Welcome: (Greetings and Announcements)

Warm-up: (icebreaker, games, skit)

Minute to Win it

• Oreo cookies (forehead to mouth with no hands, only facial muscles)

Work-out: (Bible studies, devotionals, testimonials)

• All Leaders: Prepare yourselves at home by reading Matthew 9:18-26. 

• I watch my siblings compete a lot. I watched as one brother excelled in a few sports, as another became one of the top tennis players and as my sister became the top athlete at school. When I watched them to amazing things on the field or court, I wanted to do the same. I never excelled at sports like my brother and sister, but I wanted to be a better athlete from watching them play. (revise to your own situation)

• Read Matthew 9:18-26

• The Gospel is filled with situations where Jesus was followed by crowds. Sometimes, He would seek privacy, but the crowd would find Him anyway. They followed because Jesus performed feats they could not (healing the sick, disposing of demons, etc.) so He received a following. Then He used their desire as a platform to speak the Truth and love of God to them. He performed remarkable things, so He had the ears of everyone who followed.

• Do your parents or other adults in your life come to watch you compete? How about siblings, do they watch? There might even be people in the stands, some who you don’t even know who come. How does it make you feel when people come to support you? 

• Who was the biggest influence for you to be an athlete? 

• Who might you have influence over?

• If you are an athlete, you have influence. What are you going to do with that influence? Are you using it to be popular? How can you use it for good? 

• How can you use your influence to share the Good News and love of Jesus with others? 

Wrap-Up: (closing comments)

• Ask each group to share: 

o What can we do with our influence as a Christian athlete?

o How can we share the Good News?

• Read Matthew 14:13-14. Jesus, the only perfect man who ever walked this earth, had compassion for others. How can we as imperfect people not have compassion for others as well?