Naked Truth Series

Every year there are three series I absolutely am thrilled to teach to high school students; Identity series about who they are in Christ and the masks we wear,  Redemptive work of the grace of the Gospel, and a series on relationships and sex.  Each year these three series bring out so many conversations that seem to be huge fruit opportunities for our youth leaders.

The past three weeks our high school ministry has been walking through our series on relationships.  We called it the NAKED TRUTH.  Each week we "uncovered" a reality about relationships.

Week 1--The reality that our relationship with Christ will guide any & every relationship we have.  If we can't step into a healthy & authentic pursuit of Jesus as our first love any relationship we have will never be able to fill us or complete us.
2 Corinthians 5:14-17 & Colossians 2:6-8 were our foundation for the evening.  This was a foundation move because the rest of the series had to reflect back to this reality.

Week 2--The reality that Romance & Chivalry are not dead...just lost.  This night we focussed on our romance & Chivalry needs to be a part of our lives and not just when we date.  But how we communicate to the opposite gender, how we treat them, think of them, notice them & protect them.  We encouraged & challenged students to not just think of themselves but live out their faith [Philippians 2:4] and how to embrace Romance & Chivalry that we see reflected in the Song of Solomon story.  We challenged the guys to be MEN & not BOYS and also for girls to set the standards they'd really want in the guy of their dreams.

We used this video in the evening as an opener and it had a great response to it



Week 3--The Reality of Emotional & Physical Consequences
We talked about the
Emotional Consequences that Hurt,
The Physical consequences that hurt,
The Emotional Consequences that are healthy
The Physical Consequences that are healthy.

This night was summed up into two key words, Boundaries & Self-Control.  Song of Solomon 2:15 & Proverbs 5:18-19 were key verses and we referred to Ephesians 4.  A highlight was reflecting to the students the length of the marriages represented in the room by our mentors.  The shortest active marriage, mine, was 13 years and the longest active marriage is 25 years.  Students actually celebrated that moment when we used it as an illustration.

This video was used & again it had a great response



This series created many conversations and "I've never thought of that before".  And to be honest that is often the goal I have, to create as many "I've never thought of that before" moments as possible.  But in those moments to ask them to reflect on What Jesus has to say about the topic of discussion.

I also have a goal, to share as many illustrations from my own life and marriage that reflect healthy and pursuing Jesus.  I am too often reminded that our student ministry may be the only reflection many students will have in this topic & reality in life.