You’re lying in bed in the middle of the night thinking about your problems. After worrying and fretting, you decide it might be time to pray about it. You start to pray silently and then out loud.

But it feels like you are just throwing words at the ceiling and feeling them bounce back at you. It seems like no one is listening. It seems like no one cares.

And no matter how many nights you spend like this, throwing words at the ceiling, it seems like nothing is changing.

This week we will ask tough questions about prayer. Specifically, what happens when I pray?

Discussions Questions

• Think about the time you spent in prayer. What is it like? what makes it different from other conversations you have with people?
• Have you ever had a prayer answered in a way you were not expecting? What was that like? 
• Usually, we come to God with an agenda, a list of things we want him to do. What would it be like if instead, we came to God with an open heart asking what we can do?
• How is God calling you to change your prayer habits?

We all have questions. We all wrestle with doubt. But doubt doesn’t mean that we don’t have faith. The questions we have about our faith help us to dig deeper in to what we believe.

During this series we will be asking tough questions and having deep discussions.

Our first questions: is it wrong to doubt God?

Discussion Questions

• We talked about two extremes of faith: certainty and apathy. Have you ever experienced or seen someone who demonstrated either of these extremes? What was it like?
• What would it be like to honest about your doubt? What would it be like to pray for faith?
• What is one questions you’d like to explore this series? Share it with your group then add it to our list of questions in the fishbowl after small group.

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear…” – 1 John 4:18

Courage may not be a big value for you.  A lot of the lessons we’ve learned about courage don’t seem to apply to us in our everyday lives. In movies and books, courage always seems to be about facing dragons or giants or lions. Daniel and The Lion’s Den, David and Goliath, all the most fairytale Bible stories seemed to be about courage.

But these stories are about different fears than we face in everyday life. I like to divide fear into two categories:

Physical Fears and Emotional Fears

Emotional fears are more difficult to identify and overcome, but it’s incredibly important work if we are going to become fully formed children of God.

Discussion Questions

• What was one time you were afraid for an emotional reason (meaning not afraid of a rollercoaster or spider)? What was it like?
• How have you overcome fears in the past?
• What do you think it means when the bible says “perfect love cast out fear”?

In the Christmas story, we find Jesus had come FOR ALL PEOPLE.  In Luke it says “I bring you GOOD NEWS that will cause GREAT JOY FOR ALL THE PEOPLE.” If you consider the characters in the Christmas story in the biblical narrative of Luke, you will find that it is indeed true that Jesus came for all people. 

They were from different backgrounds. 

They were from different standards of living. 

They were from different jobs. 

They were from different races. 

Perhaps, they were even from different belief systems. 

But, the GOOD NEWS is Jesus came FOR ALL people.

This Wednesday we will reflect on the universality of the Christmas message!

Discussion Questions

• What is your favorite Christmas tradition from the church or home? Why?
• Jesus is God’s gift for the world. If you could ask God for one thing this year, what would it be and why?
• If you could give any gift to a loved one, what would it be and why?
• Who is someone in your life would be moved by a good gift from you, whether material or not, this Christmas season?

 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. – Matthew 6:33

Have you ever started doing something, and wondered if what you were doing was pointless? I am sure that each of us here has done something pointless—meaning it wasn’t useful and it lacked a purpose. For many of you, it’s checking Instagram 100 times a day and Snapchatting a friend just to keep that streak going.

We all do pointless things … but have you ever felt like life is kind of pointless?

This week we will discuss what our purpose is as Christians, and then ask ourselves “What’s the point of dating?” especially as it relates to our Christian walk.

Discussion Questions

• In your own words, what’s the point of your life as a Christian?
• In your own words, how does dating fit into your calling as a Christian?
• Have you ever experienced a relationship (romantic or otherwise) that seemed pointless or even damaging to your relationship with God? What did you do?
• Last week we looked at rules for dating, this week make a list of reasons you might consider dating someone.

 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. – Matthew 6:33

Have you ever heard the phrase, “You’re my better half”? Or how about the quote from the movie Jerry Maguire, “You complete me”?

Have you ever thought about what those phrases are really saying?

In our new series, we will talk about the most embarrassing subject for teens to talk about: dating.  As awkward as it can be to talk about one’s love life, it important to take a look at dating through the lens of our Christian faith. I mean, if you can’t talk about dating with the people in your small group, where are you going to get your answers? Google? YouTube? Yeah, actually, that’s were a lot of teens find answers. Bu t are they good answers? Not really.

This week we are going to talk about the lie that you are incomplete without someone in your life. Not only is this idea untrue, its a very unhealthy way to view oneself.  We must seek to be complete in Jesus before we bring anybody else into the mix.

Discussion Questions

1. What rules regarding dating does your family have if any? What is the purpose of these rules?
2. What sort of dating questions do you think people look up online? Why these questions?
3. What are some dating opinions or perspectives that you have heard that may be unhealthy? Why?
4. If you were going to come up with your own dating rules (serious dating rules) what would they be?