due to extreme cold :(
Jan 22: Mental Health, part 1
Jan 15: Social Media: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Dec 18: The Plot of Christmas
Dec 11: The Christmas Story

We watched the Nativity Story movie

Dec 4: What's the Big Deal with Christmas?

November 27: Your Questions, part 2
November 20: Your Questions, part 1
Nov 13: Why the Bible?

Nov 6: Give God A Chance to Speak
Tonight we did something different. Instead of one of us adults trying to teach you something. Or as groups discussing what we think or believe. We are going to give God a chance to show you who he is.

I know, that sounds strange. You are maybe skeptical about God, or don’t believe he is real…or don’t believe he can speak to you. Tonight, regardless of what you think or believe I ask you to have an open heart and an open mind. You come here week after week, you know why we are here: we want you to experience the amazing love that God has for you, which he demonstrated through Jesus Christ on the cross, which brings forgiveness and relationship with God to all who believe.

Before you walked through those doors, you knew that is what we are about and you came anyway. So I ask you, even if you don’t believe the same…respect this time and respect this place, and give it a try anyway.

Hebrews 11:1: Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Tonight, take a chance on God. Henry Blackaby in his book: Experiencing God writes “Many people have grown up attending church and hearing about God all their lives, but they do not have a personal, dynamic, growing relationship with God.” Tonight, allow God to speak to you.

We then had 4 stations to choose from: Music, Coloring, Listening, Reading.
Oct 30: What do you believe?
Oct 23: Helping Others Video, Eyes to See part 4: https://www.rightnowmedia.org/Content/Series/271889?episode=444
We talked about the importance of helping people around us and we talked about our upcoming mission trip this year!
Oct 16: The Church

Video, Eyes to See part 3: https://www.rightnowmedia.org/Content/Series/271889?episode=3

Small Group Discussion Guide

What do you remember from what we saw and discussed last week?

We ended our time last week by challenging each other to go out of our way in our daily lives to help others and to be more appreciative for what we have. How did it go? Did you accomplish the goal you set for yourself last week?

Last week we look at James 1, and in verse 22 it says: Do not merely listen to the word…but do what it says. What is the hardest part about actually living out the things we discuss here, or the things that you read about in the Bible?

In today’s video, Cheryl said: “My hope is that the church is a group of people who are messed up, but they believe that God can break through that mess and I think that acknowledging our own weakness and sinfulness and knowing that somehow God still loves me, and somehow God can still use me to help others. That’s where I think that there is true grace and that is when the church shines the most.

How do you view ‘church’? Are the people inside of churches different than people outside churches? Why or why not? What do you think is the purpose of church?

What benefits do you think there are to being apart of a church?

Josieane shared her experience and how her life changed when she was involved in a church in Rwanda. Do you think that churches help people?

Regardless of your family situation, would you choose to be apart of a local church? Why or why not?

As a group read Acts 2:42-47. This is describing the first church after Jesus went back to heaven. Does it sound similar or different from church today? Explain your answer.

Challenge each other to talk to people they respect in their lives about church. How do they view church? Do they believe the church is fulfilling its mission in our day and age? (If youth have never been to a church service on a Sunday morning, encourage them to try it with a friend)

Oct 9: The Reason We Aren't More Thankful

Small Group Discussion Guide 

What are 3 things in your life that you are thankful for? 

Do you think about being thankful around the season of Thanksgiving? Why or why not? 

As a group read James 1:16-22. What questions does this bring to mind? What is one thing from these verses that stick out to you? 

During the video, Shaun said this: “the average person in North America is wealthier than 95% of the world, but we don’t always feel rich though, because there is a lie that is blinding us to our wealth.” We can look around and find people more wealthy than us, and so we become blind to all the things we have, and just want more…what do you think about that statement? 

On a scale of 1-10, 1 being extremely poor and 10 being extremely rich how do you feel you and your family fit? Why did you choose that number? 

As a group read Exodus 16:1-4. The people are stranded in a desert, with no way to find food. Why do you think that God wanted the people to only gather enough food for that day? (to trust that God would send more food the next day) 

Would it be difficult for you to trust God if you didn’t know where you would sleep tomorrow, or if you had no food to eat tomorrow? 

Do you think that when we have too many material things we pay less attention to God? 

Shaun read from Romans 12:1-2 (MSG): So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

What does it look like to use your ordinary, everyday life to help people around you? 

What is one thing you will change this week to remind yourself to be thankful for what you have?

Oct 2: The Effects of a Broken World We looked at what happens when people who are broken by sin try to live life. And how it often leads to pain and heartache. This is one of the main reasons why economic poverty exists. But it goes deeper than that. Even people who do not face economic poverty are still effected by this broken world, through broken relationships and spiritual poverty. We watch a video apart of the 'Eyes to See' series. For more info visit: http://eyestosee.ca/
Sept 25: Expanding Your Worldview
Sept 18: Your Worldview We watched a video featuring Sean McDowell and then we split into small groups and discussed some of the following questions:
Sean described a worldview as: ‘a set of beliefs that you have that helps you interpret and live in the world around you.’

Have you ever thought about the idea that YOU have a worldview, and that your worldview changes what you believe is important in life or what is the purpose of life?

Sean also said that each of us have beliefs about 4 key areas and every major worldview and every major religion seeks to answer these four questions.

What is real? Is reality limited to the physical world or is there a spiritual realm as well?
What do you think?

What does it mean to be human? How did we get here? Was it by evolutionary chance? Or did God create us on purpose, for a purpose?
What do you think?

What happens after death? Is death final or is there more than this world?
What do you think?

What is the basis of right and wrong? Is there an absolute standard, or is right and wrong dependent on each situation? Does right and wrong come from society, karma, God?

Sean equates an inaccurate worldview to a map that doesn’t match up with the real world. If you think back to how you answer these four questions, where do you think your worldview came from? Your friends? Media? Parents? The Bible? Or somewhere else?

Jesus was once asked what was the most important thing to do (or commandment). As a group read Mark 12:28-31. How do you think Jesus would answer these 4 world view questions?

Sept 11: Welcome!