You are a fish.

This past week was part two of our three week long “month ‘o kick off.”
(Why do it just once when you can do it all month long?!)

The first week was focused on registering all our students (and riding a mechanical bull).
The second week was focused on connecting every student with their small group.
The third week will be focused on giving small group leaders space for a one-on-one with each of their students.

But enough about that — on to the fish.

As a part of the small group launches, I taught about community. Starting in Genesis 1, I had students find out how many times the creation poem says the word “good.” (The answer is seven.) Then we turned to Genesis 2 where we quickly find out that just on the heels of all the it-is-good’s there is  something that is “not good” — it is not good for people to be alone (Genesis 2:18). We were made for community. We were made to live life with one another (which ironically is the Greek word allelon which sounds a lot like “all alone” but means the exact opposite!).

And so I naturally had a large goldfish on stage. And as I looked my students in their preteen eyes, I reached in the fishbowl and pulled the slimy fish out with my bare hands. As their uproar of “Smash the fish!” to “Can I hold it?” to “Don’t kill it!” died to a reasonable murmur, I told them the following:

You are a fish.
You can’t live without water community.
You were made for water community.
You need water community.

And from there we sent students to their small groups to create covenants together, swimming along like schools of preteen fish.

• Pin It
• Share
• Tweet