Crash, Leader's Guide

By Steven Case

When heaven and earth collide, there’s a crash. That crash is the place we live in every day when we invite God’s will to be “done on earth as it is in heaven,” and there’s no better place to be if you want a glimpse of the Kingdom of God. Here, students are given a book that helps lead them in prayer to the point of impact so they can experience God in their everyday lives, and youth workers get lessons, activities, and other ideas to help them incorporate Crash into their ministries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Dec 15, 2009
• ISBN: 9780310861546

Steven Case

Steven Case has been in youth ministry for more than 20 years. The author of several books, including The Book of Uncommon Prayer 1 & 2, Steve works at the United Church of Christ, in Windermere, Florida. He lives near Orlando with his wife, Becky.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

When heaven and earth collide with each other, there’s a CRASH. Sometimes it’s like the world’s largest water balloon hitting the pavement. Sometimes it’s just a glancing blow, like a leaf blowing across your cheek.

In that CRASH moment, heaven and earth are the same thing.

This book isn’t a chapter-by-chapter lesson book. This leader’s guide is designed to help you create CRASH moments and to help your students (who have the CRASH student book) recognize CRASH moments in their own lives.

In the following pages, you’ll find Bible lessons from the life of King David, who experienced more than his share of CRASH moments. You’ll find huge, overthe-top activities. You’ll find a collection of Bible verses for kids who approach God from life’s darker side. And you’ll find a CRASH worship experience.

Your ministry can become a CRASH Zone—the place where your students will know God loves them and connects with them and is a part of their lives all the time.

Heaven and earth collide in your youth room? Yeah, it’s sort of like that.

The ideas and lessons in this book are meant to reinforce what the students are reading in their own CRASH books. Encourage them to keep the books with them…write in them…abuse them, if they want to…use them as a meditation tool or as third base. These books are ready to travel, and they belong in glove compartments and backpacks. CRASH should become a part of your students’ lives, not left on a shelf once they’ve finished reading it.

We invite the CRASH.

We connect with God.

We are loved beyond measure.

None of us is alone.

CHAPTER ONE

THE CRASH AS MISSION

Let’s assume that in heaven everything is as God wants it to be.

If we pray the Lord’s Prayer—actually pray it, not just recite the words—then what we’re really saying is that we want heaven on earth. What does that look like?

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet. (Acts 4:31-37)

These two passages from the book of Acts show us what happens when we work together as a community to bring about the CRASH.

When we’re in the CRASH Zone…

No one is hungry.

No one is sick.

No one is lonely.

No one is cold.

No one is stressed.

No one needs healing.

No one is imprisoned (figuratively or literally).

No one is in need.

No one is sad.

No one is sick and tired of being sick and tired.

No one is insulted, bullied, or picked on.

Essentially, mission trips are about causing the CRASH. With our lives we invite the CRASH to occur. If you’re teaching the CRASH or if your students are reading the book, then you can use the following verses as part of your mission liturgy, as your verse(s) of the day, or as part of individual prayer times during the mission experience.

One out of every 10 verses in the Bible has something to do with being generous or taking care of those who cannot take care of themselves.

‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God.’ (Leviticus 19:9-10)

During the olive harvest back in Bible times, workers would go into the olive groves and beat the trees with long sticks. Others would hold sheets beneath the trees and catch the falling olives. After that, another team of workers would pick up the leftovers. So in this Leviticus passage, God was basically saying to the owners of the olive groves, Leave the leftovers where they are and tell your workers not to beat the trees along the edges of the grove. You have enough. I’ve given you the entire grove, after all. Leave some olives on the trees for those who don’t have the same amount of blessings you do. Pass on the blessing.

Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this. When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. (Deuteronomy 24:17-19)

Over and over again in Scripture, we read about the foreigners, the widows, and the orphans—people who cannot take care of themselves. People who are lost. People who have no means of support. And God is telling us there’s a direct correlation between the blessings we receive from him and the way we treat people in need.

The foreigner, the widow, the orphan—this trio comes up again and again. God says, You want to know what the kingdom is like? Then take care of these people.

Hear the word of the LORD,

you rulers of Sodom;

listen to the instruction of our God,

you people of Gomorrah!

"The multitude of your sacrifices—

what are they to me?" says the LORD.

"I have more than enough of burnt offerings,

of rams and the fat of fattened animals;

I have no pleasure

in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

When you come to appear before me,

who has asked this of you,

this trampling of my courts?

Stop bringing meaningless offerings!

Your incense is detestable to me.

New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—

I cannot bear your evil assemblies.

Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals

I hate with all my being.

They have become a burden to me;

I am weary of bearing them.

When you spread out your hands in prayer,

I will hide my eyes from you;

even if you offer many prayers,

I will not listen.

Your hands are full of blood;

wash and make yourselves clean.

Take your evil deeds

out of my sight!

Stop doing wrong,

learn to do right!

Seek justice,

encourage the oppressed.

Defend the cause of the fatherless,

plead the case of the widow. (Isaiah 1:10-17)

God goes off on a rant here—through the prophet Isaiah—about meaningless worship. God complains that people are just going through the motions. He’s saying, "I don’t need your offerings. Look around. People are hungry. DO SOMETHING!"

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, He has gone to be the guest of a sinner. But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. (Luke 19:5-10)

This is the CRASH at work—Zacchaeus suddenly got it. Even though he was surrounded by wealthy people living in expensive homes, Zacchaeus was hated by the rich and the poor because through his job as a tax collector, he stole from all of them. So how did Zacch make amends? He said, "I’ll give half of what I own to the poor, and I’ll pay back everyone I’ve ever cheated by giving them more than I owe."

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:26-27)

Now James goes off on a rant about so-called religious people who are so caught up in being religious that they forget to be Christ-followers. According to James, pure and faultless religion is this:

Take care of the widows and the orphans.

Once again, when we’re in the CRASH Zone…

No one is hungry.

No one is sick.

No one is lonely.

No one is cold.

No one is stressed.

No one needs healing.

No one is imprisoned (figuratively or literally).

No one is in need.

No one is sad.

No one is sick and tired of being sick and tired.

No one is insulted, bullied, or picked on.

CHAPTER TWO

CRASH COURSE: ACTIVITIES

OFFSHOOTS

0Offshoots (also known as Parking Lot Prayers) is a word-association activity. It’s also an excellent teaching tool that can provide valuable insights into your students’ thought processes.

YOU’LL NEED—

A whiteboard (or butcher paper)

Dry erase marker (or regular marker)

Box of sidewalk chalk

A paved parking lot (Note: You could also use the side of a building