Ken Rawson - Becoming a Young Man of God

Becoming a Young Man of God

Copyright 2008 by Ken Rawson

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ePub Edition June 2009 ISBN: 0-310-86106-3

Youth Specialties resources, 300 S. Pierce St., El Cajon, CA 92020 are published by Zondervan, 5300 Patterson Ave. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49530.

ISBN 978-0-310-27878-8

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, Todays New International Version. TNIV. Copyright 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

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Cover design by Toolbox Studios

Interior design by Mark Novelli, IMAGO MEDIA

For Noah Rileymay you become and live as a man of God. I love you, son.

CONTENTS

I attended my first Youth Specialties national resource seminar during my freshman year of college, in the spring of 1995 in Springfield, Missouri, where Doug Fields was the presenter. From that first day of training I was hooked on Youth Specialties (YS) and had a silly dream I might one day be a YS author.

Had it not been for my sweet wife, Jen, Id still be dreaming that dream. Her incredible series for middle school girls (Becoming a Young Woman of God and Living as a Young Woman of God) paved the way for my dream to become reality. Her constant love, encouragement, grace, stubbornness, and belief in me have shaped my relationship with God and are making me a better man, husband, father, and friend. I love you, Jennifer Dawn.

Thank you to my dad, Larry Stilgebouer, who is a living demonstration of Gods faithfulness and has given me a Christ-like model of what it means to be a father and a husband. Thanks also to my other dad, Ron Harris, for helping me draw near to what it means to be a godly husband and dad.

Thanks to all of the youth coaches from Central Christian Church, San Jose, California, who believed in me when I was just a chubby, loudmouthed, mohawked, skateboarding middle schoolerDoug and Renee Daggett, Ted and Karen Goddard, Lon and Carla Hansen, Tony and Delaine Catudal, Pete and Jean Fong, Don and Debbie Ferguson, Scott and Erica Serface, Trey Hinkle, Kim and Nancy Robbie, Danny Quezada, Sean Mixon, and the rest of the congregation who never gave up on me.

Thank you to my three youth ministers, Steve Spray, Joel Brown, and Jim Coddington, who each shaped important parts of my story. Thanks to David Mullins, Pat Sehl, Jim Smith, and Trevor Hinz, who shared so much of their lives with me and will always be my band of brothers. Your lives and teachings are woven throughout these pages.

Thank you to Les Christie for your constant encouragement and my connection to home when youre out in the Midwest. Thanks to Phil Weece for believing one day I would write, and thanks to Kirk Longhofer for helping fine-tune my writing and communication. Thanks to Steve Jake Jacobs for being a constant reminder of Gods grace and serving as my own little slice of Mike Yaconelli.

Thank you to First United Methodist Church in Wichita, Kansas, for allowing me to serve alongside a great staff as I minister to middle school students and their families.

Thanks to Sean Meade for showing me how to go for my dreams and to Kurt Johnston for helping me make middle school ministry simpler and for encouraging Jen to publish her book.

Thanks to everyone at Youth Specialties and Zondervan who had a part in putting this together. You guys are incredible!

Lastly, thank you to Ciera, Noah, and Charis, who went without lots of wrestling, swimming, playing, and karaoke singing while I finished this project. Youve taught me so much about what it means to be a man and a dad, and I love you very, very much.

Before the first tuft of hair escapes from the sweaty armpit of an 11-year-old boy, hes already confused about what it means for him to be a man. Throughout their brief early-adolescent years (11-14), boys are given different puzzle pieces, each one inscribed with information about the meaning of being a man.

Some pieces are from their fathers. Other pieces are from other adults, friends, and especially the media. In the end, our middle school boys sit at a metaphorical card table with a bad leg, attempting to put all these pieces together without the real picture on the box top to guide them.

Often their picture of real manhood looks this way:

Real men are tough athletes and fast runners, have six-pack abs, can benchpress at the very least their own weight, hit home runs, score touchdowns, have a bunch of girlfriends, climb rocks without harnesses, ride choppers, have cool cars, marry a trophy wife, end up with successful jobs making lots of money, and retire independently wealthy.

Then theyre given a tattered baggie of worn-out puzzle pieces related to what Christian men arethat theyre wishy-washy, go to church every day and evening, carry their Bibles with them everywhere, never even look at females, wear ties and pocket protectors, drive minivans, and stay at home the rest of the time.

This cant be what God had in mind.

Exactly! Its not.

And thats where Becoming a Young Man of God comes into play. It consists of eight sessions focusing on the truth about what a young man of God thinks (head), feels (heart), and does (hands). In your time together youll attempt to strip away your guys false ideas of male identity and rebuild a solid biblical foundation to help them become young men of God.

Before you jump in, briefly go over each element of the sessions. Also read the three tips to make the most of this resource.

SESSION ELEMENTS

At the beginning of each session The Big Idea, Main Text, and Whats the Point? give the main Bible passage for the week and a brief overview of the focus of what youre teaching that week.

YOULL NEED

This list shows everything you might need to teach the sessiondepending on which of the many options you choose for various session sections. In other words, you may not need everything listed; skim through the chapter to find the options you like and make sure you have the supplies for those. In addition to whats listed, youll nearly always need Bibles, pens, and copies of the reproducible pages at the end of the chapter.

RECAP SOUL WORK

See Soul Work explanation later in the Introduction.

OPENING ACTIVITY

Here youre given some options for introducing the weeks session to your guys. These activities are fun ways to get your students focused on where youre headed.