Greatness Setting the Stage Road Work and Trek Journey Groups Before the meal begins announce we will be serving one another. No one is allowed to carry his or her own meal to a table. You must carry someone else's meal before you can eat your own. So, if you are one of the first to be served you must go and serve someone else before you may eat. The one being served is not allowed to carry anything. If you are being served you must be with your servant along the way. After serving, you are to return to the back of the line to be served. No more than six at a table! After the meal:    Gather in Fellowship Hall (use the portable P.A.), welcome, introduction of guests, make announcements. Introduce the session: If you haven't guessed, tonight is all about service. As Christians, we are called to serve. As teenagers, it is very hard to learn to exercise service. It is very easy to worry about "me" and how I appear to everyone else. Our Service Challenge Road Work & Trek "Greatness of Service" (Mark 10:43-45) Read Mark 10:43-45 43. &ldots;Whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. 44. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. 45. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many Reacting to the Challenge Road Work & Trek  Divide in to smaller groups: Road Work in Fellowship Hall Trek in the Youth Center. Lightly discuss the following and try to find out just where service fits in all of this. The Commandments of Service? I. YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME.  Trust yourself first and everyone else second. Listen to yourself. God already is in your heart, feelings and instincts. When something feels right, it probably is right. When something feels wrong, it probably is wrong. Keep heroes in perspective. They are regular people who are good at one thing or good at one moment. Professional athletes make points, but they didn't make the universe. Michael Jordan or Kirby Puckett, swell as they are, couldn't handle some parts of your life as well as you do. II. YOU SHALL NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD YOUR GOD IN VAIN. Choose your words carefully. You can hurt with cruel words, even when they are meant to be funny or teasing. You can heal with words like "You have the best smile!" and "I like being with you" and "You do that so well!" III. REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY, TO KEEP IT HOLY.  Stop now and then to notice you have a nice life. That's what a Sabbath is meant to do. Enjoy yourself and be happy. It honors God and yourself too. You might as well have a little Sabbath every day. IV. HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER.  Answer your mother when she calls you. Every now and then, do a chore right when your dad asks. Imagine his surprise. Ask for a ride to play practice, a costume for the Thanksgiving parade and help with homework (especially math) as far in advance as you can. V. YOU SHALL NOT KILL.  Feelings, dreams and hopes are as fragile as life itself. Protect your own and respect those of your friends. When you're angry at someone, tell them. When you're feeling mean, don't act. Anger has a place. Meanness does not. And stop picking on your sister. VI. YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.  Some things - joining band, trying out for football, getting an "A" - are so hard that sometimes you want to quit. Lots of people give up. Be someone who doesn't. VII. YOU SHALL NOT STEAL.  If it's not yours, don't take it home with you. Ask your brother if you can borrow his first baseman's glove before you take it, spill a cherry slush on it and hide it under your mattress. After he finds it, see Commandment VIII. Cheating hurts you. Cheating on tests will get you in trouble at school. Cheating at sports will get you disgusted teammates. Cheating at board games will get you friends who won't play with you again. VIII. YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST YOUR NEIGHBOR. Tell the truth. When you lie, your opinion of yourself changes. You can't help but like yourself less. When you've really messed up, you can fix it. It will feel scary, but tell the truth to the person you hurt. Then offer to do what you can to make it better. Your friend will trust you even more. IX. YOU SHALL NOT COVET YOUR NEIGHBOR'S HOUSE.  Don't try to be anyone else. It's not bad to like other people's stuff or think another kid has a more exciting life. But if you spend your energy trying to be someone else, you won't have time to be you. Pick other people you like and be like them in little ways. But in all the big ways, stay yourself. X. YOU SHALL NOT COVET YOUR NEIGHBOR'S WIFE ... OR ANYTHING THAT IS YOUR NEIGHBOR'S. Celebrate friends' and family's good luck. Amanda got a blue ribbon at the science fair. You want one so bad you could blow up her fancy-schmancy volcano project that didn't really deserve to win. Other people might seem happier, richer, luckier and more popular. But joy is inside. You can't really be sure how much of it anyone else has. Find your own joy and try to keep it around--and bring a little to other people when you can. When it's hard to keep track of every one of the Ten Commandments, remember that God's son helped us all with a kind of shortcut. When he was asked which is the "great commandment," Jesus answered: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Connecting to the Challenge Road Work & Trek  Needed: Note cards and pencils Invite the youth to write a note with one idea of how to be a servant of God this week. Collect the ideas for our dismissal later. Living the Challenge  Road Work & Trek Activity Needed: Paper and Tape Come back together in the Family Life Center. Road Work on the West half of the Gym, Trek on the East. Work in your Journey groups to create some fun. First, vote on one of the youth's favorite sport. Then present them with the paper and tape. Say: Using only the paper and tape, create all the necessary equipment to play our favorite sport. When you're done making the items, we'll actually play the sport using them - so make everything as sturdy as necessary for us to enjoy the game! Give no further instruction, but encourage the youth to work together to accomplish the task.  When the youth are ready, play the sport using the appropriate equipment. Try to make it so everyone has a part to play and something to play it with. Remember, we are serving each other tonight. By serving each other everyone needs to be involved and not just sitting by, doing the easy thing - watching, or involved in his or her own personal conversation.   Summing it all up Road Work & Trek Return to Fellowship Hall (Matthew 14:15-17) 15. When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food. 16. But Jesus said to them, they do not need to go away. You give them something to eat. 17 And they said to Him, We have here only five loaves and two fish. Do you see where our games fit in to tonight's lesson?  How is playing a game out of virtually nothing like our challenge to serve? Prayer  Road Work & Trek  Begin by reading a few of the service cards from the earlier session. Ask one of the youth to offer a prayer for the group in undertaking the task of serving this week. Dismissal Sanctuary UMYF Benediction