November 9, 2025 – How Jesus Handles Loaded Questions
Prepare This reading begins with a question about the afterlife from the Sadducees, a group of leaders who did not believe in the resurrection. This is important to note because the question is not really about the resurrection at all,...
November 2, 2025 – A Simple Act, a Lasting Change
Prepare Luke is the only gospel in which we find the story of Zacchaeus. Luke often shares stories of people who are marginalized, oppressed, or looked down upon and shows how Jesus’s love changes them. Zacchaeus was a chief tax...
October 26, 2025 – Approaching God: Who is Worthy
Prepare In Jesus’ day, the Jewish people lived under Roman rule. Even though Jews were allowed to worship Jehovah, the true God, life under an occupying empire often brought tension and resentment. Some Jews worked for the Roman administration, collecting...
October 19, 2025 – Songs for the Climb
Prepare This well-known psalm is a song about the pilgrimage to Jerusalem the Israelites would have taken multiple times per year. I would caution leaders (including myself) against assuming that our youth/young adults know this psalm. Depending on the rhythms...
October 12, 2025 – Thriving in Exile
Prepare (This section is preparation for the leader, not content meant for the group.) In this passage, we find the Israelites deep in the Babylonian Exile. The Assyrians had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel. The southern kingdom, Judah, held...