Over the years two of the greatest highlights in my life have been 1) leading morning devotions with my family before school, and 2) leading small groups of students in the city and the wilderness to study the Bible in order to help them get to know Jesus and grow as a disciple.
A TOOL FOR PARENTS AND SMALL GROUP LEADERS
If you are a parent who wants to have a tool for leading devotions in your home, this is for you. If you are a Small Group leader looking for a way to effectively lead your group either in person or remotely through Zoom, this tool will help.
Below is my “PALS 10 Minute Devotional” format. It’s designed for a short devotional but of course, could be expanded to a longer Bible Study format.
P – PRIME the pump
I usually come up with some sort of question to help everyone open up. Similar to that rush you get when you take your first few drinks of coffee in the morning, sometimes it takes a little somethin’ to wake up your group. So you may want to ask a question first to prime the pump (below I’ll give examples of each of these parts of the study).
A – ALIGN with God’s heart
To get hearts engaged, ask a question that helps the group realize how much we are like the person in the passage. Most of us are encouraged by reminders that we are more “like” other people than we are “different” from them. When we realize how similar we are to other people it gives us hope and compassion.
L – LEARN the meaning of the text
Next, read a short passage together and discuss a couple of questions that help us understand the meaning of the text. You’ll need to invest some time to write good questions. If you’d like to learn more about how I write well-crafted questions that create good open discussion you can read my post, 5 Bible Study Tools to Improve Your Small Group Meetings | The VISION Inductive Study Method. This resource goes into more depth but I use the same principles and techniques to come up with 1-2 good questions for my PALS 10 Minute Devotionals.
S- SERVE your friends
What does it really matter if a group learns something cool from the Bible and then makes no effort to be salt and light to their school or at work? So here we need to get to an action step. Simply ask a question or present a challenge to the group to talk about ways we can serve others better. Don’t be shy about encouraging bold action steps with groups of Believers or non-believers. Serving can get our hearts engaged with God whether you are a Believer or non-believer.
SAMPLE: PALS 10 MINUTE DEVO on Mark 2:1-12
P – PRIME the pump
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Before we jump into this study, “What is one of the hardest things about being a student?” Or depending on the group you could just rephrase it to say, “What is one of the hardest things about being a student, a single, a parent, grandparent, etc.?
A – ALIGN with God’s heart
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Read together the passage of Scripture: Mark 2:1-12
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Do you think that you are more like the paralytic or more different than him? What are some things that all of us have in common with the paralytic?
L – LEARN the meaning of the text
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What are some reasons why Jesus might have spoken to the paralyzed man about sin before dealing with his physical need?
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Is forgiveness of sin a need you have experienced in your own life?
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Why is it sometimes hard to confess our sin and seek forgiveness from God?
S – SERVE your friends
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Do you extend forgiveness to people who sin against you as freely as Jesus extended forgiveness to the guy in this story?
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How would it change the culture of your school (or workplace, neighborhood, etc.) if you were as forgiving as Jesus was to this guy?
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Invite everyone to pray together and either confess their sin openly or in the quietness of their hearts so that we can get up and walk in the freedom of forgiveness like the paralytic.
