Remix August 18, 2010:

Tonight we will officially kick off the new school year!  Students will be welcomed as the celebrities that they are with a red carpet entrance and an entourage of paparazzi!

We will kick off a new series called frustrated that will  take a closer look at how frustrated it can be to deal with change, finding acceptance, and hearing God.  We will look at change and how we can learn to live through change.  We will look at the life of Joseph and discover some commitments to make if we want to live through change and allow God to use change as a way to grow us.  The first is to check our focus.  God reminds us that He can use all situations to bring good in our lives, as stated in Romans 8:28.  We will challenge each other to check and make sure our focus in on God and not our circumstances.  Another commitment we will challenge students to make is to remember that God is always with us, even when we are going through change.  We will remind them that in every situation of change that Joseph found himself in, scripture says that God was with him.  The final commitment we will challenge students to make in order to live through change is to commit to talk about it with others.  We will encourage them to have godly friends who they can talk with about what is going on, as well as other godly adults and their parents.

In their group time, students, with the help of their life group leaders, will choose what they think are the three biggest types of change that middle schoolers have to deal with.  They then will talk about what makes these so difficult.  They will read Romans 8:28, and then brainstorm some ways that God could bring good from those situations.

Listed below are some questions that you can use to spark conversation with your students and connect with what we talked about this week:

• How did it feel when you walked in as a celebrity on the red carpet at Remix? (hopefully they say something along the lines of important)
• What are some things that I do that make you feel important and valued?  What are some things that I could do to make you feel more important and valued?
• What are some changes that you are facing this year in middle school?  What makes them so scary?  What are some good things that God could bring through these changes?
• How does knowing that God is always with you make you feel about these changes?  How would it be different if you did not have God with you?
• Talk to them about a time when you faced change in your own life…maybe even a time when you were a middle schooler and faced change.