Practicum Report #4

To: Stephen Howlett
From: Kevin Aaron
Subject: Practicum Report #4
Time: 2.5 hours (1.5 Youth Service, 1 SS)
Preparation: I did not have much preparation to do for this week. Since Caleb took charge of the study, I only had to show him the study we were going work from and he took care of the rest. The largest piece of set-up I had to do was help get everyone to church.
I did find myself helping with the youth service however. I had to help plan and run a skit before the message. The skit we did was called "God's Coming to Dinner." In this skit, someone calls acting like God and says he is coming to dinner. Then three people come one at a time to the person's house with some major problem such as a broken leg and asks for help. But the person is expecting God and does not have time to help, so she pushes them out of her house quickly. At the end God calls back and says she did not let him in on three separate occasions. The point is that God is in everyone and the what we do for the least we do for God. I also had to help keep people involved in worship and get the excited to sing.
Study: Caleb's Bible study was on Acts 9:1-19. This passage focuses on Saul's conversion while on the road to Damascus. We started by having Adam read the passage. Then Caleb began asking questions from his study Bible. Such questions addressed our personal conversions and what we would have felt if we had been Saul, now called Paul. We all discussed our personal conversions. Chelsea discussed how hers occurred really young, since she was raised in the church. Others discussed theirs as gradual. I, in an attempt to keep things light, made joke of how I had been blinded for a while as well as Saul. Caleb did not find it humorous, so I explained how I had been raised in the church and always had the basic beliefs, but did not understand what it meant to truly believe until later on in my youth. Chase was rather quiet, though he did say his was gradual from being raised in the church. We also discussed where we think we are in our faith journey compared to Saul's. Some opted for the road to Damascus, some felt they were in Damascus having seen the light. We then discussed which sense we thought would be the worst to lose. Many thought scent would be the worst to lose since it had such an effect on taste. I felt like taste would be awful, because I like the taste of things and taste is supposed to tell us when something is harmful for us to eat or drink. The study kind of slowed down after that and ran into some problems keeping on track. By that point, we had all discussed our faith and were struggling to stay focused after a long night of little sleep. So we quickly closed the study and spent some time in general fellowship before heading our separate ways for the day.
Outlook: Next week is supposed to be my turn to do the Bible study. I will not be able to do that though, since I will be out of town. Most of us will be as a matter of fact, so the Bible study has been suspended for one week until after fall break. Once it resumes though, it is up to me to carry the torch and keep the study alive.
Questions: How do we keep people in the study and on track instead of getting sidetracked so easily?
How do we deal with off-weeks such as the one coming up to keep spiritual formation alive? Do we give a reading to read in preparation for the next week's Bible study?
How can I help Caleb when he is leading the study without starting a power struggle?