NEW YEAR = NEW GOALS BIBLE STUDY

Maybe you love goal setting.  Maybe you despise it.  Regardless of how they make us feel, my experience says, not much happens without a goal. Not many people end up with a job they did not work hard for; or a degree they did aim for; or a great marriage they did not focus specific energy on.  The age old adage is true.  "If you aim for nothing, don't be surprised when you get nothing."

Sadly, as a youth pastor, I think most teens today have a reputation for not doing much with their lives.  I personally don't want anything to do with raising up a generation of apathetic young adults or perpetuate the myth that teens cannot do GREAT things with their lives TODAY!  We could surely do a whole series of blog posts on motivation and helping teens find one worth living for.  But for today, let's just agree that a chief indicator of healthy and purposeful living among anyone- teens included- is clear goals.  Goal setting, when done right, is a great destroyer of pointless living.

So on Wednesday morning as I ran on our treadmill to try and keep my focus clear on my goals of physical fitness that I've set for myself, I heard this story on the Today show about Jordan Romero- a 15 year old young man who on Christmas Eve 2011 became the youngest to ever climbed the 7 highest peaks on the all 7 continents.  As I listened to his story and interview, it was such a clear no-brainer lead-in to a discussion on goals with students that I went searching for it and then showed it in our small groups on Wednesday night.

After students watched Jordan's story, we then read some scripture and dove into these questions in small groups that you can download here and have for free.  Go ahead and steal them and use them for your own students.

You can also have the student scripture and goal worksheet I passed out too if you want.  You can download that here as well.

Now let's go out and kick apathy in the teeth and fight with Jesus to raise up a generation of passionate people who sincerely love God, fight for justice, and live radically for the Kingdom of God on purpose... setting their sites on some God-honoring clear goals for 2012.