Follow In His Steps - Lesson 4

By Stafford North

LESSON 4

We Serve—Part 2 

Background Information for the Teacher

Objectives

1. The student can explain the values of serving.
2. The student will select one or two ways of serving that he/she is not currently doing.

Preparation:

1. Have access to a board.
2. Have words to “Make Me a Servant.”
3. Have sheets on ways to serve ready to distribute.

Theme:  “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as he walked” 1 John 2:6.

Lesson Plan for Conducting the Class

Introduction:  (10 minutes)

1. Call the roll and recognize visitors.
2. Sing “Make Me a Servant.”
3. Repeat together 1 John 2:6.
4. Repeat together the five ways in which we want to be like Jesus.  Our study today will be about how to serve like Jesus served.   In coming lessons we will study how to be more like Jesus in the four other ways.
5. Prayer for us to grow into a greater likeness to Jesus and for class concerns.

Learning Experiences:  (18 minutes)

1. Read Col. 3:10.  Q:  What does it mean to “put on the new self?”  A:  To make changes from what we were before we became Christians.  Q:  What does it mean for that new self to be “renewed?”  A:  When we rise from baptism, we are clean and have a new self.  That new self, however, can become tarnished as we move along.  Q:  How do we renew that new self?  A:  By knowledge which enables us to be in the image of our Creator (Christ).  So we should continually be striving to be renewed in the image of Jesus.  Just another passage teaching that we are to “follow in His steps” and that, in so doing, we will be different, we will be renewed.
2. Q:  What are some of the values of serving which we mentioned last class meeting?  A:  Help the person served.  Help for the image of the church.  Develop characteristics of kindness, generosity, love.
3. Q:  What did Jesus say was the second greatest commandment?  A:  To love your neighbor as yourself.  Q:  Who is my neighbor?  A:  Anyone who needs my help.  Q: Give some examples of people to whom I could be neighbor.  A:  People at work, at school, on the highway.  And people who live close by.  Sometimes we overlook those who live next door or down the street.  Let me challenge you to get to know at least five of those who live on your street.  Have some regular contact with them.  Find out about them so you can be in position to help them when they are in need—whether watering their lawn while they are on vacation or helping when they are sick or giving a ride when they need assistance.  Be close enough to them that you are the one on whom they will call.  Such a connection will give you an opportunity to serve and will also give you a chance to show your Christian living and, in the long run, will open doors for spiritual contact.  Q:  Does anyone have an example of helping your close-by neighbors?

Application:  (17 minutes)

1. Today we have a sheet listing many ways we can serve. (Teacher:  Be sure you have revised the sheet to fit your congregation and your location if that would make a better list for your class.)  Hand out sheets.
2. We are going to mention a few of these ways to serve and will ask you to note those you are involved in now and those in which you would like to become involved.  This process is our way of serving to be like Jesus as practical as we can.  We also would like for you to mention things that we might add to the list that would give additional ideas by which we could SERVE.  If you see one in which you would like to be involved but don’t know how to do it or whom you need to see to get connected, please ask that of the class and we will help.

Assignment:

1. Take the first step in doing what you have marked that you will do.

OPPORTUNITIES TO “SERVE" 

Each of us should be looking for ways to “serve.”  The list below is divided into two categories:  (1) opportunities that are part of our congregational plan for service, (2)  things you can do on your own outside of a congregational effort.  This exercise gives each of you a chance to recognize opportunities to serve you might not have considered before, and then to select a thing or two that you want to do.  Don’t mark too much but do mark one or two or three things that you want to add to what you are already doing.   As you read the list, mark with an X those you are now doing and mark the new items with a check.  Then write at the bottom what you will do to get started.  If you have, for example, decided to write more cards, write “Purchase cards and watch the bulletin and other sources to see who needs a card.”  If it is something congregational, write whom you will contact about getting started.

Congregational service opportunities:

• Teaching a Bible class. Pre-school ____; elementary ____; high school ____; adult ___
• Assisting in Bible class. Pre-school ____; elementary ____; high school____; adult ___
• Assisting with your own class activities /fellowship ____
• Helping with a class of youth or college ____
• Being an sponsor for youth/college activities_____
• Helping in the nursery ____
• Being a greeter at the door before service ____; after service ____
• Serving the communion ____; leading a prayer ____
• Getting people to serve in worship ____
• Following up with those who have visited worship ____
• Serving on a committee for youth ____; missions ____; care of the building ____;

worship ____; local evangelism ____; benevolence ____; involvement _____

• Being the contact person for a missionary so you can write, encourage, and keep people posted on his/her work _____
• Teaching in a jail or prison ____
• Participating in an inner-city work ____
• Serving at a medical clinic ____
• Assisting with serving older members/shut-ins _____
• Work on bulletin boards_____
• Work on the building _____
• Work to keep up the yard around the building _____
• Helping with a school to tutor or provide other services _____
• Helping with a school to provide back to school needs _____
• Grading Bible correspondence courses for jail/prison or WBS _____

Things to do on your own:

• Getting to know your neighbors so you can serve them ____
• Doing good deeds in your neighborhood like mowing the lawn for someone away on vacation, helping a neighbor who is working on an improvement project ____
• Inviting a neighbor to your house for coffee or a meal ____
• Inviting someone to your home for fellowship ____
• Taking food to someone who is sick or had a loss ____
• Taking someone who needs attention out for breakfast or lunch ____
• Visiting elderly persons or shut-ins____
• Visiting members in the hospital____
• Keeping people in your home who have a special need ____
• Writing cards to those who are ill or recovering from surgery, those recently baptized, and those who have lost loved ones ____
• Writing notes of thanks to teachers, preachers, elders, and others who serve well ___
• Improving the service I give my family in the normal ways I serve them in cooking, cleaning, driving, being with them at special events ____
• Making special efforts to share with my family those positive moments that can impact their lives for good____
• Taking others in my family with me to do acts of service ____
• Making a phone call to those who might be lonely or discouraged ____
• Finding a place in the community to volunteer—a school, a park, a hospital—where you can let your light shine as people know that you are a Christian and where you go to church____
• Working with a youth sports team or other organizations like the FFA or PTA to give you a chance to help young people and to let your light shine with them and their parents ____
• Being involved with a private group for quilting, knitting, or something similar with the product being used to help people in need ____
• Taking an interest in a missionary, emailing him/her, occasionally sending small gifts, and just keeping up ____
• Giving a ride to people needing to go to the doctor or shopping who can’t drive ____
• Making positive contact with someone who is new to the congregation, has been recently baptized, or who seems on the fringes ____

To get started in this new opportunity for me to SERVE, I will do the following:

Download Worksheets

• Opportunities To Serve

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