If you're doing a message/study on spiritual growth any time soon, you can use a short quiz I came up with to get your students talking. Click right here to download the "Ready.Set.Grow!" quiz. (Tip: right-click on the link, then select "save target/link as".)
With quizzes like this, you have to be careful to remind students that it's just a piece of paper, not an official diagnosis of their spiritual health, and the whole point is simply to get them thinking about their spiritual growth. I used this quiz and then just asked one simple question after it, before leading in to the rest of the message - "In the last year, do you feel like you've grown a lot, a little, or not at all?"
Also, a great and more open-ended idea to get your students talking about spiritual growth is to create a "graph" like the one above I drew on butcher paper. Label one end as "salvation" or "the beginning of my walk", and label the other end as "spiritual maturity" (using those words alone can lead to a good discussion about what spiritual maturity even is). Give each student a post-it note, let them write their name on it, and then have them all - at the same time - come up and put themselves where they feel like they are on the "growth" spectrum. Be sure to remind them that this is not a time to make comments or laugh because of where someone puts their name on the graph. ALSO, make sure you don't make the same mistake I did - putting yourself up there first, as most if not all your students will assume they need to be behind you on the growth spectrum. Oops! Then ask one question and let them discuss: "Why did you put yourself where you put yourself?" I was amazed at the honesty and insight our young people offered up during this exercise. It was awesome!
If you use either of these ideas, let me know how it goes!
- Tim
With quizzes like this, you have to be careful to remind students that it's just a piece of paper, not an official diagnosis of their spiritual health, and the whole point is simply to get them thinking about their spiritual growth. I used this quiz and then just asked one simple question after it, before leading in to the rest of the message - "In the last year, do you feel like you've grown a lot, a little, or not at all?"
Also, a great and more open-ended idea to get your students talking about spiritual growth is to create a "graph" like the one above I drew on butcher paper. Label one end as "salvation" or "the beginning of my walk", and label the other end as "spiritual maturity" (using those words alone can lead to a good discussion about what spiritual maturity even is). Give each student a post-it note, let them write their name on it, and then have them all - at the same time - come up and put themselves where they feel like they are on the "growth" spectrum. Be sure to remind them that this is not a time to make comments or laugh because of where someone puts their name on the graph. ALSO, make sure you don't make the same mistake I did - putting yourself up there first, as most if not all your students will assume they need to be behind you on the growth spectrum. Oops! Then ask one question and let them discuss: "Why did you put yourself where you put yourself?" I was amazed at the honesty and insight our young people offered up during this exercise. It was awesome!
If you use either of these ideas, let me know how it goes!
- Tim
RSS Feed
