From the lives of wild Bible characters come...Wild Truth Bible Lessons!

Ready to introduce your junior highers to wild examples of spiritual maturity? Check out the biblical adventures of these people and the character qualities they exemplify—real people who, in wild Bible stories, did really wild things for God:

• Kid King Josiah (influencing others)
• Wise Guy, the King of Good Decisions Solomon (wise decisions)
• Little Timmy, the Teenage Teacher Timothy (living for God while still a young teen)
• Dave's Posse David's mighty men (doing outrageous things for God)
• Whiney Bro, the Fair-Share Demander the Prodigal Son's brother (demanding your rights)
• Moe's Mom, the Cruise Director Moses' mother (trusting God in difficult situations)
• Pete, the Second-Chance Wonder Peter (God's Forgiveness)
• Samantha, the Water Woman the woman at the well (racism)

You won't believe all the off-the-wall discussion starters, video ideas, scripts, games with a point—and, of course. Bible passages you can use to springboard junior highers into topics that don't just mean the world to them, but are the world. Friendship. Embarrassment. Rights, Racism. Each lesson reaches back into history to underline for junior highers the reality of Old and New Testament people and principles—and then reaches forward, challenging your students to make better decisions, better friends, better lives.

Each lesson thoroughly preps you to teach it, including convenient reminders of what materials you need and when you need them. And in each lesson students dig into Wild Pages that bring scriptural principles right into the kids' own experience. 

Kid King
Josiah, on influencing others
Bible passage: 2 Kings 23:1-3

Students will—

• Understand their ability to influence people in good ways or bad ways.
• Choose a specific way they will influence someone toward right living in the next week.

You’ll need— copies of Designfluence, cut into quarters chalkboard, whiteboard, or butcher paper with markers blindfold

Jump Start
Designfluence

Create a big competition between two teams (boys against girls, seventh grade against eighth grade, left side of room against right side of room, etc.) Ask the first team to send two contestants to the front of the group. Blindfold one of the contestants, and give her the chalk or marker.

Say to your group: We’re going to have an "influencing" contest.

Then give the other contestant one of the designs from Designfluence (either enlarge designs using a photocopier or project them with an overhead projector). Ask the student holding the design to describe it to the blindfolded student, who then attempts to draw it on the butcher paper or whiteboard. No touching or physical help is allowed—only verbal instruction.

After the first pair finishes, invite a pair from the other team to do the same task using the next design. Then go through one more round per team. Finally, review the work of each team, having the kids cheer for their own contestants’ work. Choose a winning team.

Say to your group: This team was a little better at influencing each other.

 

 

Josiah was one of the very few kings of either Israel or Judah (he was of Judah) who "did what was right in the eyes of the Lord." Crowned as an eight-year-old when his father was assassinated, he was 26 when workers unearthed the Torah in the temple of the Lord—which triggered a spiritual reform like Judah hadn’t seen for centuries. With the words of the Law ringing in his ears, Josiah cleaned house, big time. When he was done, you couldn’t find an idol, pagan altar, or pagan priest anywhere in the land. And—here was the real mark of Jewish revival—he reinstituted the Passover nationwide.

Getting the Point
Good and Bad

You’ll need— chairs or other obstacles blindfold

Ask for three volunteers. As you blindfold one of the volunteers, tell her that her job is to navigate an obstacle course by following the instructions of her teammates. After the blindfold is in place, quickly form a simple obstacle course using a few randomly placed chairs or other objects. Then whisper to the unblindfolded students their roles—one is to be a good influence, and one is to be a bad influence.

On "Go!" the two advice givers start shouting directions to the blindfolded student. The student attempts to get through the course as quickly as possible.

After the course has been completed and you’re done bandaging all the bruised shins, get the kids talking.

Say to your group: We’re all surrounded by good and bad influences every day. Can you name some good influences junior highers experience? Can you name some bad influences junior highers experience?

After they offer suggestions, say: Just as we are influenced by other people and things, we are also always influencing people. Can you think of a time when you influenced someone?

Wrap up this section by saying: You have at least one choice to make all the time: will you influence people toward God and good decisions, or away from God and good decisions?

Influence Questions

Continue your discussion of influence with the following questions:

• If you were the blindfolded person in the obstacle course we just did, how would you have known who to listen to?
• What are different ways a person can be influenced? (by physical force, suggestion, example, etc.)
• If you could influence anyone in the world, who would it be and what would you influence him or her to do?
• Describe the last time you influenced someone on purpose.
• What are some ways that junior highers can influence people toward bad choices?
• What are some ways that junior highers can influence people toward good choices?
• Who do you have the ability to influence?

Flashback
Joey’s Influence

You’ll need— Bibles copies of Josiah’s Influence pencils

Pass out copies of Josiah’s Influence, a "spontaneous melodrama." That is, you (or a student) read it, and the actors (who volunteer on the spot, no rehearsals) act out what you read and repeat dialogue—with melodramatic flair. If your group has 20 or more students, ask for 10 volunteers. Use fewer students in smaller groups.

The same volunteers can act out all three versions; urge them to really ham it up. Before each version, reassign the new roles to the actors. In version three, make sure the students you cast as the goobers are not actual goobers in real life. Get the audience to react with oohs and ahhs, hisses and boos at the appropriate times.

Once all three versions are complete, applaud the acting ability of your volunteers, assure them that you will soon see them Off Broadway, and let them sit down. Now ask your students to open their Bibles to 2 Kings 23:1-3 and read the same story. Their job is to choose the version of Josiah’s Influence that’s most accurate and to draw a big star on it.

A note about translations: although the Living Bible is often very helpful with junior highers, it doesn’t work as well for this exercise as the New International Version, which (in my opinion) best translates these episodes that demonstrate how Josiah influenced his people.

By the way, the third version of Josiah’s Influence is the correct story.

Fast Forward
Action Plan!

You’ll need— pencils or pens cut copies of Action Plan!

Photocopy Action Plan! on card stock so the kids can put them in their Bibles and take them home intact (though you’re probably dreaming if you think that any paper product would make it home in one piece). Pass out half-sheet copies of Action Plan! Your students should all have pencils from the previous exercises—and if they’re normal junior high students, they’ve done hundreds of dollars of damage to chairs, walls, carpeting, and bodies since you last used the pencils.

Although the instructions on Action Plan! are self-explanatory, make no assumptions with junior highers. Explain that they’re to devise a concrete plan of action for influencing someone in a positive way this week. Ask your students to quietly work on their own for a couple minutes. (Quietly…yeah, right.) Then ask if a few would share their plans of action with the whole group. Be sure to affirm those who share.

Close your time in prayer, asking God to give your students the courage to follow Josiah’s lead and influence people toward good choices and God this week.

Introduction

1. Kid King Josiah (influencing others)

2. Wise Guy, the King of Good Decisions Solomon (wise decisions)

3. Donkey Boy, the Red-Faced Rider Balaam (responding to embarrassment)

4. Little Timmy, the Teenage Teacher Timothy (living for God while still a young teen)

5. Flaky Jakes, the Thankless Bunch the 10 lepers (thankfulness)

6. Dave's Posse David's mighty men (doing outrageous things for God)

7. Whiny Bro, the Fair-Share Demander the Prodigal Son's brother (demanding your rights)

8. Moe's Mom, the Cruise Director Moses' mother (trusting God in difficult situations)

9. Poor Mama, the Giving Queen the poor widow (giving)

10. Jon, the Friend of Friends Jonathan (friendship)

11. Pete, the Second-Chance Wonder Peter (God's Forgiveness)

12. Samantha, the Water Woman the woman at the well (racism)