Teen Trends
Teens are always coming up with new "words" or slang, and it's nearly impossible to keep up with the way that it's constantly evolving. If you're struggling to keep up with it, The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding has released some resources for you here. Aside from asking a teen directly, a couple of apps that they recommend are called the Slangit Slang Dictionary app and the Chat Slang Dictionary app. Whether you're still trying to figure out what a "Karen" is or you consider yourself fairly well versed in teen slang, these apps will help you stay on top of the ever-evolving lingo that Gen Z is using.
Song of the Week
"What are We Waiting For?" by for King and Country is the Australian pop/rock band's newest album. The album features many guests such as Sleeping at Last, Dante Bowe, and Tori Kelly that give the album a unique texture and mix of backgrounds. "What are We Waiting For" seeks to challenge listeners in a post-pandemic world of how we have put our faith and lives on pause in a world where that might not be possible anymore. The album features 13 songs, such as "Broken Halos", "Harmony", and wraps up with "Benediction". Overall, the album is a great return to the music scene since it has been a while since the band's last project, "Burn the Ships".
Game of the Week
"Electricity" is a fun, easy game to play with bigger groups when you may not have a lot of resources or time to set up. The game is played by splitting your students into two teams. Have the individual teams hold hands while standing in a line, the two teams should be parallel and facing each other. The game is played by a leader standing at the front of the line flipping a coin. When the coin lands on heads, each team needs to squeeze each other's hands going down the line, like a current of electricity traveling through them. When the last person's hand has been squeezed, that person needs to run to a designated spot a few feet away. To make it more competitive, have the last people on each team try to grab a ball, toy, or cup (whatever you want really). If your teams are fast enough, they might end up having to really race to grab it! Teams can track points for an overall winner or just play for fun, whatever works best for your age group.
Sermon Illustration
If you've ever been able to go to an international grocery store or are lucky enough to go out of the country, you are going to run into a bunch of different fruits you have never seen before. You may go in expecting apples and oranges and instead, there is dragon fruit, papayas, and other fruits you don't even know the names of! Sometimes in life, we look at the spiritual fruit of people around us and wonder why our fruit doesn't look the same. We're frustrated that we've got funky-looking snake fruit when we've been looking at someone else's starfruit the entire time. God rarely uses our spiritual fruit the same way as the person beside us, so why should our fruit look the same?
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Encouraging Thought
Sometimes, we all need to be reminded that God has given us everything that we need to do His work. He has equipped us with the exact skills to do the ministry that He's calling us toward. While we may not feel ready for what He has in store, He's fully confident in His choice. He doesn't regret choosing us, and He won't give up on us fulfilling His purpose for our lives. We can't make too many mistakes or have a past that is too messed up. The gifts and passions that He's given you were specially chosen. As you go about reaching those in your spheres of influence, remember that you are uniquely gifted for your unique situation by an all-knowing God.
Psalm 23:1 - The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
*If you would like to continue to receive these weekly posts, click HERE.
The vision of the Student Leader Weekly is to empower high schoolers (alongside adult leadership) with practical ministry ideas.