Restored Youth Study Book: Finding Redemption in Our Mess

By Tom Berlin

Often we make a mess of our lives and wonder if there is any redemption. In this six-week study, pastor and author Tom Berlin helps us see our mess through the eyes of Christ to find redemption and restoration. Using Scripture, devotional tools, and the writings of Ignatius of Loyola, John of the Cross, St. Augustine, John Wesley, Evelyn Underhill, and others, Berlin encourages reflection and meditation through our own brokenness. Only then can we focus on the cross as the place where we truly surrender control, leave our mess, and find redemption.


Everything needed to conduct a six-session study of Restored, using current examples that have meaning to young people grades 6-12. Includes leader helps. Includes leader helps and discussion questions that can be used with the adult-level DVD.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Release date: Nov 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781501823046

Tom Berlin

Tom Berlin serves as a Bishop in the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church. Prior to being elected Bishop, he served as lead pastor of Floris United Methodist Church in suburban Washington, D.C. Tom is a graduate of Virginia Tech and Candler School of Theology at Emory University. He is the author of numerous books, including Reckless Love, Courage, Restored, Defying Gravity, The Generous Church, and the coauthor (with Lovett Weems) of Bearing Fruit, Overflow, and High Yield.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

LIFE IS MESSY, BUT GOD HAS THINGS UNDER CONTROL

What comes to mind when you hear the word mess? Your room? Your schedule during a particularly busy week in the middle of the school year? Your love life? Messes are a part of being human and a part of living in a messy and broken world. Some messes are of our own doing; others are through no fault of our own. One way or another, our lives get messy.

The good news is that God is in the mess—not making the mess but working to redeem and restore it. God doesn’t promise to eliminate messes from our lives, but God brings hope where there is despair, order where there is chaos. God blesses our messes and, in Christ, offers us grace for all situations.

This six-session study for youth takes a look at the messes we all deal with and examines how God redeems these messes and restores order. It is inspired by Restored: Finding Redemption in Our Mess, by Tom Berlin. Our study will have six sessions:

1.This Is a Real Mess

2.Who Left This Mess?

3.Bless This Mess

4.No Messing Around

5.Address This Mess

6.The Message in the Mess

You can do this study at any time of year, but it was written with the season of Lent in mind. Lent is a season of reflection and preparation, a time when we symbolically travel with Christ on his journey toward Jerusalem and the cross. Traditionally, Lent is also a time when people make commitments, whether to make a temporary sacrifice (such as giving up desserts) or to take on something new (such as reading one chapter from the Gospels each day during the season). The purpose of such commitments is to both grow spiritually and focus one’s heart and mind on Christ. This study emphasizes taking on spiritual disciplines and other practices that will open you to God’s transforming love and grace, whether during Lent or any other season.

Using This Book

Each session in Restored: Youth Study Book begins with a word study that explores in depth a term that is essential to that session. Some of these words may be familiar; others may be completely foreign. Regardless of your familiarity with the word, you should gain some insight into what the word means and how it applies to the key teaching for that session.

Following the opening word study, there are a variety of activities and discussion starters. You likely won’t be able to complete all the activities in the allotted time, so pick and choose the activites that will work best for your group. Those activities that are most essential are marked with a double asterisk,** indicating that they are key activities. (Some of these key activities refer to and build on one another.) Next to each activity is an estimate of how long it will take and a list of necessary supplies, when applicable.

Every session closes with participants making two commitments: First, each person commits to actively doing one thing over the course of the next week. The task that a participant decides to do should be specific, measurable, and doable within the span of one week. Second, each person commits to a prayer focus for the week, something he or she will pray about each day. These commitments will be most effective if participants have an accountability partner who can check in with them throughout the week to see if they’ve been faithful to their commitments.

The hope is that, as you work through these six sessions, you will see glimpses of God’s grace in messes that are otherwise frustrating. You will examine how God uses and transforms those parts of our lives that we otherwise don’t appreciate.

1

THIS IS A REAL MESS

CLEANING OFF THE GRIME FROM GOD’S MASTERWORKS

In this opening session, we will explore the importance of seeing the mess in our lives and understanding God’s promise of restoration. Choose the activities that best fit the time you have available and the needs of your group, but place a priority on the key activities, which are marked with a double asterisk.

**Opening Word Study: Restore (10 minutes)

Supplies: Dry-erase board or paper, marker, online dictionary

During this session and over the next several weeks you will examine the idea of restoration. Before