Introduction

By Stafford North

TO THE TEACHER

This set of thirteen lessons on “Follow in His Steps” is designed to be a very practical study on how people can develop five fundamental characteristics of Jesus.  It is easy to speak of our being like Jesus in general terms without dealing with details, but these lessons present Bible lessons to move people to be like Jesus in five specific ways:  Serve, Tell, Exemplify, Pray, and Sacrifice.  Actually these five items summarize very well the essentials of our becoming like Jesus and focusing on these can move us clearly in the right direction.  Note, too, what the first letters spell—just a good memory device.

The lesson plans will suggest that a substantial amount of class time be spent in letting students tell of Christians they believe demonstrate the qualities of Jesus and also in mentioning things they could do to show these traits.   Be sure to plan your time to allow for these activities which will make it more likely that the students will actually do better in following in His steps.  The lesson plan is designed on the basis of a forty-five minute class time.  If yours is different from that, then you will need to make an adjustment that still allows time for the application.  The amount of indicated for various elements of the lesson are designed to give you an idea of about what portion of the lesson should be spent of each part.  Just be sure you don’t let other parts of the lesson crowd out time for the application.

One other feature of this set of lessons is that for some of the lessons we will suggest that you hand out a sheet which mentions ways in which people can show these five qualities of Jesus.  Sample sheets are included with the lessons where they should be used, but you can adapt them to your particular congregation before you print them for distribution to your class.  Some of the ideas mentioned may not fit your congregation because of size or location while you may think of others you will want to add.  These sheets are intended to help move people toward actually changing their behavior.  While we all know that application of our Bible lessons is always the goal, we often do not bring our students to the point of actually making a change.  Be sure to review these sheets, adapt them, and use them in a class period as suggested.

THE GOAL OF THIS SET OF LESSONS IS FOR EVERY CLASS MEMBER TO FIND SOMETHING IN EACH OF THE FIVE AREAS OF BEING LIKE JESUS THAT HE/SHE WILL BEGIN TO DO.  SOME IN THE CLASS MAY ALREADY BE DOING ALL THEY CAN, BUT MOST ARE NOT.  YOUR GOAL IS TO BE THE AGENT BY WHICH EVERY MEMBER OF YOUR CLASS MOVES TOWARD BEING FULLY ENGAGED.  TEACH YOUR CLASS WITH THIS EXPECTATION!!!

The theme of this series and its development come from the Oklahoma Christian University Lectureship in October of 2014.  To view and/or hear lessons that relate to this study, go to www.oc.edu/churchrelations.  Then click on 2014 Lectureship.

                                                                                                            Stafford North

                                                                                                            September, 2014

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